How much do we really know about our behaviour and our minds?

How can the brain give rise to the feeling of trapping your hand in a car door, grieving for a loved one, or experiencing your first kiss? How is a three-pound lump of meat the center of conscious experience? What governs how we behave?

Built from his award-winning ‘Introduction to Psychology’ course at Yale University, Paul Bloom’s Psyche is the first complete guide to the science of mind. From the foundations of traditional theory - Sigmund Freud and B.F. Skinner - to more cognitive elements of psychological study - computational functions of the mind, child development, behavior, language, perception, attention, and memory. This is a whirlwind tour of the field of psychology.

We enter the domain of social psychology to understand emotions, attachments and how we form relationships with each other - how do we behave in groups, how does prejudice operate, and what forces drive kindness and cruelty? - before looking at our differences: what constitutes as psychologically healthy? How much do our genes determine personality or intelligence? What causes clinical disorders like depression, anxiety, and schizophrenia?

The more you look at how the mind works from a scientific point of view, the more you appreciate its complexity, uniqueness and beauty. Psychology is the root of who we are and why we behave the way we do. It’s the key to understanding abnormal behaviour, feelings, experiences, plans, goals, fantasies, and our most intimate, private thoughts…

By the end of this book, you’ll have a solid grounding in every major aspect of the science of psychology.