The Principles of Psychology, Vol. I

By: William James

Narrated by: Christian Chapman

First published in 1890, this book established psychology as a science and served as the quintessential work in the field for decades. James' intricate studies and paradigm-shifting ideas transformed the way we look at human thought and action. The text covers the core concepts of what it means to be human - brain function, consciousness, discrimination, memory, sensation, imagination, reasoning, and instinct. Chapters on four central ideas - habit, stream of consciousness (stream of thought, as James put it), emotion, and will - remain the definitive treatments of the topics.

James' work influenced all major branches of psychology that followed, including psychoanalysis, Würzburg, gestalt, behaviorism, cognitive psychology, evolutionary psychology, and behavioral economics. No credible psychologist of the last hundred years fails to cite William James and the Principles of Psychology as a major influence.

The book is published in two volumes, the first containing Chapters I through XVI and the second continuing from XVII to XXVIII.

Note: This audio has been edited to normalize narration speed.

Public Domain (P)2018 New Classic Books

very enlightening

Found this book to be very straight forward, many of his insights were applicable to my own thinking

Correlation of Chapters to Printed Text

I just took out a copy of the print edition (specifically the sixth printing as reproduced by Encyclopedia Britannica for Great Books 1992 ed.) a listened to the introductions of the 112 chapters in the audio book. The small digital chapter correlate to major subheaders within the work. For example, "the touch centre" within CHAP II "Functions of the brain," is chapter 13 in the audio book. I have provided the digital chapter on which the print chapter begins. The correlation to the print edition is as follows:

Preface xiii (printed edition reference) is chapter 1 (digital chapter reference)
CHAP I The Scope of Psychology - chapter 2
CHAP II The Functions of the Brain - chapter 3
CHAP III On Some General Conditions of Brain Activity - chapter 18
CHAP IV Habit - chapter 24
CHAP V The Automaton Theory - chapter 25
CHAP VI The Mind-Stuff Theory - chapter 28
CHAP VII The Methods and Snares of Psychology - chapter 38
CHAP VIII The Relations of Minds to Other things - chapter 43
CHAP IX The Stream of Thought - chapter 48
CHAP X The Consciousness of Self - chapter 51
CHAP XI Attention - chapter 63
CHAP XII Conception - chapter 71
CHAP XIII Discrimination and Comparison - chapter 76
CHAP XIV Association - chapter 89
CHAP XV The Perception of Time - chapter 99
CHAP XVI Memory - chapter 105
Volume I ends at chapter 112. Volume II is must better and there are fewer digital chapters. For refence, in Volume II
CHAP XVII - ch 1
CHAP XVIII - ch 2
CHAP XIX - ch 3
CHAP XX - ch 5
CHAP XXI - ch 8
CHAP XXII - ch 9
CHAP XXIII - ch 10
CHAP XXIV - ch 11
CHAP XXV - ch 13
CHAP XXVI - ch 14
CHAP XXVII - ch 17
CHAP XXVIII - ch 18

Read by narrator at a blistering pace.

Any additional comments?

Shame on the editor's of New Classic Books (if indeed there were any) for not moderating the breathtaking speed at which this great and timeless classic was read. I tried decreasing the speed on my phone to 0.75, but then the narrator sounds as if he were on Prozac. I have waited for years for this wonderful book to appear, which made it all the more painful to see it
read so as to make it almost unintelligible. Any competent editor, or narrator, would have realized the problem and made appropriate adjustments.

A much needed reading

It was necessary for someone to do this. Mic quality not so good. James' writing style is not necessarily clear, and he likes to make things more specific by expanding single words into several word phrases. For example, "idea" he would translate to "thing thought of". It may have been better for him to invent a system of terms and definitions, which would sufficiently categorize his remarks (on his own work and the work of others), rather than making enormously qualified sentences. If he did this later in his work, it was not yet present in this one. This work represents a transition in the trend of psychology (in America, at least) from a humanities-centered mapping of symbolism and neurosis (a la Freud and Jung) to general neuroscience, cognition and brain physiology. The hard and practical character of James would have directed him in this line.

Happy this is on audible

I am overjoyed that James’ classic text on psychology is available on audio. I’m looking forward to volume two. However, the narrator must slow down (adjusting the speed does not help) and take time to learn the proper pronunciation of the well-known names that James references in this text.