Hypnotism and Science

[RichardSnodgrass]

Hypnosis is a very dangerous thing to experiment with...only experts can hypnotize people correctly, and even they make mistakes which can damage a person psychologically. Hypnosis is a mild form of brainwashing, and brainwashing can damage people if they are programmed outside thier normal behavoral pattern...such BAD programming can result in several disorders from PTSD to Schizo Affective Disorder...Hypnosis is a psychiatric mental surgery and can cause mental damage if done imprecisely.

 

 

 

Hypnosis is not regarded as a science .

Yet its use in surgery as anaesthesia has been recorded and verified .

 

If the power of suggestion can visibly alter the human physiology and render a body part immune to

pain , doesn't the idea of proven science leave much to be desired ?

 

Edited December 12, 2011 by RichardSnodgrass

[charles brough]

Hypnosis is a very dangerous thing to experiment with...only experts can hypnotize people correctly, and even they make mistakes which can damage a person psychologically. Hypnosis is a mild form of brainwashing, and brainwashing can damage people if they are programmed outside thier normal behavoral pattern...such BAD programming can result in several disorders from PTSD to Schizo Affective Disorder...Hypnosis is a psychiatric mental surgery and can cause mental damage if done imprecisely.

Yes, like anything useful, it can also be very dangerous.

[PhDwannabe]

Hypnosis is a very dangerous thing to experiment with...only experts can hypnotize people correctly, and even they make mistakes which can damage a person psychologically. Hypnosis is a mild form of brainwashing, and brainwashing can damage people if they are programmed outside thier normal behavoral pattern...such BAD programming can result in several disorders from PTSD to Schizo Affective Disorder...Hypnosis is a psychiatric mental surgery and can cause mental damage if done imprecisely.

"Brainwashing," in the form that people usually take the term to mean, does not exist.

 

Hypnosis is a social exchange. It cannot do anything to people that people won't do when simply asked to pretend they're hypnotized--decades of empirical work show us so. It is not "mental surgery" any more than, suppose, an intense conversation might be. It cannot cause any more "mental damage" than an intense conversation might. There is no magic about it, and it is about as dangerous as a Ouija Board.

 

PTSD, by the way, stems from a traumatic event involving threat to life or bodily integrity. Hypnosis does not cause it. Schizoaffective disorder appears to be solidly on the schizophrenia spectrum, and seems to be a largely organic illness. Hypnosis is not going to cause it.

 

If you have some kind of citation from a modern, high-quality, peer-reviewed scientific source about the great dangers of hypnosis, I'd love to see it. Showmen, religious zealots, and quacks are all too ready to tell you about its dangers, which should probably tell you something about how dangerous it is.

 

To give you the briefest of overviews, hypnosis:

1) mildly entertaining

2) of limited clinical utility

3) not magic

4) not dangerous

[charles brough]

"Brainwashing," in the form that people usually take the term to mean, does not exist.

 

Hypnosis is a social exchange. It cannot do anything to people that people won't do when simply asked to pretend they're hypnotized--decades of empirical work show us so. It is not "mental surgery" any more than, suppose, an intense conversation might be. It cannot cause any more "mental damage" than an intense conversation might. There is no magic about it, and it is about as dangerous as a Ouija Board.

 

PTSD, by the way, stems from a traumatic event involving threat to life or bodily integrity. Hypnosis does not cause it. Schizoaffective disorder appears to be solidly on the schizophrenia spectrum, and seems to be a largely organic illness. Hypnosis is not going to cause it.

 

If you have some kind of citation from a modern, high-quality, peer-reviewed scientific source about the great dangers of hypnosis, I'd love to see it. Showmen, religious zealots, and quacks are all too ready to tell you about its dangers, which should probably tell you something about how dangerous it is.

 

To give you the briefest of overviews, hypnosis:

1) mildly entertaining

2) of limited clinical utility

3) not magic

4) not dangerous

I'll accept your assessment of clinical studies. However, my experience is not consistent with that. I have seen and experienced what the focussing of one's concentration can achieve, a feat specific to hypnosis. I make no claim it achieves anything functionally or mentally or physiologically impossible.

 

In a field requiring a certain type of awesome personality to master the technique, a field dominated by showmanship, and a heritage of "animal magnatism," no research academics could further their career by demonstrating what it can and does do.

[PhDwannabe]

However, my experience is not consistent with that.

Hopefully, you realize that your personal experience is not really to be trusted within a scientific sphere, but rather, doubted quite strongly.

 

In a field requiring a certain type of awesome personality to master the technique, a field dominated by showmanship, and a heritage of "animal magnatism," no research academics could further their career by demonstrating what it can and does do.

I have to admit that this statement does not betray a whole lot of knowledge about the way psychological research works.