Simply Psychology (DK Simply)

Simply Psychology is an utter letdown. There are many introductory books on psychology that are much better written and more accessible to readers. Give this book a hard pass.

Most disappointing, the book lacks a point of view. Even after reading it several times, the author’s main point remains ambiguous. Key ideas are indiscernible. There’s not enough detail on any subject to give any topic enough coverage to do it justice. Vague and pointless are the words that come to mind after a thorough read.

It seems that the book is designed to look like pages from psychology related websites. Each page gives a fact or two about an aspect of psychology. The next pages may or may not be connected by topic to the previous. Worse, the pages are many different colors with fonts that in some cases are so small a magnifier was needed to read the content. Someone needed to remind the authors that print books are not easily magnified. The darker colored pages with black type and small fonts were virtually unreadable.

With better editing and design, the book could have been much improved. The authors had great content to start with. Psychology is a rich subject. This book is a let-down on every level.

Perhaps this book could be likened to a cake recipe. We are given raw flour, butter, sugar, eggs, strawberries, and an oven, but no directions on how to bake a cake. Those who have never tasted a cake won’t have the slightest inkling where or how to begin. So, too, with this book. Someone with no background in psychology, the obvious reader for an introductory book on psychology, will have no idea what is missing or how to use the information provided.

On the positive side, the book is well indexed.

Simply Psychology from DK London is not a book to be recommended.