The Human Mind: A Brief Tour of Everything We Know

Paul Bloom
Bodley Head, £25.00

Paul Bloom’s latest offering is a measured and quietly authoritative tome that originated in the Introduction to Psychology course that the author taught for many years at Yale.

Always calm and balanced (he even manages to say complimentary things about Freud while politely dismantling his wilder assertions), Bloom writes in the manner of someone without an axe to grind or a particular slant to push on his readers. I mention this because books in this field can sometimes read as collections of research-based anecdotes and arguments dragooned into the service of whatever ‘hooky’ idea the author has convinced themselves of (and while this complaint applies more to the Malcolm Gladwell end of the market than to the output of professional scientists, it’s nonetheless refreshing to spend time in the company of a writer who isn’t trying to sell you a particular premise or theory).

There’s the expected historical overview, followed by a state-of-the-field summary of our current understanding of various aspects of the human mind, from language acquisition to personality, via rationality, consciousness and memory. The book ends with a welcome section dealing with mental health – a topic that doesn’t always seem to be of terrific interest to research (as opposed to clinical) psychologists – covering definitions, diagnosis and treatment.

I thoroughly recommend The Human Mind, with only the minor caveat that readers familiar with the basic outlines of the field may not learn much that they didn’t already know.

Andy Dobson