“Stranger Than Fiction: When Our Minds Betray Us” Marc D. Feldman, MD, and Jacqueline M. Feldman, MD, with Roxenne Smith. American Psychiatric Press. $23.95, 320 pages

If you’ve ever wondered why people can behave so bizarrely--from convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh to a group of schoolchildren suffering from mass hysteria--this book will explain it. The Feldmans, both psychiatrists, describe how common thoughts and feelings become extreme and lead to extreme behavior. The book includes sections on phobias, multiple personality and mass hysteria. The authors do a service by showing which disorders are supported by scientific evidence and which--such as the recovered memory syndrome--lack credibility. Their stories of actual cases make for very compelling reading.