by Jerome Kagon. (Get a Copy)Kagan (psychology, emeritus, Harvard Univ.; What Is Emotion? History, Measures, and Meanings) combines a frank but sympathetic critique of the present state of psychological research with a bold call for reform. The author ruminates on the history of the field, from psychology's early attempts to model itself after physics to a split in focus between the United States and Europe, where the former emphasized acquired behaviors and conditioning and the latter, mental states, childhood events, and sexuality. As psychology's search for a grand, unifying theory failed and biological psychiatry has become more important, Kagan believes the field has declined in prominence. Moving from theory to application, the book devotes considerable attention to mental illness. The author recounts the great paradigm shift from talk to drug therapy in the 1960s and successfully points out the limitations of this approach. In conclusion, he challenges psychologists to question common assumptions and accepted dogmas in their field. Verdict A valuable synthesis of ideas forcefully expressed in graceful prose, this book is highly recommended for academic and professional mental health collections. --Library Journal
