Jerzy Jan Siuta, P.h.D. (1943-2018)

Abstract

Jerzy Jan Siuta, P.h.D., Professor of Psychology at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland, died in his sleep on 18 January 2018. Dr Siuta, known to family and friends as Jurek (a diminutive form of Jerzy), was a pioneer of hypnosis research in Poland, author of many articles and books, and contributor to numerous scholarly bodies, including serving on the editorial board of the International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis. Though he did not often come to North America, he was a regular participant in, and organizer of, conferences throughout Europe. His interests included forensic as well as experimental hypnosis, memory, and learning. Though not a clinician himself, he educated and encouraged generations of Polish clinicians as well as researchers and scholars. Dr Siuta came to hypnosis via an initial interest in neuroscience (among his earliest publications were translations of the works of Donald O. Hebb), then in learning and memory. His earliest work, conducted in cooperation with the innovative Polish psychiatrist Antoni K epi nski, involved the study of how electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) affects memory. His hypnosis research focused on hypnotic responsiveness and its correlates. In the course of his research he produced Polish versions of a number of standard measures of hypnotizability, including the Harvard Scales of Hypnotic Susceptibility (Weitzenhoffer et al.), the Harvard Group Scales (Shor et al.), and the Barber Creative Imagination Inventory, but also of such personality measures as the NEO-PI-R and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scales. He developed Polish norms for these and other instruments. His investigations of the correlates of hypnotic susceptibility led him to study such personality variables as imaginative involvement, locus of control, and psychopathology. He participated in a number of large-scale cross-cultural studies of personality assessment using the NEO-PI-R. Dr Siuta further investigated the role of hypnosis is altering the experience of pain. He also, along with his colleague Józef Wójcikiewicz, Professor of Law, studied questions at the interface of hypnosis and the law. This too resulted in several publications. Dr Siuta published, in addition to his many articles, book chapters, and Intl. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 67(3): 382–385, 2019 Copyright © International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis ISSN: 0020-7144 print / 1744-5183 online DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00207144.2019.1618163