About the Author
Joseph Jastrow (1863-1944) was a psychologist, educator, and critic of psychical research. Through his syndicated newspaper column “Keeping Mentally Fit” (1928-32), he contributed to popularizing the subject of psychoanalysis.). He was one of the first scientists to study the evolution of language, and also worked on the phenomena of optical illusions (his most famous being the duck-rabbit illusion). His other books on psychology include Fact and Fable in Psychology (1900), The Subconscious (1906), Wish and Wisdom: Episodes in the Vagaries of Belief (1935), and The House That Freud Built (1932); those on magic include The Psychology of Deception (1888) and Psychological Notes on Sleight-of-Hand Experts (1896).
