Ein Blick in die Tiefe der Seele: Hypnose im Kultur- und Lehrfilm (1920–1936)

Gazing into the Depths of the Soul: Hypnotism in Documentary and Instructional Film (1920–1936). Although part of the medical fold since the 1870s, hypnosis was long relegated to the margins, recognised and used by only a relatively small group of medical professionals. In the decades around 1900 hypnotic techniques were monopolised as a form of medical treatment through a long and in no way linear process. Hypnosis of laymen was vehemently opposed, however, denounced as being far too dangerous. And yet, medical participation in the aura of spectacular intervention into the human psyche garnered support. The medium of both documentary and instructional film served an important function in this regard, conveying popular interest in acknowledging hypnosis as a scientific method. On the basis of four medically accredited films on hypnosis from 1920 to 1936, this paper attempts to investigate how medical experts and these genres, as part of their effort to claim hypnosis from the realm of public spectacle and parapsychological experimentation, worked to stabilise hypnosis as a purified form of medical and psychiatric practice.     

Alan Dundes (1934–2005)

THE HISTORY OF MELANESIAN SOCIETY. By W. H. R. RIVERS, F.R.S. Two volumes. Cambridge: University Press. 1914. Reviewed by E. Sidney Hartland.

ZEUS, A STUDY OF ANCIENT RELIGION. By ARTHUR BERNARD COOK. Vol. I. : Zeus of the Bright Sky. Cambridge, at the University Press. 1914. Medium 8vo, pp. xliii + 885. Reviewed by W. Crooke.

THE ASIATIC DIONYSOS. By GLADYS M. N. DAVIS. Pp. x + 276. London, G. Bell &; Sons, Ltd. 1914. Reviewed by W. Crooke.     

John Ashton (1952–2008)

Il Kalevala, O La Poesia tradizionale dei Finni, studio storico - critico sulle origini belle grandi epopee nazionali. DEL DOMENICO COMPARETTI. Firenze, 1891.

DER KALEVALA, ODER DIE TRADITIONELLE POESIE DER FlNNEN, ETC. Von DOMENICO COMPARETTI. (The authorised German edition.) Halle, 1892. By John Abercromby.

Vestiges de Paganisme dans la Région situé entre les cours supérieurs de l'oka et du Don. Par N. Troitzky. Congrès international d' Archiologie préhistorique et d' Anthropologie. Moscou, Août 1892, t. i. By A. C. Haddon.     

State Violence in Democratic Kampuchea (1975–1979) and Retribution (1979–2004)

Along with perhaps North Korea, Democratic Kampuchea (DK), as the Khmer Rouge (KR) regime called itself, can be regarded as the ultimate twentieth-century paradigm of the totalitarian state. Using sheer violence and terror, a small clique usurped state power viewing itself as endowed with the messianic mission to bring happiness and prosperity faster than any of its revolutionary model and competitors. It came to control every aspect of social and private life. No one was allowed to nurse, let alone express, any form of opposition.