NOTES 1:
This book summarizes research on preconscious activation (subliminal psychodynamic activation) of fantasies of oneness, following tachistoscopic presentation of words like, “Mommy and I are one.” It represents an attempt to test and validate, through experimental investigation, psychoanalytic concepts. The authors show how such fantasies can improve psychosocial adaptation for people with varying kinds of psychopathology.
1981
Franck, Jerome (1981, August). Therapeutic components shared by all psychotherapies. [Paper] Presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association.
NOTES 1:
The author summarizes as follows. 1. Patients who receive any form of psychotherapy do better than controls. 2. Followup studies show most patients who show improvement maintain it; the closing of gap between patients who improve and those who don’t is due to those who do less well catching up. Perhaps the main effect is to accelerate improvement which would eventually happen anyway. 3. Determinants of successful treatment are personal qualities of Patient and Therapist. 4. There are a few conditions which have more specific treatment indications. –Behavior therapy – for phobias, obsessive compulsive disorders, sexuality problems –Cognitive therapy – for depression Further advantages of specific treatments for specific conditions may be found.
All patients seek treatment not just for symptoms but because of demoralization. The common elements are: Subjective incompetence, loss of self esteem, alienation, hopelessness, helplessness, a feeling others could help but won’t, feeling of loss of control. Demoralization plus distress leads to seeking treatment.
A small percentage without demoralization seek treatment for specific symptoms (e.g., patients with a simple phobia of height). Anxiety and depression (or loss of self esteem) are most frequent symptoms in Outpatient Departments.
Success in treatment often is due to restoration of morale (which removing symptoms can do very well). 1. Citing Doehrenwald research. 2. People seek treatment only 1-2 years after symptoms appear, after trying other ways of dealing with them. 3. Many patients improve rapidly in treatment (Garfield found the Mean = 5 or 6 sessions.) Mean symptom relief is same after 4 sessions and drop-out than after 6 months; also those on waiting list in phone contact improve as much.
Shared components in the various therapies combat demoralization: 1. Emotionally charged and vital relationship with the helping person (or group). 2. Healing setting (which increases Therapist’s prestige and promotes healing). (a) Therapeutic rituals (which lead to an external reason for abandoning the symptom; the more spectacular the reason, the greater the motivation). (b) Therapeutic bond.
Expectation of help is the best predictor of outcome. (Cites his own placebo study.) One problem found was that responsiveness to placebo didn’t correlate with response to psychotherapy. (Cites Lieberman’s study). Patients receiving psychotherapy role-induction interview improved more. 3. Provision of learning experiences – movement of values toward those of the therapist 4. Emotional arousal. Supplies motivation for change. Cites his experiments on emotional arousal and attitude change, manipulating arousal using ether drip or adrenalin (leads to temporary attitude change). Something else besides arousal may be needed to sustain change. 5. Enhances sense of mastery, control of one’s self and internal states. (a) provides conceptual scheme (b) gives experience of success 6. Provision of opportunities (and incentives) to practice
Properties of Patient which assure success: 1. Distress 2. Earlier relationship with parent which leads to capacity to relate. (Molly Harrower’s predictors) 3. To profit from specific procedures: capacity for insight for psychoanalysis.
Properties of Therapist which contribute to success:
We haven’t gotten farther than Rogers’ empathy, warmth, and positive regard; Whitehorn & Betz’s Type A and B; and [missed reference name] activity level. He thinks success may be related to Therapist’s parapsychological ability, healing power.
Physiology of hope: Placebos for dental pain lead to pain relief for some. Endorphin antagonist made pain re-occur for them.
1980
Diamond, Michael Jay (1980). The client-as-hypnotist: Furthering hypnotherapeutic change. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 28, 197-207.
A novel hypnotic induction technique is described wherein the client reverses roles and serves as hypnotist for the therapist. Relevant theoretical processes are discussed as are mutual hypnosis, modeling, and the uncommon techniques of Erickson (1964). 3 case illustrations are presented and implications discussed. It is hypothesized that the ‘client-as-hypnotist’ may in certain special situations further hypnotherapy by: (a) increasing client motivation; (b) enhancing therapeutic rapport; (c) increasing both client trust and skills in utilizing unconscious processes; (d) overcoming resistance and increasing hypnotizability; (e) providing a useful psychodiagnostic and behavior assessment index; (f) presenting a role ‘model’ for dealing with feelings, alterations in consciousness, and self-control; (g) providing a client-centered framework for subsequent therapeutic interventions; (h) increasing client self-esteem, mastery, and ego strength; and (i) increasing client self-control skills. Potential risks and contraindications for use of the technique are also discussed.
Sheehan, Peter W. (1980). Factors influencing rapport in hypnosis. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 89 (2), 263-281.
The phenomenon of countering expresses the tendency of some highly susceptible subjects to favor the intent of the hypnotist when placed in a conflict situation where social influences of another kind dictate an alternative response. The present research explored the parameters of this objective index of involvement with the hypnotist to investigate the special relevance of rapport processes to the hypnotic setting. Rapport was manipulated in five different experiments, varying either the warmth or genuineness of the hypnotist. It was predicted from transference theorizing that countering would decrease in the negative context and increase in the positive one. Results confirmed predictions for highly susceptible subjects tested in the former context but not the latter. In the negative setting, subjects were inhibited in their rate of countering, but maintained their previous level of response to the hypnotist when rapport was facilitated. Results highlighted the relevance of interpersonal processes to theorizing about hypnosis.
1979
Sheehan, Peter W. (1979). Expectancy reactions in hypnosis. In Burrows, G. D.; Collison, D. R.; Dennerstein, L. (Ed.), Hypnosis 1979 (pp. 25-32). Amsterdam: Elsevier/North-Holland Biomedical Press.
NOTES 1:
Susceptible Subjects are more likely to follow the hypnotist’s nonverbalized suggestion when it is counter to their expectation. But not consistently. His article in April 1979 Journal of Abnormal Psychology reports 10 studies of this. Such individual differences that exist relate to styles of performance, parameters which have nothing to do with hypnotizability.
Thompson, Kay F. (1979). The case against relaxation. In Burrows, G. D.; Collison, D. R.; Dennerstein, L. (Ed.), Hypnosis 1979 (pp. 41-46). Amsterdam: Elsevier/North-Holland Biomedical Press.
NOTES 1:
“One wonders why facilitators continue to talk about and insist on relaxation as a precondition for hypnosis. Do we need to see this relaxation to believe our patients are truly in a hypnotic state?” (p. 43). “The advantages of eliminating relaxation as a precondition for trance include the elimination of the need to re-learn the non-relaxed state, the admission of more natural responses to the therapeutic situation, the recognition of spontaneous trance, and a freer communication between the doctor and patient which should result in a more comfortable use of hypnosis and its more widespread acceptance in medicine” (p. 45).
1978
Hearn, Greg (1978, November). Susceptibility and the process of social interaction in the hypnotic context. [Unpublished manuscript] (Submitted as a partial requirement for the B. S. degree with honours in psychology at the Univ of Queensland)
The hypothesis was tested that the process of social interaction between hypnotist and subject is dependent upon the susceptibility level of subjects. Using Interaction Process Analysis (Bales, 1950), the interaction patterns of 16 high susceptibles and 16 low susceptibles were analyzed. Susceptibility level had been pretested with the HGSHS:A. The hypnotist was then instructed on how to control for differences in the process of interaction which were isolated and the initial hypnotic session was repeated on a new sample. This time the performance and interaction patterns of six high susceptibles and six low susceptibles were compared. Results suggested that trait differences give rise spontaneously to differences in the process of interaction and some combination of these effect the subjects final hypnotic performance. Hence it is argued that an interactionist framework would aid the understanding hypnotic responsivity.
1976
Hodge, J. R. (1976). The contractual aspects of hypnosis. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 24, 391-399.
No generally accepted theory of the essence of hypnosis is currently available, nor are any specific responses uniquely associated with hypnosis. A necessary, though not sufficient, aspect of hypnosis involves the subject’s preconceived expectations and selective attention to a series of agreements (“contracts”) which are developed between patient and therapist before the induction, during the induction and deepening procedures, and during the operational phase. These contracts may be either implicit or explicit, but they can be identified in all hypnotic interactions. The skillful therapist will make the contracts explicit by defining, at least in general terms, what he expects. If the patient agrees, i.e., “sings the contract,” he is likely to comply with suggestions.
1972
Sacerdote, Paul (1972). The nature of the hypnotherapeutic process. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 15 (1), 1-11
The author presents several clinical cases where hypnosis was successfully utilized. Through detailed description of what takes place during sessions it is shown how various approaches are adapted to the intellectual, cultural, emotional and hypnotic capabilities of the patient and to the progress of therapy. The author analyzes what takes place during and after hypnotic intervention and draws some conclusions about the nature of the hypnotherapeutic process which, he feels, is essentially a convergence of the patient’s and therapist’s conscious and subconscious expectations and goals. The importance of the therapeutic ego of the doctor is brought into proper focus. One of the clinical cases illustrates how the therapist can convert a therapeutic relationship that may appear sterile or even hostile into a productive one by utilizing the patient’s responses, while avoiding stubborn insistence upon expectations of preconceived hypnotic responses. It is suggested that the hypnotherapeutic model may present, in clearer focus, what takes place in other psychotherapeutic exchanges which do not utilize hypnosis.
1970
Shor, Ronald E. (1970). The three-factor theory of hypnosis as applied to the book-reading fantasy and to the concept of suggestion. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 18, 89-98.
Maintained that many of the conflicting viewpoints in theories of hypnosis parallel the descriptive complexity of the phenomena. A 3-factor theory of hypnosis is surveyed in which hypnotic depth is conceived as a complex of 3 separate but complementary processes or dimensions. The theory is used to illuminate the book-reading fantasy and the concept of suggestion. (Spanish & German summaries) (16 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2003 APA, all rights reserved)
1969
Blatt, Sidney J.; Goodman, John T.; Wallington, Sue Ann (1969). Is the hypnotist also being hypnotized?. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 17, 160-166.
Noted that 2 hypnotists had cognitive and affective experiences similar to those expected in the S as a function of the hypnotic manipulation when they were conducting hypnotic inductions. Though the hypnotists may have been responding to the mood tone of the Ss or responding on the basis of their expectations about the effect of the hypnotic manipulation, it seemed equally possible that the hypnotists may have experienced mild forms of the trance state they had induced in their Ss. These observations seemed consistent with prior notes of such a phenomenon. This phenomenon has important implications for the clinical and experimental use of hypnosis and for concepts such as transference and countertransference, empathy, demand characteristics, and E bias. Suggestions are made for the systematic evaluation and study of this phenomenon. (Spanish & German summaries) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2002 APA, all rights reserved)
Hunt, Sonja M. (1969). The speech of the subject under hypnosis. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 17, 209-216.
Attempts to objectify changes taking place in the speech of 12 undergraduates under hypnosis as compared with their waking speech. A series of open-ended questions was asked in the waking and hypnotized states and the responses compared. Results indicate that the latency of response may be longer, the rate of speech slower, and the number of words in the response fewer under hypnosis. The rate of speech of E, however, also differed significantly between Ss in waking and hypnotized conditions. It was therefore not possible to attribute the speech changes only to the hypnotized state. They could have arisen from E”s differential verbal treatment of hypnotized and waking Ss. The need for future research and its nature are discussed. (Spanish & German summaries) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2002 APA, all rights reserved)
Small, Maurice M.; Kramer, Ernest (1969). Hypnotic susceptibility as a function of the prestige of the hypnotist. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 17, 251-256.
Administered 40 undergraduates the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, Form A. On the basis of the scores, Ss were divided into 20 “better” and 20 “poorer” Ss. A wk. later Ss were rehypnotized by a tape recording of the above induction procedure. On the 2nd induction, 1/2 of the Ss were told that the hypnotist on the tape was an expert; the other 1/2 were told the hypnotist was a novice. Results indicate that only the better Ss given novice instructions showed a change (decrement) in hypnotic susceptibility. (Spanish & German summaries) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2002 APA, all rights reserved)
Conn, J. H. (1968). Hypnosynthesis: Psychobiologic principles in the practice of dynamic psychotherapy utilizing hypnotic procedures. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 16, 1-25.
DEFINES HYPNOSIS AS PRIMARILY A CHANGE IN REALITY TESTING, AND CONSIDERS IT AS BOTH AN ALTERED STATE OF CONSCIOUSNESS AND A MULTILEVEL DYNAMIC RELATIONSHIP IN WHICH THE S IS ALWAYS AWARE OF THE OPERATOR. HYPNOSYNTHESIS EMPHASIZES THE PATIENT”S VALUES AND EXPECTATIONS AND HIS FREEDOM TO CHOOSE WHAT TO SAY AND HOW HE SHOULD BE TREATED. PREFERENCE IS GIVEN TO TERMS OF “MORE OR LESS” CONSCIOUSNESS. THE PATIENT DOES NOT RECEIVE ANY TRAINING IN HYPNOSIS AND THERE IS NO ENCOURAGEMENT OF ACTING OUT IN HYPNOSYNTHESIS. ATTENTION IS DIRECTED TO REPETITIVE PATTERNS, AND THE HYPNOTIC EXPERIENCE IS UTILIZED AS A PRESENT DYNAMIC EXPERIENCE. HYPNOSYNTHESIS DEMONSTRATES THAT SYMPTOM REMOVAL IS POSSIBLE WITHOUT SYMPTOM SUBSTITUTION WHEN THERE IS AN EFFECTIVE WORKING RELATIONSHIP. THE COMMON FACTOR IN EVERY PSYCHOGENIC CURE, INCLUDING HYPNOTHERAPY, IS THE FOSTERING OF SELF-ESTEEM AND ACTIVE PARTICIPATION, BOTH OF WHICH ARE ACHIEVED BY EFFECTIVE COLLABORATION IN THE THERAPEUTIC SITUATION. (SPANISH + GERMAN ABSTRACTS) (50 REF.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2002 APA, all rights reserved)
1968
Fromm, Erika (1968). Transference and countertransference in hypnoanalysis. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 16, 77-84.
THE HYPNOTHERAPIST IS OFTEN LOOKED UPON AS AN OMNISCIENT HEALER AND A PARENT FIGURE WITH MAGIC POWERS. HE MAY EVEN TEND TO THINK OF HIMSELF THIS WAY. THESE AND OTHER UNREALISTIC ATTITUDES STEMMING FROM EARLY CHILDHOOD FEELINGS, CHILDHOOD WISHES, AND FEARS ARE DISCUSSED. (SPANISH + GERMAN SUMMARIES) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2002 APA, all rights reserved)
Sternbach, Richard A. (1968). Pain: A psychophysiological analysis. New York: Academic Press.
NOTES 1:
NOTES: Anxiety potentiates pain, no matter what the source of the anxiety (“meaning of the wound, intensity of the stimulus, a personality characteristic or introduced into the situation” (p. 25). “Local muscles show a marked increase in their electrical potentials following localized pain produced by pressure (Simons, Day, Goodell, and Wolff, 1943), and this striated muscle can potentiate and prolong the responses to the original stimulus (Hardy, Wolff, and Goodell, 1952)” (p. 51). Shor (1962) investigated the physiological response to pain during hypnotic analgesia and used procedures to minimize anxiety in both waking and hypnotized conditions. The ‘pure pain’ physiological response involved a slight increase in heart rate, depth of respiration, and palmar sweating, “little more than an orienting reflex” (p. 54).
Because people vary in the degree to which their pattern of response to pain is stereotyped, it is difficult to detect a pattern specific to pain. However, frequently there is inhibition of motility of the gastrointestinal tract and blocking of or more rapid contractions; increased oxygen consumption with hyperventilation; increase in muscle tension and hypermotility; and variable cardiovascular responses–sometimes elevated blood pressure, sometimes increased pulse, stroke volume, or peripheral vasoconstriction. The physiological changes appear to be preparing the person to take action.
Personality characteristics have been investigated with respect to pain reactivity and tolerance. Mueller (1962) predicted response to spinothalamic tractectomy for 14 patients with intractable pain due to spinal cord injuries with 85% accuracy using the Rorschach. Field dependence on the rod and frame test is associated with parasympathetic reactivity to pain, and less reaction to pain. “Those who can tolerate pain (intense stimulation) best can tolerate sensory deprivation (minimal stimulation) least, and vise versa” (p. 62). Also, the nondominant hand is more sensitive than the dominant hand.
Sternbach distinguishes pain tolerance from willingness to complain about pain. For example, cultural factors (ethnicity) affect not only pain toleration but also physiological response. Voluntary participation in a pain experience can in fact reduce the discomfort of the pain stimulus. “Pain tolerance may be in part a function of their ability to reduce anxiety concerned with the duration of time (a) a noxious stimulus will last, or (b) before a noxious stimulus will be experienced” (p. 67).
Phantom pain is an example of centrally occurring pain. It occurs in only a few patients who have a phantom limb, from 2-10% depending on how they are assessed. Scars and neuromas at the stump may reduce thresholds to peripheral stimulation or may themselves act as pain stimuli. Surgery on the neuromas and scar tissues seldom reduces the phantom limb pain. Most investigators assume it is a ‘central’ phenomenon of some sort, ‘superadded sensations’ which may be of psychogenic origin (Henderson & Smyth, 1948) or a ‘central state of hyperexcitability’ (Cronholm, 1951). Affect seems to be involved. The affects, and the individual’s style of coping with them, seem to be the equivalents of the ‘central’ phenomena which result in pain. Two affects in particular seem to be associated with pain: anger, intropunitively expressed; and grief, the phantom pain representing both the loss and the wish to deny it. Both of these are likely to be associated with depression.
A psychological (rather than neurological) explanation for phantom limb pain is supported by the success demonstrated by three interventions: psychotherapy, electroshock therapy, and sensorimotor task concentration. The latter approach, reported by Morganstern (1984) requires patients to concentrate on sensorimotor tasks while ignoring distracting stimuli, for 2 hours/day. Morganstern attributed their improvement to a combination of concentration and distraction so that central sensory processes gradually are reorganized and the patients become habituated to stimulation of the stump. Sternbach notes that these factors also characterize hypnosis and hypnotic analgesia. He proposes that the Morganstern results should inform our neurological explanation of phantom pain.
Sternbach goes on to discuss hypnosis, particularly as it offers information that could inform us about pain. He notes that hypnotic inductions and the hypnotic state are characterized by “immobility and sensory canalization, a reliance on the hypnotist for information and direction, and an altered state of awareness in which the environs are perceived as suggested by the hypnotist” (pp. 136-137). The Kubie and Margolin (1944) description of a concentrated focus of excitation in the brain with surrounding areas of inhibition is like the description of hypnosis presented by Ivan Pavlov. During this process, the hypnotized subject becomes dependent on the hypnotist for contact with the outside world, but this emotional/motivational response is not central to the induction. “What is essential is the restriction of sensory and motor activity which, in a variety of natural or experimental settings, with or without another person present, will invariably produce hypnoidal states and hypnagogic reverie” (p. 134).
The profound alterations in perception that are observed in hypnosis are relevant to the understanding of pain because pain “involves perception of certain tissue changes.” Sternbach notes that the experimental problem of ascertaining whether a subject is faking hypnotic phenomena is similar to the experimental difficulties inherent in evaluating the (internal) experiencing of pain. He suggests that the Orne (1959) test for toleration of logical inconsistencies is an independent means of evaluating for genuine hypnotic response. Other possible indices are less spontaneous behavior (Gill & Brenman, 1959) or alterations in subjective awareness (Ludwig & Levine, 1965). On the Ludwig & Levine questionnaire, subjects reported changes in thinking, time sense, feelings of loss of control, body image changes, changes in sensations, etc.
It has been observed that physiological response depends on presence or absence of a shock, but behavioral and verbal response depends on suggested or not suggested analgesia (Sutcliffe, 1961).
In Sternbach’s summary of the section on hypnosis in this book, he states, “Hypnotic analgesia adds to the above [hypnotic induction] the hypnotist’s suggestion of pain relief, or the inability to perceive pain. Experimental and clinical data suggest that in most but not all instances, pain responses are then greatly attenuated. The data further suggest the reasonable inference that such hypnotic analgesia is effective either because attention is focused elsewhere, or because anxiety (concern about the stimulus effects) is very low. …
“It seems to us reasonable to make a further inference from these data, concerning the relative roles of attention focusing and anxiety-reduction. It is our impression, from the studies cited above, that the focusing of attention is not in itself essential to the elimination of pain. It _is_ necessary for the induction of hypnosis, and it is a useful (but not the only) means for a subject or patient to gain control over anxiety concerning pain stimuli. But the data strongly suggest that in hypnotic analgesia, as well as in other conditions, it is the absence of anxiety about the stimulation which is the single necessary and sufficient condition for perceiving the stimulus as a nonpainful sensation. This is suggested by the fact that subjects with hypnotic analgesia are able to attend to (focus attention on) the stimulus, and even describe it accurately as a sensation, and yet not produce pain responses. This is true also of subjects in control conditions without hypnosis. On the other hand, anxious subjects ( or patients), as we have seen elsewhere (Chapter V), typically produce marked pain responses to appropriate stimulation. Thus it seems reasonable to hypothesize that ‘focusing attention’ serves primarily to reduce a person’s anxiety about his current situation, thus making possible either (1) the regression and altered state of consciousness of a hypnotic trance, or (2) the perception of a noxious stimulus as a nonpainful sensation” (pp. 140-141).
1964
Field, Peter B. (1964). Bales interaction analysis of hypnosis. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 12, 88-98.
Sound films of 2 hypnotists, 4 Ss, and 2 simulators of hypnosis were scored by a modification of Bales” interaction process analysis. Comparisons are presented between the interaction profiles of hypnotists and Ss. Both of the hypnotists” transformed interaction percentages fell above the Ss” 95% confidence intervals for agreeing, asking questions, and giving suggestions, and below the Ss” confidence intervals for appearing submissive, giving opinions, showing tension, and giving information. No consistent differences were found between hypnotists and Ss for seeming positive, negative, or dominant, for disagreeing, or for releasing tension. The 2 simulators did not show consistent interaction differences from the real Ss. Both advantages and limitations in applying Bales” method to hypnosis are discussed. It is concluded that interaction process analysis provides a measure of the overt role-differentiation between S and hypnotist, but does not directly reflect some of the unique features of the hypnotic situation (17 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2002 APA, all rights reserved)
Orne, Martin T. (1964). A note on the occurrence of hypnosis without conscious intent. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 12, 75-77.
Anecdotal data reporting the occurrence of hypnosis in the absence of the hypnotist and without apparent conscious intent on the part of the S are discussed. It is felt that this phenomenon has considerable implications for an understanding of the hypnotic process. An authenticated autobiographical report of such an event is introduced. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2002 APA, all rights reserved)
Haley, Jay (1963). Strategies of psychotherapy. New York: Grune & Stratton.
NOTES 1:
Has information in Chapter II on how the hypnotist and the subject maneuver each other.
1963
Levitt, Eugene E.; Lubin, B. (1963). TAT card ’12MF’ and hypnosis themes in females. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 11, 241-244.
Modification of TAT Card 12M, so that the supine figure was a female, did not increase the frequency of hypnosis themes among sophomore student nurses. The hypothesis that difficulty in identifying with a male figure accounted for the card”s inability to predict attitudes towards hypnosis in females was, therefore, not supported. The modified card did elicit significantly more identifications of the standing figure as a professional person. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2002 APA, all rights reserved)
Pulver, Sydney E. (1963). Delusions following hypnosis. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 11, 11-22.
Delusions occurring after hypnosis in the nonpsychotic patient are usually a result of the interplay of 3 factors. (a) the development of rapid, tense, transference reactions in hypnosis; (b) the presence of major defects in the patient”s character structure; and (c) the occurrence of countertransference reactions on the part of the hypnotist which touch on a specific area of conflict within the patient. The presence of a chaperon or the use of tape recorders are not satisfactory preventive measures. Rather, the physician using hypnosis should focus upon: (a) preliminary psychological evaluation and selection of patients free from disposition to delusion formation, (b) identification of transference reactions and a willingness to discuss with patients, (c) awareness of his own emotional responses to the patient. Basic courses in psychiatry are recommended. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2002 APA, all rights reserved)
1962
English, O. Spurgeon (1962). Some dynamic concepts of human emotions in relation to hypnosis. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 4, 135-140.
He describes characteristics of the human personality as having a need for being dependent, tendency to obey or cooperate, need to avoid pain, tendency toward retreating into solitude and silence away from the stimuli of every day living, wish to avoid tension or anxiety; and therefore having a need to regress, in hypnosis.
Kuhner, Arthur (1962). Hypnosis without hypnosis. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 10 (2), 93-99.
The traditional concept of hypnosis that seeks a “sleep” state through employment of formal induction techniques seriously limits its general clinical applicability. It fails to fit the special needs of the patient. An approach designed to counteract this shortcoming manipulates the interpersonal relationship factor. Case illustrations from dental practice support the viewpoint that the proper relationship is akin to the hypnotic one and comparable results obtain without resort to ritualistic induction methods. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2002 APA, all rights reserved)
Weitzenhoffer, Andre M. (1962). The significance of hypnotic depth in therapy. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 10 (2), 75-78.
It is a common assumption that hypnosis has a quality of degree. While clinicians often state that success is unrelated to depth, the author maintains that depth determines the techniques one can successfully use in hypnotherapy. At the same time he believes that hypnotic behavior is multidimensional and that the major determinant of hypnotherapeutic success is the therapist”s ability to establish a meaningful interpersonal relationship. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2002 APA, all rights reserved)
1961
Schneck, Jerome M. (1961). Hidden determinants in deceptive requests for hypnoanalysis. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 9, 261-267. (Abstracted in Psychological Abstracts, 62: 4 II 61S)
Evaluation of the motives underlying the request for hypnoanalysis leads to the conclusion that often these patients do not wish for this form of treatment at all. Thus, requests for hypnoanalysis are often deceptive (a method of changing therapists during a period of negative transference). The implications of these hidden determinants are discussed and brief case references are given. From Psyc Abstracts 36:04:4II61S. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2002 APA, all rights reserved)
1960
Conn, Jacob H. (1960). The psychodynamics of recovery under hypnosis. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 8, 3-16.
Defines hypnosis as primarily a change in reality testing, and considers it as both an altered state of consciousness and a multilevel dynamic relationship in which the S is always aware of the operator. Hypnosynthesis emphasizes the patient””s values and expectations and his freedom to choose what to say and how he should be treated. Preference is given to terms of “more or less” consciousness. The patient does not receive any training in hypnosis and there is no encouragement of acting out in hypnosynthesis. Attention is directed to repetitive patterns, and the hypnotic experience is utilized as a present dynamic experience. Hypnosynthesis demonstrates that symptom removal is possible without symptom substitution when there is an effective working relationship. The common factor in every psychogenic cure, including hypnotherapy, is the fostering of self-esteem and active participation, both of which are achieved by effective collaboration in the therapeutic situation. (Spanish + German abstracts) (50 ref.) (Psycinfo database record (c) 2002 APA, all rights reserved)
Kline, Milton V. (1960). Hypnotic age regression and psychotherapy: Clinical and theoretical. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 8, 17-35. (Abstracted in Psychological Abstracts, 62: 2 II 17K)
This paper deals with the experiential use of hypnotically induced age regression as a therapeutic process. Treatment successes were attributed to an intensification of the transference relationship. A main focus was the nature of the regressive relationship and its experiential qualities in relation to general hypnosis. Reid polygraph results suggest the perceptual reality of age regression to Ss. The phenomenon is discussed in terms of Piaget””s genetic model. From Psyc Abstracts 36:02:2II17K. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2002 APA, all rights reserved)
Lindner, Harold (1960). The shared neurosis: Hypnotist and subject. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 8, 61-70. (Abstracted in Psychological Abstracts, 62: 2 II 61L)
Psychoanalytic appraisal of the psychology of the hypnotist. Both hypnotist and subject share in a neurotic “hypnotic phantasy,” i.e., a magical satisfaction of emotional needs. The author posits that widespread subliminal recognition of the neurotic character of the hypnotic relationship has contributed to its lack of professional acceptance. From Psyc Abstracts 36:02:2II61L. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2002 APA, all rights reserved)
Schneck, Jerome M. (1960). Special aspects of hypnotic regression and revivification. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 8, 37-42/
NOTES 1:
Author”s Summary: “This report delineates a type of hypnotic revivification without the usually expected dramatic behavioral attributes and use of the present tense in verbalization. On the contrary, motor involvement is at a minimum, manifestations of acting out are devoid of dramatic channels, yet emotion is intense and verbalization is absent. Awareness of the existence of such revivification in the hypnotic setting is important for adequate understanding by the therapist and incorporation into hypnotherapeutic or hypnoanalytic procedure. Considerable alteration of temporal and spatial orientations take place and should be appreciated fully. The revivication under discussion was observed in hypnotic settings involving regressions to preverbal age levels. These observations permitted better recognition of similar occurrences for later age periods. Revivification without verbalization may be disclosed subsequently by the patient in spontaneous comments or explored by the therapist when it has been suspected. The discussion of this phenomenon has centered on the hypnoanalysis of a fifty-four year old woman. The ingredients have been encountered often with others. Additional details pertaining to the revivifications have been described. The psychodynamic implications of the above-mentioned patient”s reference to her hypnotic involvements as ”vivification” events owing to intensity of the emotional components, have been outlined and linked to previously presented views on emotional insight preceding intellectual insight. The transference elements in revivifications have been given attention and shown to be consistent with a proposed concept of dynamic hypnotic age regression in contrast to chronological hypnotic age regression. The data presented have been correlated with views of a hypnotic-waking state continuum” (p. 41).
1958
Barber, Theodore Xenophon (1958). Hypnosis as perceptual-cognitive restructuring: II. “Post”-hypnotic behavior. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 6 (1), 10-20.
NOTES 1:
The author presents “experimental evidence indicating that there is no essential difference between ‘hypnotic’ behavior and ‘post-hypnotic’ behavior” (p. 11).
“Summary and Conclusions
“When ‘somnambulistic’ subjects were told to ‘wake up’ after they were given a ‘post-hypnotic suggestion’ and ‘amnesia for the suggestion’ they behaved as follows:
1. They opened their eyes and became relatively more aware of their surroundings.
2. They were aware that the signal for the ‘post-hypnotic- behavior had special significance for them.
3. They were ‘set’ to ‘obey the hypnotist’s suggestions’ from the moment they were told to ‘wake up,’ until they were convinced that their interpersonal relationship with the operator was no longer that of subject and hypnotist.
4. When the ‘post-hypnotic suggestion’ was uncomplicated and fitted into the normal pattern of behavior, the subjects carried it out without ‘going deeper into trance,’ i.e., without becoming relatively more ‘detached’ from their surroundings. However, when the ‘post-hypnotic suggestion’ was of such a nature that it was necessary for the subjects to ‘go deeper into trance’ to properly carry it out, the subjects _did_ ‘go deeper into trance.’
“Whether the subjects did or did not have amnesia for the ‘post-hypnotic suggestion’ was not important. ‘Amnesic’ and ‘non-amnesic’ subjects carried out the ‘post-hypnotic’ behavior in essentially the same way.
“These experiments indicate that:
1. If the operator properly manipulates the situation, the ‘good’ hypnotic subject is ‘set’ to carry out the operator’s commands in the ‘post-hypnotic’ period in the same way as during ‘hypnosis.’
2. If, in order to properly carry out the ‘post-hypnotic suggestions,’ it is necessary for the subject to ‘go deeper into trance’ — i.e., to become relatively inattentive to stimuli not emanating from the operator — the good subject will do so.
3. There is no _essential- difference between the subject’s behavior in the ‘hypnotic’ period and in the ‘post-hypnotic’ period.
4. If we are to continue speaking of ‘suggestions’ to be carried out in the post-hypnotic period we should term them ‘post’-hypnotic ‘suggestions'” (pp. 19-20).
Schneck, Jerome M. (1958). Relationships between hypnotist-audience and hypnotist-subject interaction. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 6 (4), 171-181.
“Patients discussing or entering hypnotherapy are frequently influenced in their attitudes by some meaure of direct or indirect contact with popular exhibitions of hypnosis. Expectations, interpretations, general behavior, and transference relationships are affected as a result. Previous papers by others have discussed and described popular exhibitions from the view of dangers and deception based on undeclared use of trained hypnotic subjects. The present paper is a study of a popular exhibition of hypnosis by a well known entertainer. Admixtures of good and rewarding entertainment method and poorly managed hypnotic technique are described. Stress is placed on the major approach involving impression by implication rather than elicitation of phenomena and clarification of claims with demonstration by challenge. The result is one of impressing the audience in regard to possible behavior under hypnosis without the actual proof of such claims. This is accomplished through reliance on the suggestibility and gullibility of the audience owing to its lack of experience and information. In most instances then, hypnotist-subject interaction is reduced to the most simple essentials. Stress is placed on the hypnotist-audience relationship. In some of the demonstrations there were varying degrees of subtle interplay between hypnotist-subject and hypnotist-audience relationships with the fostering of audience-subject identification and subject-hypnotist identification via coentertainer status. The hypnotist was capable at times of capitalizing on what he apparently sensed were the needs and likely reactions of certain subjects in connection with some forms of post-hypnotic behavior. The quality of the performance was mixed from an amusement point of view. Errors in technique occurred to a surprising degree in view of the hypnotist’s extensive experience. Some entertaining highlights supported the performance. The relationship between hypnotist-audience and hypnotist-subject interaction are of interest within the larger context of interpersonal relations involving small and large groups.
1957
Barber, Theodore Xenophon (1957). Hypnosis as perceptual-cognitive restructuring: I. Analysis of concepts. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 5 (4), 147-166.
NOTES 1:
“Summary
1. ‘Trance’ involves a selective and relative inattention to internal and external stimulation.
2. Hypnosis involves one type of ‘trance’ behavior but hypnosis differs from other types of ‘trance’ in that it is an interpersonal relationship in which one person, the operator, restructures the ‘perceptions’ and conceptions of the other person, the subject.
3. The operator _can_ restructure the thoughts and ‘perceptions’ of the ‘good’ hypnotic subject because (a) the subject is relatively detached and inattentive to his self and his surroundings and (b) the subject is ‘set’ — he is ready and willing — to accept the operator’s words as true statements and to ‘literally think as the operator wants him to think.’
4. ‘Perceptual-cognitive restructuring’ and not ‘suggestion’ is the essential element in hypnosis.
5. We can begin to understand hypnosis and the phenomena of hypnosis by one general principle: the hypnotic subject behaves differently because he ‘perceives’ and conceives differently. The behavior of the hypnotic subject is in strict accordance with his altered conceptions of his self and his surroundings” (p. 162).
Solovey, Galina; Milechnin, Anatol (1957). Concerning the induction of the hypnotic state. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 5 (2), 82-98.
NOTES 1:
The hypnotic state has four attributes: “an effect of emotional stabilitization, a retrogression to an infantile psychological functioning, suggestibility, and transmissibility of the hypnotic relationship” (p. 82). “SUGGESTIBILITY is a special motivation to accept, incorporate within one’s self, and execute direct or implicit propositions, which is equivalent to the motvation of a child to accept, assimilate and carry out the propositions of its parents” (p. 84). The authors propose that verbal and non-verbal suggestions are incorporated during the course of education, lasting years and thus becoming in effect post-hypnotic suggestions. “The person will have in the future a _special responsiveness,_ that may be more or less pronounced according to the circumstances, _for those data_ (coming from books, movies, conversations, etc.) _which agree with his emotionally-incorporated post-hypnotic suggestions_” (p. 85). If while in an auto-hypnotic condition he comes in contact with someone “who appears to be the embodiment of the convictions or prejudices that on being stimulated started the process of emotional activation that led to the development of the hypnotic state, _there may be a transformation of the auto-hypnotic condition into an interpersonal hypnotic relationship_ (p. 86).
According to the authors, this theory can explain post-hypnotic (negative) sequellae. It also accomodates explantions of both Natural or Direct Orientation inductions and Indirect Orientation inductons, and explains phenomena such as patients entering hypnosis rather automatically while awaiting the appearance of Mesmer in his waiting room.