Download Introduction to Hypnosis

An Introduction to Hypnosis
An Introduction to Hypnosis
I.
What is Hypnosis ?
II.
Common Myths about Hypnosis
III.
Theories of Hypnotic Responding
IV.
Key Theoretical Controversies in Hypnosis
IV.
Hypnotic Suggestibility
VI.
Hypnosis as a Clinical Tool
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I. What is Hypnosis ?
A. Defining Hypnosis
B. Components of a Hypnotic Procedure
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A. Defining Hypnosis
•
Hypnosis is a procedure involving cognitive processes
(like imagination) in which a subject is guided by a
hypnotist to respond to suggestions for changes in
sensations, perceptions, thoughts, feelings, and
behaviors.
•
Sometimes people are trained in self-hypnosis,
learn to guide themselves through a hypnotic
procedure.
•
Psychologists hold a wide variety of opinions on how
to define hypnosis and on how hypnosis works.
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B. Two Components of a Hypnotic
Procedure
•
It is useful to think of a hypnotic
procedure as consisting of two
phases or components:
• Hypnotic Induction
• Hypnotic Suggestions
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What is a Hypnotic Induction ?
•
An introduction to hypnosis  the subject is guided
through suggestion to
• Relax
• Concentrate
• Focus his or her attention on some particular thing.
•
Some hypnotists believe  purpose of the induction is to
induce an altered state of consciousness.
•
Others believe it is a social cue that prompts the subject to
engage in hypnotic behaviors.
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V. Hypnotic Suggestibility – The
Individual Difference Variable
•
Hypnotic suggestibility is the general
tendency to respond to hypnotic
suggestions.
•
Can be measured with scales
typically consisting of a hypnotic
induction + a series of behavioral test
suggestions.
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V. Hypnotic Suggestibility – The
Individual Difference Variable
•
The number of test suggestions that an individual
responds to or passes indicates the person’s level of
suggestibility.
•
It is a trait-like, individual difference variable
• People differ in terms of how high or low they fall on
suggestibility.
• Scores in the population are arrayed in a bell-shaped
curve.
•
Suggestibility tends to be very stable over time –
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researchers found that scores taken 25 years apart were
correlated at r = .71.
(correlations = 0.0 -1.0 )
Let’s see if you are capable of
relaxing and focusing…
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What is a Hypnotic Suggestion ?
•
The subject is guided to undergo changes in experience.
•
Types of Hypnotic Suggestions:
• Ideomotor Suggestions – experience a motor
movement.
• Challenge Suggestions – subject is told he or she will
not be able to do some particular thing and then is
asked to perform the prohibited behavior.
• Cognitive Suggestions – experience changes in
sensations, perceptions, thoughts or feelings.
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II. Common Myths about Hypnosis:
People in hypnosis…..
•
…lose control and can be made to say or
do whatever the hypnotist wants.
•
…may not be able to come out of hypnosis.
Hypnosis…
•
… only affects weak-willed or gullible people.
•
…reliably enhances the accuracy of memory.
•
…enables people to re-experience a past life.
•
…depends primarily on the skill of the hypnotist.
•
NONE OF THESE ARE TRUE!!!
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III. Important Theories of
Hypnotic Responding
A.
Psychoanalytic Approach
B.
Neodissociation Approach
C.
Socio-Cognitive Approach
D.
Transpersonal Approach
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A. Psychoanalytic Approach: Freud’s Model of
Hypnosis
•
Freud initially utilized hypnosis to help
remove psychosomatic symptoms;
•
Patients suffered from what we would
now call a somatoform disorder.
• Patients suffered from medical complaints:
–
seizures
– muscular spasms
– paralysis of their limbs that was
transient and/or was not thought to be
the entirely the result of a general
medical condition.
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Freud’s Model of Personality
•Divided into 3 parts- Id,
Ego, and Superego;
•Believed that hypnosis
allowed him access to
memories within the
patient’s unconscious mind
which had been previously
repressed (blocked);
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Freud’s Model of Hypnosis continued…
•
Learned that he could temporarily or
permanently reduce many of these
symptoms using direct hypnotic
suggestions for the symptoms to be
reversed.
• “Your arm is calm again and will no
longer spasm.”
•
Eventually Freud used free association
instead of hypnosis as a way of accessing
the unconscious.
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B. Hilgard’s Neodissociation Approach
•
Recent psychoanalytically-oriented theory.
•
Developed by Ernest Hilgard.
•
Theory: Under hypnosis, part of the mind enters an
altered state of consciousness.
•
A second dissociated part of the mind--designated
the “Hidden Observer”-- remains aware of what is
going on during a hypnotic session.
•
Part of the mind in an altered state of consciousness
= very open to hypnotic suggestions.
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B. Neodissociation –
‘Hidden Observer’ Experiments
Discovered in highly hypnotizable subjects
during dissociative tasks such as hypnotic
deafness and hypnotic pain analgesia.
If queried some subjects could
nevertheless give realistic accounts of the
dissociated experience as if a hidden
observer was present within the person
watching the whole time!
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B. Hilgard’s Neodissociation Theory
• These dissociations = evidence of
separate cognitive subsystems that were
operating during the experiment.
• “The concept of a totally unified consciousness is an
attractive one, but does not hold up under
examination.”

Ernest R. Hilgard (1994)
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A Socio-cognitive take on Neodissociation
(Criticisms of Hilgard’s approach)
•
“Hidden Observer” – was created by the
subject in response to the hypnotic
instructions given by the experimenter. (Spanos
& Burgess, 1994)
•
Self or “identity is constructed, role-governed,
and performed” (Lynn et al., 1994) as a “narrative
process” in which we come to construct our
experience as that identity as a “believed-in
imagining” (Sarbin, 1998).
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C. The Socio-cognitive Approach
•
Principles of social psychology
explain behavior during hypnosis.
•
Not a single theory a group of theories.
•
Examples:
• Role Theory – people naturally adopt the role behaviors
of a hypnotized person.
• Response Expectancy Theory – hypnotic suggestions
alter expectations for nonvolitional outcomes (e.g., pain).
Such expectations  then contribute to the experience
of those outcomes (Kirsch, 1990).
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D. A Transpersonal Approach
• Many of humanity’s earliest views of hypnotic
phenomena are described by various religious &
spiritual traditions in the world. (Krippner, 2005).
• Shamanistic Healing Rituals
• Exorcism and Demonology
• Advanced meditative practices to achieve Mind/Body
unity within mystical aspects of:
– Christianity
– Tibetan Buddhism
– Native American
– Islamic Sufism
– Jewish Kabbalah
– Hindu Tantra.
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D. A Transpersonal Approach
 An
important diversity issue since many
people around the world hold these beliefs.
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Class Demonstration
•
Chevreul Pendulum
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VII. Hypnosis as a Clinical Tool
•
Used 2 ways as a clinical tool:
A. Making Direct
Suggestions for Symptom
Reduction;
B. Using hypnosis as an
adjunct to other forms of
psychotherapy (e.g., CBT).
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Check out this amazing video
 here
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A. Making Direct Suggestions for
Symptom Reduction
• Ex. – A hypnotist suggests to a patient undergoing a
painful medical procedure ;
(e.g., surgery, a lumbar puncture, spinal tap) that the
affected body part (i.e., the back) is numb and insensitive
to pain.
• This is a classic use of hypnosis.
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Gate Theory of Pain
Pain
reduction
through
hypnosis.
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Example: Hypnotic Analgesia
•
•
•
Hypnosis can alter and eliminate the
psychological experience of pain and the
brain’s neurophysiological processing of pain.
Data indicates that the sensory aspect of
pain is diminished at the somatosensory
cortex.
The suffering component of pain is
diminished at the anterior cingulate cortex.
Pain research
 Research shows that
pain can be hypnotically
induced in the brain.
• What does that tell us
about the nature of pain?
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B. Presenting Cognitive-Behavioral
Therapy (CBT) + Hypnosis
•
Research suggests: Combining hypnosis & CBT
improves outcomes for 70% of patients relative to
using CBT alone! (Kirsch et al., 1995);
•
Additionally: Preceding the CBT technique with a
hypnotic induction, delivered with the unique tone and
cadence of hypnosis, is successful;
•
Ex.:
• Progressive Muscle Relaxation becomes hypnotic relaxation.
• Guided Imagery  hypnotic imagery.
• Systematic Desensitization  hypnotic desensitization.
• Coping self-statements  coping self-suggestions.
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Some Clinical Problems Thought to
Be Responsive to Hypnosis
• Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Acute Stress Disorder
• Acute and Chronic Pain
• Phobias
• Performance Anxiety
• Depression
• Eating Disorders
• Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)
• Smoking
• Obesity
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What about Placebos? Why do
they work?
 The power of placebos is fascinating…but
why does it happen?
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Conclusions
•
Once associated with fringe
psychology and the supernatural
hypnosis is now accepted as the valid
subject of scientific research and as a
useful clinical tool.
•
Psychologists hold a wide variety of
opinions on how to define hypnosis
and on how hypnosis works.
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Conclusions
•
Research strongly suggests that hypnotic
suggestibility is a trait that accounts for a
portion of how much or how little people
respond to hypnosis.
•
However, research strongly indicates that the
vast majority of people can benefit from
hypnosis interventions.
•
Research indicates that hypnosis is very
effective for treating a wide range of clinical
problems and symptoms
(pain, anxiety, depression, obesity, and smoking).

The End!
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Instructions for Chevreul
Pendulum Demonstration
1.
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9.
Obtain scissors, string, and ½ inch washers at a hardware store.
At the beginning of the presentation, distribute these materials to the
class. Have students cut a 6-inch length of string and tie it to the washer.
Explain that you will be doing a demonstration in which students will
have an opportunity to experience an imaginative suggestion.
Have students place their right elbow on their right thigh and hold the
string between their right thumb and index finger so the washer is
suspended beneath.
Have students hold their hand as still as possible.
Ask students to imagine that the washer is beginning to move from left to
right. Continue repeating the suggestion until some washers begin to
move. There will be a range of responses. Some students will show no
response at all. Others will find that their washer moves quite a bit.
Cancel the suggestion by telling students their hands are back to normal.
Ask students what this has to do with what you were just discussing.
This should lead naturally to the next topic – hypnotic suggestibility.
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