In Act II, Scene 2 of Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern disagree with Hamlet when the prince states that Denmark is a prison. In response, Hamlet responds, “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” This line is an appropriate foundation for a review of Fathali M. Moghaddam's Shakespeare and the Experimental Psychologist (2021).
A review is merely one person's opinion, a fact that I am conscious of as a theater critic with 15 years of experience reviewing live stage productions, ranging from amateur plays to Broadway and international shows. Readers should hope that a review is an informed opinion from a person with a broad knowledge base in the relevant topic. But it is still an opinion. Therefore, readers should examine Moghaddam's book for themselves to decide whether my viewpoint is justified. When passing judgment on an artistic or scholarly work, there really is nothing either...
