[George Mandler] admits to being "whiggish" (presentist) in his historical orientation and he is true to his word. The first four chapters cover old ground in every sense of the word. His treatment is like that of textbook histories and though he claims in his introduction to provide "sketches of the influence of larger social forces on the psychological enterprise", his "whiggish" narrative limits this exploration. Though Mandler inserts commentary on German and American society, he leaves the reader to decide on the nature of social content in the scientific productions of Wundt, James and the assembly of Gestalt Psychologists portrayed in his book. Mandler's choice to list and set forth brief descriptions (like those of the "Congress of the German Society for Psychology" from 19341938) provides direction but leaves little content for a sustained and developed reflection. A book like David Lindley's (2007) Uncertainty: Einstein, Heisenberg, Bohr, and the Struggle for the Soul of Science proves to be a more satisfying approach. He too emphasises German science in the first half of the 20th century but because he blends narratives of cultural uncertainty with the experiments and the mathematics of uncertainty in physics, his text leaves a more lasting impression.

Mandler draws attention to the unconsciousness nature of thinking as it was developed out of the Wurtzburg labouratories. As mentioned above, much of this history has been set out in richer detail. What recommends Mandler's treatment is its brevity and his ability to keep the reader focussed on the "unanalyzable" in the thinking process. So we have "consciousness of a rule" without having the "steps in mind", or the consciousness of "intention" without having the "meaning content in mind". It is this scarcity of conscious content in our thinking, according to Mandler, that necessitated a change in research direction. This was the kind of change that fostered the development of cognitive psychology.

Experimental psychology