W.13.3b

Title: Revisiting (and rethinking) our assumptions regarding hypnosis, suggestion and dissociation
Presenters: Devin Terhune
Venue: Audytorium Maximum - Small Hall / Aula Mała
Time: 20- 30 minute presentation during 1 pararell sesion-  13.06.2024 8:30-10:00
Language: EN

Abstract:

Hypnosis has been historically subsumed within the broader domains of suggestion and dissociation but there remaining many lingering points of controversy and disagreement regarding these associations. Clinicians and researchers have tended to conceptualize hypnosis as either distinct from other suggestion-based phenomena or treat responsiveness to hypnotic suggestion as largely synonymous with responsiveness to suggestion in other contexts. Parallel disagreements have emerged in the discussion of a potential role of suggestion in the dissociative (and germane) disorders. In particular, clinicians and researchers have at once coupled an overly broad view regarding the domain of suggestion with an overly narrow interpretation of how suggestion relates to dissociation. I will argue that many disagreements regarding the relations among these phenomena arise from widespread misconceptions regarding suggestion. Bringing a variety of different types of data to bear on these issues, I will present a nuanced perspective on how to best situate hypnosis within the broader domains of suggestion and dissociation.

Devin B. Terhune, PhD, is a Reader in the Department of Psychology in the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, & Neuroscience at King’s College London. His research draws on methods and theories from cognitive neuroscience, experimental psychology, and psychiatry with an aim to characterize different features of awareness, with a focus on dissociative states, and how they can be modulated using verbal suggestion and pharmacological agents.