Story of Psychology

by Morton Hunt

paperback non-fiction history of psychology

Genres: Psychology, History, Nonfiction, Science, Philosophy, Biography, Reference

762 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Date of Birth: 1920

Morton Hunt is an award winning science writer who has writen for The New Yorker,The New York Times Magazine and Harper's among many other publications. He is the author of "The Natural History of Love", and "The Universe Within". He lives in Gladwyne, PA.

Reviews

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book solidified my desire to be a psychologist.

[John M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like the way that this book was constructed. It is basically a history of psychology and doesn't get bogged down in any single topic for too long. Contrary to some other readers, I enjoyed the chapters concerned with early philosophical speculation about the origin and nature of mental processes. It greatly added to my knowledge in this area which previously consisted of what I learned in an Intro to Philosophy course. The section on the "proto-psychologists" was highly enlightening insomuch as it discussed the transition from metaphysical theorizing to scientific inquiry. I was already familiar with Freud and the Behaviorists so those sections were a sort of review. The parts of the books dedicated to developmental and social psychology made for fascinating reading and the section on the cognitive revolution was very informative. The book lost its momentum toward the end. I felt that the writer gave a skimpy overview of the many forms of psychotherapy and said little to nothing about psychopharmacology. But I can't be too critical as these topics can be considered to be beyond the scope of this work and somewhat incongruous. Perhaps these were the revisions of the 1993 text but in my opinion, the final two chapters seemed like an afterthought. But overall this was a great history of a complex and fragmented field.

[Lily · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is like an extended spark notes on the history of psychology. I would recommend reading one or two of the later chapters first and then going back to the beginning. That way the book goes faster. It's slower reading in Part I because one is less familiar with the concepts (although it's much easier than reading the primary sources!). It was very enjoyable to review some previously considered material while filling in gaps in my knowledge. It begins with Greek philosophers, who obviously did not think of themselves as psychologists but attempted to answer some of the same questions, and moves through the Renaissance and Enlightenment and shows how it eventually became a science. It puts into perspective the role religion played during a millennium in which no new ideas were developed. During this time the church controlled the way people could think about these topics, and so it was all subsumed under the view of faith. I did note, however, that it only mentions Greek, European, and American-- did other people really have no thoughts on these matters? I don't know if it is just undocumented or doesn't exist.

[Ryan]

Tom picked up this 900-page monster for me at one of his book festivals, and I set it aside thinking I would probably never get to it. Even when I started it, I thought I'd read a few chapters, take a break, read something else, and come back to it several times before I finished it. But to my delight once I started it I sped through it pretty quickly. Despite the potentially dry subject matter, the book isn't written dryly at all, actually, and I appreciate the author's reluctance to get too bogged down in minutiae. I'm not sure who this book is quite targeted at, though, honestly, unless it's to people like me. Hunt asserts his own voice several times throughout the book, and he makes it clear that he assumes the reader knows nothing about the subject. I'm not sure who would read a 900-page book about a subject with which they were totally unfamiliar, but on the other hand, virtually nothing in this book was very new to me. It was nice having the chronology laid out, though, and I did especially enjoy some of the earlier stuff dealing with the Greeks, and the first recorded interest in the mind and how it works. A few quibbles: some of Hunt's language is weird, like anytime there is a reference to homosexuality, he refers to gay people as "homosexuals," a bit of a politically loaded term, and more than once refers to "sexual preference," a term no educated person uses anymore. I blame that on the fact that the book was originally published in 1994, but this is the 2007 revised edition so that should be changed. Secondly, and this is minor, but he also frequently refers to masters-level clinicians as psychologists. Only a PhD can be a psychologist, but because I assumed this was a fairly well-known fact, it makes me wonder what other small details in the book might be wrong. But no matter - this is exhaustive and very interesting. Psychology is such a chaotic and disparate field, I appreciated having the linear timeline to kind of put it all in perspective and context. Also, the cover is gorgeous.

[Kirsten · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ok, this is a history book so it's quite dry. But if you've read or heard about Edward G. Boring's (not kidding about that name) tome on the history of psychology, Hunt's book is a delightful read.

If you are a psychology major or thinking about heading in to grad school, you might find this book helpful / interesting because it shows the progression of schools of psychological perspectives (how/why did neo-Freudians break from true Freudians?) and evolution of other perspectives (how/why did existentialism / humanism come from behaviorism?).

But you have to be 'into' psychology to really get in to this book. Even then, it's quite dry and reads like a textbook (which it is).

[Blue Caeruleus · Rating 5 out of 5]

By far my favorite work of non-fiction. Most psychology books these days are either too vague or only provide information on one specific area of study. (After reading this book, I can see why.) This book, unlike all the others I've looked at, aswered nearly all of the questions that I had about psychology and provided information that I hadn't iquired after but found most enjoyable to learn. This book should be required reading!

[Pam Severini · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extensive and through history of psychology. Very long but flows well.

[SK CintaZeni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Still reading but enjoying it MUCH.

Much was said about Imam Ghazali r.a. and the philosophers for his 20-point refutations but (someday, I will expound on this!), Imam Ghazali r.a. actually extended their views on mental processes via Qalb, Nafs, Ruh and Aql.
Let me give you an example from the book -

(On Plato)
Yet he was a sensible man with wide experience of the world, and some of his psychological conjectures about the soul are down-to-earth and sound almost contemporary. In some of the middle and later dialogues - notable the Republic, the Phaedrus, and Timaeus - he says that when soul (me in: RUH!) inhabits a body, it operates on three levels: thought or reason (me in: AQL!), spirit or will (QALB!), and appetite or desire (NAFS!).... He likens the soul, in the Phaedrus, to a team of two steeds, one lively but obedient (spirit), the other violent and unruly (appetite), the two yoke together and driven by a charioteer (reason) who, with considerable effort, makes them cooperate and pull together."....
(Pg. 27)

I am convinced 100%, you know I know, what beliefs they had :)

*Will never forget how that professor said for us to abandon Imam Ghazali r.a. for newer theories. Hopefully, I will have the opportunity to prove to her that what Imam r.a. did is timeless and relevant for all times. I don't think she understands how truly great our classical scholars of the Golden Age were.

** Also I am convinced that those who subscribe to the orientalists' views (that Imam Ghazali r.a caused downfall of Muslim philosophy) have neither read and understood Imam Ghazali r.a. nor have they read and understood the philosophers' works themselves!

[Jasenka]

Having a hard time not skipping right to the modern psychology part. Oh Freud - I shake my tiny fist at you!

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting, and useful as a reference on the people who developed various theories and methods in the field; limited, because it says little about how to apply those theories and methods, but I guess that wasn't the author's aim. This would come in handy for anyone studying for the kind of licensing exam that focuses on this category of information, i.e. psychological trivial pursuit.

[Shalyce · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a pretty interesting book if you want to read all you ever could in one book on psychology. The background of the psychologist themselves are pretty interesting and their basic theories and contributions are reviewed, which isn't super exciting. Of course, I read this for one of my classes, but I might actually have picked it up to read parts of it out of curiousity as well.

[Micaela Hardyman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don’t really know how to rate this book because, on the one hand, I think it is objectively well-written and thoroughly informative. On the other, I didn’t realize how long this book was til I started it and it feels weird to rate highly a book which I was so overwhelmingly relieved to finally finish. Lots of good stuff - but my poor attention span could not rock with the length of these chapters. So alas, a nice middle ground 3 stars it is. Good luck to all who embark on this journey.

[Markéta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nejlepší přehledová publikace o psychologii. Hunt vše podává srozumitelně (až na pár pasáží), čtivě a někdy dokonce i se špetkou humoru.

[Broodingferret · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extensive and detailed, The Story of Psychology is a must read for any student of psychology. While quite lengthy and a bit dry, the writing is easily accessible and moves along at a good pace. Hunt also does an admirable job of giving the various movements and schools of thought within the discipline their proper dues as regards their influence over the years, though there are a few glaring and frankly inexplicable omissions of important individuals. Ramón y Cajal, for example was never mentioned, despite the fact that he was both the first person to elucidate the separate and interconnected nature of neurons in the nervous system and the person who discovered glial cells (in fact, his drawings of neurons, some of the most famous in the world, are reproduced in the book, yet without credit applied to him). Despite these strange oversights, however, The Story of Psychology is quite informative and well worth reading.

[Virginia · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must-read for any psychology teacher. Covers the history and trends in this "young" discipline with impressive breadth. I was able to scoop up many tidbits of psych history that I could use effectively in class to humanize the historical figures that appear in student textbooks. Only left this at 4 stars simply because I doubt this would be described as a "page-turner," especially to those without a pre-existing interest in the history of psychology.

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good, basic history of Psychology. Published in 1994, the "current" research, especially on neurology, is quite dated, and a good deal of the research you learned in Psych 101, but i really enjoyed the broad contextualization of the movements, ideas and big questions in psychology. Grounded a lot of the bits and pieces I already knew in a more coherent cloth.

[Tim Petersik · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a well written survey of Western psychology. It's long, but nonetheless not too much time is spent on any single person or topic. It's largely a "great person" analysis of this history. Though I would also enjoy a cultural or more zeitgeist-oriented approach, it IS still fun to look at the personalities who shaped the field.

[Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

So far it is very interesting especially since I love stories. It tells you all about the great psychologists.

[Samuel Massicotte · Rating 5 out of 5]

# The Story of Psychology

The bible I’ve been carrying around for a while. I’m glad I’ve finally completed it again for a second time. It’s a huge brick, but an essential carry to understand the history of psychology (Albeit a biaised version of it where the psychologists chosen are of interest to the author). The beginning is amazing. The more you advance, the more biaised it becomes. Then it becomes extremely dry with the sensory history. Eventually it fizzles out into broken pieces of modern psychology.

> “But only retard. Even as the Catholic Church could delay, but not ultimately prevent, humankind’s learning that the sun rather than the earth is the center of the solar system, the authority of the greatest idealist philosophers could not prevent psychology from becoming a science through experimentation”
>

> “But in part- and far more important- a number of elements in Freudian psychology have recently been validated by contemporary neuroscience, making real his 1905 fantasy that psychological phenomena would someday be explicable in physical terms.”
>

> “The early decades of scientific psychology were “the era of the schools”- there were at least seven in the 1930s- and the adherents of each claimed that their school’s theory could make a coherent science out of the chaotic mass of findings and mini-theories that had been accumulating since the time of Helmholtz. But by the middle of the last century, many psychologists had begun to think that none of the last century, many psychologists had begun to think that none of the existing theories had or could become the unifying paradigm of psychology.”
>

> “But one aspect of the findings of these meta-analyses seemed baffling: All forms of therapy appeared to benefit about two thirds of the patients. Yet if each kind of therapy works for particular reasons- as spelled out by the theory it is based on- how could all work equally well? .. Their explanation was that there are common components among the psychotherapies, most notably the helping relationship between therapist and client.”
>

> “Clinicians in particular were considered by academicians a lesser breed. … Similar events recurred as the number of clinical psychologists and applied psychologists in the APA grew. Each time the discontented formed another organization of their own, the APA made further changes in its structure to keep them in or bring them back. But genuinely harmonizing the interests, outlooks, and values of academics and clinicians was all but impossible. In American Psychologist in 1984, a psychologist, borrowing a concept from C.P. Snow, wrote sorrowfully of “psychology’s two cultures,” mutually uncomprehending, hostile, and alien.”
>

[Dandy Ace · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you want dates, names, explanations of the math behind the building blocks of experimental psychology, or any other technical information, then this book is a homerun.

Unfortunately, that is where my praises end. Everything I mention from here on out is definitely a matter of personal taste, but I wish to express my plight with this book;

1. The writing is dry. Despite the author's insistence that we know the background of every single man he mentions even when there is very little relevancy to the work said man goes on to do, it creates a lengthy tome of unimportant information. It reminds me of university students who are desperately trying to reach the minimum word count on their essays and thus throw in whatever topical information they can find.

Secondly on this matter, while I do appreciate the author's usage of Latin, French, and German phrases/words where relevant to the man he is talking about, they mean nothing when most of them do not come with a footnote of explanation/translation. I assume the book's general audience is an average person with an interest in the subject material, and so the usage of these terms without an effort to educate the reader only leaves Hunt's writing to come off as pompous.

2. This books is nowhere near "The Story of Psychology" - Hunt focuses a lot on the experimental side, and there is nothing wrong with that, but there are dozens of notable names in the field that aren't even mentioned in this book, such as Alfred Kinsey or Magnus Hirschfield. This subsequently ignores a good portion of the psychological, neurophysiological, and sociological headway that has been made in the story of psychology. For a book that is 800+ pages (at least my edition is), you'd think there would be more than just half of the picture, but like I mentioned above, most of the information provided is filler/fluff and has very little to do with the subject at hand.

3. Perhaps it is because he is a product of his time, but Hunt has a very weird tone when it comes to talking about some of the disgraces that befell earlier psychologists. I have no way of knowing his intent, but as you read, Hunt seems to downplay the sexism of Freud, Kant's antisemitism, the racism and ableism of Galton and his eugenic theory, just to name a few. It reads as if Hunt is offended that we would besmirch these "good men's" names by simply calling out their actions for what they were; bigoted. Nuance and separating the art from the artist is a skill one must practice, and Hunt's writing indicates that he is not learned in said ability.

All in all, as a student of forensic psychology, this book was a major flop when it comes to be any sorts of useful to someone who wishes to learn our sordid mental history.

[Bruce Lerro · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first found this book browsing in a Barnes and Noble bookstore about 20 years ago. Barnes and Noble used to have sensitivity of stocking books that were not overly academic, yet based on good science. It was only fitting that I found The Story of Psychology there. It is the best book on the history of psychology for an intelligent lay reader I have ever seen. It is geared for people who may have no aspirations to be in the field, yet are curious. Hunt is a friendly warm writer who is able to chunk psychological history into schools of psychology like “the physicalists,” the rationalists” and “empiricists” that keep the reader from being swamped by too much detail. Like other textbooks, Hunt showed how psychology spent most of its history as the handmaiden of religion on one hand and philosophy on the other. I have used this book for many years in a History of Psychology course I taught.

On the con side, while technology, economics, politics and religion of the times is nicely introduced at the beginning of the chapters, it treated as background or setting in which psychology is placed. The psychologists and the topics are presented as a kind of second department which is relatively unaffected by historical changes in communications media, capitalism or the scientific revolution. For example, the author might point out that by the eightieth century, sight became the dominant sense that was used, but there is no explanation as to why. The author does not consider that the invention of the printing press, the telescope and the microscope might be the driving force for the change in sense ratios. As Marshall McLuhan and Walter Ong used to say, before the rise of the printing print, oral cultures predominated and storytelling and hearing was more important than sight. Neither is it considered that the turn to seeing nature as deterministic in the 17th century and the rise of chance and probability theory in the 19th century might have psychological implications. The rise of hypnosis and the explosion of mental health institutions are a product of capitalism, the scientific revolution and the Protestant reformation. Overall, though, this is a terrific book and easy to read.

[Julian Meynell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is exactly what it claims to be. It's a history of psychology that starts where it should with Thales and moves on to the present. Hunt is clever and open minded and rarely grinds an axe except where he should. I know the philosophy quite well, for the most part better than Hunt, and that allowed me to judge his competence and fairness as quite high.

I have seen people complain that the book is quite dry. I did not find it to be. It is a history of psychology and a fairly thorough one at that, and given its comprehensiveness and subject matter and that it treats it seriously, I think that it was highly readable. It also serves well as an introduction to psychology. I wanted it for that and to orient myself to the development of the field and it served admirably both those purposes. The book has a great man approach to the history of psychology which is probably the best approach to a general history in the history of ideas. The potted biographies also served to break up the flow of harder information.

The major problem with the book is a function of when it was written. Psychology proper is not a very old field as the book makes clear. It is also not really a very coherent field and it lacks a Newton or Darwin type figure to give it a coherent scientific foundation for part or whole of it. Again Morton makes this clear instead of pushing the agenda of one of the disparate movements. However, that means that inevitably much of the most important work is recent. The current edition was published in 2007 and is based on a 1993 original. As such there is a real limit as to how much recent developments matter. Furthermore, psychology evolves incredibly fast. All of this is less important in a history, but by its nature it is just going to date fast.

However, over all, I was pleasantly surprised at how good a book it was and how thouroughly it served its purpose.

[Sean G · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Story of Psychology by Morton Hunt is one of the longest, but greatest works I've read. I went into this having little to no prior knowledge on psychology, except for the fact that my sister is majoring in it. However, I have left this being able to give an entire presentation on the history of psychology.
I am not going to sit here and pretend that I understand the human mind, and that I could help someone, but I do know the solid ideas and the concrete foundations that have been built upon to be discovered as the contemporary psychology that we know of today.
The content of this book is astounding. The topics are brief, but concise, and the information that you need to know is in it. The ideas of each philosopher and time period, the impacts, the overall changes to the human mind, it's a masterpiece.
Without a doubt, I would recommend this book to anyone who would take the venture into reading a book this long, on a topic that is so much more complex than the human mind could even fathom, because the reality of the matter is, psychology is not math. It is not an area of black and white. It is an area that lives in the grey, and is constantly expanding, because it is the study of the human mind, behaviors, and just who we are. All of these things are constantly changing, but to ground us back to the roots of where it all came from, comes this amazing book that will withstand the test of time and will educate future generations of the Goliath's that we now stand on the shoulders on. Because in reality, psychology is applied to everything around us, and in turn, is making the world a better place.

[Phallus · Rating 4 out of 5]

How far into the terra incognita of the mind has our journey taken us? In truth, there are no far shores to be reached — in science there is never a final boundary to knowledge, nor a finite amount to be known about the nature of reality. We cannot measure how close we are to the end of the journey, for there is no end. As in all other sciences, psychology, in answering its questions, continually discovers deeper and more profound ones to ask.

Psychology has evolved from ancient speculation about the soul into a scientific study of the mind — one grounded in biology yet rich with philosophical and human significance. The mind is not something separate from the body; it is what the brain does when it processes information. In essence, the mind is the programmed flow of information made possible by the organized patterns of billions of neural events. Perception, emotion, memory, thought, personality, and self are all the mind’s programs at work, drawing upon and using the information and experience stored in the brain’s circuitry through synaptic connections, responding to stimuli in endlessly intricate ways.

Morton Hunt’s The Story of Psychology is an intelligent, deeply researched chronicle of how humanity has sought to understand itself. At times, however, it feels a bit too dry and lengthy to read like a narrative — more a comprehensive textbook than a popular account.

[JY Tan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have never read anything quite like this (The Undoing Project comes quite close), but I know I had to finish this when I heard about it. My hunch was right: despite some chapters being utterly boring (on developmental psychology and psychophysical perception, but that’s honestly a matter of preference), this is otherwise one of the most invigorating books I have read as a psychology student. It beautifully rewrites PSY101 classes into exciting narratives of individuals trying to get a better understanding of themselves and humankind at large through varying methods. There's a surprising amount of theoretical, philosophical, and research details for a book that seems to focus on historical development, which adds or detract from the enjoyment depending on where you stand intellectually.

It would be unreasonable to expect anyone to enjoy it from beginning to end, considering psychology's complex nature, but I am sure there's a favorite chapter(s) for every psychology enthusiast out there.

My only legitimate complaint is that for a comprehensive chapter for psychotherapy, the absence of a comprehensive account of Carl Rogers is quite disappointing.

[Jakub · Rating 5 out of 5]

Výborný průvodce vývojem psychologie od jejich začátků ve filozofii v antickém Řecku až po moderní filozofické směry. Nejen, že jsem díky ní získal slušný přehled o poli aktuální psychologie, ale navíc to bylo podané čtivou formou, která značně přispívá k zapamatování jednotlivých tématů.

Autor velkou část knihy prokládá útržky z životů významných psychologů daných směrů a to včetně kontroverzí, které způsobili a i tím držel moji pozornost jako čtenáře.

[Wessel · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you would enjoy a book that (in my opinion poorly and with a lack of focus) integrates the life history of individual researchers, the historical development of a discipline, the history of psychological ideas and the social context in which all of this occurred, by all means, pick up this book.

If you consider these different topics of a larger domain, each of which deserves its own separate, more concise and focused treatment, look for different books.

I wish I had done the latter.

[Sam von Dresden · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a slog. I would only recommend it to anyone who has little to absolutely no knowledge of psychology whatsoever, in which case it serves as a sort of pseudo-textbook that will barely hit on all of the main points of the discipline. But for someone more familiar with the subject matter, it is a joyless tome. An apt comparison for this book's reading experience would be standing in a vast ocean of acid one inch deep. It noticeably lacks depth, and is painful to experience.

[Jarred · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good overview of the history and development of psychology as a field of study. Anyone interested in the historical context and development of psychology or the current position of sub fields in psychology would find this book interesting and worth exploring. It would also serve well as a textbook for a course in a college level intro to psych course.

[Gavin DeLeon · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book was very informative and extremely helpful for an aspiring therapist. Mr. Hunt dives into different philosophies throughout history. Ranging from Hobbs all the way to Freud Hunt had me interested in every page of the book. The book may have been a long read but it is 100 percent worth it if you are interested in psychology, emotions, and philosophy.