Hypnotically induced emotional numbing: The roles of hypnosis and hypnotizability

American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, Oct 2006 by Wickramasekera, Ian II

Bryant, R. A., & Kapur, A. (2006). Hypnotically induced emotional numbing: The roles of hypnosis and hypnotizability. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 54(3), 281-291. This study discusses the phenomena of hypnotically based emotional numbing and its relationship to hypnotic ability.

Thirty-two high hypnotizable and 32 low hypnotizable participants were administered either a hypnotic induction or a non-hypnotic waking task prior to their exposure to distressing and neutral emotional images. Hypnotic suggestions for emotional numbing were also given prior to the exposure to the emotional visual images in the experimental group. The participants' emotional responses were assessed in terms of their phenomenological experience and self-report rating of the negative and positive qualities of the stimuli on a 0 to 100 point scale. The investigators also measured the participants' psychophysiological electromyographic (EMG) responses to the visual stimuli as measured from the corrugator facial muscle. High hypnotizables reported more emotional numbing and demonstrated less EMG activity during both the hypnosis and waking task conditions than did the low hypnotizables during the emotional numbing condition. Another interesting finding was that the largest changes in EMG between baseline conditions and exposure to the negative visual stimuli was seen in the low hypnotizable group during the emotional numbing condition under waking conditions. The authors argue that individual differences in hypnotic ability may account for much of a person's experience during hypnotically induced emotional numbing although they acknowledge that some social context and expectancy variables may have influenced their findings. Address for reprints: Richard A. Bryant, Ph.D., School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, NSW 2052, Sydney, Australia. Email address: r.bryant@unsw.edu.au.