Trance-forming Collective Attention: How Interactions Can Support Attentional Structures. The Case of Hypnosis in Hospitals

How does a collective succeed in practicing the same kind of attention together? This is an essential question for organizations that need to develop a common focus of attention, but it is difficult to address because the objects are multiple and in competition with one another. The attention-based view (ABV) highlights the central role of organizational structures (roles, working spaces, social representation, etc.) in the formation of collective attention, whilst simultaneously acknowledging their limitations. Attention-based view thus encourages scholars to explore the complementary role of social interactions. The objective of this paper is to study precisely how interactions relate to structures in the formation of collective attention. To achieve this, we interviewed and observed professionals at a French university hospital over the course of 18 months. Using hypnosis techniques, the professionals sought to pay closer attention to patients’ psychological states. We conducted 52 interviews, studied six observation sequences, and participated in a number of meetings; from this research, we selected and analyzed 29 situations in which hypnosis was practiced. Our results show that whilst cognitive, political, spatiotemporal, and material structures can contribute to the sharing of a collective focus of attention, they are in themselves not sufficient and at times even hinder such sharing. When structures enable, which is to say, when they facilitate sharing, interactions can complete or strengthen them to compensate for their insufficiency. When structures hinder, interactions can play a correctional role. By showing that structures do not act alone but are supported by social interactions that act either alongside or upon them, our research helps to expand the ABV model and contribute to better integrating structures and interactions.