James Russell, an Emeritus Professor of Psychology at Cambridge, has been studying psychology for 50 years. In this autobiographical book he reflects on where psychology fails (and succeeds).
 
 
 
“Psychology has always been a problematic discipline. Is it a science? Is it just common sense? Why does it attract so many charlatans? Why is it suffering from a replication crisis? In a life-long struggle to uncover the soul of psychology, James Russell has faced up to all these problems and what he sees is not always pretty. If you want to become a better psychologist you should read this book.”
 
– Chris Frith
 
 
 
“This book is the extraordinary record of a thinking psychologist’s intellectual development, and is the best account of an academic life, and a working mind, that I’ve ever read. Full of anecdotes and animus, as well as the most lucid explanations of theoretical and practical positions, it savages the ‘pretentious pabulum’, ‘meretricious baloney’, and ‘intellectual crushes’ that beset the discipline. Jim Russell doesn’t except himself from condemnation, either. It’s a witty, generous, brilliant, moving and passionate book. Plus it has poetry in it. Read it!”
 
– Ian Patterson