Editing Hypnosis (section)

== Definition and classification ==

A person in a state of hypnosis has focused attention, deeply relaxed physical and mental state and has increased [[suggestibility]].<ref>T.L. Brink. (2008) Psychology: A Student Friendly Approach. "Unit 5: Perception." p. 88 [http://www.saylor.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/TLBrink_PSYCH05.pdf] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120416002209/http://www.saylor.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/TLBrink_PSYCH05.pdf|date=16 April 2012}}</ref>
{{blockquote|text=The hypnotized individual appears to heed only the communications of the hypnotist and typically responds in an uncritical, automatic fashion while ignoring all aspects of the environment other than those pointed out by the hypnotist. In a hypnotic state an individual tends to see, feel, smell, and otherwise perceive in accordance with the hypnotist's suggestions, even though these suggestions may be in apparent contradiction to the actual stimuli present in the environment. The effects of hypnosis are not limited to sensory change; even the subject's memory and awareness of self may be altered by suggestion, and the effects of the suggestions may be extended (post-hypnotically) into the subject's subsequent waking activity.<ref>"hypnosis." ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' web edition. Retrieved: 20 March 2016.</ref>}}
It could be said that hypnotic suggestion is explicitly intended to make use of the [[placebo]] effect. For example, in 1994, [[Irving Kirsch]] characterized hypnosis as a "non-deceptive placebo", i.e., a method that openly makes use of suggestion and employs methods to amplify its effects.<ref name=":0"/><ref name=":1"/>

A definition of hypnosis, derived from academic [[psychology]], was provided in 2005, when the Society for Psychological Hypnosis, Division 30 of the [[American Psychological Association]] (APA), published the following formal definition:

{{blockquote|Hypnosis typically involves an introduction to the procedure during which the subject is told that suggestions for imaginative experiences will be presented. The hypnotic induction is an extended initial suggestion for using one's imagination, and may contain further elaborations of the introduction. A hypnotic procedure is used to encourage and evaluate responses to suggestions. When using hypnosis, one person (the subject) is guided by another (the hypnotist) to respond to suggestions for changes in subjective experience, alterations in perception,<ref name="Leslie">{{citation |url=http://news.stanford.edu/news/2000/september6/hypnosis-96.html |title=Research supports the notion that hypnosis can transform perception |work=Stanford Report |last=Leslie |first=Mitch |name-list-style=vanc |date=6 September 2000 |publisher=Stanford University |access-date=16 June 2013 |archive-date=2 August 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130802154015/http://news.stanford.edu/news/2000/september6/hypnosis-96.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Mauera">{{cite journal | vauthors = Mauer MH, Burnett KF, Ouellette EA, Ironson GH, Dandes HM | title = Medical hypnosis and orthopedic hand surgery: pain perception, postoperative recovery, and therapeutic comfort | journal = The International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis | volume = 47 | issue = 2 | pages = 144–61 | date = April 1999 | pmid = 10208075 | doi = 10.1080/00207149908410027}}</ref> sensation,<ref name="De Pascalis">{{cite journal | vauthors = De Pascalis V, Magurano MR, Bellusci A | title = Pain perception, somatosensory event-related potentials and skin conductance responses to painful stimuli in high, mid, and low hypnotizable subjects: effects of differential pain reduction strategies | journal = Pain | volume = 83 | issue = 3 | pages = 499–508 | date = December 1999 | pmid = 10568858 | doi = 10.1016/S0304-3959(99)00157-8 | s2cid = 3158482 | id = {{INIST|1291393}}}}</ref> emotion, thought or behavior. Persons can also learn self-hypnosis, which is the act of administering hypnotic procedures on one's own. If the subject responds to hypnotic suggestions, it is generally inferred that hypnosis has been induced. Many believe that hypnotic responses and experiences are characteristic of a hypnotic state. While some think that it is not necessary to use the word "hypnosis" as part of the hypnotic induction, others view it as essential.<ref>[http://www.apa.org/divisions/div30/define_hypnosis.html "New Definition: Hypnosis"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080910220114/http://www.apa.org/divisions/div30/define_hypnosis.html |date=10 September 2008 }}. Society of Psychological Hypnosis Division 30 – American Psychological Association.</ref>}}

Michael Nash provides a list of eight definitions of hypnosis by different authors, in addition to his own view that hypnosis is "a special case of psychological [[Regression (psychology)|regression]]":
# [[Pierre Janet|Janet]], near the turn of the century, and more recently [[Ernest Hilgard]] ..., have defined hypnosis in terms of [[Dissociation (psychology)|dissociation]].
# [[Social psychologist]]s Sarbin and Coe ... have described hypnosis in terms of [[role theory]]. Hypnosis is a role that people play; they act "as if" they were hypnotised.
# [[T. X. Barber]] ... defined hypnosis in terms of nonhypnotic behavioural parameters, such as task motivation and the act of labeling the situation as hypnosis.
# In his early writings, [[André Muller Weitzenhoffer|Weitzenhoffer]] ... conceptualised hypnosis as a state of enhanced suggestibility. Most recently ... he has defined hypnotism as "a form of influence by one person exerted on another through the medium or agency of suggestion."
# [[Psychoanalyst]]s Gill and Brenman ... described hypnosis by using the psychoanalytic concept of "regression in the service of the ego".
# Edmonston ... has assessed hypnosis as being merely a state of relaxation.
# Spiegel and Spiegel... have implied that hypnosis is a biological capacity.<ref name="books.google.com">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ez7Nq80QMtoC|title=Theories of Hypnosis: Current Models and Perspectives|first1=Steven J.|last1=Lynn|first2=Judith W.|last2=Rhue|date=4 October 1991|publisher=Guilford Press|isbn=9780898623437|via=Google Books|access-date=7 November 2015|archive-date=2 July 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702162816/https://books.google.com/books?id=Ez7Nq80QMtoC|url-status=live}}</ref>
# [[Milton H. Erickson|Erickson]] ... is considered the leading exponent of the position that hypnosis is a special, inner-directed, altered state of functioning.<ref name="books.google.com"/>

Joe Griffin and [[Ivan Tyrrell]] (the originators of the [[Human givens|human givens approach]]) define hypnosis as "any artificial way of accessing the [[Rapid eye movement sleep|REM]] state, the same brain state in which dreaming occurs" and suggest that this definition, when properly understood, resolves "many of the mysteries and controversies surrounding hypnosis".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Griffin |first1=Joe |last2=Tyrrell |first2=Ivan |name-list-style=vanc |title=Human Givens: The new approach to emotional health and clear thinking |date=2013 |publisher=HG Publishing |isbn=978-1-899398-31-7 |page=67 |url=http://www.humangivens.com/publications/human-givens-book.html |access-date=24 February 2015 |archive-date=8 October 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141008073609/http://www.humangivens.com/publications/human-givens-book.html |url-status=live }}</ref> They see the REM state as being vitally important for life itself, for programming in our instinctive knowledge initially (after Dement<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Roffwarg HP, Muzio JN, Dement WC | title = Ontogenetic development of the human sleep-dream cycle | journal = Science | volume = 152 | issue = 3722 | pages = 604–19 | date = April 1966 | pmid = 17779492 | doi = 10.1126/science.152.3722.604 | bibcode = 1966Sci...152..604R}}</ref> and Jouvet<ref>{{cite book |chapter=Does a genetic programming of the brain occur during paradoxical sleep |year=1978 |first=M |last=Jouvet |editor-last1=Buser|editor-first1=Pierre A.|editor-last2=Rougeul-Buser|editor-first2=Arlette| name-list-style = vanc |title=Cerebral correlates of conscious experience: proceedings of an international symposium on cerebral correlates of conscious experience, held in Senanque Abbey, France, on 2–8 August 1977|publisher=North-Holland|location=New York|isbn=978-0-7204-0659-7}}</ref>) and then for adding to this throughout life. They attempt to explain this by asserting that, in a sense, all learning is post-hypnotic, which they say explains why the number of ways people can be put into a hypnotic state are so varied: according to them, anything that focuses a person's attention, inward or outward, puts them into a trance.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Griffin|first1=Joe|last2=Tyrrell|first2=Ivan|name-list-style=vanc|title=Godhead: the brain's big bang: the strange origin of creativity, mysticism and mental illness|date=2011|publisher=Human Givens|location=Chalvington|isbn=978-1-899398-27-0|pages=106–22|url=http://www.griffintyrrell.co.uk/creativity-mysticism-and-mental-illness.php|access-date=24 February 2015|archive-date=25 March 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150325000932/http://www.griffintyrrell.co.uk/creativity-mysticism-and-mental-illness.php|url-status=live}}</ref><!-- fails verification: <ref name="Bewley Ross Braillon Ernst 2011 p. d5960">{{cite journal | last1=Bewley | first1=Susan | last2=Ross | first2=Nick | last3=Braillon | first3=Alain | last4=Ernst | first4=Edzard | last5=Garrow | first5=John | last6=Rose | first6=Les | last7=Brahams | first7=Diana | last8=Baum | first8=Michael | last9=Marks | first9=Vincent | last10=Isaacs | first10=Keith | last11=May | first11=James | title=Clothing naked quackery and legitimising pseudoscience | journal=BMJ (Clinical Research Ed.) | volume=343 | date=2011-09-20 | issn=1756-1833 | pmid=21937550 | doi=10.1136/bmj.d5960 | page=d5960| s2cid=19450377 }}</ref><ref name="Ernst 2011 p. d4370">{{cite journal | last=Ernst | first=Edzard | title=College of medicine or college of quackery? | journal=BMJ (Clinical Research Ed.) | volume=343 | date=2011-07-12 | issn=1756-1833 | pmid=21750062 | doi=10.1136/bmj.d4370 | page=d4370| s2cid=8061172 }}</ref>-->