ABSTRACT
It has been five years since the publication of the first English translation of Part 1 of V.M. Bekhterev's Collective Reflexology (Strickland, 1994), an interval during which the frustration involved in a job half-completed was counterbalanced by satisfaction from seeing that this great Russian scientist's views were at last attracting positive interest. This is not to mention the sheer pleasure gained from exploring his ideas in other contexts (e.g., Strickland, 1997), and consequently heightened respect for the achievements of his far-ranging intellect. The review by Duane Rumbaugh (1996) of the first translation of Part 1 was, as far as I am aware, the first informed treatment of Bekhterev's social psychological contribution in English beyond those of Jaan Valsiner (Valsiner, 1994; Van der Veer, R. & Valsiner, J., 1991) and ourselves, and it produced an immediate reduction in our feelings of isolation. We have little doubt that Valsiner's and Rumbaugh's commentaries made it easier for Tzvetanka Dobreva-Martinova and me to gain support for and to publish during this interval a translation of Suggestion and Its Role in Social Life (Bekhterev, 1908/1998), also with Transaction Publishers.
