Hypnosis and Behavior Therapy: Common Denominators

Abstract

In this paper, the relationships between hypnosis and behavior therapy are examined on two levels. First, the authors consider the contention that a "hypnotic state" mediates some of the therapeutic changes that are seen in behavior therapy. Logical and empirical problems pertaining to the hypothetical construct "hypnotic state" or "trance" are specified and it is concluded that the construct is not useful in explaining the changes in behavior observed in either hypnotic situations or in behavior therapy situations. Secondly, the authors focus on parallels between hypnotic situations and those behavior therapy situations that make subjects' imaginings the pivot of therapeutic change. Four sets of variables are delineated that appear to play a role in mediating the changes in behavior seen in both hypnotic and behavior therapy situations: (a) motivational variables, (b) attitudinal and expectancy variables, (c) the specific wording of the suggestions or instructions, and (d) circumscribed cognitive processes (e.g., goal-directed imagining) occurring in response to the suggestions or instructions.

Involvement in everyday imaginative activities, attitudes toward hypnosis, and hypnotic suggestibility.

“…This result means that the often replicated finding of a relationship between involvement in everyday imaginative activities and hypnotic suggestibility cannot be explained away in terms of subjects' attitudes toward hypnosis. These findings also add weight to the more general notion propounded by numerous investigators, that imaginative processes play an important role in determining subjects' response to test suggestion Spanos, DeMoor, & Barber, 1973). The fact that the correlations between absorption and hypnotic suggestibility were significant for both sexes after elimination of the attitude variable further indicates that similar cognitive processes underlie at least part of the hypnotic performance of males and females.…”

Toward a convergence in hypnosis research.

“…Provision of strategies for imagining. A number of reports (Barber, Spanos, & Chaves, in press;Spanos, 1971Spanos & Barber, 1972;Spanos, DeMoor, & Barber, 1973) have pointed out that suggestions differ in the degree that they specify a pattern of imagining or strategy which the subject can use to help him in experiencing the suggested effects. Some suggestions are highly explicit in specifying a helpful imaginary situation whereas others simply indicate the subjective effects to be experienced without providing a strategy that can help to produce them.…”

Hypnosis in psychotherapy, psychosomatics and medicine. A brief overview

“…Before that, however, Cautela (1966a , b) had pointed out that systematic desensitization had nothing to do with hypnosis, and another “father of behavior therapy,” Joseph Wolpe (1996) , candidly described his development away from hypnosis towards behavior therapy. Weitzenhoffer (1972) compared behavioral and hypnotherapeutic techniques, Lazarus (1973) considered hypnosis as a facilitator in behavior therapy, Spanos (1976) described the “common denominators” of the two methods, Ascher (1977) “the role of hypnosis in behavior therapy,” Kraiker (1985) “cognitive models of hypnotic phenomena” and “The birth of behavioral therapy from the spirit of hypnosis” ( Kraiker, 1987 ), Peter (1992) the many, purely behavioral exposure therapies of Erickson, and Spinhoven (1987) and Humphreys (1986) carried out extensive reviews—to name just a few of the numerous works that linked hypnosis with behavior therapy. Kirsch et al (1995) conducted the first large meta-analysis for this period (1971–1993) and found that cognitive-behavior therapy treatments in which hypnosis was used additionally showed an effect size almost twice as high as cognitive-behavior therapy treatments without hypnosis.…”