Tim Brunson DCH

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The future of professional hypnosis: comment on Kirsch, Mazzoni, and Montgomery.



I believe the paper by Kirsch, Mazzoni and Montgomery (this issue) should surprise about 95% of ASCH members (maybe only 93% of SCEH members) because the three facts espoused in their paper speciously seem to be 100% true. To paraphrase from their abstract: 1) nothing that can be produced by hypnotic induction plus suggestion cannot also be produced by suggestion alone; 2) administration of a hypnotic induction does not produce a meaningful increase in response to suggestion relative to suggestion alone; and 3) responsivity to suggestions are highly correlated to responsivity on the same measure when preceded by a hypnotic induction ceremony. In order to persuade that these propositions are true, several objections to them must be addressed. However, just because one's facts are true does not mean that one's interpretation of the facts and their interrelationships are also true. The ramifications of the above facts and their interrelationships for the future of professional hypnosis (experimental, clinical and forensic) are identified and discussed.

Frischholz EJ. Rush North Shore Medical Center. amjch@sbcglobal.net

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Comments
Fredrick Woodard's Gravatar I agree with thsi article that suggestion seen in a gestalt complex of
interrelationships is not easily explained and is not as simply as discussed
LSee Woodard 2005 A preliminary phenomenological study of being h
ypnotized and hypnotizing. Psychol Reports. Oct;97(2):423-66.
# Posted By Fredrick Woodard | 3/30/07 2:55 PM
Joseph Craig, Ph.D.'s Gravatar The authors were asking the wrong question.

If I give a client a suggestion, with or without a formal hypnotic induction, the client will mostly perform the suggestion immediately after.

The question really is: how long does the client continue to perfrom in accordnce with the suggestion.

In my experience (I have facilitated the hypnotic state of at least 30,000 in the last 11 years) entering the hypnotic state dramatically enhances the client's continuing to cmply with the suggestons.

Thus, utilizing the hypnotic state, while giving suggestions, increases the likelyhood that the client will keep the new habit.

And when he or she preferentially practices the hypnotically-suggested habit, the adoption of the new habit is accelerated.

Joseph Craig, Ph.D.
# Posted By Joseph Craig, Ph.D. | 3/30/07 9:12 PM
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