LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

FIELD NOTES
Charismatic megafauna/Tarot science/Pale fireworks

BREAKTHROUGH BOOKS
Economic disaster and dysphoria

INSIDE PUBLISHING
Classic cocktails/Ancient ballgames/Total Quality Literature, and more

Brainwashed
Everyone knows that religious cults brainwash their members, right? In fact, most scholars scoff at the idea. But now a Rutgers sociologist is arguing that brainwashing may well exist--despite concerted attempts by cult-sponsored experts to make us believe otherwise.
BY CHARLOTTE ALLEN

Totem and Taboo
How will the city of Berlin--soon to be the capital of Germany once again--remember the victims of the Holocaust? The question has divided Germans for over a decade, and even played a role in the recent elections. Can an avant-garde architect and a University of Massachusetts professor play family therapists to a troubled nation?
BY MICHAEL Z. WISE

The Visionary Company
An ambitious new traveling exhibition makes the strongest case yet that "outsider art" has arrived. But do the "healing machines" of a Nebraska farmer or poplar-wood "dolls" of a Kentucky whittler belong in museums, and should they be treated as art? Even advocates of this work can't agree.
BY JENNIFER SCHUESSLER

Do It Yourself
Big publishing is putting the squeeze on university libraries. The prices of scholarly journals are spiraling out of control. Now an intrepid band of library administrators is fighting back. Can the academy beat the conglomerates at their own game?
BY MARK RAMBLER

CLASSIFIED

CONFERENCES

HYPOTHESES
Jim Holt on life in the deep freeze.

BOOKSHELF