The true story of the most controversial psychological research of the modern era.
In the summer of 1961, a group of men and women volunteered for a memory experiment to be conducted by young, dynamic psychologist Stanley Milgram. None could have imagined that, once seated in the lab, they would be placed in front of a box known as a shock machine and asked to administer a series of electric shocks to a man they'd just met. And no one could have foreseen how the repercussions of their actions, made under pressure and duress, would reverberate throughout their lives. For what the volunteers did not know was that the man was an actor, the shocks were fake, and what was really being tested was just how far they would go.
When Milgram's results were released, they created a worldwide sensation. He reported that people had repeatedly shocked a man they believed to be in pain, even dying, because they had been told to - he linked the finding to Nazi behaviour during the Holocaust. But some questioned Milgram's unethical methods in fooling people. Milgram became both hero and villain, and his work seized the public imagination for more than half a century, inspiring books, plays, films, and art.
For Gina Perry, the story of the experiments never felt finished. Listening to participants' accounts and reading Milgram's unpublished files and notebooks, she pieced together an intriguing, sensational story: Milgram's plans went further than anyone had imagined. This is the compelling tale of one man's ambition and of the experiment that defined a generation.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
'A gripping analysis.' * The Times * 'Fascinating ... a complex mixture of compelling drama, unexpected revelations, and just plain-old good storytelling.' * Psychology Today * 'A compelling, thought-provoking account ... intensely human, readable and riveting ... A must-read.' * The Psychologist (UK) * 'An authoritative account.' -- Tim Harford * Financial Times * 'The very best psych book I've ever read ... a page-turner as good as any mystery.' -- Susan Whitbourne * Psychology Today * 'Thanks to Perry's book, we gain more insight than ever before into Milgram's questionable practices and the scientific culture that allowed his experiment to take place. Recommended.' * Scientific American * 'A remarkable example of how good creative non-fiction is researched and written ... a compelling true story that fascinates and informs at the same time.' -- Lee Gutkind, author, editor of <i>Creative Nonfiction</i> 'Fine, thought-provoking science writing.' -- Rick Sullivan * Adelaide Advertiser * 'Remarkable ... Books such as Perry's provide the tools to question such authority. Reading Behind the Shock Machine becomes an act of creative disobedience.' -- Matthew Lamb * The Australian * 'A parable, and a warning, about what happens when research scientists trample over their human subjects on the road to personal posterity. Gina Perry has written a necessary and gripping book.' -- Maria Tumarkin, author of <i>Otherland</i> 'An intriguing tale about science, ethics and storytelling.' -- Fiona Capp * The Age * 'Meticulously researched.' * Bookseller+Publisher * 'A compelling and highly recommended book ... reminds us of the dangers of stripping people of their humanity for the sake of research. We must remember that the goal of psychology is human wellbeing, and this cannot be achieved by rendering people as little more than subjects and data.' * Brainbender * 'It's rare that an original event as compelling as the Milgram experiments can be eclipsed by later commentary, but that's exactly what Perry manages in her painstaking and engrossing exploration of what really went on.' * Maclean's (Canada) * '[R]aises an important question. Do we hold up the controlled variable experiment as more scientific and a greater way to further knowledge than observing the actual real human experience?' * Eureka Street * 'Rewarding and entertaining ... easily accessible to laypersons-yet it's incisive enough to appeal to other psychologists as well.' * Publisher's Weekly * 'Questions arise when you think about the points [Gina Perry] has made ... social psychology is growing up now. It will have to do better.' * The Times (London) * '[A] revelatory book.' * Village Voice * 'Elegant and well written.' * Science * 'There may be no studies of the 20th century more haunting - or more revealing of human beings at their best and worst - than Stanley Milgram's still famous work. And here, finally, is a book that illuminates Milgram and his research subjects in riveting, compassionate detail. Read Behind the Shock Machine for its insightful look at human nature. And read it, too, because it is an absolutely compelling and terrific story.' -- Deborah Blum, author of <i>Love at Goon Park: Harry Harlow and the Science of Affection</i> 'Fascinating' -- Malcolm Gladwell 'A page-turner ... an intriguing read.' * Yen magazine * 'Superb ... [a] provocative magnum opus ... full of new information and insights, written with a literary flair so engaging and absorbing that I found it hard to put down.' -- Thomas Blass, author of <i>The Man Who Shocked the World</i> and leading Milgram scholar 'Wonderful ... will finally shake the complacency that has surrounded discussions of this study for so long.' -- Ian Nicholson, psychologist and Milgram scholar 'An absorbing account of Stanley Milgram, his subjects and the continuing quest to understand what it means to be human.' -- David Baker, Director of the Archives of the History of American Psychology 'Confronting ... fascinating.' -- Sherryl Clark, author of <i>Dying to Tell Me 'Fundamentally challenges the way scholars interpret Milgram and his experiments.' * Society *
Auflage
Sprache
Verlagsort
Editions-Typ
Maße
Höhe: 210 mm
Breite: 135 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-922247-09-4 (9781922247094)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Klassifikation
Gina Perry is an Australian writer. Her feature articles, columns, and essays have been published in The Age and The Australian, and her short fiction has been published in a number of literary magazines, including Meanjin, Westerly, and Island. Her first book, Behind the Shock Machine, was about Stanley Milgram's obedience experiences, and her co-production of the ABC Radio National documentary on the experiments won the Silver World Medal for a history documentary in the 2009 New York Festivals radio award. In 2013 she was a finalist in the UNSW Bragg Prize for Science Writing.
