Studies on the Nature of Suggestion¹: Part I Experimental Induction of Dreams by Direct Suggestion

Abstract

Thirty years ago Freud (12) commented that, "Now that I once more approach the riddle of suggestion after having kept away from it for some thirty years, I find there is no change in the situation." Earlier Ferenczi (6) had shown that the capacity to be influenced by suggestion depends upon the possibility of transference taking place, that is, upon the reactivation of repressed, infantile erotic attitudes toward the parent figures. Freud (12) later defined suggestion as a conviction which is not based upon perception and reasoning but upon an erotic tie. He advanced our theoretical understanding in his conception that in suggestion sexua'l tendencies are inhibited in their aims and the object takes the place of the ego ideal. Jones (16) developed this latter conception further when he showed that in suggestion there is a regression from the ego ideal to the earlier stage of narcissistic identification with the parent. I n the thirty years since Freud made his last contribution to the subject, the theory of suggestion has been relatively neglected in spite of considerable work in the field of hypnotism.Nunberg (23) once made the-statement that the place to study hypnosis is in the analytic transference situation. I was much struck by this seemingly paradoxical remark, since it pointed up the similarities between the two states or relationships. It occurred to me that if one were to introduce suggestions into the relatively

Toward the experimental control of dreaming: A review of the literature.

“…As with Stoyva's subjects, the Stage 1 dreams of some subjects were not affected at all, while those of other subjects were almost totally controlled by the posthypnotically suggested content. Stoyva also found that explicit waking suggestion affected dream content, as had been reported earlier by Fisher (1953) and Titchener (1895), but not as strongly as posthypnotic suggestion. Wood (1962) found that social isolation for a period of 1 day affected the content of Stage 1 dreaming occurring that night.…”

“…A number of studies apparently demonstrated that posthypnotic suggestion could control the content of nocturnal dreaming to a high degree (Fisher, 1953;Nachmansohn, 1951;Newman, Katz, & Rubenstein, 1960;Schrotter, 1951), but as they did not use EEC monitoring of sleep, they were not controlled for the possibility that the dreams affected were hypnotic dreams interspersed with sleep, rather than ordinary nocturnal dreams. That such an event can happen, without the subject being aware of it, has been shown in other studies (Barber, 1962;Schiff, Bunney, & Freedman, 1961;Tart, 1964b).…”

Effects of hypnotic induction and suggestions on nocturnal dreaming and thinking.

“…Upon awakening the next morning, the subjects typically told Schroetter that they had dreamt about the suggested topic. Although this and other studies (Fisher, 1953;Xachmansohn, 1925;Newman, Katz, & Rubenstein, 1960) indicated that suggestions given under "hypnosis" may affect the manifest contents of nocturnal dreams, the results were not conclusive since the subjects gave their dream reports not at the time they were dreaming but man. )-hours (or days) later.…”

The role of demand characteristics and hypnotic ability in dream change following a presleep instruction.

“…Although there are few data that clearly address the issue, one personality variable that appears to hold some promise is hypnotic ability. Several studies of hypnosis and dream change have focused on assessing the effect of the presence or absence of a hypnotic induction on subsequent dream change rather than the effect of hyponotic ability (Barber & Calverley, 1962;Fisher, 1953;Stoyva, 1965). The general finding of this research is that hypnotic induction is not necessary for presleep instructions to affect dream com tent, although under some conditions the induction can facilitate change (Walker & Johnson, 1974).…”