 From : Jim Doyle                                           23 Mar 94  21:11:38
 To   : Steve Chong                                         23 Mar 94  22:23:44
 Subj : HYPNOSIS

I think you'll find the comments by the PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF CLINICAL
HYPNOTHERAPISTS very interesting. (I think I have the organization names right
but if it isn't it's close )   Feel free to use anything you find worthwhile.

AN OVERVIEW OF THE SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION OF HYPNOSIS
(REVISION 8)
BY
TODD I. STARK

NOVEMBER 8, 1993
---------------------------------------------------
Frequently Asked Questions regarding the scientific
study of hypnosis.
---------------------------------------------------
Written and maintained by Todd I. Stark,
(stark@dwovax.enet.dec.com).  July, 1993.

With much appreciation to the following people who
helped by providing references or particularly
useful suggestions :

Grant Fair, for his detailed list of sources on various
physiological correlates of hypnosis, and the idea to
include research on animal hypnosis;

Topher Cooper, for the idea of the eidetic imagery data,
and his invaluable help with the research of psi data;

Jim Lippard, for suggestions about the section on volition
and the section on physiological correlates.

Sidney Markowitz (sidney@apple.com), for his recollection
of the Erickson paper about lip reading and subtle
communication.

Carol Augart Seger (seger@cognet.ucla.edu) for her posting
of various useful references on attention and learning.

Richard E. Cytowic MD (p00907@psilink.com) for his posting
of an excerpt from his new book on synesthesia, which
I quoted in the memory chapter.

THE EFFECTS OF SUGGESTION : From the Supernatural to the Mundane.

Scientists have studied procedures identifiable as hypnosis for 200 years.
Most of the detailed investigation took place between 1950 and 1980.
This was before the current medical research into the chemical links among the
body systems took place.  Links between the nervous and immune systems have
been of particular interest recently, along with their significance in health
and disease.  A large percentage of the earlier research  into hypnosis  went
into demonstrating that suggestion (traditionally an agent in the shadowy
realm of the psyche) could influence various autonomic body systems in
an observable manner.  Today this result is considered unremarkable.
However, before the days of hypnosis and biofeedback research (and before the
discovery of neuropeptides, cytokines, and other mediators of autonomic
functions), this was considered an incredible, even supernatural claim.

The classic hypnosis research also demonstrated that some or all people respond
differently to suggestion under different conditions.  Relatively little work
has gone into determining the precise details of how each suggestion effect
occurs, because so much of the focus has been on determining that 'something
happens.'  The situation is not too far from what we come across in modern
anomaly research.  In both areas, we need to move forward to detail what is
going on in each case, rather than simply prove that something interesting is
happening.

Today, there is basic agreement among most researchers that such a thing as
hypersuggestibility does occur in some sense.  This means that under certain
conditions, unusual feats of attention control,  psychosomatic regulation,
perceptual distortion, and cognitive dissociation can be consistently produced
in some subjects, whereas under other conditions the same subjects can
seemingly not deliberately produce those same behaviors.  Opinions are split
about exactly what conditions cause hypersuggestibility; i.e., whether it is a
unique biological state or whether it is the result of responding to the
social demands and expectations of the situation.  Also, there is controversy
over the relationship between hypersuggestibility and cognitive dissociation.
Another thing that most researchers today do agree on is that hypnosis is
not the only procedure whereby such hypersuggestibility (or dissociation) may
be produced.

Dissociation and Suggestibility : A Meaningful Grouping of Traits ?

The dissociation idea, originating in psychoanalytic theory, and historically
strongly linked to   neuropathology, has held its ground for many years though
its limitations are now becoming apparent.  The term is used for such diverse
conditions as unusual experiences of personal identity sense, the appearance
of automatisms, and the splitting of apparent intentions in behavioral
responding.  These different senses of dissociation require some future
research to explain their relationship and underlying mechanisms, as well as
the crucial relationship between dissocation and hypersuggestibility.

The original  conception of dissociation was as an anxiety defense
strategy, a way of avoiding 'stress,' while gratifying other psychological
needs.  Without the emphasis on an anxiety defense, this idea persists today,
as one standard medical reference puts it :

"... A process whereby specific mental contents
(memories, ideas, feelings, perceptions) are lost to
conscious awareness and become unavailable to
voluntary recall..."  (16th ed. Merck Manual)

This seemingly straightforward view of dissocation as mental contents lost to
conscious awareness, and as an anxiety defense, is complicated however by the
psychoanalytic tradition that organic disease can result from harbored
resentments, disease which appears in a metaphorical form expressing the
patient's unconscious feelings in a symbolic physical way.  This provides a
link between dissociation and psychosomatic effects.  "Hysterical" or
"conversion" symptoms are of psychogenic origin, and mimic organic diseases
(as opposed to organic diseases being the result of  psychological
stresses).

Such conversion symptoms consist of about 5% of the 'neuroses' or minor
anxiety disorders treated by psychiatrists, according to one 1980 study.
Typical examples are unusual allergic reactions, simulated pregnancy, pseudo
2nd-degree sunburns, hysterical blindness or deafness, visual or auditory
hallucinations, and other sensory or motor aberrations.    Conversion symptoms
appear temporary, though they may 'move' from one type or body system to
another as each is addressed therapeutically.

Conversion symptoms and other psychosomatic effects are associated with high
hypnotizability scores on standard scales, and also with a previous history of
conversion and dissociative symptoms, implying a stable trait-like quality.
This quality appears to have a genetic aspect and an early developmental
trigger as well.   The correlation of psychoanalytic dissociation and hypnotic
suggestibility is further supported by the observation that hypnosis is
frequently helpful in alleviating conversion symptoms, yet often results in
symptom substitution, and that hypnosis is also frequently helpful in
dissociative disorders as well.

Two "psychosomatic types," the Fantasy Prone and the Alexythymic

The seeming loose correlation of psychosomatic symptoms, hypnotizability, and
'fantasy proneness'  (in the Barber and Wilson sense ) seems almost too neat a
correlation to be true, and it probably is too neat to be true.
Common clinical observation is that the typical psychosomatic patient, the
alexythymic (term coined by Nemiah and Sifneos),  is unable to verbalize
emotions or to sustain elaborated mental representations.  A number of
psychoanalysts have noted that psychosomatic patients engage in primarily
'operational thinking,' are typically highly oriented toward the concrete, at
least in therapy, that they show marked poverty of imagination and
symbolization.

This is the opposite of what we would expect from the prototype "fantasy prone
personality," (of Wilson and Barber, for example) who might well be described
as an imaginative and even visionary individual.   This seems to tell us that
psychosomatic effects are not as limited to a particular personality type as
some theories in the past had proposed.  It also seems to further implicate
internally-directed emotional self-awareness as a factor in intentional
control of psychosomatic regulation, rather than in psychosomatic illness
(or healing) itself.  This also makes sense in light of the various theories
which propose that the limbic system, in conjunction with the frontal cortical
lobes, is critical for intentional psychosomatic self-regulation.

Dissociation versus Situational Factors.

Evidence has been mounting steadily that different distinct 'states' of the
nervous system can occur in the same person at different times, and even in
the same person at the same time, illustrating the apparent biological
capacity for dissociation..  The former is demonstrated in the rare condition
of  Multiple Personality Disorder.  The latter is demonstrated in the bizarre
perceptual anomaly of blindsight, where brain-damaged visually impaired
individuals can be demonstrated to have a kind of perception in their
consciously blind visual field.   In addition to this evidence of cognitive
dissociations, evidence has also been mounting emphasizing the influence of
personal and social expectations on human behavior.  Teasing apart what state
factors are most important and what situation-related expectations are most
important in any given situation is a crucial matter for future research.

The controversial case of the 'hidden observer' in hypnotic analgesia
(apparently independent responses from the same person at the same time under
certain experimental conditions) appears to be swaying the argument in favor
of a dissociation view of hypnosis in the case of exceptional subjects, but
this debate is likely not over yet.  It seems likely that social psychological
factors will need to be considered as well in considering how suggestibility
varies.

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   This is just a partial post of the full document.


