Hypnosis

12 Key excerpts on "Hypnosis"

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  Hypnotherapy and Hypnoanalysis

  • D. P. Brown, E. Fromm(Authors)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  I Basics of Hypnosis Passage contains an image 1 The Domain of Hypnosis What is Hypnosis?

  Hypnosis is a special state of consciousness in which certain normal human capabilities are heightened while others fade into the background. About 90% of the population has some ability to enter a hypnotic state. Hypnosis can be combined with any type of therapy: supportive types, behavior modification, dynamic therapy, and others. When combined with dynamic types of therapy, that is, psychoanalytic methods, it is called dynamic hypnotherapy or hypnoanalysis; when combined with other therapies, it is called hypnotherapy. Hypnosis itself is not a therapy, although the relaxation that accompanies it can be beneficial.

  The historical roots of hypnotherapy reach back to tribal rites and the ancient practices of witch doctors. Its scientific history begins at the end of the 18th century, with Mesmer. For detailed discussion of the history of Hypnosis and hypnotherapy, the reader is referred to Fromm and Shor (1979, pp. 15–43), Weitzenhoffer (1957) and Hull (1933).

  Hypnosis as an Altered State of Consciousness

  It is generally accepted now that Hypnosis is best understood as an altered state of consciousness. Ludwig (1966), who coined the term “altered state of consciousness” (ASC), defined such states as follows:

  … any mental state(s), induced by various physiological, psychological, or pharmacological maneuvers or agents, which can be recognized subjectively by the individual himself (or by an objective observer of the individual) as representing sufficient deviation in subjective experience or psychological functioning from certain general norms for that individual during alert, waking consciousness. (p. 225)

  Ludwig thus defined an altered state according to subjective experience and altered psychological functioning. Such states can be produced by alteration in sensory input or motor activity, altered alertness, or altered physiology (Ludwig, 1966). In an altered state, one’s perception of and interaction with the external environment are different from those in the waking state, and the individual is more deeply absorbed in internal experience. In his classic works on altered states of consciousness, Tart (1969, 1975) essentially adopted Ludwig’s definition for ASCs, but more carefully defined the relationship between attention and changes in psychological functioning characteristic of ASCs. According to Tart, a discrete state of consciousness is defined as a “unique, dynamic pattern or configuration of psychological structures” (1975, p. 5). Each discrete state of consciousness is a stable pattern. It takes a certain energy and application of attention to disrupt this stable pattern and to produce a new quasistable state, that is, an altered state of consciousness. Attention is especially important in the production of altered states.

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  Hypnosis in Therapy

  • H. B. Gibson, M. Heap(Authors)
  • 2021(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  1

  What is Hypnosis?

  DOI: 10.4324/9781003163404-1

  It is difficult to define very precisely what is meant by Hypnosis, but this need be no bar to discussion. A similar difficulty arises when we try to define other concepts such as pain, and no one would deny the reality of the latter (except perhaps Christian Scientists) ‚ but authorities on the subject are agreed that pain can only be defined ostensively. Ostensive definition of a word indicates that we make its meaning clear by giving various examples which illustrate the correct usage of the term. So it is with Hypnosis, and perhaps we can illustrate its nature best by describing the various procedures that are used to induce a state of Hypnosis, assuming that Hypnosis can correctly be designated as a “state”. We shall discuss some controversy relating to this matter later. If Hypnosis is conceived of as a psychological state, then by hypnotism we mean the processes adopted to enable a subject to achieve that state.

  In our state of normal waking consciousness we are constantly receiving impressions from the environment, examining them critically and relating them to the stored impressions in our memory, and thus making sense of the world. We do not, of course, pay attention to all the stimuli that impinge upon us; this would be unnecessary and really impossible under normal circumstances for we are constantly being bombarded with such a wealth of stimuli. Rather, we pay attention to what is meaningful to us, and waking consciousness involves a constant activity of processing and evaluating information. When we relax that activity we may drift off into sleep. While falling asleep in front of the TV screen (or during a lecture) we still “hear” what is being said in so far as the mechanisms of hearing are concerned, but as we have given up processing the information it means nothing to us. Keeping closely in mind this model of information-processing determining what we perceive, we can discuss the process of hypnotism.

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  The Highly Hypnotizable Person

  Theoretical, Experimental and Clinical Issues

  • Michael Heap, Richard J. Brown, David A. Oakley, Michael Heap, Richard J. Brown, David A. Oakley(Authors)
  • 2004(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  It appears to me that there are several areas of overlap or continuity between psychology and Hypnosis. First, there is the phenomenological study of the state itself and attempts to observe, assess and measure its characteristics, and whether they are similar to or different from other psychological states or phenomena. Such an enterprise need not be restricted to psychology but may also encompass physiological aspects of hypnotic states or functioning and these involve psychophysiological and neuroscientific investigations. Second, there is the study of the process and procedures of hypnotic induction whereby the hypnotist and subject interact, and through the use of these and suggestion, the subject’s behaviour or perception is modified or altered. Social psychologists, in particular, have been interested in the rather unique interaction between hypnotist and subject, and have used a variety of explanations to account for the demand characteristics said to exist within the experimental setting. These have evolved into what have been termed ‘sociocognitive’ accounts of Hypnosis. Third, it is acknowledged from various perspectives that individuals differ in the way that they respond to demands placed upon them as a result of hypnotic induction procedures. This is frequently termed ‘hypnotic suggestibility’ or ‘susceptibility’ and various accounts of individual differences in these attributes have been elaborated. Finally, there is the use of Hypnosis as a therapeutic technique and the degree to which its efficacy can be proven and the therapeutic mechanisms identified and explained.

  Most of these disparate approaches have been expertly dealt with within this volume. Indeed Heap, Brown and Oakley within their introductory chapter, provide a concise procedural introduction to Hypnosis for the naive reader and go on to review and describe the major scientific theories existing currently within the field. In particular, they emphasize the differences between hypnotic state or trance theories and non-state theories. The latter associate hypnotic induction with the creation of a separate and distinctive psychological state or hypnotic trance, and then attempt to account for it in relation to known psychodynamic, psychological or neuropsychological processes. For example, they identify ego-psychological theory, which suggests that within the trance state the subject loses the distinction between imagination and reality, and, from a Freudian perspective, primary processes are said to predominate over secondary processes. This is contrasted with several cognitive models of Hypnosis, which emphasize altered processing at the level of the central executive or consciousness: dissociated control theory and neodissociation theory. A final state model is reviewed, based on Gruzelier’s neuropsychological theory.

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  Essentials of Hypnosis

  • Michael D. Yapko(Author)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  The experience of Hypnosis has been conceptualized by some as an altered state or states of consciousness featuring absorption and shifts in perception. In this perspective, Hypnosis is considered to be a unique and separate state of consciousness relative to one’s “normal” state of consciousness. The hypnotic state is presumably created by the hypnotic induction process that alters the person’s consciousness through the narrowing of attention to the offered suggestions. The altered state is thought to feature reduced defenses, greater emotional access and responsiveness, and greater access to unconscious processes.

  This view of Hypnosis as a distinctly altered state, or perhaps altered states, has historically been popular because of its recognition that people in Hypnosis can experience things seemingly beyond their usual capacity. The idea of altered states of consciousness conveniently allows for that possibility, and also allows for the variable proportion of people who can experience such states as described in hypnotic susceptibility statistics.

  Despite its early popularity and seeming obviousness, the view of Hypnosis as an altered state of consciousness has been supported by the wide range of perceptual shifts people report taking place in their individual experiences of Hypnosis. But, this view has also been challenged by the fact that unique physiological correlates (including brain “signatures”) of Hypnosis have not been found, and the additional fact that hypnotic phenomena can be produced without the benefit of hypnotic induction.

  If Hypnosis is an altered state of consciousness, what is it altered from? Yet, when a hypnotized person experiences his or her body as numb in response to a suggestion for developing an analgesia, that is not a routine experience. Clearly, something has changed, but what exactly changed and exactly how it changed largely remain a mystery.

  The Reality-Testing View of Hypnosis

  You use your senses to gather information from the world around you. Consciously, but more so unconsciously, you are continually engaged in the processing of huge amounts of sensory input flooding your nervous system that tells you where you are relative to your immediate environment and what is going on around you. Information is continuously coming to you through virtually all of your available senses, and all of these tiny bits of information give you a sense of where your body is, what position it is in, and how it is distanced from objects and outside experiences near and far. This is referred to as a “generalized reality orientation.”

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  Hypnosis, Dissociation and Survivors of Child Abuse

  Understanding and Treatment

  • Marcia Degun-Mather(Author)
  • 2006(Publication Date)
  • Wiley

    (Publisher)

  Subjects may learn to go through the hypnotic procedures on their own, and this is termed ‘self-Hypnosis’. (British Psycho-logical Society, 1995) To understand Hypnosis and hypnotic procedures it is important to distin-guish two basic elements – trance and suggestion (Heap & Aravind, 2002a). Trance A central issue in the history of Hypnosis (and of mesmerism before that) has been whether we need to hypothesise a special state of mind, or even a special altered state of brain functioning, in order to explain the phenomena we observe in Hypnosis. That is, is the hypnotic subject in a unique ‘altered state of consciousness’ or ‘trance’, induced by the hypnotist. This is the so-called ‘strong’ version of the ‘trance’ concept, and is the one which has been challenged more recently by ‘non-state’ or ‘sociocognitive’ theories of hyp-nosis which emphasise the role of social and interpersonal factors in shaping and maintaining the hypnotic experience. While theories of Hypnosis continue to change, the terminology in common use still reflects the original, largely ‘special state’ view of Hypnosis, adopted by practitioners such as James Braid (1795–1860), who gave us the term ‘Hypnosis’. So modern practitioners will report that they ‘induce’ Hypnosis and ‘deepen’ it, that people are ‘in Hypnosis’ or ‘under’ it, that they are ‘hyp-notised’ and are ‘brought out’ at the end . . . Those who are strongly non-state in their theoretical orientation may put ‘Hypnosis’ and state-related terms in quotation marks when they write them or add a disclaimer (for example, ‘the subject was ‘hypnotised’ – whatever that means’). In accord-ance with common usage the process of initiating Hypnosis will be referred to as ‘induction’ and attempts to enhance the hypnotic experience are referred to as ‘deepening’ procedures.

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  Methodologies of Hypnosis (Psychology Revivals)

  A Critical Appraisal of Contemporary Paradigms of Hypnosis

  • Peter Sheehan, Campbell Perry, Peter W. Sheehan, Campbell W. Perry(Authors)
  • 2015(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  9-10)". HUgard (1965a) conceptualizes Hypnosis as an altered state of consciousness and lists the primary features of it in his major treatise, Hypnotic Susceptibility. In this book he argues that the hypnotized subject loses initiative and the willingness to act independently; the subject's planning function is turned over to the hypnotist, his attention is redistributed; and perception becomes selective according to the hypnotist's demands. Other characteristics listed are that the subject develops a heightened ability for fantasy production and a tolerance for reality distortion (illustrated by the acceptance of falsified memories). It is noted also that the hypnotized subject easily throws himself or herself into roles becoming deeply involved in them, and may develop amnesia for what transpired within the hypnotic state. A final characteristic and one which strongly dictates the nature of Hilgard's methodology is that a hypnotic induction supposedly leads to a small but significant increase in suggestibility over the level of response shown by subjects in the waking state. Although the link between "Hypnosis" and "suggestibility" is an important one and Hilgard (1967) has defined Hypnosis as a state of heightened suggestibility, the two concepts are not to be identified. There is a high correlation between responsiveness to suggestion inside and outside the trance state but subjective reports from subjects about their experience of trance forbid the simple equation of suggestibility and Hypnosis

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  The Practice of Cognitive-Behavioural Hypnotherapy

  A Manual for Evidence-Based Clinical Hypnosis

  • Donald J. Robertson(Author)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  pace Edmonston, this research arguably seems to show that traditional induction methods induce ordinary relaxation, not that Hypnosis lacks any other distinguishing characteristics such as the cognitive set of the subject, etc. Historically, many hypnotherapists have equated “trance depth” with signs of relaxation, such as reduced respiratory rate and volume, relaxed facial expression, flaccid muscles, time distortion, etc. However, there is no evidence that these signs of relaxation correlate with heightened suggestibility (Kirsch, 1999, p. 220). Indeed, equating Hypnosis with relaxation is deeply counter-intuitive insofar as “common sense” observations appear to suggest that people don’t normally become dramatically more suggestible just because they’re relaxed, whether physically or mentally. If relaxation typically heightened suggestibility then we’d expect many people to have noticed the fact over the course of human history, because relaxation is an everyday occurrence. Modern researchers do not measure hypnotic susceptibility in this way, by looking for signs of relaxation or “hypnotic trance”, but rather by directly observing and evaluating hypnotic responses such as eyelid closure or arm levitation, etc. Moreover, as we will see below, hypnotism can also be induced by “active-alert” induction techniques, the opposite of the traditional “sleep-relaxation” approach.

  A position some researchers have considered adopting is that “true Hypnosis” is rare and that only highly-responsive (“virtuoso”) subjects enter hypnotic trance. Even if this version of the special state theory was correct, and it is disputed, it would mean that the vast majority of ordinary hypnotherapy clients must be viewed primarily from a nonstate perspective. Very few researchers would now maintain that the responses of normal hypnotherapy clients should be explained by placing greater emphasis upon an altered state of consciousness rather than ordinary social psychological and cognitive-behavioural factors such as expectation, attitudes, imagination, attention, compliance, motivation, cognitive-behavioural skills and strategies, etc.

  Early history of the cognitive-behavioural position

  The “behavioural” theories of Hypnosis can be traced to Pavlov’s physiological research in the late nineteenth century and his recommendations for the development of a hypnotic psychotherapy based on “cortical inhibition” and conditioned verbal reflexes. Pavlov’s model of hypnotism subsequently became the basis for very large-scale implementation of Soviet hypno-psychotherapy programmes as documented by Platonov (1959). In the 1920s, one of the pioneers of behavioural psychology, Clark L. Hull commenced an influential programme of research on Hypnosis, published as Hypnosis & Suggestibility: An Experimental Approach (1933). Hull concluded that he could find no essential features of the “hypnotic state” except an increase in suggestibility and no phenomena that could be produced in Hypnosis that could not be produced by ordinary “waking suggestion”, albeit to a lesser degree (Hull, 1933, p. 391). Hull’s failure to demarcate “hypnotic trance” from normal suggestibility led early social psychologists to re-conceptualise Hypnosis as an inter-personal construct comprising ordinary cognitive and behavioural factors.

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  Applying the Constructivist Approach to Cognitive Therapy

  Resolving the Unconscious Past

  • Nicholas E. Brink(Author)
  • 2019(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  4    Hypnosis as an Avenue into the Unconscious

  The Nature of Hypnosis

  Hypnosis is difficult to define. One common definition, an altered state of conscious, is quite inadequate. Experiencing hypnotic trance may be the only way to understand or recognize it. When someone is first introduced to hypnotic trance, whether as a subject of trance, or when first learning about hypnotic trance, common everyday experiences of trance are often described. Three everyday experiences as mentioned in the previous chapter come to mind: The experience of driving down a Freeway deep in thought such that you miss your turn off; watching a movie in a theater and when it is over, feeling disoriented as you leave the theater, being surprised that it is still light outside, and feeling confused about where the car is parked; and third, having an intimate conversation with a friend and what seemed like only a few minutes was over an hour. The confusion and disorientation that follows a trance experience is a sign that you were in a deep trance. Deep concentration or being in such deep thought that you are unaware of what is going on around you is being in trance.

  In the psychotherapy setting, even though you may not have been trained in using Hypnosis, clients and even the therapist often experience such disorientation, feeling that the session was much shorter than 50 minutes. This disorientation is a sign of a good and intense therapy session, a sign of heightened rapport. I believe that it is important for a therapist to recognize such trance experiences, know how to create them, and understand their usefulness in the therapy session.

  What brings about this disorientation, this hypnotic trance? According to Milton Erickson (Erickson et al., 1976, pp. 58–59), the father of American Hypnosis, joining the client by listening intently to the client’s words, accurately reflecting back what the client is experiencing such that the client feels heard and is able to answer, “Yes, that’s right, you understand” to these words of the therapist, at least in thought if not in words, creates the mental yes-set and is the basis of trance induction. Theodore Barber replaces the phrase hypnotic trance with the concept of a hypnotic mind-set that in the words of the cognitive-behavioral therapist can be considered a cognitive schema (Robertson, 2013, p. 9). More specifically, the hypnotic mind-set is the yes-set , a mind-set with heightened rapport that opens the client to the suggestions of the therapist, thus creating a state of heightened suggestibility. Heighted suggestibility

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  The Practice of Cognitive-Behavioural Hypnotherapy

  A Manual for Evidence-Based Clinical Hypnosis

  • Donald J. Robertson(Author)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Decades of research have failed to confirm the hypothesis that responses to suggestion are due to an altered state of consciousness, and as a result this hypothesis has been abandoned by most researchers in the field. (Lynn & Kirsch, 2006, p. 44) As they also observe, among those researchers and clinicians who do continue to use the ter-minology of “hypnotic trance” the concept has been dramatically watered-down, to the point where it refers to something akin to mental absorption and is compared to everyday expe-riences such as being engrossed in a movie or a daydream. This would probably equate to what Braid meant by mental abstraction or focused attention but, like the cognitive-behavioural researchers today, he considered “trance” the wrong word to describe what normally happens during hypnotism. Indeed, under normal circumstances, ordinary people virtually never refer to being engrossed in a story, watching a movie or reading a novel, as literally being in a “trance”—it’s too strong a word for such a mundane experience. When hypnotherapists use the word “trance” in this very loose sense, it tends to confuse their clients, who normally expect it to mean something else. Moreover, when clients believe that they must enter a hypnotic trance it often creates problems for hypnotherapy. Many clients are frightened by this notion, and become defensive, whereas others develop unrealistic expectations of dramatic results which can lead to disappointment. Most of all, though, it tends to foster confusion regarding the client’s role, as she sits listening to the hypnotist and wonders, “What am I supposed to be feeling?” In general, the concept can encourage her to adopt a “wait and see” attitude of extreme passivity which has been shown to reduce the effectiveness of hypnotic suggestions (Lynn & Kirsch, 2006, p. 45).

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  Psychology for Psychiatrists

  • C. G. Costello, Hugh L. Freeman(Authors)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Pergamon

    (Publisher)

  C H A P T E R 8 Hypnosis Hypnosis will be considered here, following Barber (1958a) not as a state of any kind but as . . . a descriptive abstraction referring to a number of interrelated and overlapping processes. We are not concerned with the methods of inducing Hypnosis, since they have been described often enough, but, primarily, with those studies which have investigated the variables related to the increased suggestibility which is claimed to occur, after what has been described as the induction of a trance. We are concerned also with those studies which have demonstrated the importance of social-psychological variables in studies of Hypnosis—those studies, in other words, which have taken some of the mystery out of Hypnosis. In a study by Barber (1960a), a female student research assistant who was untrained as a hypnotist gave 236 students at a girls' college direct suggestions (each suggestion requiring 30 or 45 sec) of body immobility, hallucination of thirst, selective amnesia, etc. Although the girls were not hyponitzed, 20.8 per cent carried out six of the eight suggestions, and 46 per cent carried out at least half of the suggestions. Glass and Barber (1961) found that a placebo administered by a physician as a Hypnosis-producing drug was as effective in enhancing the subject's suggestibility as a formal 20-min trance-induction procedure. Orne (1959) found that the subject's knowledge about Hypnosis influenced his own hypnotic behavior. In his experiments, two college classes were given lectures and demonstrations of hypnotic behavior. In one class, it was emphasized that in induced hand catalepsy it is the dominant hand that is affected. In the other i n 112 PSYCHOLOGY FOR PSYCHIATRISTS class, this was not mentioned. Volunteers from both classes were then sent to the experimenter, without his knowing which class they came from.

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  Sudden Influence

  How Spontaneous Events Shape Our Lives

  • Michael A. Rousell(Author)
  • 2007(Publication Date)
  • Praeger

    (Publisher)

  You become totally immersed in the experience and feel as if you are on that beach. Your newly created Chapter 4 More than Hypnosis model of reality generates the sensations of warmth and relaxation, making the suggested model seem real. Painful sensations from surgery do not fit into your fashioned experience; accordingly, you manage to get through the surgery without any awareness of pain. Research shows that while your mid-brain registers pain, the “ouch” message never gets to your cortex where conscious experience takes place. 1 While it is only recently that we could measure the brain patterns of Hypnosis, the process itself emerged long ago. Early in our human history, teachers, healers, and storytellers used concentration and imagination to invoke a particular reality for their students, patients, and listeners. Over the years, the practice of engrossing someone in thoughts and images became honed and refined. Inevitably, healers ritualized this practice and mystified it with sensational claims. Primitive people still use similar methods of concentration and imagi- nation for healing, but they don’t view it suspiciously or refer to it as Hypnosis. Modern civilization eventually coined this natural process Hypnosis. 2 Today, Hypnosis is the formally defined system designed to reliably induce a high state of suggestibility. The next few sections illustrate the experience of Hypnosis. Learning how hypnotic phenomena emerge and how they activate subsequent behaviors will help you understand similar but more powerful phe- nomena operating during SIEs. We start with compulsions. Hypnotic suggestions initiate compulsions to act in a way that corresponds with the suggestions. COMPULSIONS Most of the time we give in to our compulsions and we usually do so without examining or analyzing our motives, thoughts, or the circum- stances.

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  Hypnosis

  Developments in Research and New Perspectives

  • Robert Shor(Author)
  • 2017(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Flexibility is yet another potential advantage. The technology of the artificial induction of natural states is chronically underdeveloped. A majority of effort has focused on two emotions that seem simplest to evoke: anxiety and hostility. Other conditions rarely have been reproduced in the laboratory. Hypnosis is the only technique that has a broad, general potential for artificially creating a wide range of naturally occurring conditions in the experimental subject.

  POSSIBLE DEFICIENCIES OF Hypnosis AS A RESEARCH TECHNIQUE

  The experimental use of Hypnosis also has a few serious shortcomings. The most important is an unknown, but probably fairly high, possibility of sampling bias. Most investigations necessarily employ volunteer subjects. Relevant data are scanty, but a study by Lubin, Brady, & Levitt, (1962) hints at the existence of at least a few personality differences between volunteers and nonvolunteers for Hypnosis experiments. The best available current esti-mates are that among volunteers, fewer than half will demonstrate sufficient hypnotizability to qualify for most experiments (Hilgard, 1967). A common practice is to accept only volunteers attaining scores of 10 or higher on the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale (SHSS), Forms A or B. Using this criterion, only about 15 per cent of the volunteers will qualify (Weitzenhoffer & Hilgard, 1959). It is difficult to counter the argument that the final distillate of the subject selection procedures is a sample that is unrepresentative of any large population.

  The investigator may attempt to circumvent the problem of sampling bias by lowering the cutoff point. Using a score of 5 on the SHSS as the lower limit for qualification, for example, would permit inclusion of about 55 per cent of the volunteers. But this introduces a fresh problem. A number of response measurements have been demonstrated to be correlated with the hypnotic capacity of the subject as determined by a standard scale (see, for examples, Hepps & Brady, 1967; Hilgard, 1967; Tart, 1966a). Responses of subjects will be determined to varying degrees by factors other than the dependent variables of the study, that is, by those that influence hypnotizability. It is conceivable, though not inevitable, that such an effect could con-found experimental results.

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