Description

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Through ten examples of ingenious experiments by some of psychology's most innovative thinkers, Lauren Slater traces the evolution of the century's most pressing concerns—free will, authoritarianism, conformity, and morality.

Beginning with B. F. Skinner and the legend of a child raised in a box, Slater takes us from a deep empathy with Stanley Milgram's obedience subjects to a funny and disturbing re-creation of an experiment questioning the validity of psychiatric diagnosis. Previously described only in academic journals and textbooks, these often daring experiments have never before been narrated as stories, chock-full of plot, wit, personality, and theme.

About the Author

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Lauren Slater is a psychologist and writer. She is the author of Opening Skinner's Box and Blue Beyond Blue, among other books. She lives in Somerville, Massachusetts.

Praise For…

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I've been riveted by her witty explorations of everything from lying to Prozac.
— David Sedaris - Entertainment Weekly

Worth reading for the provocative questions it asks and for the way it lingers over the fragile, human side of psychology.
— Joy Press - Village Voice

Astonishing stories full of quirky personalities, told with wit and warmth.
— Kirkus Reviews

Slater creates for the reader a sense of intimacy with scientists and their subjects.
— Erik Strand - Psychology Today

It is precisely [Slater's] intimate confessional approach that is able to reveal the poetry latent in the sterile laboratory…A powerful and even inspiring meditation on the strengths and weaknesses hidden in our nature.
— Eric Wargo - Washington Times