Clark Hull and his role in the study of hypnosis

Dissociation, Epileptiform Discharges and Chaos in the Brain: Toward a Neuroscientific Theory of Dissociation

Dissociated states represent pathological conditions when psychological trauma may emerge in a variety of forms such as psychic dissociative symptoms or, on the contrary, as paroxysms or other somatoform symptoms. There is evidence that epileptic activity plays an important role in the generation of dissociative states and it is able to generate various psychopathological processes as well as a wide spectrum of somatic symptoms or seizures. For the explanation of these connections between dissociative states and epileptic discharges the author proposes a neuroscientific model of dissociation based on the theory of competitive neural assemblies which can lead to chaotic self-organization in brain neural networks. This model is suggested as an integrative view interconnecting the various psychopathological and somatoform manifestations of dissociative states and suggests further possibilities for future research regarding common pathogenic mechanisms among epilepsy and mental disorders.

Is high hypnotizability a necessary diathesis for pathological dissociation?

During the 19th century, high hypnotizability was considered to be a form of psychopathology that was inseparable from hysteria. Today, hypnotizability is considered to be a normal trait that has no meaningful relationship with psychopathology. Psychiatric patients generally manifest medium to low hypnotizability. Nevertheless, several psychiatric diagnoses are marked by an unexpectedly large proportion of patients with high hypnotizability. This is especially true of the diagnostic categories that were subsumed by the 19th-century concept of hysteria: dissociative identity disorder, somatization disorder, and complex conversion disorders. These hysteria-related modern diagnoses are also highly dissociative. A review and analysis of the literature regarding the relationship between hypnotizability and dissociation indicates that high hypnotizability is almost certainly a necessary diathesis for the development of a severe dissociative disorder. Such a diathesis has significant implications for (a) the psychiatric nosologies of the American Psychiatric Association and the World Health Organization, (b) the hypnosis field, and (c) the etiology and construct validity of dissociative identity disorder and other severe dissociative disorders. Specifically, the dissociative disorders (excepting depersonalization disorder, which is not classified as a dissociative disorder by the World Health Organization) are manifestations of hypnotic pathology.

The Dynamics of the Spatial Synchronization of Brain Biopotentials in Conditions of Intense Attention in the Hypnotic State

Twelve mentally healthy women aged 21-38 years were studied in the state of consciousness and hypnosis. The main study method was electroencephalography with assessment of the spatial synchronization of brain biopotentials (SSBP). Suggestion of high-intensity attention delivered to subjects in the hypnotic state was found to lead to significant reorganization of SSBP, with increases in SSBP between both occipital areas, the right temporal area, and other parts of the brain. The dynamics of brain SSBP in intense attention were opposite in the hypnotic and conscious states, which appears to result from the temporary exclusion in the hypnotic state of the functions of the frontal areas of the cortex responsible for conscious control and regulation of ongoing activity.

Hypnosis treatment of clinical pain: understanding why hypnosis is useful

Clinical and experimental research literature indicates hypnosis is very useful for severe and persistent pain, yet reviews suggest hypnosis is not widely used. To encourage more widespread clinical application, the author reviews recent controlled clinical studies in which hypnosis compares favorably with other interventions; links advances in understanding endogenous pain modulation to a neurophysiologic view of hypnosis and hypnoanalgesia; relates the neurophysiology of hypnoanalgesia to management of chronic pain; challenges the view that hypnotic pain control is only for the highly hypnotizable patient; and raises issues about how people learn to control pain with hypnosis. Training in hypnotic analgesia may usefully enhance nervous system inhibitory processes that attenuate pain.