Star Trek Psychology The Mental Frontier

The next entry in Sterling's pop culture psychology series features 20 essays and an exclusive interview with Rod Roddenberry—son of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry. In a fun and accessible way, Star Trek Psychology delves deep into the psyches of the show’s well-known and -loved characters. The trailblazing franchise spans five TV series, 13 films, and countless novelizations. It celebrated, as no other form of entertainment had before, a world filled with space-traveling dreams and human diversity. In the process, it became one of the oldest and most popular sci-fi franchises of all time. Star Trek Psychology uses academic and scientific theories to analyze and answer such questions as Why do Trek’s aliens look so human? and How can the starship’s holodeck be used for therapy? This compilation examines alien neurobiology, discusses identity formation for shape shifters, explores the importance of emotion for artificial intelligence, and much more.

Travis Langley is a psychology professor at Henderson State University and the author of Batman and Psychology (Wiley) and the volume editor of The Walking Dead Psychology and Star Wars Psychology (both Sterling). He speaks regularly on media and heroism at pop culture conventions and academic conferences including San Diego Comic Con, New York Comic Con, and WizardCon conventions across the US. Necessary Evil: Super-Villains of DC Comics and other films have featured him as an expert interviewee and the documentary Legends of the Knight spotlighted how he uses fiction to teach real psychology. He writes for the Psychology Today blog “Beyond Heroes and Villains” and is the #10 most popular psychologist on Twitter with over 87,000 followers: @superherologist. Travis lives in Arkadelphia, AR.