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Hypnosis
Published in Eli Ilana, Oral Psychophysiology, 2020
A common sign of hypnotic induction is the effect of hypnosis on the function of voluntary muscles. A typical induction method includes initiation of muscular relaxation. As relaxation frequently plays a major role in the process of systematic desensitization, this by itself serves as a therapeutic mode and is utilized to reduce stress and anxiety in patients (see Chapter 10).
Changing “Unchangeable” Bodily Processes by (Hypnotic) Suggestions: A New Look at Hypnosis, Cognitions, Imagining, and the Mind-Body Problem
Published in Anees A. Sheikh, Imagination and Healing, 2019
Why are some subjects much more prone than others to manifest the suggested bodily alterations? The suggested effects discussed in this chapter are more likely to be manifested when subject variables and situational variables are as follows: Subjects and experimenter have a close personal relationship or a positive transference and countertransference relationship. The experimenter has elicited the subjects’ maximum cooperation, has enhanced their expectancies that they are in a situation in which unusual effects can occur, has helped them reduce distracting thoughts and extraneous concerns, and has helped them become ready to be absorbed in and to feel-imagine-think those things that will be suggested. Traditional hypnotic induction procedures often are useful in maximizing the interpersonal relationship, eliciting maximum cooperation at a high level of expectancy, reducing distracting thoughts, etc. However, extensive research over the past 25 years has shown that very informal induction procedures, and even simply talking to subjects in a very meaningful way, can be as effective and, at times, more effective in eliciting the subjects’ maximum responsiveness to the suggestions [3,132,150].
Hypnosis and guided imagery
Published in Hilary McClafferty, Mind–Body Medicine in Clinical Practice, 2018
A further finding in highly hypnotizable subjects in the study showed uncoupling of connectivity between the executive control network and the default mode network during hypnosis, with the subjects reporting highest intensity of hypnosis showing the least coupling. Authors surmised that dissociation between the executive control network and the default mode network indicates that hypnosis is a different state of consciousness, not consistent with a decreased level of arousal. In addition, while the executive control network and default mode network were less connected, increases in other brain areas related to task management and somatic surveillance were seen in highly hypnotizable subjects (Jiang et al. 2016). Research is very active in this area, and many questions remain. A 2017 systematic review of the neuroimaging literature on hypnosis by Landry et al. (2017) concludes that studies still show substantial inconsistency and consensus has not yet been reached on the exact neural mechanisms involved in hypnosis. The high variability in hypnotic induction and treatments and lack of standardized methodological approaches are associated with heterogeneity of study results to date.
Adaptive Experiential Theory of Hypnosis
Published in International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 2023
Cameron T. Alldredge, Gary R. Elkins
To explain more complex or pronounced responses, our theory fits well with the current definition of hypnosis used by APA Division 30 stating that hypnosis is “a state of consciousness involving focused attention and reduced peripheral awareness characterized by an enhanced capacity for response to suggestion” (Elkins et al., 2015, p. 6). According to our theory, a hypnotic induction can guide individuals to concentrate their attention and become absorbed in their internal experiences. A natural result of this involves reduced conscious awareness of external stimuli. In essence, there is an adaptation characterized by decreased association with the rational system and greater association with the experiential system which can lead to an alteration in perception and cognitive processing. Other researchers (although from a different perspective) have also recognized hypnosis to include “a shift to an alternate perspective characterized by a reduction of defenses, greater than usual levels of emotional contact, and access to not-conscious processes” (Lynn & Rhue, 1991, pp. 602–603). The degree of adaptation and association can be determined by an individual’s motivation and ability to spontaneously and effortlessly experience the cognitive, behavioral, and physical changes that are suggested. Based on this, what others may refer to as “depth of trance” is simply the degree to which an individual is able to adapt and shift their awareness from the rational system to the experiential system such that their responses arise more from the latter.
Hypnotizability in the Clinic, Viewed from the Laboratory
Published in International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 2023
Studies like these speak to the question of efficacy, but they do not demonstrate that hypnosis affords a specific advantage, over and above placebo-like effects mediated by patients’ expectations and beliefs. A treatment effect may be enhanced simply by being embedded in a “hypnotic induction ceremony” (Frischholz et al., 1981, p. 55), even if the patient is not hypnotizable. Or it may be mediated by relaxation, guided imagery, self-directed reverie, or even transference (what Shor, 1979, called “archaic involvement”), rather than the suggested alterations in perception and memory that constitute the domain of hypnosis. In order to address this question, we may invoke what has come to be called “Bowers’s Doctrine” (so named after Kenneth S. Bowers; see Woody, 1997; Woody & Barnier, 2008): any specific effect of hypnosis should be correlated with hypnotizability. If hypnosis, qua hypnosis, contributes to treatment efficacy, then clinical outcomes should be correlated with hypnotizability.
Spinal and supraspinal modulation of pain responses by hypnosis, suggestions, and distraction
Published in American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 2021
Bérengère Houzé, Anouk Streff, Mathieu Piché, Pierre Rainville
Another important issue about the mechanisms underlying hypnotic analgesia or hypoalgesia is the relative contribution of hypnotic induction to the efficacy of suggestions (De Pascalis et al., 2008; Rainville, 2008). Hypnotic induction involves instructions and suggestions producing experiential changes characterized by increases in mental relaxation and absorption, altered orientation in space, time and sense of self, and feelings of automaticity or involuntariness (Price, 1996). These changes have also been argued to enhance suggestibility, e.g. our ability to respond to hypnotic suggestions (Mazzoni, Venneri, McGeown, & Kirsch, 2013), while suggestions per se aim at modulating perception, cognition, or behavior (Kihlstrom, 2003). Kirsch and coauthors (Kirsch, Mazzoni, & Montgomery, 2007) highlighted that hypnotic induction is often assumed to increase the effects of suggestions but empirical evidence generally indicates only a small, albeit significant, advantage when compared to control conditions involving suggestions alone (but see (De Pascalis et al., 2008; Rainville, 2008)). A fundamental question in this debate concerns the potential differences in the mechanisms and physiological effects of analgesic suggestions administered with and without hypnosis.