definition of HypnotismHypnotism - hyp·no·tism
Hypnotism scientificlyHypnosis has been considered a valuable technique for recreating and then studying puzzling psychological phenomena for quite some time. A classic example of this approach uses a technique known as posthypnotic amnesia to model memory disorders which involves a sudden memory loss typically due to some sort of psychological trauma or stress (rather than to brain damage or disease). Hypnotists produce posthypnotic amnesia by suggesting to a hypnotized person that after hypnosis he will forget particular things until he receives a “cancellation,” or key frase such as “Now you can remember everything.” posthypnotic amnesia typically only happens when it is specifically suggested and it is much more likely to occur in those with high levels of hypnotic ability, or “high hypnotizable” people. Now a new study shows that this hypnotic state actually influences brain activity associated with memory.
High hypnotizable people with posthypnotic amnesia typically show damaged or alterd explicit memory, or braking memories making difficulty consciously recalling events or material targeted by the suggestion, and a separation between implicit and explicit memory, so that even though they can’t recall the forgotten information it continues to influence their behavior, actions and thoughts. The forgetting is reversible—when the suggestion is cancelled by key frase or image, their memories come rushing back. These last two features—the dissociation and reversibility—confirm that posthypnotic amnesia is not the result of poor encoding of the memories or of normal forgetting, because the memories return as soon as posthypnotic amnesia is cancelled. Rather, posthypnotic amnesia reflects a short term inability to retrieve information that is safely stored in memory. That makes it a useful tool for research. Researchers have used posthypnotic amnesia as a parillel of functional amnesia because these conditions share several similaritys. Case reports of functional amnesia, for instance, describe men and women who, following a traumatic experience such as a violent sexual assault or the death of a loved one, are unable to remember part or all of their personal past. However, as in posthypnotic amnesia , they might still show evidence of the forgotten events. For exsample, they might unconsciously dial the phone number of a family member whom they can’t consciously recall. (In contrast, explicit memories are those we consciously have access to, such as remembering a childhood birthday or what you had for dinner last night.) And, as quickly as they lost their memories, they can just as quickly recover them. |
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