Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T22:35:19.023Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Motivation and Post-Hypnotic Effect

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Griffith Edwards*
Affiliation:
The Maudsley Hospital, London, S.E.5

Extract

On first inspection, there may seem to be little difference between a simple experimental post-hypnotic suggestion (p.h.s.) and a simple therapeutic post-hypnotic suggestion. The difference is not so much between the form of the experimental and the form of the therapeutic p.h.s., but between the patterns of behavioural tendencies on which the experimental and the therapeutic post-hypnotic suggestions are respectively superimposed. The experimental p.h.s. is superimposed on the behavioural tendencies dictated by the subject's views of the experiment, and his motives probably often include a wish to “perform well”. The experimental subject will seldom have strong motivation to disobey the hypnotist. In the therapeutic setting the situation is entirely different; the therapeutic p.h.s. is frequently superimposed on strong preexisting conscious or sub-conscious tendencies which run counter to the acceptance of the suggestion.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1965 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Barber, T. X. (1961). “Antisocial and criminal acts induced by ‘hypnosis’. A review of experimental and clinical findings” A.M.A. Arch. gen. Psychiat., 5, 311312.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barber, T. X. (1962). “Experimental controls and the phenomena of ‘hypnosis’: a critique of hypnotic research methodology” J. nervous and ment. Dis., 134, 293305.Google Scholar
Brenman, M. (1942). “Experiments in the hypnotic production of anti-social and self-injurious behaviour” Psychiatry, 5, 4961.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dorcus, R. M., Brintnall, A. K., and Case, H. W. (1941). “Control experiments and their relation to theories of hypnotism” J. gen. Psychol., 24, 217221.Google Scholar
Edwards, G. (1961). “A technique of hypnosis” Med. World, 94, 413417.Google Scholar
Edwards, G. (1963). “Duration of post-hypnotic effect” Brit. J. Psychiat., 109, 259266.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edwards, G. (1965a). “Post-hypnotic amnesia and post-hypnotic effect” Ibid., 111, 316325.Google Scholar
Edwards, G. (1965b). “Signal specificity and post-hypnotic effect” Ibid., 111, 326333.Google Scholar
Erickson, M. H. (1939). “An experimental investigation of the possible anti-social use of hypnosis” Psychiatry, 2, 391414.Google Scholar
Esdaile, J. (1846). Mesmerism in India and its Practical Application in Surgery and Medicine. Longman, Brown: Green & Longman's.Google Scholar
Eysenck, H. J. (1959). Manual of the Maudsley Personality Inventory. London: London University Press.Google Scholar
Forel, A. (1906). Hypnotism. Translated from the 5th German edition by Armit, H. W., London: Rebman (1st German ed. 1889).Google Scholar
Heron, W. T. (1952). “Hypnosis as a factor in the production and detection of crime” Brit. J. med. Hypnosis, 3, 1529.Google Scholar
Liégeois, J. (1889). De la Suggestion et du Somnambulisme dans leurs Rapports avec la Jurisprudence et la Médecine Légale. Paris: Octave Doin.Google Scholar
Lyon, W. (1954). “Justification and command as techniques for hypnotically induced anti-social behaviour.” J. clin. Psychol., 10, 288290.Google Scholar
Orne, M. T. (1962). “Antisocial behaviour and hypnosis: problems of control and validation in empirical studies” In G. H. Estabrooks Hypnosis, Current Problems. New York and Evanston: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Rowland, L. W. (1939). “Will hypnotised persons try to harm themselves or others?” J. abnorm. and soc. Psychol., 34, 114117.Google Scholar
Sarbin, T. R. (1950). “Contributions to role-taking theory: I. Hypnotic behaviour” Psychol Rev., 57, 255270.Google Scholar
Schneck, J. M. (1947). “A military offence induced by hypnosis” J. nerv. and ment. Dis., 106, 186189.Google Scholar
Spence, K. W., Farber, I. E. and Taylor, E. (1954). “The relation of electric shock and anxiety to level of performance in eyelid conditioning” J. exp. Psychol., 48, 404408.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de la Tourette, G. (1887). L'Hypnotisme et les États Analogues au Point de Vue Medico-légal. Paris: Plan & Nourrit.Google Scholar
Watkins, J. G. (1947). “Anti-social compulsions induced under hypnotic trance” J. abnorm. soc. Psychol., 42, 256259.Google Scholar
Wells, W. R. (1941). “Experiments in the hypnotic production of crime” J. Psychol., 11, 63102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Young, P. C. (1956). “Antisocial uses of hypnosis.” Chap. 16 in Experimental Hypnosis (ed. L. M. le Cron). New York and London. Macmillan.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.