A final point on Lauren Slater�s *Opening Skinner�s Box*, which, given the amount of publicity it has had in the UK, will no doubt have healthy sales even before it comes out in paperback.
In his review in the Mail-on-Sunday Craig Brown wrote: �And on closer investigation by Slater, Loftus herself appears a little kooky, to put it mildly, often bursting into tears, slamming down the phone and taking her cause to such an extreme length that she has appeared as an expert witness for the defence in support of such obvious creeps and charlatans as the parent-murdering Menendez brothers and the serial killer Ted 'Son of Sam' Bundy. � 'Talking to her, feeling her highflying energy, the zeal that burns up the centre of her life, you have to wonder why,' writes Slater. � 'You are forced to ask the very kind of question Loftus most abhors: did something bad happen to her?' It turns out that indeed it did: when she was 14, Loftus's mother drowned in the family swimming pool. 'Was it suicide?' asks Slater, over the phone. Loftus replies they'll never know, but that 'it doesn't matter'. 'What doesn't matter?' asks Slater. 'Whether it was or it wasn't. It doesn't matter because it's all going to be OK.' The line then goes silent. 'You there?' says Slater. 'Oh, I'm here,' replies Loftus.� Two points here. One can see why Loftus is aggrieved by Slater�s account of their conversation, which, in the letter to the President of Norton Publishers she says contains �a number of factual errors and serious misrepresentations�, and �is riddled with errors - some minor but others extremely serious.� Craig Brown has come away from the book with the sense that Loftus is �kooky�, which suggests that that is the impression that large numbers of readers are going to have about Loftus from now on. Given the importance of her work on memory that can hardly be healthy. And the insinuation that Loftus�s zeal and intense commitment to her work can be ascribed to the fact that she lost her mother in her teens in circumstances that are not entirely clear is more than a little dubious. But then, Slater is a psychiatrist, so she should know about these things� Okay, I�ve said enough about Slater�s book (for the time being). I have an idea we�re going to hear more in the coming months. Allen Esterson Former lecturer, Science Department Southwark College, London [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.human-nature.com/esterson/index.html http://www.butterfliesandwheels.com/articleprint.php?num=10 --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
