Carli, G. (1975). Some evidence of analgesia during animal hypnosis [Abstract]. Experimental Brain Research, 23, 35
The purpose of this study was to investigate the response to painful stimuli during animal hypnosis. The experiments were performed on unanesthetized, free-moving rabbits carrying implanted electrodes for recording the EEG and EMG activity and nerve stimulation. Injection of formaline into the dorsal region of the foot produced long lasting EEG desynchronization and motor pain reactions. In some rabbits a procedure of habituation was used to reduce hypnosis duration below 45 sec. Hypnosis was induced by inversion. The following results were obtained: 1) Polysynaptic reflexes eliced [sic] by electrical stimulation of cutaneous and muscle afferents were depressed during hypnosis. 2) Hypnosis transitorily suppressed all the painful manifestations due to formaline injection and was characterized by hygh [sic] voltage slow wave activity in the EEG, 3) In habituated rabbits, a significant increase in hypnotic duration and EEG synchronization was observed when hypnosis was preceded by formaline injection. Hypnosis duration was not potentiated by painful stimuli when Naloxone (5mg/Kg i.v.) was injected before hypnosis induction. 4) In habituated rabbits a recovery in hypnotic duration coupled to EEG synchronization was obtained, in absence of painful stimuli, following subanalgesic injection of Morphine (1mg/Kg). It has been previously shown that in the rabbit administration of 5-20 mg/Kg of Morphine produces EEG synchronization and strong reduction of pain reactions. It is suggested that, during animal hypnosis in a condition of continuous nociceptive stimulation, the pain response is blocked by a mechanism which exibit [sic] similar effects of Morphine both at spinal cord (polysynaptic reflexes) and at cortical levels (EEG synchronization).
Lick, John R. (1975). Expectancy, false galvanic skin response feedback, and systematic desensitization in the modification of phobic behavior. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 43 (4), 557-567.
This study compared systematic desensitization and two pseudotherapy manipulations with and without false galvanic skin response feedback after every session suggesting improvement in the modification of intense snake and spider fear. The results indicated no consistent differences between the three treatment groups, although all treatments were significantly more effective than no treatment in modifying physiological, behavioral, and self-report measures of fear. A 4-month follow-up showed stability in fear reduction on self-report measures for the three treatment groups. Overall, the results of this experiment were interpreted as contradicting a traditional conditioning explanation of systematic desensitization. An alternate explanation for the operation of systematic desensitization emphasizing the motivational as opposed to conditioning aspects of the procedure is discussed.
1973
Tori, Christopher; Worell, Leonard (1973). Reduction of human avoidant behavior: A comparison of counterconditioning, expectancy, and cognitive information approaches. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 41 (2), 269-278.
This study was designed to compare the fear-reducing efficacy of procedures based on three major theories that have been proposed to account for the success of systematic desensitization therapy: (a) cognitive information storage and retrieval, (b) cognitive expectancy, and (c) counterconditioning. Predictions were confirmed in that the outcome measures of the high-expectancy placebo group and the two cognitive-coping groups were significantly superior to those of the counterconditioning and no-treatment groups. Thus, this experiment supports the supposition that changes in human avoidant behavior may be attributed to demand and expectancy variables rather than the conditioning of “antagonistic responses” as has been previously suggested.
1972
Greene, R. J.; Reyher, J. (1972). Pain tolerance on hypnotic analgesic and imagination states. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 79 (1), 29-38.
NOTES
Found that a hypnotic-analgesic-plus-pleasant-imagery condition was not as effective as was an analgesia suggestion only, in modifying tolerance.
1969
Graham, Kenneth (1969). Brightness contrast by hypnotic hallucination. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 17, 62-73
Tested the veridicality of a hypnotic hallucination elicited by a buzzer through a conditioning procedure. The stimulus to be hallucinated consisted of 2 gray circles, 3 in. in diameter, mounted on a white card. 11 highly susceptible Ss were able to produce this hallucination upon hearing the buzzer during a series of test trials following the training. Following a 2nd training series, a black and white background was provided for the hallucination and Ss tended to report the hallucinated circles as a brightness contrast. A 2nd group of highly susceptible Ss was not hypnotized, but was asked to respond as if hypnotized. These Ss tended not to report the contrast. (Spanish & German summaries) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2002 APA, all rights reserved)
Barber, Theodore Xenophon; Calverley, David S. (1966). Toward a theory of hypnotic behavior: Experimental evaluation of Hull’s postulate that hypnotic susceptibility is a habit phenomenon. Journal of Personality, 34, 416-433.
NOTES
Examines Hull’s 1933 theory that hypnotic susceptibility is a habit phenomenon, which he derived from a review of the literature and an experiment. Also presents his own experiment to test it.
Davison, Gerald C. (1965, June). Anxiety under total curarization: Implications for the role of muscular relaxation in the desensitization of neurotic fears. [Paper] Presented at the annual meeting of the Western Psychological Association, Honolulu.
NOTES
I began by describing the Jacobson-Wolpe position on the use of deep muscular relaxation as an anxiety-inhibitor: these writers assume that the considerable reduction in proprioceptive feedback from muscles which are in a relaxed state is incompatible with a state of anxiety. Then I mentioned the evidence that at least modern neuromuscular blocking-agents operate solely at the myoneural junction, with no direct central effects. I went on to discuss the various studies which have used paralytic drugs, primarily d- tubocurarine chloride, to show the learning of fear-responses under complete striate muscle paralysis: the fact that these animals are able to acquire classically-conditioned fear-responses under curare was taken as evidence inconsistent with the views of Jacobson and Wolpe. Several studies were then reviewed which purport to furnish confirmatory evidence for the Jacobson position: these studies showed considerable central depression during curare paralysis. I re-interpreted these studies in the light of the over-riding importance of exteroceptive stimulation, stressing that the animals in the curare learning experiments were likewise deprived of proprioceptive feedback and yet were hardly non- anxious: the important difference was that the animals in the conditioning experiments were stimulated frequently from the environment while curarized, this stimulation maintaining an alert, often anxious state. Finally, two hypotheses were put forward as to why training in muscular relaxation does, in fact, inhibit anxiety: the one suggested that relaxing one’s muscles generates strong positive affect states, which in turn inhibit anxiety; the other hypothesis called attention to the fact that the states of muscular relaxation under curare versus under self-induced relaxation differ in the important respect that only with self-induced relaxation is there a reduction in efferent activity–perhaps this elimination of efferents, rather than afferents, inhibits anxiety.
1965
Vasilev, L. (1965).
Mysterious phenomena of the human psyche. New York: University Books. (Abstracted in American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 1965, 8:2, 146-147)
NOTES:
The review of this book by Leo Wollman (American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 1965, vol. 8, pp. 146-147) states, “Many interesting theories about hypnosis are aired in this book. The opinions Pavlov propounded many years ago, about cortical inhibition are assiduously asserted, yet some statements made bear investigation. The mere sight of the experimenter in B. N. Birman’s experiments with dogs put the dog into a hypnotic state. The appearance in the room of other people, who had not participated in the experiments, had no sleep inducing effect. For the experimental animal, therefore, the experimenter himself had been transformed into a conditioned hypnogenous stimulus. Similarly, in group hypnotherapy, the entrance of the physician-hypnotist into the room often effects a hypnotic state in some of the subjects. The doctor has become the stimulus for the conditioned response, that of hypnotic trance state induction.
” An interesting and perhaps little known fact elicited from Chapter III (Hypnotism and Suggestion) is the high percentage (12%) of those replies to questionnaires during the First International Congress on Experimental Psychology held in Paris in 1899, which indicated that 3,000 respondents had hallucinations while in a normal state of health. The majority were visual; auditory and tactile hallucinations were less frequent” (pp. 146-147).
1963
Dittborn, Julio M.; Munoz, L.; Aristeguita, A. (1963). Facilitation of suggested sleep after repeated performances of the sleep suggestibility test. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 11, 236-240.
The sleep suggestibility test (SST) was individually administered to a group of young volunteer soldiers. There was increased susceptibility with each successive SST administration. It was possible to transform suggested sleep into somnambulistic hypnosis in a majority of Ss. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2002 APA, all rights reserved)
Webb, Robert A. (1962). Suggestibility and verbal conditioning. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 10, 275-279.
Evidence is advanced that postural sway suggestibility is positively correlated with verbal conditioning. No S below 100 mm. of body sway showed any indication of conditioning. The lowest suggestibility group appeared to be counter-conditioning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2002 APA, all rights reserved
Black, Stephen; Wigan, E. R. (1961). An investigation of selective deafness produced by direct suggestion under hypnosis. British Medical Journal, 2 (5254), 736-741.
NOTES:
Conditioned cardiac response extinguished by hypnotic deafness.
Farber, S. M.; Wilson, R. H. L. (1961). Control of the mind. New York: McGraw-Hill. (Reviewed in American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 1964, 7, 2)
NOTES
Contains papers presented by multidisciplinary group at a symposium. Covers broad areas of: 1. The mind and its integration. 2. The influence of drugs on the individual. 3. The mind and society 4. The effect of technology on the mind 5. Restrictions and freedom of the mind.
1961
Stolzenberg, Jacob (1961). Technique in conditioning and hypnosis for control of gagging. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 9, 97-104.
Author’s Conclusion The practitioner who is competently trained in hypnosis will find that there is a diminished need for the use of hypnosis per se, with most of his patients. His understanding of the psychodynamics will aid immeasurably in establishing rapport with his patients, and develop an excellent patient-dentist relationship. His semantics will be a vocabulary of positive words which will not trigger off negative reactions in his patients. The dentist as a rule, who has been exposed to hypnosis indoctrination, usually displays kindness and understanding, and treats his patients with tender loving care.
“The highest achievement in a dentist-patient relationship is attained when the parent says, ”You know, doctor, I would almost think you had hypnotized my daughter when I see how nicely she cooperates”” (p. 104).
1960
Tinterow, Maurice M. (1960). The use of hypnoanalgesia in the relief of intractable pain. American Surgeon, 26, 30-34.
NOTES:
The author begins with a statement that the experience of pain requires consciousness. He continues by suggesting that hypnotic control of pain requires establishing selective thinking and bypassing the critical thinking aspect of consciousness. “[Hypnosis] raises the threshold of pain and is the only means of anesthesia which carries no danger to the patient. … Hypnosis obeys the laws which govern conditioning in general, and suggestion causes new conditioned patterns to be developed” (p. 30).
“Success in hypnotherapy depends on the ability of the individual and, of importance, on constant practice. … Under the influence of hypnosis the sensory end organs continue to function but the patient’s attitude may be altered that the pain is no longer experienced the same way. … Intractable pain is not responsive to conservative measures. It is usually produced by a disease which cannot be treated directly. Drug therapy will usually give relief, particularly opium and its derivatives, but with continued usage the severity of pain has no relationship to the amount of narcotic necessary. … Hypnosis is nothing more than the suggestive placebo effect presented in a specific personal setting” (p. 31).
“Nearly all of the patients with intractable pain reach debilitating states through exhaustion, loss of sleep, decrease of appetite and weight loss. … The use of suggestive therapy should be attempted early and before addiction to narcotics or alcohol has occurred. … The word hypnosis is not used because of the fear the patient has toward the mystery and the unknown. The term ‘medical relaxation’ is referred to as the method of therapy” (p. 31).
“Hypnotherapy was attempted in 15 cases of intractable pain. Success depended upon the early referral of the cases and before addiction to narcotics has occurred. Five of the eight cases with metastatic carcinoma were relieved of the severe intractable pain. Of the two patients with intractable pain following herpes zoster, relief was successful in one of them. A patient with diabetic neuropathy had no pain after five sessions of hypnosis. After an operation for repair of a hiatal hernia, the patient had severe intractable pain which was relieved with hypnotic therapy. Another patient, who developed pain after a subtotal gastrectomy, was also successful in returning to a normal life. Two other patients … were unable to be hypnotized” (p. 32).
1959
Crasilneck, Harold B.; Hall, James A. (1959). Physiological changes associated with hypnosis: A review of the literature since 1948. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 7 (1), 9-50. ( Abstracted in Psychological Abstracts, 61: 6626)
NOTES
Topic headings include:
Experimental Techniques (Depth, Type of suggestion, Other variables)
Cardiovascular Effects (Clinical reports, Blister formation, Bleeding, Peripheral vasomotion, Heart rate, EKG changes, Blood pressure, Hematological changes)
Respiration
Urogenital System
Gastrointestinal System
Metabolism and Temperature
Endocrine System
Central Nervous System (Electroencephalography, Epilepsy, Age regression, Galvanic skin response, Muscle control, Electromotive changes, Multiple sclerosis, Cold adaptation, Exocrine glands, Reflexes, Russian reports)
Special Senses (Hearing, Taste)
Das, J. P. (1959). A theory of hypnosis. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 7 (2), 69-77.
NOTES 1:
“Summary
“The present theory of hypnosis assumes two things — that hypnosis is a form of conditioning and that it is a state of inhibition. Evidence relevant to the assumptions is presented briefly. The theory views hypnosis as a learned state of partial cortical inhibition and formalises it as a multiplicative function of learning and inhibition: H = f(L X I). Some predictions are made and explanations provided for several phenomena associated with hypnosis. The orientation of the theory is Pavlovian” (p. 75).
H = Hypnosis, L = Learning (conditionability, habit formation, etc.), I = partial cortical inhibition.
“Purely mechanically produced monotonous stimuli may induce a state of inhibition. But the task of the hypnotist is to select the cortical points to keep in a state of excitation, thus preventing inhibition from spreading over the entire cortex to produce sleep” (p. 71).
Pascal, G. R.; Salzberg, H. C. (1959). A systematic approach to inducing hypnotic behavior. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 7 (3), 161-167.
NOTES 1:
“Summary
The paper reports an experiment in inducing hypnotic behavior. Hypnotic behavior is considered as operant behavior subject to the principles of such behavior. Using a procedure based on this systematic position 52 per cent of 56 subjects were brought to the deep trance state in one session, a considerable gain over results reported in the literature. It is felt that the approach presented suggests that hypnosis may be brought into the realm of behavioral science” (p. 166).
A detailed description of the procedure is provided. It begins with providing information, establishing rapport, using demonstrations of hypnotic-like behavior (the Kohnstamm phenomenon and body sway suggestions), followed by relaxation in a stimulus-attenuated room with verbal suggestions and operant (verbal) reinforcement. It procedes with a series of frankly hypnotic suggestions for arm analgesia and lightness/floating, amnesia, etc.
Platonov, K. I. (1959). The word as a physiological and therapeutic factor: The theory and practice of psychotherapy according to I. P. Pavlov. ( 2nd). Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House.
NOTES 1:
NOTES: On pp. 75-76 the author discusses conditioning in hypnosis. Most of the theoretical material is in the first part of the book; the rest consists of case studies. He presents the position that the activity of the cortex and subcortex are different during states of waking and suggested sleep.
Note: Much of the Russian research done during “suggested sleep” involves subjects who are hypnotized for a long period of time–sometimes hours. Routinely, in treatment, they would give corrective suggestions and then tell the person to “sleep” and would leave them in the “sleep” for an hour or longer.
“Thus, it appears from the foregoing that the basic peculiarities of the activity of the cerebral cortex manifesting themselves in the state of suggested sleep are as follows: 1. In addition to the division of the cerebral hemispheres into sections of sleep and wakefulness typical of the hypnotic sleep of an animal, there is also a functional dissociation of the two signal systems and within the second signal system. 2. The activity of the second signal system under these conditions is not only confined to the narrow framework of the rapport zone, but is also frequently of a passive nature being directly dependent on the verbal influences of the hypnotist. Outside these influences there is no (or hardly any) activity. 3. A considerable increase in the coupling function with respect to the stimuli of the second signal system is noted at the same time in the rapport zone. This especially favours the formation of new cortical dynamic structures under the verbal influences of the hypnotist, these structures representing the physiological basis for effectuating the suggested actions and states.
“The foregoing peculiarities manifest themselves in the fact that the entire external second signal activity of the subject is reduced only to direct answers to the questions of the hypnotist with no independent reactions to any influences, including verbal, coming from other people (so-called isolated rapport). This is understandable, since the activity of the second signal system lying outside the rapport zone is inhibited” (pp. 73-74).
“As to the problem of the peculiarities of the conditioned reflex activity during suggested sleep, it will be noted that this problem has not been very extensively studied as yet. Nevertheless, the data of various authors are of indubitable interest, since they have revealed a number of specific peculiarities in the state of the higher nervous activity under these conditions.
“According to these data the conditioned reflex activity in suggested sleep undergoes certain changes. Thus, S. Levin observed in his early studies (1931) that in children under conditions of suggested sleep the motor and secretory conditioned reflexes elaborated earlier in the waking state grew very much weaker and that there was a dissociation both between the motor and secretory conditioned reflexes and between the unconditioned reflexes of salivation and mastication; he also observed the transitional (phasic) states–paradoxical, ultraparadoxical and inhibitory phases, all the way to the onset of complete sleep” (pp. 74-75).
Platonov indicates that conditioned reflexes may disappear during suggested sleep (Povorinsky & Traugott, 1936). Arousal from suggested sleep results in gradual restoration of the reflexes, with speech reactions inhibited first and restored last. Pen & Jigarov (1936) also showed that there is a weakening of conditioned reflexes, with increased latency, in suggested sleep. These authors showed that it is impossible to form new conditioned reflexes in deep states of suggested sleep, and the conditioning is difficult in lighter states.
“Y. Povorinsky’s data (1937) indicate that the conditioned reflexes elaborated in the waking state have a longer latent period during suggested sleep and in some subjects they are completely absent. Under these circumstances, the reactions to the verbal influences of the hypnotist are retained even during the deepest suggested sleep. The more complex and ontogenetically later conditioned bonds of the speech-motor analyzer are inhibited first as the subject lapses into a state of suggested sleep and are disinhibited the last as the subject awakens from this state” (p. 75).
“B. Pavlov and Y. Povorinsky observe (1953) that the conditioned bonds reinforced by the words of the hypnotist are formed during suggested sleep faster than in the waking state. In this case, during the somnambulistic phase of suggested sleep verbal reinforcements, as a rule, provoke a stronger and longer reaction with a shorter latent period than a direct first signal stimulus” (p. 76). The conditioning that occurs during suggested sleep does not manifest during waking periods unless suggestions are given during the sleep to react after wakening. The author takes this to be evidence that conditioned reflex activity can be modified by verbal suggestions.
During the somnambulistic stage of suggested sleep, subjects are less adept at performing addition. This indicates that inhibition has spread to the second signal system. However, inhibition of different sensory systems seems to vary from person to person. Krasnogorsky (1951) reported one subject did not react to light, but hearing seemed to be more sensitive than in the waking state.
“All of the above testifies to the considerable changes in the character of cortical activity regularly occurring during suggested sleep and determining, on the whole, the specific nature of higher nervous activity, the systematic study of which should be the object of further research” (p. 77).
1957
Weitzenhoffer, Andre M. (1957). Posthypnotic behavior and the recall of the hypnotic suggestion. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 5 (2), 41-58.
Summary
1. Posthypnotic phenomena may be spontaneous or suggested in origin. Although no single mechanism appears to exist which will account for all of the spontaneous manifestations, their explanations are relatively straightforward. On the other hand, suggested posthypnotic phenomena are not so readily dealt with.
2. … It seems likely that a relation exists between posthypnotic suggestions and waking instructions of the everyday variety; however, lack of basic information regarding the retention and activation of the latter has made this line of approach unproductive to date. Nor is it possible to talk of posthypnotic phenomena as learned if one regards the posthypnotic signal as stimulus and the suggested act as response. The definition of learning excludes this case because of the presence of hypnosis at the time the response is acquired. In addition, the acquisition and evocation of the posthypnotic effect does not follow any standard paradigm for learning.
3. If, however, one views the posthypnotic suggestion as a whole as being the stimulus, and the act of subjectively, if not objectively, giving reality to the content of the suggestion as the response, then suggested posthypnotic phenomena can be fitted within the framework of modern learning theory. They appear to arise through some form of classical conditioning, abstract conditioning being the most likely form at present. Seen in these terms, posthypnotic suggestions function through the same mechanisms as any other hypnotic suggestion, being merely a special instance of a deferred suggestion. It must be emphasized that posthypnotic phenomena are learned in the sense only that they are brought into being through the use of previously acquired response tendencies. The learning process has usually reached completion by the time the hypnotic subject is capable of giving good posthypnotic responses.
4. The posthypnotic signal holds a unique position in posthypnotic phenomena which allows it to acquire unique and distinctive features with respect to the elicitation of the suggested behavior, among which is the capacity to cause redintegration.
5. The sponsaneous [sic] trance said to accompany the initiation of any posthypnotic act appears to be a natural outcome of the learning process involved in the acquisition of posthypnotic behavior. There is a reinstatement of the original trance state because the posthypnotic trance is the result of associations taking place between the stimulus-suggestion and the symptoms of the initial hypnosis, these symptoms acting as responses.
6. Acquisition and retention of the contents of the suggested posthypnotic act may need to be differentiated from the acquisition and retention by the posthypnotic signal of the capacity to initiate the posthypnotic act. In the light of this observation, experimental data showing that posthypnotic suggestions are forgotten just like any other instructions may hold true only for the memory of the content. The capacity to initiate posthypnotic action, although subject to the same laws of forgetting may be far more enduring because of certain features of the learning process which underlie it” (pp. 55-56).
Solovey, Galina; Milechnin, Anatol (1956). Concerning some points about the nature of hypnosis. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 4 (2), 83-88.
NOTES
Two experiments with young children explored the similarity between mothers’ sleep inducing speech and hypnotic induction. The first group were six normal children ranging in age from 25 to 37 months. Author interviewed their mothers for details on their sleep inducing behavior. Then “we followed a procedure that as a rule consisted in leaning over the little one, dedicating all our attention to him, repeating the mother’s own series of soothing diminutives in a softly-modulated voice, and stroking gently the child’r hair, forehead, or arm. In four to thirty-five minutes, the children relaxed, stopped moving, let their eyelids droop, and showed a particularly placid facial expression. Their appearance was completely similar to that of a hypnotized person” (p. 83). Signs of catalepsy (e.g. following suggestions of holding a teddy bear more and more tightly) and concentration of attention to the exclusion of outside stimuli were taken to indicate the hypnotic state.
The second experiment involved infants 3 to 24 months old, lulling them into a state of quiet relaxation. “The difficulty does not consist in producing this special state, but in demonstrating that it is really hypnosis. However, if we consider the identity of the means employed in bringing it about, and the similarity of the results to those occurring at a slightly later age, it would be unreasonable to think that there is a certain reaction up to a certain age and a fundamentally different one from that age on” (p. 85).
The author relates her findings to those of investigators who studied populations of infants and children who, lacking “psychological mothering” failed to thrive or even died. She concludes that the “psychological motehring” in normal families “produces hypnotic states in the infant daily, from the moment of birth” (p. 88).
Leuba, Clarence (1955). Conditioning during hypnosis. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 3 (4), 256-259.
NOTES
The author is responding to an article that concludes that conditioning during hypnosis leads to effects better accounted for by the research subjects’ attempts to conform or please the Experimenter (Fisher, Seymour. An investigation of alleged conditioning phenomena under hypnosis. J. clin. exp. hypnosis, 1955, 3, 71-103).
“Informal attempts have been made to eliminate the personal subjective influence of the hypnotist when testing for the effects of ‘alleged’ conditioning under hypnosis. The conditioned stimulus has been administered post-hypnotically by other persons than the hypnotist, or when S was occupied, offguard, and presumably not set to please the hypnotist. The results have been equivocal. Usually, the conditioned responses occurred when the conditioned stimulus was administered by others than the hypnotist and in a variety of situations; when caught offguard, however, the S may not respond, at least not overtly; he may, for instance, only feel a tendency to cough when touched. This might be, of course, because coughing is often inhibited in social circumstances and the tendency, therefore, does not become overt. Sometimes when told by the hypnotist post-hypnotically that the experiments were over, the alleged conditioning disappeared; sometimes, on the other hand, when the hypnotist emphatically stated post-hypnotically that there was no odor present and that it had been just hallucinated, the S nevertheless smelled it when the cue was again present” (p. 258).
1955
McCranie, E. J.; Crasilneck, H. B. (1955). The conditioned reflex in hypnotic age regression. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Psychopathology, 16, 120-123.
NOTES
During age regression and testing of reflexes, voluntary hand withdrawal was lost; however the conditioned eyelid reflex was not lost.
Naruse, Gosaku; Obonai, Torao (1955). Decomposition and fusion of mental images in the post-hypnotic hallucinatory state. II: Mechanism of image composing activity. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 3 (1), 2-23.
NOTES
“Summary. This is a report of the studies continued from the previous work, as regards the mode and law of modification of images, by experiments on the image-fusion which is observed in a post-hypnotic hallucinatory state. The writers investigated the configuration law of the Gestalt school, also whether there was nothing other than the overlapping of images. Various experiments were performed using accorded figures (Fig.1), discorded figures (Fig. 3), the composed image partly changed in size (Fig. 4), the incomplete figures with concrete meaning (Fig. 5,A) and the figures in which the perception and meaning were discorded with each other (Fig. 6). The results were as follows:
(1) There were some subjects whose images were clear, and others whose images were vague. In general, the images were clear in deep hypnotic trance, and vague in the medium trance.
(2) In the case of the clear images, they were prominently overlapping while in the case of the vague images, they overlapped one another and were disjointed or integrated.
(3) After conditioning two kinds of figures with two kinds of sounds, a composed image could be aroused by the two stimuli; in this case, by changing the tempo of one kind, a part of the composed image was changed. This fact would prove that the composed images were combinations of elements.
(4) In the case of the integrated images, the modification of both clear and vague images could be explained satisfactorily not by the Gestalt theory but by the intervention of the meaning. Moreover, the hypothesis of the integration or hierarchy of cerebral functions corresponding to these phenomena was possible.
(5) Modification through meaning was more frequent in the vague images than in the clear ones.
(6) The spontaaneous effect of meaning of the image was dependent on the depth of trance. This effect was comparatively weak in deep trance and strong in medium trance. It was assumed that in medium trance which reproduced the integrated images, meaning activity still remained.
(7) Having presented incomplete figures with concrete meanings to examine the effect of meaning, it was clear that the modification of images by meaning took place distinctly under the influence of suggestion.
(8) If perception and meaning of the figure were made to be in discord with each other, the meaning suggested at the time of conditioning produced more effect on the modification of the image than that at the time of recall” (p. 22).
1954
Dittborn, Julio (1954). Dehypnotization and associated words. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 2 (2), 136-138.
NOTES
Author tested Freud’s hypotheses about signs of emotional conflict gleaned from a word association test. A highly hypnotizable subject who had been accused of theft was tested with the word association test repeatedly. He had been given the suggestion, while in deep hypnosis, that any word provoking emotional conflict would automatically bring him out of hypnosis. That is, “dehypnotization was used as a new method to investigate the conflict-provoking quality of certain stimulus-words in an association word test” (p. 139). Freud’s predictions were only partially supported.
Howarth, Edgar (1954). Postscript to a new theory of hypnosis. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 2, 91-92.
NOTES
Referring to a theory of internal and external signalling systems, the author describes situations in which an individual’s behavior comes under other than willed control by virtue of external circumstances. “In normal behavior the individual provides his own ‘will’ and may, to some extent, choose among a variety of alternative action sequences on the basis of guiding integrations between the second (externally directed) signalling system and the primary (internally directed) signalling system. … it appears that a considerable degree of control may be obtained by the ‘top’ semantic command system over internal process, particularly those ‘inhibited’ by the cranial and sacral subdivisions of the ‘autonomic’ nervous system. .. [In anecdotal case reports] control was gained over breathing, heart rate and bladder and the person may feign death for several days. In such cases surface wounds do not exude other than lymph. The method for such control remains for experimental examination, but a necessary part of the procedure seems to be the use of mild occasional reward during a prolonged period of fasting. Solitary confinement is also necessary and both deserts and prison cells are reported … to have been used” (pp. 91-92).
1953
Dittborn, Julio (1953). Conditioning of hypnosis to different signs of the same significance. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 1 (3), 1-3.
BSTRACT: No Abstract or Summary available. The author’s conclusions state, in part:
1. The difference of the periods of latency to condition a deep hypnotic trance between the different signs of the number six, is remarkable. This difference is significant between the pair (6; six,) and the pair (VI; 12:2).
2. The mean periods of latency are peculiar to each subject, but the subjects tend to gather themselves into two groups: a more rapid (subjects C and D) and a slow one (subjects A and B).
3. It is worthy of notice that one of the subjects, B, did not respond to the idea of six when this was not presented explicitly, but had to be deducted from a calculation (12:2=).
…… It is suggestive that with three somnambulists the idea was enough to produce the phenomenon, while the other always required the objectivation of the idea, even though the sign implied it in a very evident and simple way. It might be worth while to ask if this phenomenon might not be another way to measure the depth of a somnambulic trance.
Guze, Henry (1953). Posture, postural redintegration and hypnotherapy. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 1, 76-82. (Abstracted in Psychological Abstracts 53: 6559)
SUMMARY
The use of postural analysis, and directives regarding posture and their importance in hypnotherapy are discussed. Theoretically, it is indicated that a chronic postural condition may act to elicit an emotional state with which it was originally associated. Such an emotional condition may have caused the posture in the first place, and then established a feed-back relationship with it. The breaking of feed-back mechanisms of this kind depends largely upon postural change when a chronic situation is established in the absence of realistic cause for the emotion. Posture may also act redintegratively, when directly suggested, in rearousing traumatic memories. Several clinical cases are reported.
Howarth, Edgar (1953). A new theory of hypnosis. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 1 (4), 42-46.
Author’s Summary – A new theory of hypnosis was suggested on the basis of interaction between the neural representations of the primary and secondary systems. It was suggested that the hypnotizer was able to integrate his own semantic commands into the neural representations as previously conditioned within the brain of the subject from past experience from semantic visual/auditory distal invariants. This was done by input contiguity between the verbal “commands” or “suggestions” from the experimenter accompanying stimulus or input reduction and the later “necessary events.” We realize that our terminology is “new” (or may seem new to some) but the older terminology is largely anthropomorphic, and certainly does not offer explanations of psychological phenomena, such as hypnosis. (p. 46).
Naruse, Gosaku; Obonai, Torao (1953). Decomposition and fusion of mental images in the drowsy and post-hypnotic hallucinatory state. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 1 (4), 23-41.
Summary of Part I
“From the above we can conclude the following main facts.
1) When one sensory stimulus is given to a subject in a drowsy state, images of other objects associated with it often appear.
2) These images sometimes have forms, and sometimes are devoid of forms, only light and color being present. This phenomenon resembles the experience of color-hearing, and is called a new type of synaethesia [sic] by Bachen.
3) These images are sure to disappear when they are observed attentively, a passive attitude being necessary for the image observation.
4) The remarkable character of these images are such that elements of forms and colors of various objects have been disjointed and connected with each other in different relationships which construct new images.