A Stimulus to the Imagination:
a review of
Questioning Consciousness: the Interplay of Imagery, Cognition and Emotion in the Human Brain,
by Ralph D. Ellis.
(John Benjamins Publishing Company, Amsterdam & Philadelphia, 1995.)

review by
Nigel J.T. Thomas Ph.D.
Rio Hondo College, Whittier, CA.
[Psyche (3-iv) 1997]

I have used the occasion of this review of Ralph D. Ellis' excellent book to outline my view of the rather unfortunate historical context of current research on imagery and on consciousness, of the important, but now rarely recognized, relationship between these two problem areas, and of the theoretical difficulties  generally thought to rule out the possibility of an imagery based theory of conscious thought. Ellis' work, in my view, greatly advances our understanding of this relationship, and shows why these difficulties may not be nearly so insurmountable as is now almost universally believed. - N.J.T.T.