"A vivid, insightful account....Told with wit and warmth."
--Kirkus Reviews
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, morality. Beginning
with B. F. Skinner and the legend of a child raised in a box, she 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, full of plot, wit, personality, and theme. "Irresistible storytelling."
--Elle
"Neither clinical nor dispassionate....This combination of expert scientific and historical context, tough-minded
reporting and daringly subjective re-creation."
--Publishers Weekly
"Slater creates for the reader a sense of intimacy with scientists and their subjects."
--Psychology Today
Norton Web Site, June, 2005
Summary
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, morality.
Beginning with B. F. Skinner and the legend of a child raised in a box, she 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, full of plot, wit, personality, and theme.
