The Story of Psychology » (Updated)

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.

Socrates, Plato, Descartes, Spinoza, Mesmer, William James, Pavlov, Freud, Piaget, Erikson, and Skinner. Each of these thinkers recognized that human beings could examine, comprehend, and eventually guide or influence their own thought processes, emotions, and resulting behavior. The lives and accomplishments of these pillars of psychology, expertly assembled by Morton Hunt, are set against the times in which the subjects lived. Hunt skillfully presents dramatic and lucid accounts of the techniques and validity of centuries of psychological research, and of the methods and effectiveness of major forms of psychotherapy.

Fully revised, and incorporating the dramatic developments of the last fifteen years, The Story of Psychology is a graceful and absorbing chronicle of one of the great human inquiries—the search for the true causes of our behavior.

Prologue: Exploring the Universe Within
A Psychological Experiment in the Seventh Century B.C.
Messages from the Gods The Discovery of the Mind

PART ONE : PRESCIENTIFIC PSYCHOLOGY

1 The Conjecturers
The Glory That Was Greece The Forerunners: Alcmaeon, Protagoras, Democritus, Hippocrates The “Midwife of Thought”: Socrates The Idealist: Plato The Realist: Aristotle

2 The Scholars
The Long Sleep The Commentators: Theophrastus, the Hellenists, the Epicureans, the Skeptics, the Stoics Roman Borrowers: Lucretius, Seneca, Epictetus, Galen, Plotinus The Patrist Adapters: the Patrists, Tertullian, Saint Augustine The Patrist Reconcilers: the Schoolmen, Saint Thomas Aquinas The Darkness Before Dawn

3 The Protopsychologists
The Third Visitation The Rationalists: Descartes, the Cartesians, Spinoza The Empiricists: Hobbes, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, the Empiricist-Associationist School German Nativism: Leibniz, Kant

PART TWO: FOUNDERS OF A NEW SCIENCE

4 The Physicalists
The Magician-Healer: Mesmer The Skull Reader: Gall The Mechanists Specific Nerve Energy: Müller Just Noticeable Differences: Weber Neural Physiology: von Helmholtz Psychophysics: Fechner

5 First Among Equals: Wundt
As Good a Birth Date as Any The Making of the First Psychologist The Curious Goings-on at Konvikt Wundtian Psychology Sic Transit

6 The Psychologist Malgré Lui: William James
“This Is No Science”
Adorable Genius Founding Father Ideas of the Pre-eminent Psychologizer Jamesian Paradoxes

7 Explorer of the Depths: Sigmund Freud
The Truth About Freud The Would-Be Neuroscientist The Hypnotherapist The Invention of Psychoanalysis
Dynamic Psychology: Early Formulations Success Dynamic Psychology: Extensions and Revisions But Is It Scientific?
Decline and Fall—and Revival

8 The Measurers
“Whenever You Can, Count”: Francis Galton Galtonian Paradoxes The Mental Age Approach: Alfred Binet The Testing Mania The IQ Controversy

9 The Behaviorists
A New Answer to Old Questions Two Discoverers of the Laws of Behaviorism: Thorndike and Pavlov Mr. Behaviorism: John B. Watson The Triumph of Behaviorism Two Great Neobehaviorists: Hull and Skinner The Impending Paradigm Shift

10 The Gestaltists
A Visual Illusion Gives Rise to a New Psychology The Rediscovery of the Mind The Laws of Gestalten Out-of-Reach Bananas and Other Problems Learning Failure and Success

PART THREE: SPECIALIZATION AND SYNTHESIS

Introduction: The Fissioning of Psychology—and the Fusion of the Psychological Sciences

11 The Personality Psychologists
“The Secrets of the Hearts of Other Men”
The Fundamental Units of Personality Measuring Personality Making Order out of Chaos Learned Personality Body, Genes, and Personality Late Word from the Personality Front

12 The Developmentalists
“Great Oaks from Little Acorns Grow”
Grand Theory and Nontheory A Giant, and a Giant Theory Cognitive Development Maturation Personality Development Social Development Development from A to Z

13 The Social Psychologists
No Man’s Land A Case of Multiple Fatherhood Closed Cases: Cognitive Dissonance, the Psychology of Imprisonment, Obedience, the Bystander Effect Ongoing Inquiries: Conflict Resolution, Attribution, Others The Value of Social Psychology

14 The Perception Psychologists
Interesting Questions Styles of Looking at Looking Seeing Form Seeing Movement Seeing Depth Two Ways of Looking at Vision

15 The Emotion and Motivation Psychologists
Fundamental Question Somatic Theory ANS and CNS Theory Cognitive Theory Patchwork Quilt

16 The Cognitivists
Revolution Revolution No. 2
Memory Language Reasoning Is the Mind a Computer? Is a Computer a Mind?
New Model And the Winner Is—

17 The Psychotherapists
Growth Industry Freud’s Offspring: The Dynamic Psychotherapists The Patient as Laboratory Animal: Behavior Therapy All in the Mind: Cognitive Therapy A Miscellany of Therapies But Does It Really Work?

18 Users and Misusers of Psychology
Knowledge Is Power Improving the Human Use of the Human Equipment Improving the Fit Between Humans and Their Jobs The Use and Misuse of Testing Covert Persuasion: Advertising and Propaganda Psychology in the Courtroom Beyond the Fringe

19 Psychology Today
Portrait of a Psychologist Portrait of a Science Schism Psychology and Politics Status Report

Notes References Acknowledgments Index