Hypnosis as a tool in research: experimental psychopathology

Abstract

Hypnosis is interesting in its own right and has been demonstrated to be a useful facilitator of psychological therapies. It is also increasingly employed as a tool in research, particularly in association with modern neuroimaging techniques. This paper reviews some of these 'instrumental' uses of hypnosis in relation to conversion disorder (paralysis), malingering, chronic pain and disorders of volition and motor control. In addition to their relevance to models of normal psychological functioning, the findings have significant implications for the understanding and treatment of a range of clinical conditions. They also serve to underline the subjective 'reality' of the experiences that accompany hypnotic phenomena. It is concluded that hypnosis has a significant role to play in mainstream psychological, neuropsychological and clinically related research.

Dissociative tendencies and individual differences in high hypnotic suggestibility

“…A final implication of this study and others pointing to di↵erent HS subtypes concerns the instrumental use of hypnosis in the production of experimental analogues of psychopathological conditions (for a review, see Oakley, 2006). Instrumentallyoriented studies using functional neuroimaing require relative uniformity of mechanisms underlying hypnotic responding among HS individuals (Barnier & McConkey, 2003;Woody & McConkey, 2003).…”

Hungarian Norms for the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, Form A

“…Without doubt, the largest corpus of hypnosis research consists of investigations where the HGSHS:A was the first or only measure of hypnotizability. Nowadays, even researchers in areas "neighboring" hypnosis (e.g., cognitive neuroscience) recognize the importance of controlling subjects for hypnotizability, and they use the HGSHS:A as a prescreening device (Oakley, 2006). This is a so-called "extrinsic" use of hypnosis (Reyher, 1962).…”

Déjà Vu in the Laboratory:A Behavioral and Experiential Comparison of Posthypnotic Amnesia and Posthypnotic Familiarity

“…Hypnosis has been used instrumentally (Reyher, 1961) to successfully model a range of clinical conditions, including dissociative disorders, conversation and somatoform disorders and clinical delusions (Barnier, 2002;Barnier, McConkey, & Wright, 2004;Blum, 1975;Bryant & McConkey, 1989a, 1989bBurn, Barnier, & McConkey, 2001;Cox & Barnier, 2003;Halligan, Bass, & Wade, 2000;Noble & McConkey, 1995;Woody & Szechtman, 2000;Zimbardo, Andersen & Kabat, 1981; for review, see Barnier & McConkey, 1999;Cox & Bryant, in press;Kihlstrom, 1979;Kihlstrom & Hoyt, 1988;Oakley, 2006). Also, hypnotic suggestions have been used to create anomalous experiences (i.e., experiences that are statistically uncommon, experiences that may not be uncommon but that deviate from normal experience, and experiences that challenge standard explanations of reality; Cardena, Lynn, & Krippner, 2000) that are conceptually similar to déjà vu (e.g., a positive visual hallucination suggestion to see an object that is not present is conceptually similar to experiencing a sense of familiarity for an event that has not been experienced), as well as to create disjunctions between perception and awareness.…”