science

The Passions of the Mind

The Passions of the Mind is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand The Passions of the Mind rather than just read about it. In short: The Passions of the Mind is a 1971 novel by American author Irving Stone. It is a biographical novel about the psychiatrist Sigmund Freud and covers his life from when he was a student to when he is forced to leave Austria to escape the growing influence of the Nazis.

Key takeaways

The Passions of the Mind belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect The Passions of the Mind to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of The Passions of the Mind from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Passions of the Mind is a 1971 novel by American author Irving Stone. It is a biographical novel about the psychiatrist Sigmund Freud and covers his life from when he was a student to when he is forced to leave Austria to escape the growing influence of the Nazis. It covers many aspects of the subject's life, including his hospital work, his relationship with his parents, his marriage to Martha Bernays, and his support for his successor, Carl Jung. The book is notable for going into great detail of Freud's theories, especially the Oedipus Complex. Irving Stone is best renowned for his several biographical novels, the best known being Lust for Life and The Agony and the Ecstasy (about the artists Vincent van Gogh and Michelangelo, respectively), which were both adapted into major Hollywood productions. Though less well known, Passions of the Mind was an American bestseller upon its release, spending 13 weeks at the top of the New York Times Bestseller List (fiction) in the spring of 1971, and nearly 30 weeks in the top 15.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with The Passions of the Mind

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what The Passions of the Mind claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to The Passions of the Mind before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about The Passions of the Mind ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of The Passions of the Mind

In research: The Passions of the Mind appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses The Passions of the Mind in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: The Passions of the Mind is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1971 American novels, 1971 English-language novels, Biographical book stubs, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for The Passions of the Mind outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “The Passions of the Mind” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study The Passions of the Mind in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what The Passions of the Mind means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain The Passions of the Mind out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is The Passions of the Mind in simple terms?

Why does The Passions of the Mind matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study The Passions of the Mind?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on The Passions of the Mind.