The Lost Art of Thinking, Rule #2: Read up on the field of psychology

(from Steve Allen's Dumbth: The Lost Art of Thinking with 101 Ways to Reason Better & Improve Your Mind) (In the book, he goes into great detail and explanation about these rules. I just provide the bare minimum here. I urge everyone to acquire a copy of this book.)

Do some casual studying about the brain, the mind, memory, the whole field of psychology

Engineers read about engineering, musicians read about music, athletse about sports, etc. Anyone who decides to become something of a thinker should read about thinking.

Just as most of us read our car manuals to find out how to treat our car so it lasts a long time, so we need to read a manual for the body, including one for the brain. Not necessarily one on psychology - just as there are a lot of religions so there are a lot of psychological systems - Jungian (which I prefer myself) Freudian, etc. [As dramatized in the sitcom Frasier. Niles was a Jungian, "so there'll be no blaming mother today."]

In addition, when you read up on psychology, don't try to psychoanalyze your friends, or think you can solve their problems. This is the cliche of the teenage girl, who reads a chapter of her high school psych book, thinks she knows it all, and goes around bossing everyone else, with no results.

The thing here is to know thyself, and how your own mind works, and what you can do to make it work better.