They Call It Hypnosis [Hardcover]

Robert A. Baker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1990

This book paints a clear picture of what hypnosis is and is not, what it can and cannot accomplish, and how it can be misused and abused. Baker describes its potential for preventing or arresting pain and outlines future directions for the role of suggestion in the clinic and the laboratory. This engrossing, factual book is a definitive study of hypnosis that illuminates this very unique aspect of creative human behaviour.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

There is no such thing as hypnosis, insists Baker. What we think of as an altered, trance-like state of consciousness in which people supposedly can remember minute details of childhood is a myth, he charges, claiming that so-called hypnotic memories are for the most part imaginary productions of fantasy-prone individuals receptive to suggestion. In this unpersuasive study, Baker, an retired psychology professor, presents a history of hypnosis from Franz Anton Mesmer's animal magnetism to Emile Coue's autosuggestion to the work of modern behavioral psychologists who view hypnosis as role enactment or compliance with an authority figure. He uses such concepts as confabulation (confusing fact with fiction) to dismiss hypnotized subjects' purported recall of past lives or of UFO abductions. Photos.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

YA-- A scholarly yet readable study of an often misunderstood subject. In seven well-written and well-documented chapters, Baker provides a virtual cornucopia of information on hypnosis. The history, misconceptions, facts, applications, abuses, and uses of this termed "altered state of consciousness" are all included. The author offers a thoughtful and clear analysis of current subject research and supports his conclusions with his own as well as the viable data of other researchers in the field. A subtheme is the use of imagination in processing information. This valuable reference work is clearly indexed and categorized. In addition, the excellent source references allow students to venture out and to expand their knowledge bases. A book that will encourage readers to explore the scientific world of psychology.
- Nancy Craig, R . E. Lee High School , Springfield, VA
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 313 pages
• Publisher: Prometheus Books (May 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0879755768
• ISBN-13: 978-0879755768
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,246,494 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good summary of theories of hypnosis, November 17, 1996

By 

James J. Lippard "skeptic" (Phoenix, AZ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: They Call It Hypnosis (Hardcover)

This book is an excellent summary of theories of hypnosis with an emphasis on criticisms of state theories. The author argues for social/cognitive non-state theories. The book is marred only by the fact that many passages are lifted directly from the authors being summarized, without being noted as such.

5.0 out of 5 stars A SKEPTICAL CRITIQUE OF POPULAR NOTIONS OF HYPNOSIS, September 16, 2010

By 

Steven H. Propp (Sacramento, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: They Call It Hypnosis (Hardcover)

Robert Allen Baker Jr. (1921-2005) was an American psychologist, skeptic, author, and investigator of ghosts, UFO abductions, lake monsters and other paranormal phenomena; he was also a Fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, and has written other books such as Mind Games: Are We Obessed With Therapy?, Missing Pieces: How to Investigate Ghosts, Ufos, Psychics, & Other Mysteries, and Child Sexual Abuse and False Memory Syndrome.

Here are some representative quotations from the book:

"Strictly speaking, every time the word 'hypnosis' is used it could be placed in quotation marks. This is because there is no such thing as hypnosis. The point and purpose of this book is to convince the reader that the phenomenon called 'hypnosis' does not exist, has never existed in the past, and will not exist in the future. What is commonly called and referred to today as 'hypnosis' is a fallacy, that is, a false and mistaken idea handed down from generation to generation..." (Pg. 17)
"Since sleep-learning or unconscious learning has received a lot of attention in the past, and for a while was a multi-million dollar business, it is important to know whether or not such a thing is possible... It is now generally agreed that sleep learning is overrated, and if any learning does occur, it happens while we are awake." (Pg. 173)
"In general, fantasy-prone personalities are 'normal' people who function as well as others and who are as well-adjusted, competent, and content or discontent as anyone else. Anyone familiar with the fantasy-prone personality who reads Streiber's Communion: A True Story will suffer an immediate shock of recognition!" (PG. 247)

7 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent summary of theories of hypnosis, September 6, 1998

By 

James J. Lippard "skeptic" (Phoenix, AZ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: They Call It Hypnosis (Hardcover)

Contrary to the previous reviewer, the book is extensively documented with references to the work of leading hypnosis researchers (especially ch. 3, "Hypnosis: Recent and Contemporary Views"). The book has its flaws (search for "Robert Baker" on the web to find some of them), but this is an excellent introduction to the subject.