Steven Jay Lynn

Since Charcot [1], researchers and theorists have associated hypnotic responsiveness with dissociation. However, contemporary researchers have typically not documented impressive or statistically significant correlations between the most commonly used measure of dissociation, the Dissociative Experiences Scale-II [2, 3] and hypnotic responsiveness. We examined the ability of two measures of non-pathological dissociation, which have received scant attention in the hypnosis literature, the Wessex Dissociation Scale (WDS; [4]) and the Dissociative Processes Scale (DPS; [5]), in the context of a broader investigation of predictors of hypnotic responsiveness including expectancies, fantasy-proneness, absorption, and an index of more serious dissociative experiences and symptoms in a sample of undergraduate students. Scales of non-pathological dissociation and most measures of pathological dissociation did not correlate significantly with hypnotic responsiveness; however, stepwise regression analyses predicting HGSHS:A behavioral and subjective scores retained the Detachment factor of the DPS in the final model, along with expectancies and absorption. We present our findings in the context of a broader discussion of dissociation and hypnosis.

This study examined predictors of both positive as well as negative outcomes among a sample of sexual assault survivors ( N = 105). Objectives were to (a) determine the presence of perceived posttraumatic growth (PTG) among a sample of female sexual assault survivors, (b) determine whether PTG is associated with reports of post-assault adjustment, and (c) examine the relationship between PTG and factors known to affect post-assault adjustment. Seventy-four percent of survivors reported perceived growth. Regression analyses revealed that PTG was not predictive of post-assault symptomatology, although it was negatively correlated with symptoms of PTSD. Predictors of PTG included the personality disposition of hardiness as well as acceptance coping. Implications and future directions are discussed.

Over the past 30 years, mental health practitioners, encouraged by rigorous empirical studies and literature and meta-analytic reviews, have increasingly appreciated the ability of hypnosis to modulate attention, imagination, and motivation in the service of therapeutic goals. This article describes how hypnosis can be used as an adjunctive procedure in the treatment of depression and rumination symptoms, in particular. The focus is on attention-based treatments that include rumination-focused cognitive behavioral therapy, cognitive control training, and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy. The authors provide numerous examples of techniques and approaches that can potentially enhance treatment gains, including a hypnotic induction to facilitate mindfulness and to motivate mindfulness practice. Although hypnosis appears to be a promising catalyst of attention and mindfulness, research is required to document the incremental value of adding hypnosis to the treatments reviewed.

Beginning with an overview of the social cognitive perspective, this article reviews the social cognitive theories of hypnosis. Hypnosis theories are often dichotomized into state and nonstate theories, with social cognitive theories being the most prominent exemplars of nonstate theories. However, neither state nor nonstate theories of hypnosis are monolithic as there are a number of differently nuanced social cognitive theories of hypnosis. Although this article does not deny the possibility that reliable physiological markers of an altered state of hypnosis may one day be found, and underscore the importance of identifying the psychophysiological substrates of hypnosis, it argues that the claim that neurophysiological data resolve the altered state issue is not warranted by the available evidence. Furthermore it explains how social cognitive theorists have studied and conceptualized hypnotic phenomena that traditionally have been attributed to an altered state of consciousness.