What role does imagination play in hypnosis?

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Dj I.C.U.
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What role does imagination play in hypnosis?

Post by Dj I.C.U. » Sun Jun 04, 2006 8:50 am

From http://www.fmsfonline.org/hypnosis.html#chbf

One of the earliest attempts to clarify the mechanism(s) underlying individual differences in hypnotizability centers around the idea that the hypnotized person deploys his/her skills of imagination to the point of becoming deeply involved in the ongoing fantasy activity of a hypnotic induction. This emphasis dates from the Benjamin Franklin Commission of 1784. Most of the major contemporary investigators of hypnosis allocate a role to fantasy and imagination in the hypnotic process; perhaps the strongest emphasis on such processes is to be found in the work of Josephine Hilgard (1970/79), J. Philip Sutcliff (1961) and that of Theodore Sarbin and William C. Coe (1972).

Josephine Hilgard coined the term imaginative involvement to highlight this particular position. In similar vein, Sutcliffe emphasized delusion in a descriptive sense to point to the manner in which fantasy may take on reality value for some hypnotized individuals, and becomes accepted by them as having happened in actuality. Likewise, Theodore Sarbin and William Coe emphasized the role of imaginings that become believable. In each case, the thrust is in terms of imaginings that become so vivid and intense that the person in hypnosis may not be able to distinguish them from reality, and may come to believe that they are actual occurrences. This position is aptly summarized by Auke Tellegen (1978/79). He wrote: "It is the ability to represent suggested events and states imaginatively and enactively in such a manner that they are experienced as real."

There is research support for this position. A study conducted by Tellegen & Atkinson (1974) has demonstrated that hypnotic responsivity is related to the ability to become absorbed in imagining such things as the setting of the sun, or the smell of ripe oranges. Further, data collected by Cheryl Wilson and Theodore X. Barber (1982) has identified a subset of high hypnotizables whom they characterize as fantasy "addicts;" that is, as individuals who spend as many of their waking hours as possible engaged in fantasy and imagination.

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Dj I.C.U.
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Post by Dj I.C.U. » Sun Jun 04, 2006 8:50 am

A number of other theorists of hypnosis have emphasized the role of fantasy and imagination, but have placed less stress on the role of absorption, though they all agree that reality testing may be suspended and belief may be altered. Ernest Hilgard (1977) has emphasized dissociation, and views hypnosis as involving multiple, overlapping systems of cognitive control, some of which may not always be available to conscious awareness and which may tap into fantasy processes. Martin T. Orne (1980) views hypnosis as involving alterations, even distortions, of perception, mood and memory. In similar vein, Judith Rhue and Steven J. Lynn (1989) view highly hypnotizable individuals as highly prone to fantasy.

Nicholas Spanos and Theodore X. Barber (1974) conceptualize it as "thinking along with and experiencing suggestion related imaginings." Unlike other investigators, their emphasis is upon hypnotic behavior as being entirely voluntary and rational, even though hypnotic behavior, at least among high hypnotizables, appears to be an admixture of voluntary and involuntary behavior, in which rational and non-rational components are fused.

At the same time, as Theodore X. Barber (1969) emphasized, positive motivations, favorable attitudes, and positive beliefs about hypnosis (that being hypnotized is an enjoyable and safe activity) also play an important role in determining hypnotic outcomes. While this is certainly so, such social psychological influences are of little consequence to the experience of hypnosis if the person lacks such requisite abilities as imagination and absorption; by the same token, a person with these requisite abilities will not respond to a hypnotic induction procedure if s/he lacks the necessary motives, attitudes and beliefs.

For instance, for most of the 19th Century, post hypnotic amnesia was reported by investigators of the period as occurring spontaneously; this appears to have stemmed from the shared beliefs of the hypnotist and of the hypnotized person that this was the nature of the phenomenon. But then, as now, it was a relatively small percentage of hypnotized individuals who responded in this manner. In other words, only those individuals who had the requisite ability responded in a manner consonant with the prevailing belief of the period.

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