The 5 most Important Psychology Books of all time
J Adams PhD,
This is a list of what I consider the most important books in psychology. I am an avid reader of psychological theories. Though now retired, I have spent years in private practice and academic research. Some of these books will be a real no brainer, as they have been a part of the psychological circulate for many decade, others may come across as quite unique and original. There are theories and books on practical application for the student and researcher alike. I hope you enjoy my influential list . And just so as to not put my readers and followers asleep I have included two books of modern publication upon this list that most, even though are worthy of inclusion, will likely create fresh debate among academias and clinicians henceforth. These two new inclusions are the Primal Scream by Arthur Janov and The Theorem: A Complete Answer to Human Behavior by Douglas Arone. Rounding out the list is Psychological Types by Carl Jung, The Principles of Psychology by William James and Beyond the Pleasure Principle by Sigmund Freud. I have borrowed selected reviews and created a link to Amazon for these books as well, many can be picked up at used bookstores.
1)Psychological Types: Carl Jung
It is very likely that you know this is the origin of utilized psychological terms such as introvert and extrovert., and in addition the building blocks of the MBTI. Psychological Types is far more however. Essentially this book has stood the test of time, and his theories of Personality tend to be more accurate in their historical unadulterated form than the MBTI derivatives. It is necessary to realize the date of this publication to understand it's classic value. I think Jung's masterpiece will stand the test of time.
Review
Psychological Types is one of Jung's most important and most famous works. First published by Routledge (Kegan Paul) in the early 1920s it appeared after Jung's so-called fallow period, during which he published little, and it is perhaps the first significant book to appear after his own confrontation with the unconscious. It is the book that introduced the world to the terms 'extravert' and 'introvert'.
Though very much associated with the unconscious, in Psychological Types Jung shows himself to be a supreme theorist of the conscious. In putting forward his system of psychological types Jung provides a means for understanding ourselves and the world around us: our different patterns of behaviour, our
relationships, marriage, national and international conflict, organizational functioning.
Appearing in paperback for the first time this central volume from Jung's Collected Works will be essential to anyone requiring a proper understanding of Jung's psychology.
2)The Theorem: A Complete answer to Human Behavior: Douglas Arone
I have always felt that the flaw with contemporary or classical psychology was that all theories were somewhat biased in their subjectivity. I knew that someday someone would come along with near complete objectivity, and when they did they would deliver something truly remarkable. Douglas Arone has accomplished just that in The Theorem: A Complete Answer to Human Behavior. While I agree that this book should have been titled something like the, “ The Origin of Instinctual Behavioral,” The first and by far the most comprehensive fetal/ child development model is a true masterwork well ahead of it's time.
Review
He certainly has guts: this new author and theorist. I will give him that. He is not only convinced that this behavioral model has something of substantial value to offer the scientific community in the field of human behavior, but Mr. Arone is convinced that his model holds the missing link to uncover the majority of behaviors and behavioral disorders that define modern man: all of this based on a fetal development model. What is even more disturbing is that he may very well be right.
Highlights of the book are the human reproduction model. The reproduction model is comprehensive and from my vantage point at least, essentially flawless. It is to be expected that countless books and research will be written on this section alone. He is also very thorough on the triggers during infancy that provide the catalyst to the condition of "First Fear Not Relieved". These include death of the mother, absence of the mother, abuse of the child, and sickness of the mother and other variables. The low aspect of the book, for me at least, was the author's choice of the schizophrenia model. Here he puts what holds promise as the `definitive schizophrenia model' buried in the books appendix, complete with Neural Notes. This model should have been the one presented in the main text. I am certain, after spending many years researching schizophrenia that his presented model on this disorder is important and should be seriously considered by others researching schizophrenia. With the behavioral model included in the primary text and the neural evidence to support the origin of both positive and negative symptoms, I can say this model was a welcome surprise to this researcher, and elevated the work presented on schizophrenia from the status of "plausible" to "probable". I am surprised I have not seen this portion of the theory presented in a scholarly journal. It may be advisable for Mr. Arone to hire a scientific publicist to see this through.
Do not get me wrong in this criticism however. This theory in all of its raw equity is beyond a shadow of a doubt a masterpiece that I can see will be read by many in the mental health field, especially those who consider themselves forward thinking. However, I get the feeling Mr. Arone, has little concern about what psychologists or anyone else feel about this work, as I get more than a hint in this book of busy self destruction. I can only imagine this goes with the territory, because it is clear from reading this work that Mr. Arone has already accepted the greatness of this theory, as he has apparently rehearsed his conflicted dialogue with immortality well in advance of his presentation of his book. Like a master puppeteer he releases only enough working notes to let us know this model can be proven, but not enough to fully accept this model verbatim. I wonder when he in all of his graciousness will deliver the rest.
3)Beyond the Pleasure Principle..Sigmund Freud
With the exception of the Death Drive hypothesis, it can be said that this is one of Frued's most insightful, yet concise works. It accurately displays the
great intellectual depth of one of our foremost pioneering thinkers. While some might see it as confusing text, I found it a natural progression of this great mind. Many topics were discussed that would pave the way for future research in the field of psychology. Highlights are repetition compulsion and destiny compulsion.
Review
Sigmund Freud's "Beyond the Pleasure Principle" is a key text, not only for psychologists, or literary theorists, but anyone who thinks about why our minds work the way they do. If your mind is open to extreme possibilities, give this text a read. It is short, barely 75 pages, but give yourself time to pore over and make notes, as Freud moves very quickly.
In "Beyond the Pleasure Principle," Freud seeks to discover the causes and effects of our drives. To this end, he begins with the pleasure principle, which basically holds that the job of our 'mental apparatus' is to lower tension and move us towards pleasure and stability. Working against the pleasure principle are our baser instincts, which must be repressed by a vigilant brain. The pleasure principle can also be interrupted by the reality principle, which operates in moments when basic life functions are threatened - to wit, when maintaining life is more important than pleasure.
Examining the pleasure principle, Freud looks at scenarios which may shed light on mental processes that seem to challenge it. These include repetition compulsion, wherein adults seem to fixate and reenact moments of trauma. Seeking a more primal cause for repetition instinct, Freud analyses children's games. Interestingly, the further Freud regresses, the more speculative and intense he gets - from childhood, Freud talks about the brain itself, moving back to simple multicellular organisms, unicellular organisms, and ultimately inorganic matter - all the time looking for an explanation of the origin of instincts themselves.
Freud's queries on instinct and repetition compulsion lead him to the darkest possible places - the revelation of the death instinct. Freud posits that the repetition compulsion manifests itself in all conscious beings in the desire to return to the earliest state, total inactivity. The remainder of his treatise is spent developing the conditions of the death instinct, and trying to find a way out of this shocking thesis. Taking up Hesiodic Eros as symbolic of the life instinct, Freud attempts to argue out of the seemingly inescapable conclusion.
Freud's writing style is direct and fluid, but not necessarily straightforward. If you're not paying attention, Freud can go over your head quickly. For example, on page 50 of this standard edition, his line of argument dismisses Darwin, Marx, and Nietzsche in a matter of two paragraphs to astounding effect. His language is highly figurative, drawing on philosophy, literature, biology, and anecdote to make and illustrate his points. A critical text for anyone interested in psychoanalysis and its figurehead author.
4)The Principles of Psychology..William James
I am not a James Scholar per see, and there are books written on this monumental work ( one I would recommend is Reflections on The Principles of Psychology William James After a Century). In all of it's breadth, there are two volumes available, books one and two, it is a monumental work by an able scholar and prolific stylist. It is the concepts that remain so expansive, from his belief in grounding all his psychology, whenever available in the physiology of the nervous system to the Philosopher's approach to Psychological Analysis that leaves this classic by the Grandfather of Psychology relevant. It is the areas of t stream of thought, consciousness of
self, discrimination and comparison, production of movement and hypnotism that lead this reader back to his work time after time.
Review
This book is a beautiful classic. James is unafraid to tackle the perplexing questions about consciousness. He is also unencumbered by simplistic theoretical assumptions or restrictive definitions of science, but he holds to a high standard of clarity and steers for the truth.
This book is a brilliant catalog of the phenomena that must be explained by the various brain and psychological sciences. While the behaviorist movement that came after James led to important advances in scientific method, in terms of objectively establishing empirical results, it also led to a massive denial of mental phenomena that cannot at present be explained purely in mechanical or behavioral terms. Because subsequent generations have denied the phenomena, or written them off as "illusions" or "folk psychology," as is still common today, this book is a precious trove of unbiased insights about the mind.
I would thus agree with the other reviewers that this is a great book. However, while they seem to claim James for functionalism, (which is I think the dominant framework for understanding mind in contemporary cognitive science--holding that implementing certain functions such as self-representation and planning, are what makes a system conscious, no matter what it's made out of) I suggest that much of James' critique of what he calls the "mind-stuff theory" and the "associationists" is equally devastating to what is now called functionalism. For example, people still talk about patterns of brain activity as if they had objective, ontological reality. But we can completely describe the brain at the level of molecules without reference to patterns, so the pattern is not an intrinsic, necessary way of interpreting the activity of the physical brain system. Similarly, having the idea of A and the idea of B does not imply having the idea of A+B. James makes this basic point in multiple ways in his book. It seems more or less equivalent to the point articulated in recent times by John Searle, that "any physical process you might find is computational only relative to some interpretation," ie some observer (in "The Mystery of Consciousness" p.16). When expressed in Searle's modern language, it is more clear why the distinction between real objective properties of a system and its extrinsic observer-dependent properties, is a big problem for contemporary functionalism.
In any case, I highly recommend this book to any serious student of psychology. It's not for boning up for psych exams or grant proposals, but for patiently ruminating on and savoring.
5)The Primal Scream: Arthur Janov
I am sure this to be the most debated entry on the list, but deserves at least an honorable mention at number five. If you slept through the early seventies, or were too young to have experienced it, then this classic would be a fantastic wake-up call. If for no other reason, this book has paralleled and influenced popular culture since that time. I would have to call this book an incomplete work, because Arthur Janov has spent his entire career either defending this breakthrough therapy or elaborating it's contents. Over time however, this book and the therapeutic approach will be reevaluated and it's contents seen in their true light, as the largest therapeutic breakthrough since the origin of psychoanalysis.
Review
This is a tremendous book even if Janov's methods are not liked or approved of by the psychotherapeutic establishment; the unreal and shut down bureaucrats who pass themselves off as therapists. I believe that Janov's technique gives a bigger bang for the buck than conventional therapy.
Janov discovered the Primal Scream after some of his patients spontaneously regressed during therapy and began to scream, cry, and sob for their estranged parents. After these experiences many of his patients lost their psychosomatic ailments. Janov then began to induce these "Primals" as a therapeutic technique. Janov emphasizes the psychophysiologic nature of his therapy and the unity of mind and body. His patients are asked to feel the pain of childhood repression, the mother's withholding of the breast, premature weaning, the lack of touching and caressing as an infant and the refusing of approval. His patients go through three weeks of individual therapy when they experience many primals after which they are placed in group therapy with other primal patients. The Primal Scream is not necessarily a literal scream; it can take the form of shouting, crying or thrashing about on the floor. The idea is to release childhood repression, and enable the body to truly feel again.
Janov sees society in itself as neurotic and probably the majority of individuals therein. Neurotics are driven by their need for the approval that was denied to them as infants, and are often unable to feel; they are unreal, turned off, and engage in symbolic behavior. In contrast to Freud who suggested that individual defense mechanisms were necessary in a civilized society, Janov states that these defenses must be systematically broken down. Freud despaired of society's endemic neurosis, viewing it as essential, whereas to Janov, neurosis is that which leads to war and violence; the things that Freud attempted to repress, with his reinforcement of neurotic "defences".
Gay people won't like this book as it refers to homosexuality as "an affliction" and "a sickness"; Janov in 1970 was fond of accusing his patients of being fags. Post primal patients are no longer neurotically driven and tend not to do as much; they are full of insight and able to feel their aloneness; they no longer have unrealistic hopes or expectations; Janov states that they tend to like sitting around with other post primals listening to music. They no longer engage in the symbolic acting out of covered feelings. Janov claims that his technique is "scientific" and he criticizes the eclectic tendency of modern psychotherapy, and the liberal ideology which refuses to recognize scientific truth.
There is a great existential sadness at the centre of this therapy, when one realizes the lack of love that is passed down through generations of parents. Post primal parents spend less time on the work, consume, die treadmill, paying more attention to the needs of their children ie. they are more often present. Janov does not mention in this book, the situation of large families where care and attention has to be strictly rationed, is he a part of the family planning movement?
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Comments
Hi Joy,
I like your list. I think your top five choices are real accurate. You were one of my favorite professors anyway. I wish you would come back to teaching.
Cindy Stagg
I don’t think Primal Scream should be on that list.
Paul
I have never read The Theorem: A Complete Answer to Human Behavior, by this Douglas Arone, but I will now.
Jeff Buckley
Freud should always be first on the list, out of respect.
Aaron
I have read all the books on your list; including The Primal Scream by Janov and The Theorem, by Douglas Arone. I think your list is very close. Psychology needs a good shakeup after all.
Martin Bertelsmann MFT
It is good to see the old doctor get some of the credit he deserves. The Primal Scream is an all but forgotten classic.
Janine.
Jung should not be number one, he is lousy.
Pat
I think your choice on Freud’s library selection will get the most comments. Interpretation of Dreams should be there, instead of Beyond the Pleasure Principle.
Frank Mathesson M.A
This is a great list, though I think Arthur Janov Primal Scream should be number one on your list. It is a masterpiece. If you read Janov’s treaty on human psychology and Douglas Arone’s The Theorem, you are allowed the top 1% of consciousness on our planet. Everything else is just filler.
Michael
I have no problems with your list. Thanks for recommends.
Zac
I don’t think that you will get much disagreement with the two new entries on your list. I have not seen any real criticism on Douglas Arone’s revolutionary book. That is unless; of course you calla few blogs of unqualified buffoons masquerading as pro-lifers criticism? If you look carefully, you will see the dates of their posts preceded the books release date of January 2006, so they could not have read the book. Case in point, they are frauds. Personally I think Arone keeps those up there for comic relief.
It is true I have seen some criticism websites of Arthur Janov’s Primal Scream. I think you can dismiss these as professional envy or ex-patients who have not finished their therapy completely. This just comes with the territory. I do not think anyone takes them too seriously. People tend to forget that one of our biggest cultural icons, John Lennon was going to put a full page ad in the major newspapers at one time telling the world that Primal Scream was it. He was set to tell everyone that Primal Scream was the therapy to cure the world. It was a big deal. Janov urged Lennon not to do so however. That is true humility.
Janov and Arone are the two progressive giants of psychology alive today. The Theorem: A Complete Answer to Human Behavior and The Primal Scream both are monumental works in behavior and should be read by anyone who is seriously considering a career in psychology or social work. It was wise to have included them on your list Dr. Adams.
Peter
I think Douglas Arone’s The Theorem should be number one on your list professor, since you recommended it for reading, I can’t put it down. It is a discovery well ahead of its time. I use it as a primer of sorts for autism research.
Dane
Haven’t experienced The Primal Scream yet. It’s been on to do list for a while. I will trust you on this one. The rest of the list is right where it should be.
Shea Brambell LISW
Excellent list Joy, Excellent!
Dr Stuart Matheson
