Lauren Slater

Lauren Slater (born March 21, 1963) is an American psychotherapist and writer. She is the author of six books, including "Welcome To My Country" (1996), "Prozac Diary" (1998), and "Lying: A Metaphorical Memoir" (2000). Her 2004 "Opening Skinner's Box: Great Psychological Experiments of the Twentieth Century", a description of psychology experiments "narrated as stories," Slater, Lauren. "Opening Skinner's Box: Great Psychological Experiments of the Twentieth Century", Norton 2004, ISBN 0-393-05095-5] has drawn both praise and criticism. It was nominated for a "Los Angeles Times" "Kirsch" award for science and technology writing, [http://www.latimes.com/services/newspaper/mediacenter/releases/la-mediacenter-2005-0310,0,5132458.story?coll=la-mediacenter-releases "Los Angeles Times Announces Kirsch Award Winner, Book Prize Finalists"] , "Los Angeles Times Media Center", March 10, 2005] and was named as a 2005 "Bild Der Wissenschaft" book of the year in Germany. [ [http://www.hyperschool.de/Ideenshop/Geschenke/Lesen/Wissensbuch/wissensbuch.htm "Wissenschaftsbuch des Jahres"] , HyperSchool, undated, retrieved April 14, 2006] Criticism has focused on Slater's research methods and on the extent to which some of the experiences she describes may have been fictionalized.

Other awards Slater has won include the 1993 New Letters Literary Award in creative non-fiction, and the 1994 Missouri Review Award, and her work was included in "The Best American Essays" of 1994 and 1997. [http://www.bloomsbury.com/authors/microsite.asp?id=368&section=1 Bloomsbury author information; retrieved April 6, 2006] ] She has contributed to "The New York Times", "Harper's", and "Elle". [http://www.bloomsbury.com/authors/microsite.asp?id=368&section=1 Bloomsbury author information; retrieved April 6, 2006] ]

"The Village Voice" has called her "the closest thing we have to a of psychiatric disorder." [http://www.villagevoice.com/books/0408,press,51264,10.html '"Life is like Skinner's box of chocolates: Slater revisits 20th-century psych's greatest hits",] "Village Voice (Shrink Rap)", by Joy Press, 23 February 2004, accessed 27 April 2006]

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Education and career

Slater is a freelance writer specializing in psychology, mental illness, and women's health. She graduated in 1985 from Brandeis University with a bachelor’s degree in British and American literature. [http://www.brandeis.edu/publications/review/50threview/50thbooks.pdf Brandeis 50th Review] ] She earned a master's degree in psychology from Harvard University and a doctorate in psychology from Boston University. Slater was a 2002-03 Knight Science Journalism Fellow at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. During the fellowship, part of the Program on Science, Technology and Society in the School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, her area of study was neuropsychology, psychiatric care, medical technologies, and medical ethics. [http://web.mit.edu/knight-science/fellows/2002_fellows.html Knight Science Fellows] ]

Slater was a clinical psychologist for 11 years before embarking on a full-time writing career. She was the director of AfterCare Services, a mental health and substance-abuse clinic in Boston. Slater,Lauren [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B01E3DA1138F93AA25752C1A9669C8B63&sec=health&pagewanted=2“How Do You Cure A Sex Addict?”] "The New York Times" November 19, 2000 ]

After the birth of her daughter, Slater wrote her memoir "Love Works Like This", [http://mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?id=2028&type=book&cn=82 Mental health net book review] accessed 04/20/2006] to chronicle the agonizing decisions she made related to her psychiatric illness and her pregnancy. In a 2003 "BBC Woman's Hour" radio interview, [http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/2003_02_tue_01.shtml BBC Woman's Hour radio interview ] BBC Mental Health, Drugs & Pregnancy, Woman's Hour, 14 January 2003] and a 2005 article in "Child Magazine" Slater, Lauren [http://www.child.com/child/story.jhtml?storyid=/templatedata/child/story/data/depression.xml&categoryid=/templatedata/child/category/data/1131126127890.xml&page=1 “The Pregnancy Blues“] "Child Magazine" April 2005 ] Slater provides information on depression during pregnancy and the risks to the woman and her baby.

"Opening Skinner's Box"

Nominated for a "Los Angeles Times" "Kirsch" award for science and technology writing, [http://www.latimes.com/services/newspaper/mediacenter/releases/la-mediacenter-2005-0310,0,5132458.story?coll=la-mediacenter-releases "Los Angeles Times Announces Kirsch Award Winner, Book Prize Finalists"] , "Los Angeles Times Media Center", March 10, 2005] and named as a 2005 "Bild Der Wissenschaft" book of the year in Germany, [ [http://www.hyperschool.de/Ideenshop/Geschenke/Lesen/Wissensbuch/wissensbuch.htm "Wissenschaftsbuch des Jahres"] , HyperSchool, undated, retrieved April 14, 2006] "Opening Skinner's Box" has been described as "one of the first major books to bridge the gap between academic and popular psychology." Lee, Felicia R. [http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/12/books/12SLAT.html?ex=1397188800&en=646ad3efe710aa3a&ei=5007&partner=USERLAND "Book's Critique of Psychology Ignites a Torrent of Criticism"] , "The New York Times", April 12, 2004] In a 2004 literary review, [http://www.powells.com/review/2004_05_28.html "How free is free will?"] Salon.com (on Powell Books) by Farhad Manjoo, 28 May 2004] Farhad Manjoo, a writer for Salon.com, observed that it was 'a genuinely compelling read'.

It describes — in the form of stories, complete with characters, plot, and emotional insights — the 10 psychology experiments Slater regards as the most significant or interesting of the 20th century. These include B.F. Skinner's work on behaviorism; Stanley Milgram's demonstration of how ordinary people can be influenced to obey authority; David Rosenhan's 1972 experiment in which eight people feigned mental illness then gained admittance to psychiatric hospitals; Harry Harlow's experiments with monkeys and motherhood; and Bruce Alexander's Rat Park, where laboratory rats addicted to morphine turned the drug down when given a better life.

Criticism

The criticism has focused on Slater's research methods and writing style. The use of creative non-fiction and Slater's highly personalized narrative style are unusual in a book about science, and the work has garnered some hostile reactions, mostly from the psychiatric or clinical psychology community, some of whom have disputed quotations she has used, or have criticized her understanding of the studies she wrote about. [Kihlstrom, John F. "New England Journal of Medicine", September 2, 2004]

Slater's attorney has responded to the criticism by accusing some psychiatrists and psychologists of having mounted a "vindictive effort" and "vendetta" against her, and of "sniping" at her on Amazon.com. [http://taxa.epi.umn.edu/slater/letters Letters from critics about "Opening Skinner's Box", and responses from Slater's attorney.] ]

David Corfield, a philosopher of mathematics writing in "The Guardian", questions the veracity of the book's reported speech. He relates how, during Slater's discussion with Harvard University psychologist Jerome Kagan, she recalled how Kagan had suddenly dived under his desk to illustrate a point about free will. But Kagan told Corfield that he had done no such thing, and in fact had only suggested that he could do so if he wanted. Corfield, David. [http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,1177967,00.html "Box Pop"] , "The Guardian", March 27, 2004]

In response to Corfield's criticism, Slater showed the "New York Times" an e-mail she received from Kagan, who was responding to a pre-publication fact-checking list she had sent him. Slater had written: "3. that, in demonstrating to me that people do, indeed, have free will, you jumped under your desk ...," and Kagan responded: "I was trying to demonstrate that when humans have a choice of actions, they can select an act that has never been rewarded in the past ..." Miller, Laura. [http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/02/books/review/02MILLERT.html?ex=1398830400&en=d507c54b09ee1845&ei=5007&partner=USERLAND "Unpacking Skinner's Box"] , "The New York Times", May 2, 2004.]

Slater repeated several variants of the urban legend that B.F. Skinner raised his daughter Deborah in an operant conditioning chamber and subjected her to psychological experiments, resulting in psychosis that led her to sue her father and ultimately commit suicide. Deborah publicly responded that she was neither insane nor dead, nor was she difficult to contact.Skinner Buzan, Deborah. [http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/healthmindandbody/story/0,6000,1168052,00.html "I was not a lab rat"] , "The Guardian", March 12, 2004]

Farhad Manjoo protested on Salon.com that Buzan's Guardian article 'reads as if she has never even picked up Slater's book', observing that 'Slater's description of the box is pretty much in line with Buzan's description in the Guardian' Note: Manjoo continued, 'Slater writes that it was actually an "an upgraded playpen" whose "thermostatically controlled environment" prevented diaper rash and other kiddie ailments, reduced the chance of suffocation by blanket, and allowed the daughter to walk around without any impediments, building a baby of impressive self-confidence.']

Another criticism concerned Slater's description of her reaction to the David Rosenhan study. Slater wrote that she had repeated Rosenhan's research — in which he trained students to pretend to be mentally ill to gauge the reactions of psychiatric hospitals — by presenting at the emergency rooms of multiple hospitals with a single auditory hallucination to see whether she would be admitted as a psychiatric patient. She said that she was not admitted but was given prescriptions for antipsychotics and antidepressants.

This has been questioned by a number of psychiatrists and psychologists, including Robert Spitzer of the New York State Psychiatric Institute. Slater replied through her attorney that she considered her work to be an "anecdote, not systematic research, and certainly not a 'replication' of Rosenhan's study". Slater's attorney accused Spitzer of being involved in a campaign to discredit Slater's work.

Bibliography

Books

* (2005) "Blue Beyond Blue: Extraordinary Tales for Ordinary Dilemmas", W.W. Norton & Company, ISBN 0-393-05959-6
* (2004) "Opening Skinner's Box: Great Psychological Experiments of the Twentieth Century", W. W. Norton & Company, ISBN 0-393-05095-5
* (2003) "Love Works Like This: Travels Through a Pregnant Year", Bloomsbury Publishing plc, ISBN 0-7475-6217-2
* (2000) "Lying: A Metaphorical Memoir", Random House (US), ISBN 0-375-50112-6 Note: This book was alternately titled in the UK as "Spasm: A Memoir with Lies", Methuen Publishing Ltd, ISBN 0-413-74250-4]
* (1998) "Prozac Diary", Random House, ISBN 0-679-45721-6
* (1997) "Welcome to My Country", Anchor, ISBN 0-385-48739-8

Anthology contributions

* (2002) "Dr. Daedalus" in "The Best American Science Writing 2002" (anthology), HarperCollins Publishers, ISBN 0-06-093650-9 Note: This essay was also published in "The Best American Magazine Writing 2002" (anthology), HarperCollins Publishers, ISBN 0-06-051572-4]
* (1997) "Black Swans" in "The Best American Essays 1997" (anthology), Houghton Mifflin Company, ISBN 0-395-85695-7
* (1994) "Striptease" [http://www.laurenslater.com/articles.html List of articles on Slater's website] ] in "The Best American Essays 1994" (anthology), Houghton Mifflin Company, ISBN 0-395-69254-7

Recent articles

* "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls," "Elle", July 2007
* "On Love," "National Geographic", February 2006 [http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0602/feature2/index.html (excerpt)]
* [http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2005/11/who_holds_clicker.html "Who Holds The Clicker?"] , "Mother Jones Magazine", Nov/Dec 2005
* "Cognitive Dissonance: The Work Of Leon Festinger," "Die Welt", August 2005
* "The Life Of Katrina Dalton," "The New York Times Magazine", January 2005
* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=health&res=9C00EED91131F931A35752C1A9659C8B63 "The Cruelest Cure: David Barlow and Anxiety Disorders"] , "The New York Times Magazine", November 2004
* "Rosenhan’s Pseudopatient Experiment," The London "Times," April 2004
* "Milgram’s Obedience Studies," "The Guardian Magazine", April 2004
* "Living In An Age Of Anxiety," "Self Magazine", April 2004
* [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4188/is_20030327/ai_n11382846 "Parents help babies learn lessons of love",] "Deseret News (Salt Lake City)", March 2003 (This article first appeared in "Parenting magazine". (C) The Parenting Group.)
* "The Value Of Repression," "The New York Times Magazine", March 2003

ee also

*Rosenhan experiment
*Burrhus Frederic Skinner
*Rat Park
*Pit of despair
*Harry Harlow
*Milgram experiment

References

Further reading

* [http://www.laurenslater.com Lauren Slater] Laurenslater.com
* [http://www.snopes.com/science/skinner.asp "One Man and a Baby Box"] , "snopes.com"
*Benjamin, Ludy T. [http://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/getArticle.cfm?id=1594 "A Glimpse of Psychology's Greatest Experiments"] , Association for Psychological Science, Vol 17, No. 6, June 2004.
*Singer, Peter. [http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/28/books/review/28SINGERT.html?ex=1395810000&en=906dda589297c252&ei=5007&partner=USERLAND "Opening Skinner's Box: Adventures of the White Coat People"] , "The New York Times", print publication March 28, 2004. Accessed May 9, 2006.