B.F. Skinner: A Life

This biography of one of the world's most eminent psychologists describes Skinner's youth, family and education, his early and lingering desires to become famous as a writer or artist, his lifelong fascination with literary and "bohemian" figures, his difficult life and his devotion to his children. The author strips away many misconceptions about the great behaviourist pointing out that far from having a rigid, mechanistic view of humans, Skinner had an expansive, highly moral vision of the possibilities of human achievement. He shows Skinner's ideas as immensely practical with immediate "real world" applications through books geared to the general public, and through his interventions - machines and devices that could streamline everything from daily activities and teaching to missile guidance. The author has drawn on scholarly source material as well as personal correspondence, diary entries, interviews and other informal sources. The result is a narrative of Skinner's life, of the breakthroughs he made as a researcher and the lasting influences that his work still has on the science of psychology.