Twentieth-century psychological theories
The psychologist and physiologist Ivan Pavlov, who hypothesized that hypnosis was a lower-brain-function and "partial sleep."In the twentieth century, psychologists who believed in hypnosis put forth theories about it ranging from the idea that it is "partial sleep" to the idea that it is "hyper-suggestibility." Other psychologists, skeptical of hypnosis, hypothesized that the phenomenon doesn't really exist -- that so-called "hypnotic" effects are caused by placebo, roleplaying, or social compliance.
The "hypnosis believers" included Pierre Janet, who proposed that hypnosis is a form of dissociation -- meaning that hypnotized people are less identified with sensory information and their own "conscious" minds. They also included Ivan Pavlov, who thought that hypnosis was a "partial sleep" dominated by lower-brain-stem mechanisms; William Kroger, who hypothesized that hypnosis is a type of hyper-suggestibility brought about by focused attention; and J.D. Morgan, who put forth the idea that hypnosis is a process of enhancing or depressing the activity of the nervous system, possibly involving feedback loops. |
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