The effect of trance depth on Rorschach responses.

Abstract

Abstract The Rorschach test was administered three times in one afternoon to a thirty-one year old psychiatric patient, once in the normal state, once in a medium hypnotic trance, and once in a deep hypnotic trance. As the trance deepened, personality functions attributed to the ego diminished. These involve the secondary process of reality testing, organization, interpretive function, maturity, and more rigid psychological defense mechanisms. The personality became more “loose,” “fluid,” rich and creative, more pathological. The primary process became prominent; and the Oedipal theme inferred in the first test administration was completely confirmed in the third. The study tends to validate theoretical interpretations of the Rorschach test and theoretical concepts of hypnosis.