Dissociation theories of hypnosis.

Abstract

Hypnotic responses have been attributed to 2 mechanisms that are characterized as dissociative. In E. R. Hilgard's (1986) neodissociation theory, responses are hypothesized to be due to a division of consciousness into 2 or more simultaneous streams, separated by an amnesic barrier that prevents access to suggestion-related executive functions, monitoring functions, or both. In K. S. Bowers's (1992) dissociated control theory, hypnotic inductions are hypothesized to weaken frontal control of behavioral schemas, thereby allowing direct activation of behavior by the hypnotist's suggestions. The authors review the empirical base, conceptual issues, and strengths and weaknesses of both theories.

Dissociated control as a signature of typological variability in high hypnotic suggestibility

“…They completed one practice block of 82 trials and seven blocks in each condition. Prior to task onset, participants provided a self-report of current relaxation level (1 = "completely agitated or excited" to 5 = "completely relaxed") to control for di↵erential relaxation across groups (Kirsch & Lynn, 1998). Following completion of the Stroop task, participants rated the frequency with which they used three di↵erent strategies (rehearsal [repetition of instructions], experiential [allowing responses to occur e↵ortlessly], and positional [focusing attention on a single letter or portion of a letter]) on five-point Likert scales (1 = "none of the time" to 5 = "all of the time"; Jamieson & Sheehan, 2004;Sheehan et al, 1988).…”

“…Greater selective attention is required on incongruent trials in which participants have to identify a stimulus color (e.g., red) that is di↵er-ent from the stimulus word (e.g.,"GREEN") than on congruent trials when the two stimulus dimensions match. This task has been repeatedly noted to provide a suitable means for testing the predictions of dissociated control theory (Egner & Raz, 2007;Kirsch & Lynn, 1998), although Kirsch and Lynn (1998) have argued that impaired performance among HS individuals on this task during hypnosis may reflect increased relaxation rather than a weakening of executive control. In the present study, LS and HS participants completed the Stroop task in control and hypnosis conditions and provided self-reports of relaxation and strategy utilization (Jamieson & Sheehan, 2004;Sheehan et al, 1988).…”

“…This experience of involuntariness is widely regarded as the core phenomenological property of hypnotic responding (Kirsch & Lynn, 1998;Weitzenho↵er, 1980). An influential theory of hypnosis -dissociated control theory -argues that responses to hypnotic suggestions are facilitated by a breakdown in executive control over response selection in HS individuals following a hypnotic induction (Woody & Bowers, 1994;Woody & Farvolden, 1998).…”

What have we been priming all these years? On the development, mechanisms, and ecology of nonconscious social behavior

“…3 For Barber, hypnotic phenomena were a kind of demand effect, in which the subject willingly and knowingly takes on the role suggested by the hypnotist. But even if so (and the reality of hypnotic phenomenon as an altered state of consciousness remains controversial; see Kirsch & Lynn, 1998;Woody & Bowers, 1994), it is still remarkable that the person is capable of adopting the role (say, of a person who can feel no pain, or, in a more prosaic example, of an iron rod set across two chairs) to the complete extent that they do. Perhaps, then, what we have been priming all these years is a role, a conceptual structure that contains not only the nuts and bolts of how to act within that persona, but, at essence, the perspective a person in that role would have on the world-the purposes and goals and values that person, or animal, or even steel rod, would have.…”

Dissociative tendencies and individual differences in high hypnotic suggestibility

“…Hull, 1933). More recently, a number of accounts have proposed that dissociative experiences and responses to hypnotic suggestions, which share many features including pronounced disruptions in agency and awareness (Kirsch & Lynn, 1998), possess similar mechanisms (for a review, see Woody & Sadler, 2008). This and related work on acute stress and post-traumatic stress disorders led to the refined hypothesis that high hypnotic suggestibility is a predisposing factor for dissociative psychopathology (Butler, Duran, Jasiukaitis, Koopman, & Spiegel, 1996).…”