Hypnotic emotional numbing: A study of implicit emotion

American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis,  Jul 2005  by Wickramsekera, Ian II

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Bryant, R. (2005). Hypnotic emotional numbing: A study of implicit emotion. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 53 (1), 26-36. This study examined the phenomena of hypnotically facilitated emotional numbness through suggestions which asked participants to become "cut off from any emotional responses." The authors compared the responses of 20 highs with 20 lows on ratings of the valence of neutral words that were preceded by subliminal presentations of negative or neutral images.

Highs who received the suggestion for emotional numbing gave similar ratings of the words following presentations of the negative and neutral images. Meanwhile highs in the control condition (without emotional numbing) and lows in both conditions rated the words more positively when they were preceded by the negative stimuli. The authors interpret these findings to indicate that the subliminally presented negative stimuli influenced the participants to rate the subsequent neutral words more positively. This effect was diminished however for the highs who received the emotional numbing suggestion which may indicate that the processes of emotional numbing operate at an implicit and preattentive stage of perceptual processing. Address for reprints: Richard A. Bryant, School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, NSW 2052 Australia. Email: r.bryant@unsw.edu.au

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