Transcript Hypnosis

BHS 499-07
Memory and Amnesia
Hypnosis and Multiple
Identities
Myth of Hypnosis
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Spanos is a critic of traditional views of
hypnosis.
He argues against the idea of hypnosis
as an altered state of consciousness in
which people:
• Have unusual experiences.
• Have abilities not available to them normally.
• Cannot lie and will do things without question.
Sociocognitive View of
Hypnosis
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Hypnotic behaviors can be explained using
normal psychological processes.
The term hypnosis refers to a historically
rooted conception of hypnotic responding held
by the participants.
Responding is context-dependent:
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Determined by the willingness of subjects to adopt the
role
Modified by their understanding of that role.
Components of Hypnotic
Situations
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An induction procedure
• Now, includes suggestions that the subject is
becoming relaxed or sleepy.
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Administration of suggestions calling for
specific behavioral or subjective
responses.
• Arm levitation (raising)
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Hypnotic responding is stable over time.
What is Hypnotic Responding?
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Traditional view says that a trance state
is induced in which people respond
involuntarily to suggestions.
Sociocognitive view says that
responding reflects expectations and
attitudes people bring to the session.
• Hypnotic subjects retain control over their
actions, even when experienced as
involuntary.
Fallacies
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Hypnotic responding is no better than
non-hypnotic responding to suggestions.
• Neither produces long term change in
smoking, wart removal, etc.
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There is no unique quality to hypnotic
trance that cannot be simulated.
• People are not necessarily faking, but
anything a hypnotized person can do, a nonhypnotized person can too.
Explaining Dramatic Behaviors
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Negative hallucinations – deafness,
blindness.
• Delayed auditory feedback – “deaf”
hypnotized subjects behaved like nonhypnotized.
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Demand characteristics – depends on
how the question is asked.
• Fading number 8
Involuntariness
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One of the chief demands of the
hypnotic situation is the loss of will.
• Sociocognitive view says subjects retain
•
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control and use it in goal-directed ways.
Subjects interpret their responses as
involuntary in order to conform to social
demand – woman swatting fly.
Wording of suggestions affects
involuntariness.
Studies of Spirit Possession
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Spanos argues that other “dissociative”
experiences are the result of cultural
suggestion, enacting a social role.
Not all cultures have multiple personality
disorder (DID or MPD), but some enact
multiple personalities as spirit
possession.
• Human occupant of a body is temporarily
displaced by another self that takes over.
Speaking in Tongues
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Glossolalia (speaking in tongues) occurs
in the context of a religious ceremony.
• May be accompanies by convulsions, eye
closing or unconsciousness, etc.
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Interpreted as the holy spirit taking over
and speaking in His own language.
• Interpretation may follow, with amnesia.
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Learned and practiced behavior.
Spirit Mediums
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The medium becomes possessed by a
spirit or series of spirits who help the
client.
The ceremony involves behaviors
marking the transitions, and observer
responses the validate the performance.
Example of Spirit Possession
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http://www.spiritualresearchfoundation.or
g/spiritualresearch/difficulties/Ghosts_De
mons/violent_manifestation.php
Learning the Possessed Role
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In some families, being a medium runs in
the family and the spirit moves from one
relative to another.
In some cases, people apprentice to
learn the role.
• Kardec introduced spirit mediums into Puerto
•
Rico where “espiritistas” replaced folk healers.
The first possession may arise during
distress.
Peripheral Possession
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A person with little social status or power
becomes possessed by a member of
another person’s family.
• That possessing spirit begins making
demands that must be met by the other
family.
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Women may adopt peripheral
possession roles in order to engage in
behavior otherwise not tolerated.
Historical Demon Possession
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Symptoms of demon possession from the New
Testament:
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Convulsions, sensory and motor deficits, enactment of
alternate identities, loss of voluntary control, increased
strength, amnesia
These symptoms ultimately coalesced into a relatively
stereotypic social role.
Largely a conversion tool, so possession
increased with competition among religions.
Witchcraft and Demon
Possession
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In the 15-17 centuries, demon possession was
associated with witchcraft (part of a Satanic
conspiracy).
Compendium Maleficarum – witchhunting
manual from the 17th century.
People who were of low social status but
intelligent, well-traveled, or privy to thoughts
and actions of others were suspected.
Behaviors of those possessed were involuntary
Socialization of Demoniacs
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Clerics taught those possessed their
role.
• Initially symptoms were ambiguous.
• Later, became convulsions, being bitten, and
seeing spectres of witches attacking them.
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Catholic & Protestant treatment of
demons varied.
• Enactments sometimes used strategically.
Evidence of Social Construction
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Incidence of demon possession has
varied widely across cultures and across
time periods with inconsistent symptoms.
• Some experts diagnose many more cases
than others.
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The more attention paid to the
symptoms, the more elaborate they
become.
• Rearrangement of biographies to fit role.