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50 Psychology Classics

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50 Psychology Classics

By: Tom Butler-Bowdon
Narrated by: Lloyd James
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About this listen

 Who we are...how we think...what we do....Here are insight and inspiration from 50 key books, including works by Sigmund Freud, Malcolm Gladwell, Daniel Goleman, Karen Horney, Carl Jung, Alfred Kinsey, R.D. Laing, Jean Piaget, Martin Seligman, Oliver Sacks, Gail Sheehy, and BF Skinner.

Spanning hundreds of ideas developed over the past century, 50 Psychology Classics also explores important contemporary writings, such as Gladwell's Blink and Seligman's Authentic Happiness. Listeners will gain insight into the scientific research of leading contemporary psychologists, psychiatrists, and neurologists. And they'll discover why we think and act the way we do from the landmark best-sellers of psychology.

With insightful commentaries on each classic, biographical information on the authors, plus a guide to further key titles, 50 Psychology Classics provides a unique overview of this fascinating subject.

©2007 Tom Butler-Bowdon (P)2007 Gildan Media Corp Personal Development Personal Success Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Health Classics Mental Health

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Critic reviews

"Butler-Bowdon writes with infectious enthusiasm....He is a true scholar of this type of literature." ( USA Today)
All stars
Most relevant  
Good Introduction to the many classics. However, for the information to stick you would need to take notes or review the text in 'hard copy' format, as you will probably want to go back and refresh your learning since the author covers the basics at a fast pace. If you are looking to refresh existing knowledge then this is for you - if you want to learn more detail or new to this field - consider buying the actual book.

A Good Overview - Lots to take in for a beginner

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I love this book. The narration is fine, easy to listen to. The content is excellent. On the down side the introduction is really boreing and I almost gave up on the book. This would have been a great pity as, once you get into the 50 classics, it is really interesting.

Of course not all the books covered will interest everyone and some chapters I found dull, but the chapters are short and I found many books I will be seeking out for future listening or reading.

I would recomend this book to anyone who is interested in people but who has no real knowledge in this field. If you are a psychologist it is most likely not for you, but for the rest of us it is an eye opener.

Psychology in a nutshell

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I like everything in this book, the valuable content as well as the excellent narrator. This is my first book on this application.

Just perfect

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A cornucopia pick-and-mix of popular Psychology classics, each book title lasting between 10-20 minutes (12.5 hours total). Gestalt therapy, Behaviourism, Lateral Thinking, 'The Female Brain' and 'Games People Play' to the classics of Freud, Jung and Adler are all covered. It is read in an easy american voice & style, which feels appropriate.

Butler-Bowdon divides each 'Classic' up into:
quotes; synopsis; 'books in a similar vein'; chapter themes with commentary; final comments and biographic details.

If you are interested in psychology and the mind, and want a 'Cooks Tour' of the amazing breadth of ideas out there, I would really recommend this audiobook. It is a great jumping off point for further reading.

Every one a gem!

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Useful and interesting introduction to, or reminder of, the many psychological theorists and their thinking.

Useful introduction or reminder!

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Where does 50 Psychology Classics rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This is a great introduction to some of the greatest minds in Psychology and inevitably philosophy, of the last century. It covers a wide range of topics and writing and will give you a long list of wider reading to pursue, which is why I came to this.

What about Sean Pratt’s performance did you like?

Sean Pratt's reading is excellent. It's conversational but authoritative. A good balance.

Any additional comments?

The only downside is that this is entirely audible, so you will listen and mentally check-off the additional reading you want to cover, but with the scope of names and books covered, you will quickly forget. As there is no printed index or guide to authors and books in this audible book (that I could find), it is painful skipping through all fifty chapters to discover the names and book titles you want. In the end I downloaded the Kindle sample of this book for its index. You would think there would be a downloadable PDF or something to accompany the book for this purpose.

Great format needs a printed reference

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This book takes you on a journey where you will meet 50 influential people within Psychology and helps you to understand in a condensed overview their main contribution and key publications. It goes further by giving comparisons and listing the books that are in the same vain.

Each individual that the book explores also has a bio helping you to understand the life journey and origins of the individual themselves not just the work that they delivered to the Psychophysical field of study.

This journey is an alphabetical one, not taken across the timeline of psychological development over the course of the last 100 years, but giving a very structured review of each chosen individual and one of their great publications. The advantage of this is that it allows you to absorb each chapter and individual in their own right and you will start to make links between similar themes and publications with the inclusion of the "books in a similar vain".

If you would like to understand the key individuals within Psychology and furnish your studies or general knowledge with a deeper understanding of who these people were then this is a very helpful book. It will direct you towards books that you want to read in more detail and help to cut through the masses of books and information that is currently available so that you can select wisely according to your line of interest or studies.

I highly recommend this book. I brought the audio book and flew through it as I just couldn't switch it off. I have moved onto other readings now but will certainly return to this book again for another listen after I have given myself time to reflect on some of the information.

In short it is highly informative, gives condensed overviews to aid decisions for further reading and links a number of books to help draw common themes together. This, combined with the short review of the individuals life make for a highly interesting read (or in my case listen!)

Eloquently condensed overview of Psychology

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The strength of this book is that it provides a very broad and informative introduction to a wealth of topics contained within what is a fascinating subject. Within each of the 50 chapters, it suggests further reading for the particular topic, allowing you to select your areas of interest and moving on to other, cited books to read in further detail.

As such I would recommend this book to people who want to know more about psychology but who may be overwhelmed by the wealth and breadth of literature out there. This book is a very good starting point to make inroads. It is written at a light, discussional level and is well narrated.

Excellent

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An interesting look at practically the whole history of Psychology. A great read with hours of entertainment. Isn't everyone interested in psychology ?

Great

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The structure of this book may make it better to read in physical form. In the audio format the structure of each section (organised by book + biography) felt a little strange.
The author’s perspective came through but wasn’t really acknowledged as an individual’s point of view which is an issue as I found it biased, particularly in terms of the examples and language used which were often highly gendered (and sometimes sexist) with no qualification. This made it feel rather dated.

Feels dated & better in physical form

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