Lauren Slater
Opening Skinner's Box
Great Psychological Experiments of the Twentieth Century
"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
Lauren Slater is a psychologist and the author of Welcome to My Country and Prozac Diary. She lives in Somerville, Massachusetts.
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