Opening Skinner’s Box: Great Psychological Experiments of the Twentieth Century

Opening Skinner’s Box: Great Psychological Experiments of the Twentieth Century by Lauren Slater is a work of narrative non-fiction published in 2004 by W.W. Norton & Company. Slater, an American psychotherapist, examines 10 landmark psychological experiments—from B.F. Skinner’s infamous boxes to Harry Harlow’s primates—and, in doing so, she explores larger philosophical questions related to human freedom, the limits of science, and truth in art.

Slater provides biographical details of the scientists behind each landmark experiment. She finds that, in American culture, many scientists are viewed as infallible, and their work is shrouded in mythology; Slater seeks to humanize them, and to view them as mere mortals instead of god-like bearers of scientific truths. In fact, Slater turns the whole notion of “scientific truth” on its head, as she works through the numerous ways in which psychology—and, by extension, all forms of science—cannot account for the whole and complete value of human experience. Slater likens each of the 10 landmark experiments to pieces of art and, in doing so, is able to interpret their results differently. As a work of narrative non-fiction, facts are blended with musings from the author, alongside autobiographical details, stories, and hypotheticals. Opening Skinner’s Box is a new perspective on the field of psychology.

Slater is an active participant in Opening Skinner’s Box, and one unique feature of the book is how she conducts firsthand research and provides personal anecdotes to contextualize each psychologist’s theories. Slater also interviews many of the players discussed in the book. Because of the book’s unusual tone and style, the author found herself at the center of a controversy, when a number of psychology and psychiatric professors banded together to protest a number of “factual errors” in the book.

The book is comprised of 10 chapters, an introduction, and a conclusion. Each chapter highlights the work of one notable psychologist and their most significant contribution to the field. Every chapter begins with a brief overview of the psychologist’s life and work (stylized in italics), while the body of the chapter explores the experiments more deeply, simultaneously weaving in personal anecdotes from the author, interviews from current psychologists, and other cultural references to give greater depth and context to the experiments.

Slater begins the book with an Introduction that contextualizes her fascination with psychology and explains one of the major intentions of writing this book: To tell the stories behind the 10 major psychological studies. Each of these groundbreaking studies shaped the field of psychology.

In Chapters 1 through 3, Slater examines B.F. Skinner’s experiments on behaviorism, Stanley Milgram’s work on authority, and David Rosenhan’s quest for a metric to measure sanity. These chapters grapple with the philosophical subjects of free will, human evil, and the nature of the human psyche.

In Chapters 4 through 7, Slater covers John Bibb and Darley Latané’s studies on human helping behavior, Harry Harlow’s experiments on emotional attachment, and Bruce Alexander’s investigations on addiction. These chapters cover philosophical questions around morality, nurturing, and the value of culture.

Chapters 8 through 10 study Elizabeth Loftus’s work on the malleability of memory, Eric Kandel’s neurological experiments on sea slugs, and António Egas Moniz’s founding of the lobotomy, alongside the history of psychosurgery in general. These chapters primarily deal with the larger, metaphysical issues related to trauma and memory.

In the Conclusion, Slater writes that her research on the 10 psychological experiments has led to more questions than answers. She predicts that, no matter how far psychological and scientific advancements go, there will always be philosophical questions that will be ambiguous and un-answerable.