Hypnosis and Suggestibility: An Experimental Approach.

Abstract

The state of generalized hypersuggestibility which may follow the hypnotic procedure is, in Hull's opinion, the only remaining characteristic of the "once imposing aggregate known by the name of hypnosis." He believes that the other characteristics, which were described and have long been maintained on the basis of clinical study, all fall before an experimental attack. These include rapport, catalepsy, heightened sensibility, the relating of hypnosis to true sleep, on the one hand, and to pathologic conditions of hysteria, on the other, and the consideration of hypnosis as a state of dissociation. Much of the experimental work was carried out by Hull and his students at Yale. On the whole, it is convincing, but there are many fundamental questions, as Hull notes, which cannot be answered without further evidence. One of these is the question why the particular stimulations used in inducing the hypnotic trance should produce generalized hypersuggestibility. There