Premorbid social-sexual competence and the process-reactive dimension, as assessed by the Phillips Scale, were investigated as predictors of posthospital adjustment in a prospective study of two samples of 141 young, early phase schizophrenics (a private hospital sample and a state hospital sample). The Phillips Scale predicted subsequent outcome at significant levels for one of the two samples of DSM-II schizophrenics (a "broad" construct of schizophrenia). It did not predict outcome as well for DSM-III schizophrenics (a "narrow" construct of schizophrenia). Mixed results emerged from separate analyses of first-admission schizophrenics only and for male schizophrenics only. The data indicated that marital status accounts for some of the positive relationship between the Phillips Scale and later outcome. A more focused measure of prehospital social adjustment successfully predicted social functioning at followup for both DSM-II and DSM-III schizophrenics (p less than .05). There were some significant and near-significant relationships, but overall results suggest that when the influence of chronicity and marital status is reduced, the relationship between the Phillips Scale and subsequent outcome is less robust than was once thought.
Although much has been written about technique and strategy, patient characteristics, and outcomes of hypnotherapy, relatively little has been written about the characteristics of successful hypnotherapists (Lazar & Dempster, 1984). Whereas successful hypnotherapists have all of the qua12 ities of successful psychotherapists, they also have a number of distinguishing qualities relevant to the practice of hypnosis. In this chapter I identify therapist variables that contribute to successful hypnotherapy. Before I consider characteristics of particular relevance to hypnotherapy, I first consider the literature pertinent to the characteristics of successful psychotherapists in general. To illustrate the importance of therapist flexibility, realistically appraising the patient and the situation and assuming a goaldirected yet stepwise approach to the practice of hypnotherapy, I present two cases relevant to the training and general clinical context. Finally, a review of the research on operator variables in hypnotherapy, along with concluding comments, are presented.
A 1- to 3-minute exercise involving imagination (of an apple) and ideomotor ideation (hand levitation) is a simple, benign technique that is useful for illustrating to patients the nature of imagery and hypnosis. It avoids power struggles and allows a reasonable approximation of the patient's capacity for imagery and hypnotic responsiveness, without emphasizing the use of a hypnotic procedure. When administered to 35 college students, the hand levitation component of this exercise correlated with the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale, Form C (Weitzenhoffer & E. R. Hilgard, 1963) (r = .66, p less than .001) and with the Stanford Hypnotic Clinical Scale: Adult (Morgan & J. R. Hilgard, 1975, 1978/79) (r = .60, p less than .001).
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.