CONTACT: Ilona Sheehan, Marketing/Administration, Benchmark Publications Inc. Tel: 800-559-6653 (US) or 203-966-6653 Fax: 203-972-7129; e-mail: [email protected]
DATELINE: July 14, 1998, New Canaan, Connecticut
BENCHMARK PUBLICATIONS PUBLISHES PRIMER ON PERCEPTUAL CONTROL THEORY (PCT)
"Making Sense of Behavior: The Meaning of Control" by William T. Powers is the long-anticipated introduction to Perceptual Control Theory for lay readers. Bill Powers is chief theorist and founder of the Control Systems Group which this year celebrates its 25th year as an international coalition of scientists studying and modeling control theory as it applies to living systems.
This is Powers' first work for "the rest of us," his fifth on the topic of what is now known as Perceptual Control Theory (PCT). It's easy to read, sometimes very funny, and beneath the clean and simple surface, profound. A comprehensive bibliography points to the scientific foundation on which this book rests.
About Powers' first book, "Behavior: The Control of Perception," Aldine de Gruyter (1973-1998), the great Carl R. Rogers wrote, "Here is a profound and original book with which every psychologist--indeed every behavioral scientist should be acquainted. . . .a unique theory of the way in which behavior is controlled in and by the individual, a theory which should spark a great deal of significant research."
It has. That book is currently in its fifth printing. Powers' scientific theory is taught in several graduate schools here and abroad, and is slowly gaining acceptance by scholars in the fields of education, cybernetics, medicine, mathematics and physics, as well as psychology and behavior. Powers' "new" theory of the behavior of living control systems (from a cell to a community) is the result of 30 years' study and experiment by Powers and a dedicated group of scientists from a broad base of disciplines. They posit a fundamental change in the way we understand human behavior, and offer a scientific approach that has been successfully modeled and tested in the lab, in computer programs, and perhaps most significant, in troubled schools.
"Making Sense" (ISBN 0-9647121-5-6 - $14.95 US funds) is available from the publisher now and will be in bookstores by September. To preview Power's work, drop by www.benchpress.com and navigate to Captain Benchmark's Bookstore. For more information, call or write Benchmark Publications Inc. 65 Locust Avenue, New Canaan, CT 06840-5328. Call: 800-559-6653 (USA) or 203-966-6653. Fax: 203-972-7129.
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