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Subliminal perception has had a long and vexed history from the viewpoints both of cognitive psychology and of psychoanalysis. From the viewpoint of cognitive psychology, the findings of some of the subliminal perception literature must seem dubious (e.g., the Silverman [1989] studies apparently showing that the sentence “Mommy and I are one,” presented at very brief exposures, with the subjects reporting seeing only flashes of light, can have all sorts of salutary effects, especially for clinically defined populations). From the viewpoint of psychoanalysis, these same studies must seem to be imperfect tests of psychoanalytic hypotheses. After all, “Mommy and I are one” is not a stimulus derived from an assessment of a real person's difficulties; it is a highly condensed, simplistic representation of a particular psychoanalytic theory. (This is not the full story, of course: Weinberger's chapter in this volume deals with some of the thorny issues surrounding this research, and Masling's paper outlines his long program of research pursuing these kinds of effects. For a sense of the current controversy about this research, see also Balay & Shevrin, 1988; 1989; Figueroa, 1989; Hardaway, 1990; and Silverman, 1989.)
Such research controversies are but one of the many reasons for the lack of integration between the two fields, cognitive psychology and psychoanalysis, both of which have some stake in this research. The Bornstein and Pittman volume is an attempt to bring together these and other interests. It is a collection of 11 papers presented at a 1991 conference at Gettysburg College. The editors, who have helpful integrating chapters at the beginning and end of the volume, are to be congratulated for the speedy marshaling of these papers into book form. The editing is careful; authors comment on each other's chapter. With two exceptions, the chapters themselves deal primarily with what Eagle (1987) has called