Love at Goon Park: Harry Harlow and the Science of Affection - Softcover

Blum, Deborah

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0425194051 ISBN 13: 9780425194058

Publisher: Berkley Pub Group, 2004

Synopsis

A fascinating account of the controversial psychologist who revolutionized the study of love recalls his early experiments with primates to measure "affection" and its influence on a child's development, as well as his later work on the power of human emotion. Reprint. 40,000 first printing.

About this title

Review:

" Deborah Blum s enormously interesting biography of Harlow as a piece of science history, Love at Goon park is a marvellous read " (New Scientist, 23 November 2002)

" Who should read this book? Anyone working with small children They should do so because it is beautifully and intelligently written " (Nature, 19 December 2002)

" intriguing a testament to Blum s skill that she manages to elicit so much sympathy for a man so difficult to love " (Discover, 22 January 2003)

" Blum, a Pulitzer prize–winning science writer, describes Harlow s discovery she chronicles his struggles to persuade his fellow psychologists to take him seriously " (Economist (UK), 25 January 2003)

" This is an excellent and readable biography of Harry Harlow " (Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, Vol.44, No.6, 2003)

From the Back Cover:

Normally, to be stuck for four hours on a stationary aircraft with a mechanical fault would be purgatory. This time, with Deborah Blum′s perceptive book in hand, it was heaven. This is a biography that...has much to offer modern arguments about human nature.′ Matt Ridley, author of Genome

′For generations of psychology students, the image of a baby monkey being comforted by a cloth doll is one of the their most indelible memories of the subject. Yet even most psychologists know little about the brilliant, funny, and infuriating man behind the experiments. Nor do many people know about its context – the fall and rise of the concept of love in social science – which is one of the great untold stories of twentieth–century intellectual history. Deborah Blum combines these elements into a gripping biograpy, written with intelligence, warmth and panache." Steven Pinker, Peter de Florez Professor of Psycbology, MIT and author of The Blank State, How the Mind Works and The Language Instinct

′Incredible as it may seem, half a century ago leading psychologists scoffed at the notion that affection was vital to an infant′s flourishing. Deborah Blum brilliantly recalls this chilling era, and the scientist whose controversial experiments reaffirimed love′s importance. Love at Goon Park is science history at its best.′ John Horgan, author of The End of Science

′In this lyrical portrait, Deborah Blum brings to vivid life the story of Harry Harlow ...This scrupulously researched biography tells the story of Harlow′s life in science, and of the insights that forever changed our concept of what it is to be human.′ Ellen Ruppell Shell, author of The Hungry Gene

About this edition

• Publisher: Berkley Pub Group
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0425194051
• ISBN 13: 9780425194058
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 360