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How is it possible for us to believe in something that we "only" imagined? What are we to make of those who claim to have been abducted by aliens, to have multiple personalities, or to have recovered long-lost memories of childhood abuse? This edited volume applies thoughtful, scholarly analysis to topics more typically found in tabloids. Its subject is how we may come to believe in the reality of phenomena that spring from our imaginations, and the function of such imaginings in our emotional lives. Believed-In Imaginings presents the varied perspectives of distinguished thinkers from the fields of psychology, anthropology, and sociology. They discuss conceptual issues such as how the terms imagining, believing, and remembering are defined, as well as developmental phenomena, such as children's attachment to the Tooth Fairy and transitional objects in times of need. Other chapters investigate topics ranging from the nature of hypnotic subjects' belief in the contrafactual, to the role of dream elements in believed-in imaginings and the controversial subject of recovered memories of abuse. This provocative and fascinating book will appeal to clinical as well as theoretical psychologists and sociologists, and to any reader interested in exploring the topics of memory and the imagination. Book Review These essays turn on the editor's notion of "believed-in imaginings"— the belief in the veracity of events that most consider illusions or hallucinations— a concept of interest to literary theorists and philosophers as well as clinical psychologists and psychiatrists, social workers, and legal authorities. Framing a "poetic" way of talking about how individuals come to construct what they believe about the world and their relation to it, Sarbin (a psychologist) suggests a theory connecting narrative and emotional life. The illuminating papers respond to Sarbin in a variety of ways: some theorists offer criticism influenced by postmodern controversies about the foundations of truth, but most of the papers focus in the contemporary syndromes (e.g., "survivors" of possible childhood sexual abuse or imagined abduction by aliens and those with multiple personality disorders). The contributors engage these pressing psychological issues from perspectives as diverse as feminist theory, psychoanalysis, and psychiatric nosology. The most recurrent theme is that mental illness is a historical construct. The writing is sophisticated, aims at a professional audience, but in general remains remarkably free of jargon. The book is accessible to all literate readers, upper-division undergraduates and above. This reviewer plans to use an essay on emotion and catharsis for a seminar on literary theory involving Aristotle and Freud. This book is part of the Dissociation, Trauma, Memory, and Hypnosis Series. |
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