Absent Minds: The untold story of the women who changed psychology forever

A bold new history of psychology that uncovers the lost legacies of the women who shaped our understanding of what it is to be human

If asked to name a psychologist, who springs to mind? No doubt Freud, perhaps Pavlov and his dog, maybe Jung or Piaget.

But what of Mary Whiton Calkins, who has still not received her doctorate from 1895 on account of her gender despite her research influencing contemporary psychology; or Mamie Phipps Clark, whose work informed the US court case that ruled racial segregation illegal; and Beatrice Edgell, the first British woman to earn a PhD in psychology, whose studies have determined how generations of children are taught. Crucial to our modern world, yet largely unrecognisable. That changes now.

In Absent Minds, award-winning psychologist Dr Madeleine Pownall takes readers from the advent of the discipline through to psychologists’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic and screentime debate. Entertaining and empowering, she uncovers lost legacies, documenting how women shaped the field and provided alternative, creative and more critical ways of thinking about the human experience, the benefits of which we still feel today.

‘A scintillating tour of the human mind through the work of history’s forgotten female psychologists. Illuminating, engrossing and beautifully written, I couldn’t put this book down’ - Victoria Bateman, author of Economica

‘Absent Minds is essential reading … With a clear and compelling voice, Dr Madeleine Pownall shows readers the crucial contributions to psychology made by women’ - Elizabeth Norton, author of Women Who Ruled the World: 5000 Years of Female Monarchy