Psychology Guide for the Major

Lacan was a champion of Freud and psychoanalysis, but he challenged many central tenants and shifted the focus away from prudish 19th century sentiments and some of Freud's more lurid obsessions in favor of determining aspects of control and power as they relate to human relationships. The modern philosopher Slavoj Žižek takes much of his work on power structures and ideology from Lacan (as well as Derrida).

Gregory discusses the deceptively simple issue of mirror images and our sense of perception to illustrate both the complexity of human cognition and our ability to over think simple problems as inscrutable paradoxes

Porter's work highlights, in a more authoritative and evidence based way, Foucault's history of mental illness. Like Foucault, Porter sees the recognition of mental illness as a product of the enlightenment and of rational thought. Those deemed 'mad' were those who went against rationality. Porter discusses the history of the treatment for mental illness and the societies from which they are born.

Turing is a tragic and moving figure. At one end, he was a war hero who devised, along with his team, a machine which cracked secret codes being transmitted by the Nazi military. One the other end, Turing was convicted and punished for his once illegal homosexuality. Turing's contributions to science, however, continue to inspire generations of information scientists, linguists, and those interested in the nature of consciousness and cognition. In his pivotal essay "Computing Machinery and Intelligence," Turing explains the way in which machines, and by extension humans, think. Turing's work has been the basis of endeavors into artificial intelligence and has been lauded and criticized by scholars in a wide variety of fields from Robert French ("Subcognition and the Limits of the Turing Test") to Noam Chomsky ("Tuning on the 'Imitation Game'") and more.

Pinker's accessible and fascinating work summarizing decades of research in psychology, cognition, linguistics, biology, neurology, and audiology is a terrific introduction to many of these fields. Pinker makes the complex issues of these fields flow together in a fascinating and friendly interdisciplinary milieu that belies much of the barriers in modern academia

Sacks had a way with both words and with people. This collection of clinical cases shows the odd, the unbelievable, the unsettling, the uncanny, and the marvelous aspects of the human brain through short and fascinating cases of extreme clinical neurology. A very good introduction to a wonderful writer

Jacques Lacan's work lies at the epicenter of modern thought about otherness, subjectivity, sexual difference, the drives, the law, and enjoyment.

The chapter "A Communication System and it's Problems," clearly presents Shannon and Weaver's supposition about the nature of information and communication. While this sits outside of the behavioural sciences, their work is of interest to those working within the study of cognition. Shannon himself was a bit dry and dense in his writing, but his coauthor Weaver makes up for his opacity with clear and lovely explanations of a truly fascinating study.

Nicholas Humphrey's writings about the evolution of the mind have done much to set the agenda for contemporary psychology. In particular Humphey tackles consciousness in an interesting and evocative way comparing the multiple "selves" of being with that of his infant son and an orchastra. This touching and facinating essay gives entry into one avenue of the study of consciousness and clearly illustrates the overlap between psychology and philosophy

Historians will note several problems with some of the conclusions Foucault draws, but there is value in reassessing and understanding the nature of thought and the progression of the Enlightenment project and the impact on the understanding of health and mental illness.

Ryle challenged the notion of the soul or psyche or in modern terms, the mind as a separate and entity from the body. Ryle described this as the "ghost in the machine," and argued that mind and body are one unit inseparable and interdependent