Books by Michael (Loughborough University) Billig

This easy-to-read book contains studies of key psychologists from the past, throwing new light on Freud, William James, Kurt Lewin and others. Written for psychologists, social scientists and students, Michael Billig uses the past to argue for the continuing importance of examples and the comparative unimportance of theory.

An entertaining but scholarly book examining why today's social scientists are writing so poorly. Michael Billig analyses the competitive conditions under which academics are mass producing research and identifies the linguistic characteristics of bad writing in the social sciences, arguing that these two factors are closely related.

Reinterpreting some of Freud's classic case histories, Billig shows how language is both expressive and repressive and sheds light on the question of recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse and the ideology of psychoanalysis. This original book will appeal to a broad interdisciplinary audience.

Michael Billig's rhetorical approach has been key to the discursive turn in the social sciences. In a new introduction, he offers further reflections on rhetoric and social psychology and allows some forgotten voices in the history of rhetoric to be heard.