By examining key psychologists from the past, this book shows why examples are so important and theory is over-valued.

Michael Billig is Emeritus Professor of Social Sciences at Loughborough University. His previous books include Arguing and Thinking (Cambridge, 1987), Freudian Repression (Cambridge, 1999) and Learn to Write Badly (Cambridge, 2013). He received the Distinguished Contribution to Social Psychology Award from the British Psychological Society in 2010.

1. Introduction; 2. Locke and Shaftesbury: foster father and foster son; 3. Tucker and James: in the same stream of thought; 4. Freud: writing to reveal and conceal himself; 5. Lacan: an ego in pursuit of the ego; 6. Lewin: is there nothing as practical as a good example?; 7. Tajfel and Bernstein: the limits of theory; 8. Jahoda: the ultimate example; 9. Concluding remarks.