1 Hypnosis Module 16

2 States of Consciousness Hypnosis overview  Facts and Falsehoods  Explaining the Hypnotized State  AM The Mind 2 AM The Mind 2

3 Hypnosis  Hypnosis  a social interaction in which one person (the hypnotist) suggests to another (the subject) that certain perceptions, feelings, thoughts, or behaviors will spontaneously occur  Posthypnotic Amnesia  supposed inability to recall what one experienced during hypnosis  induced by the hypnotist’s suggestion

4 Name the color of the font in which each word is presented as rapidly as you can Source: Stroop, J.R. (1935). "Studies of Interference in Serial Verbal Reactions." Journal of Experimental Psychology, 18, The Stroop Task

5 Facts and Falsehood Those who practice hypnosis agree that its power resides in the subject’s openness to suggestion. Can anyone experience hypnosis? Yes, to some extent. Can hypnosis enhance recall of forgotten events? No. Can hypnosis be therapeutic? Yes. Self-suggestion can heal too. Can hypnosis alleviate pain? Yes. Lamaze can do that too. Can hypnosis force people to act against their will? No.

6 Hypnosis: Pain Relief  Dissociation (divided consciousness)  a split in consciousness  allows some thoughts and behaviors to occur simultaneously with others  Hidden Observer  Hilgard’s term describing a hypnotized subject’s awareness of experiences, such as pain, that go unreported during hypnosis

7 Explaining the Hypnotized State Social Influence Theory: Hypnotic subjects may simply be imaginative actors playing a social role. AM 14 (Hilgard, 1992) Courtesy of News and Publications Service, Stanford University

8 EXPLORING PSYCHOLOGY (7th Edition in Modules) David Myers PowerPoint Slides Aneeq Ahmad Henderson State University Worth Publishers, © 2008

9 A. Psychoanalytic Approach: Freud’s Model of Hypnosis Freud initially utilized hypnosis to help remove psychosomatic symptoms from patients who suffered from what we would now call a somatoform disorder. These patients suffered from medical complaints like seizures, muscular spasms, and paralysis of their limbs that was transient and/or was not thought to be the entirely the result of a general medical condition. Freud learned that he could temporarily or permanently reduce many of these symptoms using direct hypnotic suggestions for the symptoms to be reversed. (e.g.,: “Your arm is calm again and will no longer spasm.”) Freud also believed that Hypnosis allowed him access to memories within the patient’s unconscious mind which had been previously repressed. Eventually, Freud began using free association instead of hypnosis as a way of accessing the unconscious.

10 B. The Neodissociation Approach A more recent psychoanalytically-oriented theory. Developed by Ernest Hilgard. Under hypnosis, part of the mind enters an altered state of consciousness. A second dissociated part of the mind, later designated as the “Hidden Observer”, remains aware of what is going on during a hypnotic session. The part of the mind in an altered state of consciousness is very open to hypnotic suggestions.

11 B. Neodissociation The Hidden Observer Experiments –Discovered in highly hypnotizable subjects during dissociative tasks such as hypnotic deafness and hypnotic pain analgesia. –If queried, some subjects could nevertheless give realistic accounts of the dissociated experience as if a hidden observer was present within the person.

12 B. Neodissociation Hilgard’s Neodissociation theory –These dissociations were evidence of separate cognitive subsystems that were operating during the experiment. – “The concept of a totally unified consciousness is an attractive one, but does not hold up under examination.” –Ernest R. Hilgard (1994)

13 A Sociocognitive take on Neodissociation The hidden observer is created and enacted by the subject in response to the hypnotic instructions given by the experimenter. (Spanos & Burgess, 1994) The self or “identity is constructed, role- governed, and performed” (Lynn et al., 1994) as a kind of “narrative process” in which we come to construct our experience as that identity as a “believed-in imagining” (Sarbin, 1998).

14 C. The Sociocognitive Approach Contends that the principles of social psychology explain behavior during hypnosis. Not a single theory, but a group of theories. Examples: Role Theory – people naturally adopt the role behaviors of a hypnotized person. Response Expectancy Theory – hypnotic suggestions alter expectations for nonvolitional outcomes (e.g., pain). Such expectations, in turn, then contribute to the experience of those outcomes (Kirsch, 1990).

15 D. A Transpersonal Approach Many of humanity’s earliest views of hypnotic phenomena are described by various religious and spiritual traditions in the world. (Krippner, 2005). –Shamanistic Healing Rituals –Exorcism and Demonology –Advanced meditative practices to achieve Mind/Body Unity within Mystical Christianity, Tibetan Buddhism, Native American, Islamic Sufism, Jewish Kabbalah, and Hindu Tantra. This is an important diversity issue since many people around the world hold these beliefs.

16 Instructions for Chevreul Pendulum Demonstration 1.Obtain scissors, string, and ½ inch washers at a hardware store. 2.At the beginning of the presentation, distribute these materials to the class. Have students cut a 6-inch length of string and tie it to the washer. 3.Explain that you will be doing a demonstration in which students will have an opportunity to experience an imaginative suggestion. 4.Have students place their right elbow on their right thigh and hold the string between their right thumb and index finger so the washer is suspended beneath. 5.Have students hold their hand as still as possible. 6.Ask students to imagine that the washer is beginning to move from left to right. Continue repeating the suggestion until some washers begin to move. There will be a range of responses. Some students will show no response at all. Others will find that their washer moves quite a bit. 7.Cancel the suggestion by telling students their hands are back to normal. 8.Ask students what this has to do with what you were just discussing. 9.This should lead naturally to the next topic – hypnotic suggestibility.