Hypnotically created memory among highly hypnotizable subjects

An interhemispheric frontoparietal network supports hypnotic states

Understanding the neural substrate of altered conscious states is an important cultural, scientific, and clinical endeavour. Although hypnosis causes strong shifts in conscious perception and cognition, it remains largely unclear how hypnosis affects information processing in cortical networks. Here we manipulated the depth of hypnotic states to study information processing between cortical regions involved in attention and awareness. We used high-density Electroencephalography (EEG) to record resting-state cortical activity from 30 hypnosis experts during two hypnotic states with different depth. Each participant entered a light and a deep hypnotic state as well as two well-matched control states. Bridging top-down and lateralisation models of hypnosis, we found that interhemispheric frontoparietal connectivity distinguished hypnosis and control conditions, while no difference was found between the two hypnotic states. Using a graph-theoretic measure, we revealed that the amount of information passing through individual nodes (measured via betweenness centrality) is reduced during hypnosis relative to control states. Finally, we found that theta power was enhanced during hypnosis. Our result contributes to the current discussion around a role for theta power in bringing about hypnotic states, as well as other altered conscious states. Overall, our findings support the notion that altered top-down control in frontoparietal regions facilitates hypnosis by integrating information between cortical hemispheres.

A scientometric and descriptive review on the debate about repressed memories and traumatic forgetting

Recent work suggests that the debate surrounding repressed memory and traumatic forgetting continues today. To further investigate this debate, we performed preregistered scientometric analyses on publications on the debate about repressed memory to provide information about its bibliometric evolution. Furthermore, we reviewed these publications to highlight the different positions taken by scholars on this debate. We reviewed 434 publications extracted from Scopus and Web of Science from 1969 to 2022. Our scientometric analyses permitted us to visualize the development of the publications on repressed memories and identify the terminology used to label this phenomenon. We identified three waves of publications (i.e., 1994-2000; 2003-2009; 2012-2021) showing that there is a recent peak of scholarly attention into this topic. 40% of scholars supported the phenomenon of repressed memory while 29% did not. Moreover, although in the last wave of publications, 35% of articles included critical arguments against the existence of repressed memory, a sizable number of publications (21%) supported ideas in favour of repressed memory. Finally, we observed that the term dissociative amnesia is another expression used to refer to the phenomenon. Our results provide additional evidence that the debate on repressed memories (and dissociative amnesia) is far from being over.

Electrodynamics of clinical hypnosis

This paper reconstructs and attempts to verify hypotheses made by Leonard Ravitz, Ernest L. Rossi, and Milton H. Erickson, during their research on the influence of hypnosis on the human electromagnetic field. Original charts measured electrodynamic voltage differences of 44 subjects. These voltage differences from Ravitz, Erickson and Rossi's research were digitalized and analyzed with statistical software to check the significance of four hypotheses about ways hypnosis influences the individual's electrodynamic recording. The results of this analysis of the magnitude of the subject's electrodynamic tracing were: (1) there was a statistically significant difference between the prehypnotic condition and hypnosis; (2) there was a statistically significant difference between hypnosis and posthypnotic condition; (3) there was no significant difference between posthypnotic and prehypnotic condition; and (4) there was a statistically significant correlation between an induction of catalepsy and alterations in the electrodynamic tracing. The significance of these findings is discussed with applications to Rossi's 4-Stage Creative Cycle.

Tilting at Windmills: Why Attacks on Repression Are Misguided

In the November 2019 issue of Perspectives, Otgaar et al. argued that the "memory wars" persist and that "the controversial issue of repressed memories is alive and well and may even be on the rise" (p. 1072). Their thesis overlooked the well-established consensus that recovered memories of trauma may be genuine, false, or a mixture of the two and instead focused on a disputed mechanism: unconscious repression. A formal cocitation analysis identified the major publications mentioning repressed memories, but none endorsed a theory of unconscious repression. Studies of beliefs about repressed memories by the general public and other groups do not support Otgaar et al.'s thesis either because these studies did not adequately assess the key ideas defining the theory of repression. Clinical evidence is consistent with recovered memories occurring in many different forms of therapy, including ones that do not use suggestive techniques or rely on the concept of repression. Thus, Otgaar et al. have proposed the existence of a problem for which little objective evidence can be found. Continuing theoretical uncertainties about the mechanisms responsible for forgetting are less important than the general recognition since the 1990s that suggestive therapy and attempts to exhume memories are hazardous and generally inappropriate.

Hypnotic-like Aspects of the Tibetan Tradition of Dzogchen Meditation

Dzogchen meditation has been practiced by Bonpo and Buddhist yogis for at least 1,200 years. Dzogchen utilizes methods of meditation and yogic exercises that are said to help one fully awaken from illusions of self and reality that cause suffering in life. The philosophy and experiential practice of Dzogchen is very similar to hypnosis. Dzogchen techniques utilize hypnotic-like practices of selective attention, visualization, and posthypnotic suggestion to help yogis experience advanced insights into the nature of mind. The experience of Dzogchen can be likened to the experience of hypnosis in terms of their phenomenological and psychophysiological effects. Finally, there are also many theoretical similarities between aspects of the ego state therapy, neo-dissociation, sociocognitive, and Ericksonian theories of hypnosis with the tradition of Dzogchen meditation.

The Return of the Repressed: The Persistent and Problematic Claims of Long-Forgotten Trauma

Can purely psychological trauma lead to a complete blockage of autobiographical memories? This long-standing question about the existence of repressed memories has been at the heart of one of the most heated debates in modern psychology. These so-called memory wars originated in the 1990s, and many scholars have assumed that they are over. We demonstrate that this assumption is incorrect and that the controversial issue of repressed memories is alive and well and may even be on the rise. We review converging research and data from legal cases indicating that the topic of repressed memories remains active in clinical, legal, and academic settings. We show that the belief in repressed memories occurs on a nontrivial scale (58%) and appears to have increased among clinical psychologists since the 1990s. We also demonstrate that the scientifically controversial concept of dissociative amnesia, which we argue is a substitute term for memory repression, has gained in popularity. Finally, we review work on the adverse side effects of certain psychotherapeutic techniques, some of which may be linked to the recovery of repressed memories. The memory wars have not vanished. They have continued to endure and contribute to potentially damaging consequences in clinical, legal, and academic contexts.

Reports of recovered memories of childhood abuse in therapy in France

Recovered memories of abuse in therapy are especially controversial if the clients were not aware they were abused before therapy. In the past, such memory recovery has led to legal action, as well as a debate about whether such memories might be repressed, forgotten, or false memories. More than two decades after the height of the controversy, it is unclear to what degree such memories are still recovered today, and to what extent it occurs in France. In our French survey of 1312 participants (M_age = 33; 53% female), 551 reported having done therapy at some point. Of that 551, 33 (6%) indicated they had recovered memories of abuse in therapy that they did not know about before therapy. Sexual abuse was the most commonly reported type that was recovered in therapy (79%). As in past research, discussing the possibility of repressed memories with therapists was associated with reports of recovered memories of abuse. Surprisingly, memory recovery occurred just as much in behavioural and cognitive therapies as it did in therapies focused on trauma. We found recovered memories in a proportion of clients who began therapy recently. Recovered memories in therapy appears to be an ongoing concern in France.

A hypnotic analogue of clinical confabulation

Confabulation-fabricated or distorted memories about oneself-occurs in many disorders, but there is no reliable technique for investigating it in the laboratory. The authors used hypnosis to model clinical confabulation by giving subjects a suggestion for either (a) amnesia for everything that had happened since they started university, (b) amnesia for university plus an instruction to fill in memory gaps, or (c) confusion about the temporal order of university events. They then indexed different types of memory on a confabulation battery. The amnesia suggestion produced the most confabulation, especially for personal semantic information. Notably, subjects confabulated by making temporal confusions. The authors discuss the theoretical implications of this first attempt to model clinical confabulation and the potential utility of such analogues.

Pseudomemory Responding in Hypnotic, Task-Motivated and Simulating Subjects: Memory Distortion or Reporting Bias?

Hypnotic, task-motivated and simulating subjects were administered a suggestion for a false memory (hearing noises) while “reliving” the events of an earlier night. Simulators reported the suggested noises more frequently than hypnotic subjects, and subjects in the three conditions failed to differ in endorsing the noises as real after termination of the “reliving” procedure. Subjects in the three conditions were also equally likely to reverse their pseudomemory reports following hidden observer instructions. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that pseudomemory responding in this paradigm reflects reporting bias rather than memory distortion.

The Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility: accuracy of self-report and the memory for items

Whereas early studies have found moderately high agreement between self- and observer-rated scores on the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, Form A (HGSHS:A), these studies shared a common confound in that participants were aware of being directly observed. In the present study, confederates made surreptitious observations of group participants' hypnotic responding. Following the hypnotic procedure, participants indicated whether or not they remembered each item and provided self-reports of their hypnotic response. The study assesses the accuracy of participant self-report for hypnosis items when individuals are unaware of being observed. Thirty-two percent of participants failed to recognize at least one item from the hypnosis session, suggesting that the inability to remember items is a common phenomenon. When participants reported not remembering an item, the accuracy of their self-reported response was no better than chance.

Naturally Occurring and Suggestion- Dependent Memory Distortions: The Convergence of Disparate Research Traditions

Two lines of research that have revealed the existence of memory distortions are reviewed. Both began at the beginning of this century and continue through today. One is a coherent research tradition aimed at investigating suggestion-dependent memory distortions produced by clinical and social psychological manipulations; the other consists of a series of unrelated studies on naturally occurring memory distortions. These latter studies are aimed at establishing some of the basic processes underlying the functioning of normal human memory and have not previously been considered together as part of the literature on memory errors.

Eliciting autobiographical pseudomemories: the relevance of hypnosis, hypnotizability, and attributions

The authors investigated the roles of hypnosis, hypnotizability, and attributions in autobiographical pseudomemories. Experiment 1 administered a suggestion for recall of their second birthday to hypnotized high and low hypnotizable participants and nonhypnotized, high hypnotizable participants; Experiment 2 administered a similar suggestion to real and simulating participants. Recall was tested during hypnosis, after hypnosis, and after a challenge procedure. In Experiment 1, more highs than lows reported a memory during hypnosis; however, following the challenge, half the walking highs but none of the hypnosis highs retracted their memory. Notably, highs attributed their memories to reconstructions based on other birthdays. In Experiment 2, whereas an equal number of reals and simulators reported a memory of their second birthday during hypnosis and then retracted following the challenge, they made different attributions about their memories. These findings highlight the value of a closer investigation of attributional processes that reconcile believed-in autobiographical memories with conflicting evidence.

Significant dates in the history of forensic hypnosis

Important dates in the history of forensic hypnosis are identified and their significance is briefly described. Trends regarding the use of forensic hypnosis are highlighted, as well as criticisms of various positions. The authors recommend that professionals who practice forensic hypnosis be thoroughly familiar with the significant precedents, problems, and pitfalls that have arisen concerning the use of hypnosis with memory in forensic settings.

Individual differences in imagination inflation

Garry, Manning, Loftus, and Sherman (1996) found that when adult subjects imagined childhood events, these events were subsequentlyjudged as more likely to have occurred than were not-imagined events. The authors termed this effect imagination inflation. We replicated the effect, using a novel set of Life Events Inventory events. Further, we tested whether the effect is related to four subject characteristics possibly associated with false memory creation. The extent to which subjects inflated judged likelihood following imagined events was associated with indices of hypnotic suggestibility and dissociativity, but not with vividness of imagery or interrogative suggestibility. Results suggest that imagination plays a role in subsequent likelihood judgments regarding childhood events, and that some individuals are more likely than others to experience imagination inflation.

Encoding and recall of parsed stories in hypnosis

To define the relationship between aspects of memory concerning encoding and recall of short texts and hypnosis, standardized stories were narrated to 12 subjects, both during ordinary state of consciousness and after hypnotic induction by means of the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale (Form C). The narrative material used as a stimulus was based on several stories taken from popular oral tradition, previously analyzed according to the classic criteria proposed by Rumelhart in 1975 and Mandler and Johnson in 1977. The subjects' memory performance during both experimental conditions was tape-recorded and compared with the analysis of the original stories (Terminal Nodes) as well as with the higher linguistic structures of the scheme (Basic Nodes), according to Rumelhart's typology. During hypnosis, the subjects recalled significantly fewer narrative elements at both levels of analysis (Terminal Nodes and Basic Nodes). We conclude that hypnosis does not enhance recent memory.

Hypnosis and implicit memory: automatic processing of explicit content

Kenneth S. Bowers, in whose honor this issue is written, was, in his own words, "seriously curious" (Bowers, 1983 (originally published 1976)) about hypnosis throughout his career. He brought a lively intellect and an engaging and lucid writing style reminiscent of Freud's (forgive me, Ken, I'm referring to style, not content), and a set of serious questions to the phenomenon of hypnosis. We are indebted to him for his many contributions to the field.

Dissociation in hypnosis and frontal executive function

In a career of many searching conceptual insights, Kenneth Bowers drew an important distinction between 2 different dissociative theories of hypnosis: dissociated experience and dissociated control. We contrast these 2 views and discuss how a dissociated control theory can be integrated with current conceptions of frontal executive function. Then we use this frontal elaboration of the dissociated control theory to sketch out a provisional understanding of memory function associated with hypnosis and hypnotic suggestibility, with particular emphasis on unsuggested effects.

Hypnosis, memory and amnesia

Hypnotized subjects respond to suggestions from the hypnotist for imaginative experiences involving alterations in perception and memory. Individual differences in hypnotizability are only weakly related to other forms of suggestibility. Neuropsychological speculations about hypnosis focus on the right hemisphere and/or the frontal lobes. Posthypnotic amnesia refers to subjects' difficulty in remembering, after hypnosis, the events and experiences that transpired while they were hypnotized. Posthypnotic amnesia is not an instance of state-dependent memory, but it does seem to involve a disruption of retrieval processes similar to the functional amnesias observed in clinical dissociative disorders. Implicit memory, however, is largely spared, and may underlie subjects' ability to recognize events that they cannot recall. Hypnotic hypermnesia refers to improved memory for past events. However, such improvements are illusory: hypermnesia suggestions increase false recollection, as well as subjects' confidence in both true and false memories. Hypnotic age regression can be subjectively compelling, but does not involve the ablation of adult memory, or the reinstatement of childlike modes of mental functioning, or the revivification of memory. The clinical and forensic use of hypermnesia and age regression to enhance memory in patients, victims and witnesses (e.g. recovered memory therapy for child sexual abuse) should be discouraged.

The integration of clinical and experimental work

The work and the professional relationships of clinicians who use hypnosis and their research counterparts always contain a certain degree of tension. This is especially true when one group or the other claims to have a purchase on truth. A review of the strengths and limitations of each subspecialty is provided along with an understanding of some of the differences between the clinical and experimental perspectives. The author raises a number of points with the hope that this article will promote discussion among those who are engaged in clinical and experimental work and those few who are active in both. Several suggestions for integration and collaboration are offered for consideration by both groups.

Illusory safeguards: legitimizing distortion in recall with guidelines for forensic hypnosis--two case reports

Two amnesic automobile accident victims remembered the information needed for their ongoing lawsuits during hypnosis. Meeting the recording requirements of the Hurd safeguards led to the admission of hypnotically influenced testimony in court in one case, whereas failure to record led to exclusion in the other. In both cases, closed-head trauma almost certainly prevented long-term memory consolidation. Thus adherence to guidelines for forensic hypnosis legitimized distortions in recall instead of preventing them. Hypnosis used to facilitate hypermnesia alters expectations about what can be remembered, makes memory more vulnerable to postevent information, and increases confidence without a corresponding increase in accuracy. Distortion of recall is an inherent problem with the use of hypnosis and hypnotic-like procedures and cannot be adequately prevented by any set of guidelines.

On the interaction of hypnotizability and negative affect in chronic pain. Implications for the somatization of trauma

The high risk model of threat perception predicts that high hypnotizability is a risk factor for trauma-related somatization. It is hypothesized that high hypnotizability can increase experimentally induced threat or negative affect, as measured by skin conductance level, in a linear or dose-response manner. This hypothesized interaction of hypnotic ability and negative affect was found in a consecutive series of 118 adult patients with chronic pain symptoms. Larger increases in skin conductance levels during cognitive threat were significantly related to higher levels of hypnotizability. In addition, individuals with high hypnotizability retained higher skin conductance levels than individuals with low hypnotizability after stress. The clinical implications of the interaction of hypnotizability and negative affect during threat perception and delayed recovery from threat perception are discussed in terms of cognitive mechanisms in the etiology and therapy of trauma-related dissociative disorders.

Memory liabilities associated with hypnosis: does low hypnotizability confer immunity?

Retrospective analyses of data from the authors' program of research on hypnosis and memory are presented, with special emphasis on effects observed among low hypnotizable individuals. In Experiment 1, participants completed seven forced-recall trials in an attempt to remember a series of pictures that had been shown 1 week earlier. For half the participants, the middle five trials were carried out using hypnotic procedures; the remaining participants performed all recall attempts in a motivated waking condition. Hypnosis failed to enhance correct recall for either high or low hypnotizable participants beyond the hypermnesia and reminiscence effects associated with repeated retrieval attempts over time. However, whereas high hypnotizable participants produced substantial numbers of confident recall errors (i.e., intrusions) independent of the use of hypnosis, low hypnotizable participants exposed to hypnotic procedures reported significantly more intrusions than their counterparts in the waking condition. In Experiment 2, participants were asked to identify whether specific recollections, reported during two forced-interrogatory recall tests conducted 1 week earlier, had originated in the first or second of those tests. A general bias to misattribute previously reported recollections to the first of two recall occasions was observed; however, the effect was greatest among low hypnotizables who had undergone the second recall attempt in hypnosis. The findings imply that highly hypnotizable individuals are not unique in their vulnerability to distortions of memory induced by hypnotic techniques. Individuals of lesser hypnotic capacity also manifest memory alterations when exposed to such procedures.

The relationship between memory, suggestibility and hypnotic responsivity

This study investigated the relationship between resistance to misleading information and performance on the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility (HGSHS:A), and examined the impact of obtrusive observation on subjects' hypnotic responsivity, memory, and resistance to misleading information. Eighty-five college students were administered the HGSHS:A in its standard form. Three additional bogus items were added to the HGSHS:A response booklet asking subjects to report whether they responded to suggestions that were not actually offered during the procedures. The endorsement of these items was used as an index of resistance to misleading information (suggestibility) for events occurring during hypnosis. Participants were also given a series of misleading questions related to events that occurred prior to the induction. Results indicated that performance on the HGSHS:A was not related to resistance to misleading information for events occurring during hypnosis or for events that occurred prior to the induction. As predicted, resistance to misleading information was consistent for subjects across the waking and hypnotic contexts. Also as predicted, being observed during the hypnotic procedures was related to lower scoring on the HGSHS:A.

A critical review of recovered memories in psychotherapy: Part I--Trauma and memory

OBJECTIVE

The theoretical basis of the use of recovered memories in psychotherapy will be critically examined.

METHOD

Literature will be reviewed on the nature of normal memory, and on the relationship of trauma to memory.

RESULTS

Normal memories are surprisingly inaccurate. There is little evidence that normal memories can be repressed. There is no evidence that trauma makes repression more likely.

CONCLUSIONS

"Recovery" of repressed memories is not consistent with the findings of empirical research.

Attention-related electroencephalographic and event-related potential predictors of responsiveness to suggested posthypnotic amnesia

Higher frequency electroencephalographic (EEG) activity around 40 Hz has been shown to play a role in cognitive functions such as attention. Furthermore, event-related brain potential (ERP) components such as N1 and P1 are sensitive to selective attention. In the present study, 40-Hz EEG measures and early ERP components were employed to relate selective attention to hypnotic response. Participants were 20 low hypnotizable individuals, half assigned as simulators, and 21 high hypnotizable individuals. Each of these groups was subsequently divided into two groups based on recognition amnesia scores. The four groups differed in 40-Hz (36-44 Hz) EEG spectral amplitude recorded during preinduction resting conditions but not in EEG amplitude postinduction. The groups also differed in N1 amplitudes recorded during hypnosis. Regression analysis revealed that these effects only distinguish the high hypnotizable participants who experienced recognition amnesia from all other groups. The findings support the role of selective attention in hypnotic responsiveness, and the utility of subdividing high hypnotizable individuals is discussed.

Pseudomemories: the standard of science and the standard of care in trauma treatment

The pseudomemory (PM) debate has focused on individuals who do not remember sexual abuse and later recover these memories, often in therapy. This paper critically reviews experimental research on stress and memory and on suggestibility and memory in terms of its applicability to PM production in therapy. Three different kinds of suggestibility are identified--hypnotizability, postevent misinformation suggestibility, and interrogatory suggestibility. It is hypothesized that interrogatory suggestibility alone or the interaction of all three pose significant risk for PM production. It is argued that a better standard of science is needed before claims can be made about PM production in therapy, since no experimental studies have been conducted on memory performance or suggestibility effects in therapy. However, the findings derived from memory research on other populations, nevertheless, are useful to inform the standard of care in treating recovered memory patients.

Enhanced hypnotizability by cerebrally applied magnetic fields depends upon the order of hemispheric presentation: an anistropic effect

A significant alteration in the hypnotizability of normal subjects after brief (15 min) exposures to weak (1 microT) pulsed magnetic fields over the temporal lobes was determined by the serial order of hemispheric stimulation. Only subjects who received the right hemispheric stimulation first displayed significantly elevated hypnosis induction profile scores (effect size equivalent to a correlation of 0.41). Implications for a technology that can: a) modify hypnotizability, b) encourage the consolidation of quasiexperiences that are reconstructed as autobiographical memory, and c) change the sense of self, are discussed.

Memory distortion and sexual trauma: the problem of false negatives and false positives

Logically, two broad types of mnemonic errors are possible when adult psychotherapy or hypnosis patients reflect on whether they were sexually abused or not as a child. They may believe that they were not abused when in fact they were (false negative error), or they may believe they were abused when in fact they were not (false positive error). The author briefly reviews the empirical evidence for the occurrence of each of these types of errors, and illustrates each with a clinical case. Further, in considering the incidence, importance, and clinical implications of these errors, the author contends that clinical efficacy in no way assures that a false negative or a false positive has been avoided. A plea is made for theorists and researchers to acknowledge that both categories of errors can occur and to conduct future clinical and laboratory research accordingly.

Did Freud mislead patients to confabulate memories of abuse?

Freud's abandonment of the seduction theory within a year of first proposing it has been the subject of considerable recent debate and speculation. Closer examination of Freud's writings, however, shows that he had often used highly suggestive procedures to elicit the memories of childhood "seductions" from his patients. Moreover, he had not considered alternative explanations for the evidence he presented when first claiming that these recovered memories of sexual abuse were real. Nevertheless, some present-day authors have argued for the validity of recovered memories by presenting much the same type of evidence that Freud once did. Research is needed to assess the extent to which recovered memories can be clearly corroborated and to establish rules for distinguishing between real and false memories of abuse.

Pseudomemory in hypnotized and simulating subjects

High hypnotizable (n = 23) and low hypnotizable simulating (n = 13) subjects received pseudomemory suggestions. High hypnotizable and low hypnotizable simulating subjects were equally likely to pass the target noise suggestion during hypnosis and were also equally likely (high hypnotizables, 47.83%; low hypnotizable simulators, 64.29%) to report pseudomemories when tested for pseudomemory after instructions to awaken. As in previous research with task-motivated subjects, pseudomemory rate (high hypnotizables, 47.48%; low hypnotizable simulators, 46.15%) was not reduced by informing subjects that they could distinguish fantasy and reality in a nonhypnotic state of deep concentration. At final inquiry, after deep concentration, high hypnotizable and low hypnotizable simulating subjects' pseudomemories remained comparable (43.48% and 38.46%, respectively). Unlike previous research, high hypnotizable subjects did not report more unsuggested noises and more pseudomemories of novel sounds than did awake low hypnotizable simulating subjects. Pseudomemory reports were generally consistent with subjects' ratings of whether the hypnotist expected them to believe the sounds were real or imagined.

Elicitation of "childhood memories" in hypnosis-like settings is associated with complex partial epileptic-like signs for women but not for men: implications for the false memory syndrome

20 male and 20 female undergraduate students were exposed singly for 20 min. to an exotic setting (partial sensory deprivation and weak, bilateral transtemporal pulsed magnetic fields) that enhances relaxation and exotic experiences. The numerical incidence of subjective experiences described as old memories, dreams, emotions, or vestibular sensations did not differ significantly between the sexes; however, women who reported a greater prevalence of preexperimental complex partial epileptic-like signs were more likely to report experiences of "old memories" (r = 0.61) while men who exhibited these signs were more likely to report dream-like (r = 0.49) experiences. Because complex partial epileptic-like signs are positively associated with suggestibility, the potential contribution of this differential gender effect to the etiology of the False Memory Syndrome requires further investigation.

Truth in memory: ramifications for psychotherapy and hypnotherapy

In this article we address a number of issues relevant to the practice of psychotherapy and hypnotherapy: How reliable is memory? How are therapists' and clients' beliefs and expectancies related to pseudomemory formation? Are certain clients particularly vulnerable to pseudomemory creation? Does hypnosis pose special hazards for pseudomemory reports? What are the variables or factors that mediate hypnotic pseudomemories? In addition to reviewing the literature on these topics, we intend to sensitize the clinician to the potential pitfalls of critical reliance on the patient's memories, as well as uncritically accepted clinical beliefs and practices.

Suggestibility and repressed memories of abuse: a survey of psychotherapists' beliefs

The mental health field is deeply divided in its views regarding the possibility of creating false memories of sexual abuse through suggestive procedures. Psychotherapists in clinical practice were surveyed regarding their views on memory and hypnosis in order to assess how their perspectives might influence their clinical methods. Survey data regarding hypnosis and suggestibility indicate that while psychotherapists largely view hypnosis favorably, they often do so on the basis of misinformation. A significant number of psychotherapists erroneously believe, for example, that memories obtained through hypnosis are more likely to be accurate than those simply recalled, and that hypnosis can be used to recover accurate memories even from as far back as birth. Such misinformed views can lead to misapplications of hypnosis when attempting to actively recover memories of presumably repressed episodes of abuse, possibly resulting in the recovery of suggested rather than actual memories.

Pseudomemory and age regression: an exploratory study

Hypnotizable (N = 9) and simulating subjects (N = 8) were age regressed to the previous week's hypnosis session and received a suggestion to hear a phone ring during the earlier session (no phone actually rang). Pseudomemory rates in response to open-ended questions were low in this study (0% hypnotizable and simulating subjects) and in previous research (Lynn, Weekes, & Milano, 1989; 12.5% hypnotizable; 10% simulating subjects) in which the phone-ring suggestion was not embedded in the context of age regression. In response to a forced-choice question, 22.22% of the hypnotizable and 25% of the simulating subjects indicated that the suggested phone ring was an actual event, a pseudomemory rate somewhat higher than our previous study in which none of the subjects reported pseudomemories in response to a forced-choice question. When the occurrence of the target stimulus of a pseudomemory suggestion is publicly verifiable, the pseudomemory rate is low.