Fundamentals of Psychology
Author: Michael W Eysenck

Publisher: Psychology Press, Taylor & Francis Group
ISBN: 978-1-84169-372-9

Orders: www.psypress.com

SQU Med J, August 2009, Vol. 9, Iss. 2, pp. 201-202, Epub 30th June 2009
Received - 26th May 09

I Sometimes wonder what the British poet, Alexander Pope, had in mind when he famously improvised “Drink deep, or taste not 
the Pierian Spring: There shallow draughts intoxicate 
the brain, and drinking largely sobers us again”. In 
our original sin of ignorance, what would be the 
magic formula to sober us again? Some would say 
that psychology is a field that is inherently endowed 
with this talent and that it is the only field of inquiry 
that leads us to introspective thinking which, in the 
present parlance, constitutes an important catalyst 
to sober us again from shallow draughts. By this do 
we mean the psycho-babble that often comes into 
our homes via Oprah Winfrey chat shows? No, I 
mean the volume entitled Fundamental Psychology. 
Yes, there are many books on this topic; some 
would say every Tom, Dick and Harry has churned 
out similar textbooks. Check out Amazon.com or 
any bookshop and you will find more psychobabble 
than books on any other topic. The shelves are 
filled with ‘self-help’ books or the success story 
of a businessman which, given today’s economic 
recession, will utterly fail to entice us. In contrast 
by all standards, this volume, Fundamentals of 
Psychology, has all the essential ingredients to 
sober us again. Despite its huge size, multitude of 
images, and texts from self-quizzes to the eloquent 
summaries at the end of each of the 25 chapters, the 
book is easy to read and follow. The glossary and 
references as well as the author and subject indexes 
are meticulously arranged by the writer, Michael W. 
Eysenck, a renowned psychologist at the University 
of London, UK.

The volume is divided into seven interesting 
themes. In sync with the modern focus on 

neurogenetic determinism, the first section deals 
with the biological basis of psychology which 
is preceded by a general introduction on the 
development of different scientific paradigms 
under the umbrella of psychology. As psychology 
is increasingly losing its central tenet of studying 
the ‘soul’, the second part of this volume focuses 
on cognitive psychology with an introduction and 
subsections on perception and human memory. In 
other words, the soul is alive and kicking but now 
it appears in scientific metaphor. If such cognitive 
psychology is too abstract for you, then please turn 
to the next section. Here you will find vivid scientific 
descriptions of mundane issues such as intelligence 
and personality. In case you prefer the scientific 
counterpart of Wordsworth’s euphemism that 
“The child is father to the man”, there is a section 
covering developmental psychology. This section 
features topics from cognitive development to the 
indispensible role of attachment. Then if you are a 
sentimental type liking John Donne’s notion that ‘No 
man is an island’, you will be enticed by the section 
covering social psychology.  Psychology cannot be 
complete unless there is a forum for pondering what 
constitutes the ‘normal’ and ‘abnormal’ repertoire of 
human behaviour. In favour of simplicity, yet without 
compromising the complexity of the issue, the topic 
of psychiatric nosology is therefore presented. The 
volume is completed by an introduction to research 
methods. 

As the title suggests, the volume is meant to be an 
introduction to the science of psychology. The book 
will be appropriate for undergraduate programmes, 
either for psychology majors or minors, from 
business to decision-making sciences. Besides 

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book review



Fundamentals of Psychology

202 | SQU Medical Journal, August 2009, Volume 9, Issue 2

being a general introductory textbook, some of the 
chapters of this volume will fit well into the much 
heralded integrative curriculum in medical schools, 
for example the coverage of health psychology. The 
author has done an outstanding job in tackling 
complex issues derived from cutting-edge research 
and yet made them palatable and accessible to all. 
This has been done without compromising the 
central tenet of the new frontiers of psychological 
sciences.  In the age of -ism and schism, paradigm 
and paradigm shift, the author has handled all the 
divergent conceptual frameworks evenhandedly 
from the most controversial to the most mundane. 
Breaking away from the North American tradition, 
the book has laboriously attempted to bring out 
the cultural factors in human beings. This is 
an important inclusion since 80% of the world 
population lives outside the Euro-American setting. 
From this perspective, students will find that this 
volume rings a bell with their own cultural issues. 
One may wonder why the author has not included 
more topics since everything has an element of 
psychology. However, he has careful chosen themes 

in psychology that have undergone full scientific 
scrutiny. Many other topics are indeed interesting, 
but since their development is still in infancy, the 
author has carefully avoided producing chapters of 
psychobabble.

If Alexander Pope were alive today, he might well 
judge that this textbook has some draughts to sober 
us again. Had I had such a book when I was young, 
maybe my life would have taken another route. In 
the interim, I have a copy of this textbook on my 
bookshelf. Whenever I look at it, I wonder why such 
treasure cannot be accessed by all. 

 
r e v i e w e r

Samir Al-Adawi 
Department of Behavioural Medicine 
College of Medicine & Health Sciences 
Sultan Qaboos University 
Muscat, Sultanate of Oman. 
Email: adawi@squ.edu.om