Hypnotic susceptibility of hospitalized psychotic patients: A pilot study

Hypnosis with Psychotic Patients: Comment on Scagnelli-Jöbsis

“…In fact, we correctly noted that Abrams (19M), Barber et a]. (1964) and Lavoie et al (1976) found lower hypnotizability among psychotic patients, and that there were serious problems with the Vingoe and Kramer (1966) study. Scagnelli-Jobsis has distorted our work and misrepresented those studies in her review.…”

“…She dismisses the findings of Barber, Karacan, and Calverley (1974) of 292 SPIEGEL little hypnotic susceptibility in a large sample of chronic schizophrenics on the basis of nothing more than her critique of Barber's "general philosophical position. " Vingoe and Kramer (1966), however, are handled more kindly when they conclude that schizophrenics were just as hypnotizable as normal college students. However, a careful reading of their study would indicate that three quarters of the patients in the sample refused to complete the hypnotizability assessment but were not counted as nonhypnotizable, rendering their conclusions tentative at best.…”

“…Had she read our paper carefully, she would have understood that we were not agreeing with these early writers that hypnosis was not applicable to normals: "We would not agree that hypnosis is confined to hysteria, or that high hypnotizability implies psychopathology" (Spiegel & Fink, 1979, p. 778). She then goes on to accuse us of misquoting four earlier studies (Abrams, 1964;Barber, Karacan, & Calverley, 1964;Vingoe & Kramer, 1966;Lavoie, Sabourin, & Lan'glois, 1976). In fact, we correctly noted that Abrams (19M), Barber et a].…”

“…Of eleven empirical studies conducted utilizing the Stanford type scales (Weitzenhoffer & Hilgard, 1959;Shor & Orne, 1962) between 1936 and 1978, six (Bartlett, 1936;Gill and Brenman, 1959;Barber, Karacan, & Calverley, 1964;Webb & Nesmith, 1964;Lavoie, Sabourin, & Langlois, 1973;Lavoie, Lieberman, Sabourin, & Brisson, 1978) conclude that psychotic patients are less hypnotizable than normal comparison samples. One study (Kramer, 1966) concludes that psychotics are equally hypnotizable to normal comparison samples, and four conclude that psychotics are equally or more hypnotizable than normals (Kramer & Brennan, 1964;Vingoe & Kramer, 1966;Greene, 1969;Gordon, 1973). In only one of these studies (Gordon, 1973) was age controlled for, and since hypnotic responsivity and age are strongly intercorrelated (Morgan & Hiigard, 1973), this is a critical control variable.…”

Hypnotizability as a function of adaptive regression among chronic psychotic patients

“…Wilson, Cormen, and Cole (1949); Gale and Herman (1956) ;Heath, Hoaken, and Sainz (1960); and Abrams (1964) found more than 50% of the psychotics studied to be hypnotizable. Kramer and Brennan (1964); Vingoe and Kramer (1966); Greene (1969); Lavoie, Sabourin, and Langlois (1973); and especially Lieberman (1975) have shown that a number of schizotheory (Bruner, Bresson, Morf, & Piaget, 1958;Piaget, 1961). Professor A. Pinard, who was the principal instigator of that research, suggested in 1971 (personal communication) that many of the cognitive processes appearing in hypnosis and especially in age regression could be profitably investigated in the light of the theory of Jean Piaget.…”