Imagery and Hypnosis: Trends and Patternings in Effects

Abstract

This chapter explores the relationship between hypnosis and imagery through analysis of the factors that affectthe strength of the link between the two. It discusses the common understanding that context has a pervasive effect across the full range of hypnotic phenomena. The Model of hypnotic response that will inevitably embrace the full influence of imagery must be one that accentuates person attributes, setting features and processes related to state of consciousness. Interactive theories attempt to explain how perceptual processes are influenced by mental imagery. The major thrustof the data is that the relationship between hypnosis and imagery is essentially a nonlinear one in which high imagery ability does not predict hypnotizability quite as reliably as low imagery predicts insusceptibility. Imagery and its related concepts, fantasy-proneness and absorption, are by no means pure predictors of hypnotizability, and high susceptiblesubjects may respond behaviorally just like low susceptible subjects but do so for different reasons.