Review: Three interesting stories that make readers think
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 12 9, 2011
Scribner writes many unusual and fascinating short stories, along with longer books. His short stories do not overlap; each is different than the others. This volume has three very shrewd short tales that focus on psychological experiments; experiments that make readers think: is this possible and, if so, what are the ramifications?In the first, The Chair, a psychologist is experimenting to see if he can change the thinking of his patients by having them sit on a chair that gives off electrical currents. He describes the effects of the chair and his suggestions to his clients upon three patients. One is a young girl who doesn't want to pursue the legal field her parents want her to enter. The second is a wife who is depressed because her chronically pained husband is depleting the family income with his drugs. The third is a woman suffering from dementia who is even unable to recognize her husband.Scribner's second story, Emotional Transference, focuses on a psychologist who is convinced that he is able to transfer the joyous feelings of a group of inherently joyful people to a group that is extremely sad, without either group knowing what is happening and without the happy people losing their happiness.His third short story, Dichotic, a word meaning divided into two, describes a psychologist manipulating a man's subconscious, without him knowing it, to turn him into a stronger person.