Suggestion and Suggestibility

Book excerpt: This book contains the proceedings of the First International Sym posium on Suggestion and Suggestibility, held at the University of Giessen in the Federal Republic of Germany, July 7-111987, upon the initiative of and organized by Dr. V. A. Gheorghiu and Dr. P. Netter. I regret that for personal reasons I was unable to accept his kind invita tion to attend, for Dr. Gheorghiu and I are old friends. I am pleased, however, to have this opportunity to call attention to the significance of this volume. Most of the chapters were presented in approximately their present form at the symposium, though some have been extensi vely revised for publication. It was a wise choice to divide the papers into four major sections. - I. Theoretical and Historical Perspectives, II. Assessment and Indivi dual Differences of Suggestibility, III. Psychophysiological Aspects of Suggestibility, and IV. Social and Cognitive Aspects of Suggestive Processes - each with a summarizing commentary. In view of the variety and difficulty of the individual papers, it is a help to have the integration provided by these commentaries - on Part I by Sheehan (Chap. 7), on Part II by Lundy (Chap. 13), on Part III by Edmonston (Chap. 19), and on Part IV by Fiedler (Chap. 30).