杏吧原创

Dictionary of Psychology edited by Andrew Coleman, Oxford University Press,
拢25, ISBN 0198662114

THE Victorian drawing room is darkened. A man and woman sit facing each other
with a vertical sheet of glass between them. Each is illuminated by a separate
oil lamp so that the reflection of the woman in the glass is as bright as the
man she sees through it. 鈥淟ine up your eyes with his,鈥� she is told. Seeing the
visual blend of her partner鈥檚 features with her own鈥攌nown as Pepper鈥檚
ghost鈥� the lady swoons.

Why is this apparition lurking in a dictionary of psychology? Psychologist
Richard Gregory is not the only one to believe that illusions shed light on the
workings of the human mind, so on the page before Pepper we find the impossible
Penrose triangle right next to penis envy. And since the mind-body interface is
in reality a continuum, it seems only fitting that the entry on the IQ test sits
beside one on irritable bowel syndrome.

But could you read it? A dictionary? Quite possibly in this case. This book
does not give bare definitions, it clothes them with context. Pepper鈥檚 ghost,
for example, was first demonstrated at London鈥檚 Royal Polytechnic in 1862 and
later patented. The illusion was used in Victorian melodramas. But should it
really be 鈥淒irck鈥檚 effect鈥�? Ah, I mustn鈥檛 give away the plot.