What is the Source of Hypnotic Responses?

The author proposes that hypnosis is a culture-bound concept that has misattributed - to suggestion and hypnosis - the functioning of a natural, freestanding, human ability to alter personal experience. The 18th-century attribution of these phenomena (to the suggestions of a magnetizer) continues today because science and Western culture still do not explicitly acknowledge that humans possess a natural capacity to intentionally alter their own experiences. Like every other human ability (e.

Hypnotizability and the Natural Human Ability to Alter Experience.

There seems to be a natural, human ability to alter one's experience that already exists - prior to and apart from any hypnotic induction. Individual differences in this ability range from low to high and are largely commensurate with the person's assessed hypnotizability. More importantly, these preexisting, individual differences in the ability to alter experience seem to be the "substrate" that enables each individual's response to hypnotic suggestions.

Reconsidering the autohypnotic model of the dissociative disorders.

The dissociative disorders field and the hypnosis field currently reject the autohypnotic model of the dissociative disorders, largely because many correlational studies have shown hypnotizability and dissociation to be minimally related ( = .12). Curiously, it is also widely accepted that dissociative patients are highly hypnotizable.

What is the Essence of Hypnosis?

The author explores the nature of hypnosis, which he characterizes as a motivated mode of neural functioning that enables most humans to alter, to varying degrees, their experience of body, self, actions, and world. The essence of hypnosis is not to be found in hetero-hypnosis; instead, it lies in the spontaneous self-activation of that mode of neural functioning. The hypnosis field has substantially lost sight of spontaneous self-activation, because the word hypnosis is usually used to mean hetero-hypnosis.

Comparing the symptoms and mechanisms of "dissociation" in dissociative identity disorder and borderline personality disorder.

A total of 75 patients were diagnosed with the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Dissociative Disorders-Revised as having dissociative identity disorder (DID), and 100 patients were diagnosed with the Structured Interview for DSM-IV Personality as having borderline personality disorder (BPD). Both groups were administered the Multidimensional Inventory of Dissociation (MID). DID patients had significantly higher MID scores than BPD patients, different distributions of MID scores, and different MID subscale profiles in 3 ranges of MID scores (0-15, 15-30, 30-45).

Is high hypnotizability a necessary diathesis for pathological dissociation?

During the 19th century, high hypnotizability was considered to be a form of psychopathology that was inseparable from hysteria. Today, hypnotizability is considered to be a normal trait that has no meaningful relationship with psychopathology. Psychiatric patients generally manifest medium to low hypnotizability.

Three dimensions of dissociative amnesia.

Principal axis factor analysis with promax rotation extracted 3 factors from the 42 memory and amnesia items of the Multidimensional Inventory of Dissociation (MID) database (N = 2,569): Discovering Dissociated Actions, Lapses of Recent Memory and Skills, and Gaps in Remote Memory. The 3 factors' shared variance ranged from 36% to 64%. Construed as scales, the 3 factor scales had Cronbach's alpha coefficients of .

Dissociation and psychosis in dissociative identity disorder and schizophrenia.

Dissociative symptoms, first-rank symptoms of schizophrenia, and delusions were assessed in 40 schizophrenia patients and 40 dissociative identity disorder (DID) patients with the Multidimensional Inventory of Dissociation (MID). Schizophrenia patients were diagnosed with the Structured Clinical Interview for the DSM-IV Axis I Disorders; DID patients were diagnosed with the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Dissociative Disorders-Revised. DID patients obtained significantly (a) higher dissociation scores; (b) higher passive-influence scores (first-rank symptoms); and (c) higher scores on scales that measure child voices, angry voices, persecutory voices, voices arguing, and voices commenting.

Dissociative disorders in DSM-5.

Background: We present recommendations for revision of the diagnostic criteria for the Dissociative Disorders (DDs) for DSM-5. The periodic revision of the DSM provides an opportunity to revisit the assumptions underlying specific diagnoses and the empirical support, or lack of it, for the defining diagnostic criteria.

Methods: This paper reviews clinical, phenomenological, epidemiological, cultural, and neurobiological data related to the DDs in order to generate an up-to-date, evidence-based set of DD diagnoses and diagnostic criteria for DSM-5.

Dissociative disorders in DSM-5.

Background: We present recommendations for revision of the diagnostic criteria for the Dissociative Disorders (DDs) for DSM-5. The periodic revision of the DSM provides an opportunity to revisit the assumptions underlying specific diagnoses and the empirical support, or lack of it, for the defining diagnostic criteria.

Methods: This paper reviews clinical, phenomenological, epidemiological, cultural, and neurobiological data related to the DDs in order to generate an up-to-date, evidence-based set of DD diagnoses and diagnostic criteria for DSM-5.

Are major dissociative disorders characterized by a qualitatively different kind of dissociation?

A total of 66 patients with a major dissociative disorder, 54 patients with nondissociative disorders, and 30 nonclinical controls were administered the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Dissociative Disorders-Revised, the Dissociative Experiences Scale, the Multidimensional Inventory of Dissociation, and the Symptom Checklist 90-Revised. Dissociative patients reported significantly more dissociative and nondissociative symptoms than did nondissociative patients and nonclinical controls. When general psychopathology was controlled, the dissociation scores of dissociative patients were still significantly higher than those of both other groups, whereas the dissociation scores of nondissociative patients and nonclinical controls no longer differed.

Involuntariness in hypnotic responding and dissociative symptoms.

Clark Hull's (1933) research on dissociation was based on a 'straw man' formulation of dissociation; he claimed that dissociation requires noninterference. Hull completely ignored the then-current paradigm of dissociation--dissociation as automatism--and claimed that he had refuted the validity of the phenomenon of dissociation. Hull's view of dissociation held sway in the hypnosis field for 60 years.

Dissociation in borderline personality disorder: a detailed look.

The objective of the present study was to assess in detail the whole spectrum of normal and pathological dissociative experiences and dissociative disorder (DD) diagnoses in borderline personality disorder (BPD) as diagnosed with the Revised Diagnostic Interview for Borderlines. Dissociation was measured comprehensively in 21 BPD outpatients using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Dissociative Disorders-Revised, the Multidimensional Inventory of Dissociation (MID), the Dissociative Experiences Scale pathological taxon analysis, and the Somatoform Dissociation Questionnaire. The frequencies of DDs in this BPD sample were as follows: 24% no DD, 29% mild DD (dissociative amnesia and depersonalization disorder), 24% DD Not Otherwise Specified (DDNOS), and 24% dissociative identity disorder.

Dissociation and borderline personality disorder: an update for clinicians.

Dissociation occurs in about two thirds of people with borderline personality disorder (BPD) but is still not well understood by clinicians. In the past decade, however, research has used new measures of dissociation that provide some of the detail that clinicians need to understand and treat the dissociative symptoms of patients with BPD. In particular, this review examines BPD's comorbidity with the dissociative disorders, the neurobiology of dissociation in BPD, the role of trauma and disorganized attachment in the etiology of dissociation in BPD, and the clinical assessment and treatment of dissociation in BPD.

Estimating the prevalence of borderline personality disorder in psychiatric outpatients using a two-phase procedure.

The prevalence of borderline personality disorder (BPD) in outpatient clinics varies greatly (7%-27%) depending on the setting and methodology. We examined the cross-sectional rate of BPD in a general adult outpatient university clinic using a 2-phase procedure: (1) we screened all registered patients with the self-report SCID-II-PQ and (2) we administered the Revised Diagnostic Interview for Borderlines (DIB-R). Sixty-six percent (239/360) of the clinic patients completed the screening: About 72.

The multidimensional inventory of dissociation (MID): A comprehensive measure of pathological dissociation.

This article describes the development and validation of the Multidimensional Inventory of Dissociation (MID). The MID is a 218-item, self-administered, multiscale instrument that comprehensively assesses the phenomenological domain of pathological dissociation and diagnoses the dissociative disorders. The MID measures 14 major facets of pathological dissociation; it has 23 dissociation diagnostic scales that simultaneously operationalize (1) the subjective/ phenomenological domain of pathological dissociation and (2) the hypothesized dissociative symptoms of dissociative identity disorder (Dell, 2001a).

Development of the Hebrew-Multidimensional Inventory of Dissociation (H-MID): a valid and reliable measure of pathological dissociation.

The Multidimensional Inventory of Dissociation (MID; Dell, 2004b) has 168 dissociation items and 50 validity items. The MID assesses 14 major facets of dissociation, 23 symptoms of dissociation, and has 5 validity scales. The MID operationalizes (a) the subjective/ phenomenological domain of dissociation, and (b) 23 hypothesized symptoms of dissociative identity disorder (DID).

Dissociative phenomenology of dissociative identity disorder.

The goal of this study was to investigate the dissociative phenomenology of dissociative identity disorder (DID). The Multidimensional Inventory of Dissociation (MID) was administered to 34 patients with DID, 23 patients with dissociative disorder not otherwise specified (DDNOS), 52 patients with mixed psychiatric disorders, and 58 normal individuals. DID patients obtained significantly higher scores than the other three groups on 27 dissociation-related variables.

Trigenerational enmeshment: unresolved ties of single-parents to family of origin.

Some divorced single-parent mothers return home to live with their families of origin. The absence of clear delineation of the roles of grandmother, mother, and child can produce a dysfunctional family unit, identified here as trigenerational enmeshment. Clinical features of this subgroup are discussed, and examples of treatment approaches are presented.