Hypnosis: Fact and Fiction

by F.L. Marcuse

vg+ 1961 Pelican edition paperback book In stock shipped from our UK warehouse

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction

224 pages, Paperback

First published November 30, 1959

Reviews

[Bernie4444 · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Just the facts mam." Sgt. Joe Friday.

From the Preface -
Material for this book, whether it describes fact or fiction has come from many sources: books, professional journals, magazines, lectures, newspaper articles, and personal experiences.

The book attempt to be "everything you wanted to know about hypnotism." It takes a good stab at its goal.

Abbreviated table of contents:
Yesterday, today, and tomorrow
Hypnosis and dehypnosis
Characteristics of the tests of hip gnosis
Hypnosis and personality
The generation of hypers
The violation all and the moral question
Hypnotherapy - "mental" problems
Hypnotherapy - "organic" problems
Dangers fictional and real
Hypnosis and quackery
Et cetera
Theories
Conclusion

I suspect he did a little word invention so he could function.

[Persephone Abbott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lamento: All That I Read, a poem by Persephone Abbott

All that I read
is not my story
piled under pieces
of furniture I’ve
collected books from
other people’s bookshelves like
the air delivers dust and in my
home it gathers in the form of
blocks of prose
behind my reading chair
under the wardrobe
jammed against the wall
between the kitchen and the bathroom
just in case I might pause
midway for some literature.

This week I finally
cracked open a 1960’s pelican
Hypnosis: Fact and Fiction
reminding me of
Mel Brook’s “Get Smart”
so unlike today’s
mindfulness courses
and fentanyl addictions
back then in Cold War time
a spy could be managed
by another’s persuasion
sent off to deliver ciphers
that might save the world
pigeon carrier style
strapped to a hippocampus
besides everyone was
on their own for anesthesia
when they caught some spot of
women’s trouble and no one
was listening and everyone
lay prone as the soft shuffle of feet
faded down the white corridor

From under an old sled
a hardcover called out
I turned my attention to “I.M.”
a love story – did Connie Palmen
open her old agendas and write
vignettes about her dead lover
a man who interviewed others -
to carefully construct and reconstruct
“I love you - you loved me”???
it was charming, at least
the fourth that I read in which
the author apologized for
writing the novel, divorcing
herself from her critics

This same week I also felt I ought to
examine the three volumes of
The Book Collector, a quarterly review
hiding under a yoga accessory
the publications all looked so exciting
in their solid colors so
chock a block full of 2017 knowledge
I accessed merely by opening
a cover and stepping into an all male
old world appreciation where
15th century books on medicine
were sold for astronomical sums
even though the content was ludicrous
serving no purpose but to show how
laughable the notion of education
became and the danger of being
an expert when the bottom
could fall out at any moment
but the leather binding retained a
je-ne-sais-quoi of irresistible mystique
to be caressed and possessed

Pausing my lecture, I looked up
with some consternation and dread,
anticipating the gaze of the man
behind the counter at The Book Exchange
who never knew what to expect when
I walked in the door and who always said,
“Thank you for bringing these in,”
after handing me some spare change
for my troubles.