Professor Oilivier Houdé is an eminent psychologist and author of a major body of work. He is honorary director at the Sorbonne of the CNRS Laboratory for the Psychology of Child Development and Education (LaPsyDE), and a member of the Institut de France’s Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques. He recently published L’Intelligence humaine n’est pas un algorithme (2019).

Paul Valéry is far more than the great French poet of the early 20th century that we all know. His love for words and his poetic gift are inspired by a deep passion for the human mind and brain.
Olivier Houdé presents a lesser-known Valéry, who referred to himself as a “psychologist”. Through the poet’s daily notebooks and a reader’s eye, the author plunges us into the heart of Paul Valéry’s work, a vast tribute to the marvellous “thinking machine” that is the human brain.
By weaving in biographical information, letters, literary extracts, psychological analysis and scientific data, Houdé pays a masterful tribute to this great curious mind, intended for both passionate readers of Valéry’s work and curious amateurs.