Research
Methods
How hypnosis is defined, induced, and measured. Concepts and laboratory methods, not treatment pages.
- Absorption: Tellegen and Atkinson’s trait measureMethods / mechanismAbsorption is a personality-scale name for openness to self-altering, immersive experience. Tellegen and Atkinson linked it to hypnotic susceptibility.Last reviewed 27 August 2026
- Dissociation and neodissociation in laboratory hypnosisMethods / mechanismHilgard used dissociation for splits in cognitive control under suggestion. That is a laboratory account, not a clinic package and not a DSM label.Last reviewed 27 August 2026
- Hypnosis methods: definition, induction, and measurementMethods / mechanismHow hypnosis is named, induced, and measured. This is a methods library, not a booking page and not a condition evidence table.Last reviewed 27 August 2026
- Hypnotic analgesia: a laboratory pain suggestionMethods / mechanismHypnotic analgesia is a suggested reduction of pain in the laboratory. Hilgard tested whether it behaved like opioid analgesia.Last reviewed 27 August 2026
- Hypnotic catalepsy: suggestive immobility, not Charcot’s three phasesMethods / mechanismCatalepsy in the Nancy sense is a limb or posture held because it was suggested. It is not proof of Charcot’s grand hypnotisme.Last reviewed 27 August 2026
- Hypnotic induction: from Braid’s fixation to verbal suggestionMethods / mechanismAn induction is the procedure that starts a hypnotic session. Braid described prolonged visual fixation; Nancy later emphasised speech.Last reviewed 27 August 2026
- Hypnotic susceptibility: what the laboratory scales measureMethods / mechanismHypnotic susceptibility is a measured tendency to respond to standardised suggestions. It is a laboratory score, not a personality type and not a clinic offer.Last reviewed 27 August 2026
- Ideomotor response: Carpenter’s 1852 accountMethods / mechanismCarpenter argued that an idea can direct muscular movement independently of volition. That is a nineteenth-century methods claim, not a clinic technique brand.Last reviewed 27 August 2026
- Response expectancy: Kirsch’s non-state accountMethods / mechanismResponse expectancies are expectations of non-volitional responses. Kirsch argued they shape hypnotic and placebo experience.Last reviewed 27 August 2026
- Suggestion: Nancy’s working ideaMethods / mechanismSuggestion is the Nancy school’s name for the idea that communicated expectations can change experience and movement. It is a methods concept, not a treatment grade.Last reviewed 27 August 2026
- Trance: a contested wordMethods / mechanismTrance is everyday and clinical language for looking absorbed or less responsive to the room. Researchers disagree whether it names a unique state.Last reviewed 27 August 2026