Book Reviews : The Manipulation of Human Behavior. Edited by ALBERT D. BIDERMAN AND HERBERT ZIMMER. (New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1961. Pp. xii, 323)

• Author: Ernst G. Beier
• Published date: 01 September 1961
• Date: 01 September 1961
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/106591296101400315
• Subject Matter: Articles

772

Toward

that

understanding,

Daniel

Bardonnet

makes

a

considerable

con-

tribution.

He

has

assembled

a

great

deal

of

relevant

material

on

the

party’s

organization

and

on

the

distribution

of

power

from

the

local

committees

up

to

the

national

organs

and

the

members

of

parliament.

He

stresses

the

party’s

lack

of

structure

or

discipline,

the

incredibly

vague

and

contradictory

nature

of

its

statutes

and

the

gaps

between

statutes

and

party

practice.

He

is

inform-

ative

on

the

tensions

between

the

party

activists

and

the

Radical

members

of

parliament,

on

the

conflicts

between

Paris

and

the

provinces,

and

on

the

rivalries

among

individual

leaders.

The

most

determined

effort

to

strengthen

the

party’s

structure

and

discipline,

that

of

Pierre

Mendes-France

in

1955-57,

was

doomed

to

failure;

it

only

underlined

the

party’s

formlessness,

and

the

resulting

schism

hastened

its

decline.

On

many

aspects

of

party

operations,

Bardonnet

has

to

be

vague

or

un-

certain.

Sometimes

the

uncertainty

itself

sheds

light

on

party

structure:

for

example,

the

lack

of

firm

data

on

the

number

of

members,

and

even

the

number

of

local

committees

and

departmental

federations,

at

any

given

time.

Some

questions

the

author

barely

approaches:

for

example,

who

does

the

work

for

the

party

at

the

local

level?

What

are

the

structural

relations

with

the

interest

groups

so

active

in

and

around

the

party?

Whence

come

the

party’s

finances?

Bardonnet’s

work

has

the

air

of

a

good

dissertation.

If

he

changes

his

time

stance

too

rapidly

back

and

forth,

at

least

he

gives

us

a

sense

of

the

continuity

of

the

weaknesses

of

structure

since

the

party’s

creation

in

1901.

If

he

quotes

too

often

for

the

flow

of

his

own

prose,

at

least

he

sends

readers

back

to

the

political

essays

of

Daniel

Halevy

and

Albert

Thibaudet

and

the

other

witty,

insightful,

and

paradoxical-often

perverse-classics

which

are

now

being

sup-

plemented

and

corrected

by

solid

books

and

articles,

of

which

Bardonnet’s

is

one

of

the

most

welcome.

University

of

Oregon

VAL

R.

LORWIN

The

Manipulation

of

Human

Behavior.

Edited

by

ALBERT

D.

BIDERMAN

AND

HERBERT

ZIMMER.

(New

York:

John

Wiley

&

Sons,

Inc.,

1961.

Pp.

xii,

323).

Can

application

of

scientific

knowledge

make

an

unwilling

informant

re.-

veal

accurate

information?

The

editors

selected

six

original

papers

written

by

specialists

who

addressed

themselves

to

a

critical

examination

of

this

question

in

the

light

of

the

most

recent

research

findings.

A

seventh

paper

was

added

in

consideration

of

training

for

resisting

such

manipulation.

Hinkle,

in

an

interesting

chapter

on

the

physiological

state

of

the

subject

being

interrogated,

discussed

the

possible

use

of

sleep

deprivation,

fatigue,

hunger,

pain,

threat,

and

tissue

damage

to

the

brain

for

achieving

compliance.

Kubzansky

addressed

himself

to

the

problem

of

isolation

and

discussed

the

literature

on

the

effects

of

&dquo;sensory

isolation&dquo;

on

human

behavior.

The

reduc-

tion

of

environmental

stimulation,

such

as

is

produced by

placing

a

person

in