Martin T. Orne

The use and misuse of hypnosis in court

Over the years, much of the forensic interest in hypnosis has dealt with the question of whether an individual can be compelled to carry out antisocial behavior* and the implications that such a possibility would have for the concept of legal responsibility. More recently, however, there has been a sudden upsurge of legal cases throughout the country which have involved the use of hypnosis in an entirely different context. These cases employ hypnosis (a) to enhance defendants’ memories in order to bring out new information which might clear them of accusations against them, or (b) to increase the recall of witnesses or victims who have observed a crime, either to facilitate the pretrial investigation or to enhance memory sufficiently so that following hypnosis the individuals can serve as eyewitnesses in court. Finally, hypnosis has been used to help in the psychological and psychiatric evaluation of defendants, especially to determine their state of mind (Kline,1979). Although this application will not be discussed substantively in this essay, all the limitations of hypnosis for the proof of fact generally apply even more strongly to its use to document the fact of a state of mind.

Home management of sickle cell-related pain in children and adolescents : natural history and impact on school attendance

&NA; Some children and adolescents with sickle cell disease experience frequent painful episodes. To gain information about the natural history of the pain and its impact on sleep and school attendance, we developed a home‐based diary system. Eighteen children and adolescents completed 4756 diary days, with an average compliance of 75%. Pain was reported on 30% of days and was managed at home nine‐tenths of the time. Girls reported more days with pain than did boys, and age was positively correlated with the length of the painful episodes. The pain affected school attendance and sleep. Patients were absent from school on 21% of 3186 school days, with half of the absenteeisms on days with reported pain. Of the pain‐associated absenteeisms, two‐thirds occurred when pain was managed at home, and one‐third when patients were hospitalized. The average consecutive number of school days missed was 2.7. These findings have implications for developmentally critical activities.

Assessing performance upon abrupt awakening from naps during quasi-continuous operations

Quasi-continuous work settings often involve sleep loss and requirements to perform at unpredictable times. Napping may alleviate some of the sleep-loss problems, but it increases the risk that the person will have difficulty functioning upon abrupt awakening. This paper describes an experimental approach, techniques, and analyses for investigating performance upon abrupt awakening from 2 h naps placed near either the circadian peak (P) or trough (T) in body temperature and preceded by 6, 18, 30, 42, or 54 h of sleep deprivation. Five groups of healthy young adults performed quasi-continuously for 54 h and were permitted a 2-h nap at one of five times. Reaction time (RT) to answer a phone terminating the nap, subjective estimates, and performance of a brief, challenging cognitive task were related to nap-sleep parameters of each group. Sleep deprivation increased the amount of deep sleep in the naps, and this was associated with greater postnap cognitive performance decrements; subjective estimates were unaffected, and RT performance was related simply to stage of sleep prior to awakening. Circadian placement of the naps also modulated the postnap cognitive decrement: T naps produced greater cognitive decrements than P naps, even when the latter involved more prior sleep loss. These findings have both practical and theoretical significance for evaluating the awakening process, and would not have been possible without the approach, techniques, and procedures described.

The simulation of hypnosis: Why, how, and what it means

Abstract The use of the real-simulating model with a “blind” hypnotist as a quasi-control for hypnosis research is discussed. The advantages and limitations of the procedure are set forth and the kind of problems for which it is appropriate are outlined. The nature of inferences that may legitimately be drawn from findings using this model are discussed. It is pointed out that, though it has been shown that Ss are able to simulate successfully and can deceive highly trained hypnotists, this observation does not challenge the reality of Ss experience nor does it question the genuineness of hypnosis. Furthermore, in most contexts, simulation does not occur spontaneously and ought not to preoccupy either the therapist or the investigator.

The benefits of a nap during prolonged work and wakefulness

Abstract Prolonged work scenarios with demands for sustained performance are increasingly common. Because sleep loss inevitably compromises functioning in such situations, napping has been proposed as a countermeasure. The optimal timing of the nap relative to its benefits for performance and mood is not known, however. To address this issue, 41 healthy adults were permitted a two-hour nap at one of five times during a 56-hour period of intermittent work, with no other sleep. Naps were placed 12 hours apart, near the circadian peak (P) or trough (T), and were preceded by 6(P), 18(T), 30(P), 42(T), or 54(P) hours of wakefulness. Work test bouts occurred every few hours and consisted of a variety of psychomotor and cognitive tasks as well as mood scales completed at the beginning, middle and end of each bout. A total of eight performance and 24 mood parameters were derived from the bouts and compared between groups at all test points prior to and following the naps. An estimate of the extent to which each n...

The construct of hypnosis: implications of the definition for research and practice.

Although hypnotic phenomena have been well delineated since the Marquis de PuysCgur’s historic description, controversy persists concerning the nature of hypnosis and even its very existence. It is my hope that, in this paper, by asking what it is that makes hypnosis interesting-to some, even implausible-and exploring how the phenomena have been defined, it will be possible to lay to rest some disagreements about hypnosis. In particular, I will seek to address issues about the reality of hypnosis that are in fact controversies about the mechanisms responsible for what is observed. Such an effort is intended to clarify definitional issues and distinguish between those questions which require empirical as opposed to those which demand conceptual clarification.

Hypnotizability and phobic behavior.

Hypnotizability ratings of 24 phobic patients interested in the therapeutic use of hypnosis were compared with those of an equal number of smokers keen to quit smoking through hypnosis. The mean Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale score of phobics was 8.08 on a 12-point scale. The mean of smokers was 6.08. The difference was significant beyond the .01 level (two-tailed). Thirty percent of smokers were essentially nonresponsive. No phobics were nonresponsive. Those with multiple phobias scored more highly than those with a single phobia. These findings are in accord with the view that among psychiatric patients whose hypnotizability is assessed in a treatment context, hysterics are most responsive. The implications both for theory and for a specific treatment strategy are discussed.

Psychosocial and immune effects of self-hypnosis training for stress management throughout the first semester of medical school.

This study was a 19-week prospective conducted to determine the effectiveness of a self-hypnosis/relaxation intervention to relieve symptoms of psychological distress and moderate immune system reactivity to examination stress in 35 first-year medical students. Twenty-one subjects were randomly selected for training in the use of self-hypnosis as a coping skill and were encouraged to practice regularly and to maintain daily diary records related to mood, sleep, physical symptoms, and frequency of relaxation practice. An additional 14 subjects received no explicit training in stress-reduction strategies, but completed similar daily diaries. Self-report psychosocial and symptom measures, as well as blood draws, were obtained at four time points: orientation, late semester, examination period, and postsemester recovery. It was found that significant increases in stress and fatigue occurred during the examination period, paralleled by increases in counts of B lymphocytes and activated T lymphocytes, PHA-induced and PWM-induced blastogenesis, and natural killer cell (NK) cytotoxicity. No immune decreases were observed. Subjects in the self-hypnosis condition reported significantly less distress and anxiety than their nonintervention counterparts, but the two groups did not differ with respect to immune function. Nevertheless, within the self-hypnosis group, the quality of the exercises (ie, relaxation ratings) predicted both the number of NK cells and NK activity. It was concluded that stress associated with academic demands affects immune function, but immune suppression is not inevitable. Practice of self-hypnosis reduces distress, without differential immune effects. However, individual responses to the self-hypnosis intervention appear to predict immune outcomes.

On the differential diagnosis of multiple personality in the forensic context

Abstract The problems of diagnosing multiple personality disorder in a forensic context are discussed, and illustrated by the case of Stute u. Kenneth Birrnchi (1979), a defendant who was both charged with first degree murder and suspected of having the disorder. Because of the secondary gain (e.g., avoiding the death penalty) associated with the diagnosis of multiplicity in such a case, hypotheses had to be developed to permit an informed differential diagnosis between multiple personality and malingering. If a true multiple personality disorder existed, then (a) the structure and content of the various personalities should have been consistent over time, (b) the boundaries between different personalities should have been stable and not readily altered by social cues, (c) the response to hypnosis should have been similar to that of other deeply hypnotized subjects, and (d) those who had known him over a period of years should have been able to provide examples of sudden, inexplicable changes in behavior ...

Aversive Situational Effects on Alpha Feedback Training

Anticipation of electric shock did not depress alpha activity in a feedback situation though it was associated with reported anxiety and heightened arousal indexed by greatly increased heart rate and number of spontaneous skin conductance responses. Contrary to previous reports, a reduction in alpha activity is not a necessary consequence of apprehension or heightened arousal.