Review by Choice Review
An Australian university psychologist who had given an obviously excellent parapsychology course for ten years here makes his knowledge and wisdom available to a wider audience. Irwin's definition of parapsychology is wide, and his coverage of data, methods, and attempts at theory is very comprehensive. He takes no absolute position on the nature of the seemingly anomalous experiences and observations that prompt parapsychological inquiry, but considers their study to deserve serious attention. Irwin is well acquainted with criticisms of parapsychology and considers them deserving of serious attention. The book is well written, and accessible to readers without specialized knowledge. Irwin's work fills a need similar to H.L. Edge et al., Foundations of Parapsychology (1986). Both are of high quality and complement each other nicely. Recommended for public, college, and university libraries. -I. L. Child, Yale University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
Irwin (psychology, Univ. of New England in Australia) wrote this book as a textbook, and it shows. Each chapter ends with a list of terms and study questions, and though coverage is similar to many other surveys in the field, the extremely academic style makes it much less readable. Further, the bibliography consists largely of articles in periodicals, many dating from before 1980 and probably unavailable except in universities with a parapsychology department of long years' standing. Surprisingly, many notables are not listed in the Index of Names, including James, Hyslop, Ducasse, Piper, Bro, Garrett, and Cayce. All in all, not of value to public libraries in this country.-- Jeanne Bagby, formerly with Tucson P.L. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Choice Review
Review by Library Journal Review
