Psych: An engaging introduction to Psychology

Paul Bloom's latest book is entertaining and informative

Psych: The Story of the Human Mind is a surprisingly entertaining, engaging, and, at times, blunt survey of some basic topics in Psychology. I very much enjoyed Against Empathy, an earlier work that delves into the role of empathy in how we make decisions (and why letting it rule us too much can lead us to act in ways that are perhaps more biased than we imagine. In that book, Bloom approaches a potentially controversial subject (how could you be against Empathy? in a blunt, yet rational and engaging way, which led me to rethink my approach to empathy. Psych does has a similar approach though with a wider focus.

The book is based on an Intro to Psychology course Bloom teaches, but the book’s value goes beyond academics. It covers what you expect: language, perception, memory, and theories about how the mind works. You also learn about how we develop beliefs and biases and get some actionable advice about understanding why some people embrace seemingly off-base ideas.

While Psychology is often thought of as being about individuals, it has implications for how we work as a society, and the book weaves a discussion of that into most topics in addition to a brief exploration of social psychology.

I really appreciated was Bloom’s sense of caution about the interpretation of interesting-sounding results. He’s clearly passionate about his field, but he also keeps us grounded in the limits of what we know about this still-evolving discipline. A recurring theme in the book is how some studies are a bit murky on cause and effect. Bloom provides some guidance to help you better evaluate a result you hear.

If understanding people (yourself and others) interests you, and you feel like it might be time to update what you learned in your HS or College Intro to Psychology class, this is a great book to read. Be warned: you might discover that things you learned in college years ago might not be right, as Psychology is still an evolving discipline, more so than other sciences. Which is good, since re-thinking is essential to learning and understanding,