"This book has grown out of an attempt to harmonize two different tendencies, one in psychology, the other in physics, with both of which I find myself in sympathy, although at first sight they might seem inconsistent," Bertrand Russell wrote at the beginning of "The Analysis of Mind," a collection of lectures delivered in London and Peking. These 15 lectures have been hailed as milestones in modern psychology as they explore the relationship between mind and matter under a completely new scope. Living in the turbulent years' post World War I and having been influenced by realists and behaviourists of the early 20th century, Russell attempts to reconcile the paradoxical materialistic view of contemporary psychologists on mind with the anti-materialistic tendency that physicists adopt over matter. In addition, he examines and clarifies all terms and concepts that have long been used by idealists and psychologists lightly and without explicit definition as those of consciousness, sensation, perception, memory and belief.

As a mathematician, Russell employs the analytical method. He tries to disprove scientifically the existence of consciousness, introspection, and everything that constitutes a source of knowledge from "the inside" of the human brain. He encourages the view that knowledge is primarily the result of external observation, though things are not as simplistic as they appear.