Adventures of a Psychologist

Michael Corballis was Professor of Psychology at McGill University and the University of Auckland. He has published widely in experimental psychology and cognitive neuroscience. In 2003 he was appointed Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, and in 2016 he received the Rutherford Medal, New Zealand’s top scientific award.

"Michael Corballis is among the world’s deepest and most creative cognitive scientists, and he illuminates every subject he takes on with insight, wit, and charm. We’re fortunate that he has stepped back to and applied these gifts to the science of mind." —Steven Pinker, Johnstone Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, and the author of How the Mind Works."Librarians will struggle to decide which shelf to put this book on. Autobiography, yes, with fascinating history of Corballis’ own route from sheep farm to academic cognitive neuroscience. History of psychology, also, with personal experience of the competing movements that have swung the discipline about—behaviourism, the cognitive revolution, left-wing politics, postmodernism—all discussed with clarity and humour, but always including constructive argument for how science should be done. And above all else, this is entertainment: Corballis is never ponderous, but sets out important issues and serious life events with modesty and a light-touch which makes it a pleasurable read and a hard book to put down." —Richard Byrne, Emeritus Professor of Psychology, University of St Andrews."Sex may be the ever interesting topic, as they say, but it is closely followed by biography, especially autobiography (though nowadays we seem to prefer the term "memoir"), as we can learn so much about ourselves from seeing how others have fared. And what better than the brain/mind interface? And who better a guide than Prof Michael Corballis, a towering figure in neuropsychology for over half a century of prolific, masterful and ever enthralling writing?" —John L. Bradshaw, Emeritus Professor of Psychology, Monash University, and the author of Reflections of a Neuropsychologist.

• Preface Growing Up Floundering at University Hello Psychology O God! O Montreal! Rats and Pigeons Revolutions The Lopsided Brain Doing the Splits Mirrors Gestures, Gestures On Time Chomsky, God, and Language Professional Psychology and its Discontents Anti-science A Brief Reckoning