Nocturnal Dreams Research Articles

Observations on hypnotic dreams.

Barber (1962), Tart (1965), and Moss (1967) have commented on hypnotic dreams in a way that might seem to negate my findings regarding their apparent structural similarity to nocturnal dreams (1965). I now offer these additional opinions. Barber indicated the possibility had not been excluded that similar productions can be elicited from patients by instructions to imagine or visualize certain events or situations. I believe the ability to produce such imagery without hypnosis casts no adverse reflection on the structural similarity of hypnotic and sponraneous nocturnal dreams. is simply an additional point of interest that some people can evoke imagery of this type without hypnosis and furnishes data on imagery that can be produced under a variety of circumstances. A serious flaw has been recognized in Barber's use of controls. The suggestions he gives his non-hypnotized Ss often evoke the very hypnotic situation he allegedly avoids because the suggestions themselves are hypnotic in nature. is not surprising with the duplication of hypnotic procedure that some of his controls give responses consistent with those of his hypnotic Ss. In fact, it would be surprising under these circumstances if his waking conuols did not show such responses. Tarr states, It has long been known that, if an hypnotized subject is instructed to dream, many subjects will subsequently report an experience in response to this suggestion. This reported experience is usually called the hypnotic dream. I believe this vlew confuses the issue and is found more among experimentalists than clinicians. Obviously all responses are not dreams. Tart says later, dream will refer to an experience of the hypnotic subject in response to the suggestion to dream, a definition based primarily on what the experimenter does. I should say that in clinical settings, at least, the definition should be based not on what the therapist does but on what the patient produces. Moss commented rhat, if hypnotic dreams are essentially comparable to nocturnal dreams, it might be expected that they could counteract compensatory effects associated with dream deprivation. While this remains to be evaluated, I believe there is no necessary connection. Hypnotic dreams may be indistinguishable in structure from spontaneous nocturnal dreams, yet their functional differences may include a variety of neurophysiological and psychophysiological correlates. While Moss includes much in his book rhar is skeptical of hypnotic dreams, he offers Ernest Hilgard's favorable opinion (1965) on evidence pointing to the fruitfulness of investigating hypnotic dreams, with his recognition that the two dream categories overlap and undoubtedly have much in common.

The Nature of Hypnotically Induced Behavior

Recent studies ( 1 ) have attempted to evaluate both the meaningfulness and the genuineness of behavior induced through hypnotic techniques. Utilizing a Reid Polygraph, studies have been undertaken in connection with a variety of hypnotic phenomena including age regression, inducing hallucinations, hypnotic anesthesia, and alterations in temporal and spacial orientation as well as induced variations in body image awareness ( 2 ) . The results have indicated that, with increasing involvement in the hypnotic relationship, as evidenced by rapidity with which changes in sensory and motor behavior may be induced, there appears to be an increasing acceptance uncritically, of the nature and the meaning of hypnotically induced behavior. In this respect, we find that polygraphic evidence from experimental Ss reveals their essential belief in the reality of subjective experience and response in the same way that they would accept on a non-hypnotic level a sense of belief in other conscious experiences such as dreaming, thinking and perceptual recognition. The acceptance of hypnotically induced behavior would appear psychodynamically to be consistent with the implication that hypnosis involves a degree of self-exclusion and the capacity to accept subjective responses without the necessity for critical evaluation by the self, allowing for the structuring of hypnotic perception through the ego involvement with the hypnotist and the focusing of attention upon that process. Current studies are attempting to compare the psychodynamic patterns of dreaming with the patterns of hypnotically induced behavior. As part of this study, nocturnal dreams are being smdied in connection with hypnotic dreams and other forms of perceptual alterations induced through hypnosis. It is hoped that further explorations of this sort will lead to some clarification of the regre:sive aspects of subjective responses as they occur in a variety of states of consciousness of which hypnosis is one.