- Email: [email protected]
Forensic hypnosis
BOOKREVIEWS
714
Of course it is not fair to concentrate solely on one therapeutic approach in evaluatmg a general textbook. but those with a behaviourist inclination might be a little concerned over the simplistic account which this book offers. On the credit side, I found the book useful for getting to grips with cross-cultural work and approaches I had never heard of. and for making a start on the middle adulthood picture. Basically, I feel that the textbook will be of use to anyone teaching abnormal psychology beyond their own speciality in providing references for up to date and supplementary material. but I am uncertain about its merits as a student text. FRANCESCLEGG
R. UDOLF: Forensic Hypnosis. Heath,
Lexington,
Mass.
(1983).
xii + 238 pages.
f21.50.
Probably no issue in contemporary psychology has aroused such controversy as forensic hypnosis. Widespread use by American and Israeli police, and the increasing use of clinical psychologists by British constabularies to hypnotize witnesses. have led to academics streaming from their ivory towers to pontificate on hypnosis and denounce the practitioners as unethical, unprofessional and scientifically unsound. In the blue comer, the practitioners’ self-appointed champion Martin Reiser has not helped his cause by uncritical oversell, while in the red comer, his negative namesake Martin Ome has been commuting across the Herring Pond to bolster up British antagonists. Meanwhile, the sound and fury of the factions have generated enough hot air to suitably celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Montgolfier balloon. The protagonists fail in general to distinguish between investigative hypnosis for police purposes. where the CID accepts a sackful of pseudomnesic chaff in order to extract a few grains of truth, and hypnosis used for testimony in court, where its validity and admissibility is justifiably questionable. This distinction is made explicit in this excellent study of the theoretical problems and legal implications of forensic hypnosis. The referee in this verbal battle is an engineer turned lawyer turned Jungian analyst, and none the worse for his professional chameleonism. In a thoughtful and carefully researched book, he examines and weighs the evidence with judicial impartiality. Both Martins are quoted equally (and the present reviewer a satisfying number of times!). No attempt is made to tread the well worn track of induction methods and history of hypnosis. The text confines itself to examining the validity of investigative hypnosis used in a forensic context. The background is predominantly American and some significant European cases are omitted, but this does not impair the relevance of the book to readers outside the U.S.A. Udolf wears his engineering hat in the lay-out of his opus and its organized approach to the controversy. and his legal hat in discussing the evidence and its admissibility in court. Jung shouts encouragement from the ringside. While not of direct relevance to behaviour therapists, investigative ‘hypnosis is a tool used by clinicians and its validity is an important issue for psychologists. No book has presented the issues more concisely or comprehensively than this one. LIONEL HAWARD
G. EDWARDS, A. ARIF and J. JAFFE(Eds):
pages.
Drug
Cse and Misuse:
Culrural Perspecriues. Croom
Helm.
London
(1983). 285
f 16.95.
The following are some of the more important themes which emerge from this book. First, a drug problem cannot be defined in relation to health alone. It can only be understood in the context of the society in which it occurs, e.g. in certain cultures the use of alcohol in any form is deviant whilst others forbid the use of tobacco or caffeine. Secondly, if the drug use is culture-bound then it makes no sense to assume that there can be a universal model of treatment. The unmodified extension of the Western medical model, which conditions the individual to learned helplessness and the community to surrendering its responsibilities, would be not only beyond the economic resources of any developing country but also likely to be largely ineffective. Thirdly, there is no place for what are described as blunt and simplistic law-enforcement policies which are insensitive to culture, which upset old balances between drugs and population without much awareness of ecology. and which often expect too much in too short a time. The cost has often been some sort of later backlash, often with newer and nastier drugs for old. For instance, it is predicted that in many far-eastern countries the opium smoking tradition will be completely replaced by heroin abuse in a few years’ time. Similarly, the suppression of opium use in China seems to have been followed by the emergence of a serious problem of cigarette smoking. Fourthly. preventive policies have generally failed because an attempt has not been made to look closely and sympathetically at why people need to take drugs, why farmers need to use their hillsides to grow opium or their fields to grow tobacco or their vineyards to grow grapes. Fifthly, there is an increasing tendency towards world homogeneity in drug use. Cannabis, which until recent decades was largely indigenous to the East has now become well established in the Western societies. Alcohol, which has been so much the traditional drug of the Western world, is now increasingly giving rise to problems in countries of the East. The misuse of prescription drugs such as sedatives and stimulants is rapidly becoming a universal problem. In view of this modern tendency, what is clearly needed is an increased willingness genuinely to take account of experiences of countries other than one’s own. This is exactly what this book sets out to do and so admirably achieves. The above is by no means an exhaustive list of interesting or important points made in this book. To take but three examples, the economic and political factors involved in the prohibition period in America. or the historical background of Alcoholics Anonymous, or the continuing use of coca in the Andes since the days of the Incas make fascinatmg reading.
714
Of course it is not fair to concentrate solely on one therapeutic approach in evaluatmg a general textbook. but those with a behaviourist inclination might be a little concerned over the simplistic account which this book offers. On the credit side, I found the book useful for getting to grips with cross-cultural work and approaches I had never heard of. and for making a start on the middle adulthood picture. Basically, I feel that the textbook will be of use to anyone teaching abnormal psychology beyond their own speciality in providing references for up to date and supplementary material. but I am uncertain about its merits as a student text. FRANCESCLEGG
R. UDOLF: Forensic Hypnosis. Heath,
Lexington,
Mass.
(1983).
xii + 238 pages.
f21.50.
Probably no issue in contemporary psychology has aroused such controversy as forensic hypnosis. Widespread use by American and Israeli police, and the increasing use of clinical psychologists by British constabularies to hypnotize witnesses. have led to academics streaming from their ivory towers to pontificate on hypnosis and denounce the practitioners as unethical, unprofessional and scientifically unsound. In the blue comer, the practitioners’ self-appointed champion Martin Reiser has not helped his cause by uncritical oversell, while in the red comer, his negative namesake Martin Ome has been commuting across the Herring Pond to bolster up British antagonists. Meanwhile, the sound and fury of the factions have generated enough hot air to suitably celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Montgolfier balloon. The protagonists fail in general to distinguish between investigative hypnosis for police purposes. where the CID accepts a sackful of pseudomnesic chaff in order to extract a few grains of truth, and hypnosis used for testimony in court, where its validity and admissibility is justifiably questionable. This distinction is made explicit in this excellent study of the theoretical problems and legal implications of forensic hypnosis. The referee in this verbal battle is an engineer turned lawyer turned Jungian analyst, and none the worse for his professional chameleonism. In a thoughtful and carefully researched book, he examines and weighs the evidence with judicial impartiality. Both Martins are quoted equally (and the present reviewer a satisfying number of times!). No attempt is made to tread the well worn track of induction methods and history of hypnosis. The text confines itself to examining the validity of investigative hypnosis used in a forensic context. The background is predominantly American and some significant European cases are omitted, but this does not impair the relevance of the book to readers outside the U.S.A. Udolf wears his engineering hat in the lay-out of his opus and its organized approach to the controversy. and his legal hat in discussing the evidence and its admissibility in court. Jung shouts encouragement from the ringside. While not of direct relevance to behaviour therapists, investigative ‘hypnosis is a tool used by clinicians and its validity is an important issue for psychologists. No book has presented the issues more concisely or comprehensively than this one. LIONEL HAWARD
G. EDWARDS, A. ARIF and J. JAFFE(Eds):
pages.
Drug
Cse and Misuse:
Culrural Perspecriues. Croom
Helm.
London
(1983). 285
f 16.95.
The following are some of the more important themes which emerge from this book. First, a drug problem cannot be defined in relation to health alone. It can only be understood in the context of the society in which it occurs, e.g. in certain cultures the use of alcohol in any form is deviant whilst others forbid the use of tobacco or caffeine. Secondly, if the drug use is culture-bound then it makes no sense to assume that there can be a universal model of treatment. The unmodified extension of the Western medical model, which conditions the individual to learned helplessness and the community to surrendering its responsibilities, would be not only beyond the economic resources of any developing country but also likely to be largely ineffective. Thirdly, there is no place for what are described as blunt and simplistic law-enforcement policies which are insensitive to culture, which upset old balances between drugs and population without much awareness of ecology. and which often expect too much in too short a time. The cost has often been some sort of later backlash, often with newer and nastier drugs for old. For instance, it is predicted that in many far-eastern countries the opium smoking tradition will be completely replaced by heroin abuse in a few years’ time. Similarly, the suppression of opium use in China seems to have been followed by the emergence of a serious problem of cigarette smoking. Fourthly. preventive policies have generally failed because an attempt has not been made to look closely and sympathetically at why people need to take drugs, why farmers need to use their hillsides to grow opium or their fields to grow tobacco or their vineyards to grow grapes. Fifthly, there is an increasing tendency towards world homogeneity in drug use. Cannabis, which until recent decades was largely indigenous to the East has now become well established in the Western societies. Alcohol, which has been so much the traditional drug of the Western world, is now increasingly giving rise to problems in countries of the East. The misuse of prescription drugs such as sedatives and stimulants is rapidly becoming a universal problem. In view of this modern tendency, what is clearly needed is an increased willingness genuinely to take account of experiences of countries other than one’s own. This is exactly what this book sets out to do and so admirably achieves. The above is by no means an exhaustive list of interesting or important points made in this book. To take but three examples, the economic and political factors involved in the prohibition period in America. or the historical background of Alcoholics Anonymous, or the continuing use of coca in the Andes since the days of the Incas make fascinatmg reading.