Redefining hypnosis: Theory, methods, and integration

An integration between neurobiological and sociocognitive perspectives is advocated to advance and overhaul the concept of hypnosis and its humanistic applications. The thesis is presented that hypnosis is an altered state of brain functional organization involving interrelations between brain regions initiated by the intervention of the hypnotist – that is, an atypical alteration of brain systems through an interpersonal and cultural context. Experimental evidence shows that the hypnotic process pro-duces a brain state that is different from everyday neurophysiology, as shown by evi-dence of differential effects of attention and relaxation, and by evidence of cognitive and neurophysiological dissociation, which are central features of hypnosis. The hyp-notic induction has a neurophysiological logic involving a temporal process that becomes conditioned to facilitate future induction and self-hypnosis. Our integrative perspective of brain systems in a social context includes a neuropsychological transla-tion of the hypnotic induction and draws out the implications of orbital-frontal sup-pression for subjects being oblivious to embarrassment and being able to endure stage hypnosis. Wasteful pursuits in the field of hypnosis include the search for a sin-gle marker, premature closure of neurophysiological investigation, attributions and inferences such as ‘suggestion ’ and goal-directed striving without validation and with-out consideration of process and mechanism, and the use of dichotomies such as ‘waking ’ versus ‘sleeping’. Recommendations include considerations of multidimen-sionality regarding trance and levels of susceptibility; the modifiability of susceptibil-ity; formal assessment of social conceptions about hypnosis; concurrent validation of susceptibility during experimental procedures; consideration of both objective and subjective measures of susceptibility together with cross-checking for inconsistencies; the feasibility of control conditions; assessment of processes underpinning suggestibil-ity; distinguishing the social impact of experimental, clinical and stage hypnosis; and assessment of after-effects