Reviews

Here Reed (psychology, Franklin and Marshall Coll.) follows up his recent Encountering the World: Toward an Ecological Psychology (Oxford Univ., 1996) and The Necessity of Experience: A Philosophy of the Postmodern World (LJ 11/1/96), in which he had suggested "how modern psychology might overcome its legacy of narrowness." With this trailblazing history, he looks at how the field first developed its restrictive, scientific view. E.T.A Hoffman and the Shelleys figure in his discussion as examplars of how "thought police" kept the more challenging psychological ideas under wraps. After presenting a brilliant kaleidoscope of 18th- and 19th-century writings, Reed concludes that philosophy broke away from psychology, not the reverse, and that psychology is the poorer for it. J.S. Mill, Schopenhauer, Charles Darwin, G.H. Lewes, Douglas Spalding, William James, and many others come to life in a dramatic retelling of the complicated story of our imperfect self-understanding. Reed uncovers and makes accessible an intellectual treasure-trove that will change the way we think about the last 250 years. Essential for most libraries.‘E. James Lieberman, George Washington Univ., Washington, D.C.