The Story of Psychology

The Story of...

by Anne Rooney

Following the successful pattern of The Story of Maths, The Story of Physics , and The Story of Philosophy, The Story of Psychology traces the development of psychology from its origins as a branch of philosophy to the present day, when it is a discipline in its own right, closely allied with neurology and physiology. Taking in aspects of religious thought and belief, philosophy, anthropology, medical science, psychology, and psychotherapy, the book takes as its subject matter the understanding of the mind. Topics include the study of the soul;, how the mind was perceived in the ancient world; the ghost in the machine; consciousness, semiconsciousness, and altered consciousness; models of madness; ways of dealing with mental illness; how we learn and know―Locke, Hume, Piaget, Chomsky, et al.; the conscious, the unconscious and the subconscious―Freud, Jung, and Gestalt models; exploring the mind (including the importance of Shakespeare to Freud); the mind making the world―social psychology, normative and pathological psychologies, uses of psychology in sociology, the law, and business. Beautifully illustrated throughout in full color.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction

208 pages, Hardcover

Published August 15, 2015

About the author

Anne Rooney gained a degree and then a PhD in medieval literature from Trinity College, Cambridge. After a period of teaching medieval English and French literature at the universities of Cambridge and York, she left to pursue a career as a freelance writer. She has written many books for adults and children on a variety of subjects, including literature and history. She lives in Cambridge and is Royal Literary Fund Fellow at the University of Essex.

Reviews

[Ahmed Hamza · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐

[William Schram · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Story of Psychology by Anne Rooney is a history of Psychology. It uses images and famous people as landmarks along the journey.

The book is split into chapters that deal with different aspects of Psychology and the problems that it tackles. Take the idea of The Ghost in the Machine for instance. Is there a soul or something operating the body or is it all just chemical processes? Throughout the book are pertinent quotes from various sources and pictures of famous philosophers and psychologists.

The book also discusses whether or not Psychology is even a Science, which is a fair point. People generally follow their theories. If something new comes out in Psychology, it can be interpreted in a different manner according to who is doing the experiment and such.

Finally, the book contains references to famous experiments that challenged our ideas of how we would act in certain situations. The Prisoner one where the guards mistreated the prisoners and it had to be called off after six days, the Milgram experiment, and other stuff.

I liked it well enough, but there isn’t much else to say. The book makes the subject fascinating and includes tons of little nuggets of information.

[Adri Dosi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tuto knihu jsem dostala zdarma v rámci jedné objednávky. Byla jsem pměrně skeptická, ale má poměrně dobré hodnocení a potom, co jsem ji přečetla, tak říkám, že právem.
Kniha tedy rozhodně není pohodové čtení. Jde o odbornou literaturu a je určena pro všechny, co se o psychologii zajímají. Je to takové shrnutí všeho, co se psychologie týká a co se ví. Osobnosti, myšlení, směry, výzkumy, prostě vše. Není možné to číst rychle. Pokud si chcete něco zapamatovat, je vhodné dělat si poznámky. Nicméně je to tak pro lidi, kteří se chtějí o psychologii něco dozvědět, kdo se chce dostat na vysokou školu. Ti, kdo tu školu studují, už se nejspíše nic nového nedozví.
Za mě však skvěle zpracovaná kniha, přehledná, na křídovém papíře.

[Rob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun and quick!