Psychology: An Illustrated History of the Mind from Hypnotism to Brain Scans (100 Ponderables)

Ponderables: 100 Discoveries that Changed History, Who Did What When

by Tom Jackson

Here is the essential guide to psychology, an authoritative reference book and timeline that examines how we learned to understand the mysteries of the human mind. Psychology is a young science. While great thinkers have pondered the nature of thought itself for centuries, the idea of using scientific experiments to examine the way we think, make decisions, and behave was only arrived at in the mid-19th century. However, the impact of psychology has been far reaching. Thanks to the work of Sigmund Freud, William James, Abraham Maslow, and many others, we now consider the psychological impact of events, along with their economic, political and legal aspects. Nevertheless, psychology studies a very difficult subject the human mind and finding ways of measuring our thoughts is not easy. New techniques, such as the functional MRI scanner, and an improved understanding of brain function, may help to unlock the secrets of what makes us who we are. What do you think?

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Science

144 pages, Hardcover

Published October 21, 2018

About the author

"I'm a non-fiction author and project editor (plus I do a bit of journalism). I'm available for project development, writing, project management and I also work as a packager. Click on the links above to see examples of my work.

But first some background: Over the last 20 years, I've written books, magazine and newspaper articles, for online and for television. I get to write about a wide range of subjects, everything from axolotls to zoroastrianism. However, my specialties are natural history, technology and all things scientific. I've worked on projects with Brian May, Patrick Moore, Marcus de Sautoy and Carol Vorderman and for major international publishers, such as Dorling Kindersley, National Geographic, Scholastic, Hachette, Facts on File and BBC Magazines.

I spend my days finding fun ways of communicating all kinds of facts, new and old, to every age group and reading ability. I live in Bristol, England, with my wife and three children. I studied zoology at Bristol University and have had spells working at the zoos in Jersey and Surrey. I used to be something of a conservationist, which included planting trees in Somerset, surveying Vietnamese jungle and rescuing buffaloes from drought-ridden Zimbabwe. Writing jobs have also taken me to the Galápagos Islands, the Amazon rainforest, the coral reefs of Indonesia and the Sahara Desert. Nowadays, I can be found mainly in the attic."
~http://tomjackson.weebly.com/

Reviews

[Alicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

A look back and forward in the world of psychology with the development of sciences surround psychology and the people, places, and events that had an impact be it Pavlov and Freud to phrenology and the hierarchy of needs. Each numbered discovery is usually about a page and includes charts, images, or pictures of the people that were connected to the specific discovery sometimes referencing one of the others.

It's easily digestible and endlessly fascinating.

I also didn't know there was a series of illustrated histories and will likely check out some of the other ones.

[Pierre Jacomet · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a good intro and roadmap to psychology. For me, it gives me a glimpse into the history of psychology throughout history and snippets of different authors. The snippets are enough to spark my curiosity and embark on specific quests of knowledge about one psychologist or psychology or era. So, it serves perfectly the purpose of giving me an introduction.

It is also great coffee table book because it has lots of illustrations and you can jump into any page and find something interesting. The book also includes a foldout timeline which graphically depicts many important psychology evolutionary milestones through history.