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In mustard yellow binding with blue imprint, this book comes to us touted by the publisher as “the definitive summary of the work of the world's most renowned psychologist.” Piaget has been publishing since the 1920's, although much of his work was not translated until recently.
His writing style is often difficult and abstractly quantitative. A number of people, such as Flavell, Almy, and Meier, have summarized his contributions. This brief book by Piaget and Barbel Inhelder gives an overview and is much easier to comprehend than many of his other publications. The volume contains sections on (1) the sensorimotor level, (2) the development of perception, (3) semiotic or symbolic function, (4) the concrete operations of thought and interpersonal relations, and (5) the preadolescent and the propositional operations, as well as a conclusion entitled “Factors in Mental Development.”
Piaget is a genius and has much to contribute to our understanding of child development. His formulations on cognitive development can immeasurably contribute to our treatment of very sick patients, especially in the areas of word usage and symbolization difficulties. His approach is unique, moving us away from the traditional rubrics under which we study developmental problems. He is not concerned, as is the analyst, with individual differences of motivation, growth, and development. He studies the structures that underlie the stages through which the child passes. Each child follows a consecutive order of stages of equilibrium levels and each stage contains both transitional and terminal aspects.
Piaget's fundamental notion of intelligence is that it consists of series of hierarchically arranged structures. The sensorimotor schemata of the child from birth to two years of age evolves through the actual physical interaction of the child with the objects of the environment. As interaction continues, symbolic and linguistic functions develop simultaneously. This permits the child to internal