Overview

Read the book by the man who taught Milton H. Erickson MD! In 1923, Erickson was a second year undergraduate student at the University of Wisconsin where his teacher, Clark L. Hull, was researching hypnosis and behaviourism: their encounter changed Erickson's life forever. This book explains Hull's experimental methods, results and the scientific approach to hypnosis, which, even today, are being integrated into clinical and therapeutic research. Long out of print, this seminal classic, has helped shape the evolution of hypnosis - as the first extensive systematic investigation of hypnosis using quantitative experimental methodology. Certainly today's clinicians and researchers owe much of what they currently do to the work of Clark Hull. He was a pioneer searching for the means to make behaviourism - and a behavioural view of hypnosis - an exact science.

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As observations have accumulated, it has become more and more probable that hypnosis is not a single, unitary thing. It appears, rather, to be a more or less loosely related group of phenomena (p. 23). Over 70 years ago, the experimental psychologist Clark L. Hull (1884-1952), known perhaps best for his learning theories and research, wrote his seminal work on Hypnosis and Suggestibility: An Experimental Approach (1933). It is one of the true classics in experimental hypnosis research that remains quite relevant today and can easily be savored by those individuals interested in clinical or experimental hypnosis work. Thus, it is a joy to find this classic republished now for the second time with a new introduction by Michael Yapko. Even though some of Hull''s findings may now be controversial or even incorrect, as Dr. Yapko states in his introduction to this reprint, one of Hull''s major goals and contributions was to stimulate high quality hypnosis research by subsequent researchers. Drawing on his many studies, first done at the University of Wisconsin and later at Yale University, Hull''s purpose in writing this book was to present a body of experimental material, involving normal rather than pathological subjects, to the public. Hull was assisted by 20 research associates to whom his book was dedicated in remembrance of our united efforts to establish hypnotism on a secure experimental basis. Guided by John Stuart Mill''s (1919) method of difference, he presents many controlled experiments with sound methodology designed to investigate what effects hypnosis produced, if any, beyond that which could be produced in non-hypnotic conditions. Hull managed to give the field a place of respectability in the scientific community and literally set the stage for future researchers to investigate hypnosis. He further stated that the applied use of hypnosis would benefit from scientific experimentation. Due to conflict with Yale University''s psychiatry department and administration over his research program, upon the completion of his book, Hull sadly left further hypnosis work to be done by others (Hilgard, 1987). For the readership of the American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, there are two chapters of particular interest that are intriguing yet controversial even by contemporary standards: The Recovery of Lost Memories in the Hypnotic Trance and Hypnosis and the Dissociation Hypothesis. Even though Hull reports a case of seemingly accurate hypnotic recall of an accident for which the subject had almost complete amnesia, he also reports a case of memory fabrication in recalling an early memory and cautions that subjects may be fabricating recalled memories. In addition to prior experimental research, he reviewed his associate Huse''s paired-associate recall paradigm in which she found that recall was slightly better in the normal state than in the hypnotized state. Hull concludes that hypnosis does not usually aid in the recovery of recently acquired material. He goes on to conclude There is some striking experimental evidence which, while not absolutely convincing, tends strongly to confirm the clinical observations that hypnosis facilitates the recall of childhood and perhaps other remote memories (p.127). The chapter on hypnosis and the dissociation hypothesis reviews Pierre Janet''s influential conception of dissociation, Morton Prince''s attempt to test the dissociation hypothesis, and Burnett''s studies of carrying out two simultaneous tasks when both tasks were conscious or one was subconscious. This set the stage for the well-known experimental studies of the dissociation hypothesis by his laboratory associates Messerschmidt and Mitchell. He concluded that their results suggest rather strongly that the whole concept of dissociation as functional independence is an error. It is to be hoped that the situation is now sufficiently clarified that the near future will see a series of well controlled, large-scale investigations which will completely remove the uncertainties which at present becloud this extremely important problem (p. 191). Due to World War II and the lack of interest in scientific hypnosis research, we waited much longer than Hull would have liked! Ernest Hilgard at Stanford University picked up his interest in dissociation, and he and his colleague''s work is detailed in Divided Consciousness: Multiple Controls in Human Thought and Action (Hilgard, 1977). And, still we have not removed all of the uncertainties that Hull referred to, and more research is still needed on this extremely important problem. Hull begins his book by briefly reviewing the history of hypnosis from its unscientific beginnings with Mesmer, through its progression to the current status existing in the early 1930s. It was in 1923 that Hull became interested in hypnosis. According to Milton H. Erickson (1961), he had an impact on Hull when Erickson, still an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin, was invited by Hull to provide demonstrations to a seminar of graduate students. As an historian of American psychology. Hilgard (1987) explored this apparent association between Erickson and Hull, and was perhaps surprised to find that Hull attributed his beginning interests not to Erickson but rather to his hypnotizing a student with a phobia. The only mention of Erickson is of a tooth extraction reported to Hull by Erickson after he already had his medical degree, a case in which Erickson had served as the hypnotist (Hilgard. 1987, p. 824). Who was correct we will never know, but these little stones humanize our hypnosis ancestors. Hull devotes one chapter to the broad phenomena of waking and hypnotic suggestibility and provides wonderfully rich and detailed demonstrations. He spends another chapter on direct waking suggestions; which is reminiscent of work by Gheorghiu (Gheorghiu & Reyher, 1982) and others. Hull shows experimentally that suggestion can influence differentially the behavior of individuals in both waking and hypnotic states. He highlights but does not investigate systematically individual differences to the degree that the field does today. Hull investigated suggestibility as correlated to other fundamental variables such as sex, age, intelligence, character, psychoneurotic tendencies, psychoses, delinquency. and drug influence. As with all his conclusions, Hull cautiously reports his findings with the full knowledge that he is relying on statistical probability, and that future research could support or contradict his findings. In the chapters on hypnotic suggestibility and the transcendence of voluntary capacity, Hull emphasized that hypnotized subjects were more responsive to suggestion and that they experienced analgesia and were less susceptible to pain during experimental procedures, two main findings that are still supported in hypnosis research today. He also found little if any enhancement of motoric strengths or resistance during hypnosis. Influenced by his interest in learning and the history of facilitation of hypnosis by successive repetitions of the hypnotic state, Hull designed a series of experiments to determine if hypnosis was a habit. He identified six characteristics of habituation, detailed in Chapter Twelve, and proceeded to investigate the extent to which hypnosis conformed to those characteristics. Additionally, Hull tested the effects of repetition on habituation in the waking state and on tonic immobility in a fowl. The experimental results revealed that repeated hypnosis inductions resulted in high conformity to the characteristics he detailed for habituation. Hull concluded that such a remarkable and detailed conformity of the phenomena of hypnosis to the known experimental characteristics of ordinary habituation can hardly be accidental and without significance. The indication would seem to be that, whatever else hypnosis may be, it is-to a considerable extent, at least -a habit phenomenon... (p.347). Hull found, to a lesser degree, parallel results for the waking condition. In the last chapter Hull goes into some detail describing what hypnosis is not. Hypnosis is not inherently rapport or essential catalepsy, is not a form of true sleep, does not inherently involve heightened sensitivity, is not pathological, and does not necessarily involve a state of dissociation. He finally concluded that: the only thing which seems to characterize hypnosis as such and which gives any justification for the practice of calling it a state is its generalized hypersuggestibility. The difference between the hypnotic state and the normal is, therefore, a quantitative rather than a qualitative one (p.391). We anticipate that all clinicians and researchers interested in hypnosis will place this book on their bookshelf, and that the pages will show evidence of their being read and enjoyed over the years. We agree with Hull''s reflection on his own book: I believe.. that the book itself has been worth doing from the point of view of the advancement of science. I believe that it is an important contribution, that it may mark a new epoch in that form of experimentation, and that it will be read and quoted for a long time, possibly a hundred years (Hull, 1962, p.852, cited by Hilgard, 1968 p. xv). The year 2033 is not far off and we hope Hull''s worthwhile book will still be in print. References Erickson, M. H. (1961). Historical note on the hand levitation and other ideomotor techniques. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 3, 196-199 Gheorghiu, V. A., & Reyher, J. (1982). The effect of different types of influence on an indirect-direct form of a scale of sensory suggestibility. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 24, 1 91 - 199. Hilgard. E. R. 1977). Divided consciousness: Multiple controls in human thought and action. New York, John Wiley & Sons. Hilgard, E. R. (1987). Psychology in American: A historical survey. Forth Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers. Hull, C. L. (1933/1968). Hypnosis and suggestibility. New York: Appleton-Century. Hull, C. L. (1962). Psychology of the scientist: IV. Passages from the idea books of Clark L. Hull. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 15, 807-882. Mill, J. S. (1919).A system of logic. London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1919. James E. Horton, Ph.D. & Helen J. Crawford, Ph.D., Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Expertly compiled and edited, this is an in-depth and reader friendly study focusing upon the complexity of the care and management of AIDS victims, as well as an informative treatise on the care and treatment of child, adolescent, and adult HIV/AIDS patients. Provides readers with an up-to-date understanding of the recommended treatment and procedures involved with treating and accommodating AIDS victims. HIV/AIDS Primary Care Guide is very strongly recommended to all medical practitioners, caregivers, families, and individuals involved with AIDS or HIV infection. Midwest Book Review EMI is a form of therapy that reminds of EMDR. Both methods are used to reduce negative consequences from psychologically traumatic experiences via activation of eye movements in determined patterns. The book, which is practical in its nature, contributes to several insights and practical advices to different kinds of professional therapists. Considering that EMI can be a powerful technique the author recommends that on should attend a course before one uses the described techniques. This book is interesting and very nicely written. A big plus is the practical elements. Very much worth reading. Dan Hasson For a book to refer to regarding experimental proof of hypnotic phenomena, Hypnosis and Suggestibility is a ''non pareiland a classic in its field. The American Journal of Psychotherapy It took me a little while to get into this book - not because it is in any way boring or dry but because I have no prior knowledge of the subject and I was searching for a chapter that would tell me immediately how to use the therapy. Having found nothing clearly marked, I decided I''d better read it from cover to cover in order to miss nothing of importance. I''m pleased I did because, as well as outlining the author''s work on expanding a therapy originally devised by Steve and Connirae Andreas, there are some very interesting other techniques in the book, which the author found very useful in helping clients to resolve their traumas after the original sensitising events were uncovered using EMI. This therapy was based on Bandler & Grinder''s Eye Accessing Cues, which we all know and use to one degree or another. EMI expands on that by asking the client to outline his/her problem whilst, in simple terms, the therapist uses an object to guide the client''s gaze from whichever is the dominant mode (visual, auditory or kinaesthetic) through each of the others in turn, in a prescribed pattern, thus enabling the client to recall memories which may otherwise be missed, knowing, as we do, that someone who is predominantly visual will tend to filter out the auditory and kinaesthetic aspects of a memory to some degree, just as an auditory person may not recall much about the visual aspects of an event and someone who is kinaesthetic might not consciously notice sounds or pictures, concentrating instead on what was being felt at the time. I think it would be possible to learn to do EMI from reading the book but therapists would probably benefit from finding someone who could demonstrate it first, as it is a much more comprehensive subject than it sounds from the simplistic overview I have outlined here. According to the author, this method can lead much more quickly to very vivid recall and thus to a rapid solution to the traumatic event. I have not yet had occasion to use the technique but it certainly sounds interesting enough to delve more deeply into it. Pat Doohan This book, first published in 1933, was undoubtedly a milestone and landmark in hypnosis in its time. Hull (1888-1952) was a psychologist and experimenter at Wisconsin university and later at Yale became a past president of the American Psychological Society. He was Milton Erickson's professor at the university of Wisconsin and largely responsible for igniting Erickson's experimental thirst for research, although Erickson never really acknowledged fully Hull's contribution to hypnosis in that area. This book was largely responsible for new interest in hypnosis at that time particularly after a very dry period of interest and experimentation in the subject because of Freud publicly turning his back on the subject. The criticism and cynicism that Hull received for his work was largely responsible for him distancing himself somewhat from hypnosis and later focusing on behaviorism. It is important for the reader to understand the way in which hypnosis was viewed by the scientific community of the time as hocus pocus mysticism. As Crown Publishing includes this book in its run of republications, Michael Yapko cautiously writes a new introduction, attempting to places Hull's work in its historical context. For its time this book conveyed a disciplined and experimental approach to the subject of hypnosis in the way it investigated and considered the phenomenon. It is a very interesting read for the seasoned hypnosis student practically who may consider Hull's techniques of inducing hypnosis by grammophone as naive. What does come across strongly, however, is his deep commitment to the genuine scientific experimental approach. This is a thoroughly interesting read for any hypnotist and certainly a valued addition to any library that considers hypnosis in its historical context. It is a great pleasure to be able to access this material via reprinting and I would advise any serious hypnotist to get their copy while stocks last. Hypnosis Australia On Line Review by Dr Tracie OaKeefe DCH, Journal With this book, Danie Beaulieu has taken the NLP literature to a new level. Many psychotherapists in the NLP community have long wished for an NLP book they could comfortably share with their mainstream colleagues. Here is one that should pace mainstream expectations. It is scholarly in the best of senses, evincing a measured and meticulous thoroughness (every bit as comprehensive as it claims) whilst still being a pleasure to read. Quite a combo. Eye Movement Integration (EMI) was developed by Connirae and Steve Andreas in 1989 to treat traumatic memories. Though it must have featured in their many NLP trainings of the time it was, to my knowledge, only available to a wider public through a demonstration videotape of Steve at the Ericksonian Brief Therapy Conference of 1993. Consequently, it might have pretty much blipped out of existence had not Danie Beaulieu, with the Andreases'' blessing, made it her mission to give what she considers a method as important as the advent of penicillin a wider public presence. (Yes, the bit about penicillin may be uncharacteristically excessive, but Dr Beaulieu clearly sees EMI as far more than just another NLP technique.) Though eye movements have been indelibly linked to NLP, with the eye movement chart as the NLP icon, their importance has lain primarily in what they can tell us about someone else''s experience rather than in how they can be used to assist that person. There are some counter-examples: intentional use of eye movement was advocated in early texts on strategy installation; long ago, Grinder recommended eye movement drills to increase the sensory system flexibility of practitioners; and more recently, doubtless influenced by NLP, enthusiasts for one of the energy therapies (BSFF) created a process which applies its treatment to all eye positions (called iSt9x9). Nonetheless, eye movements have generally been considered more part of the information gathering and access phase than of the change process itself. For most people the therapeutic use of eye movements is associated not with NLP but with Francine Shapiro''s Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). That method, though, favours rapid lateral movements while EMI uses much slower movements designed to connect all the eye positions. The importance of connecting all eye positions is based on the NLP theory that the various movements of the eyes access different sensory systems and, therefore, different areas of neurology. Added to this is the EMI assumption that a traumatic experience remains unintegrated in a person''s life precisely because it is isolated, both in their neurology and in their thinking. The principle behind EMI is that all the relevant multisensory dimensions are required for full integration of the disturbing experience and thus the aim of the eye movements is to create new linkages between different types of sensory, affective, or cognitive information. The result does not extinguish the memory of what happened but it does strip off the emotional charge that was causing all the problems. Danie Beaulieu was present at Steve Andreas'' demonstation to that Ericksonian Foundation Brief Therapy Conference ten years ago. She saw him work with a Vietnam veteran plagued by flashbacks. Though the man is not all that expressive it is clear enough that these flashbacks are very disturbing, yet at the end of 45 minutes of guided eye movements he says of the tracers, arcing over the battlefield of his internal imagery, that they are pretty. Dr Beaulieu, who had not had an NLP training at the time, was left puzzled and frustrated. She didn''t know why what had happened had happened. In addition, Steve implied that the audience members (clinicians all) could go off and do this themselves with the benefit of his handouts. As Dr Beaulieu puts it, From my training, I was used to absorbing a good five hundred hours of theoretical information before putting it into practice. That makes her frustration understandable. But it became a fruitful frustration, and much to our benefit as it seems to have motivated her investigative plunge into EMI. Additionally, the rigours of her prior therapeutic training doubtless encouraged the thoroughness of her pursuit and the care with which she elaborates the EMI process for the reader. On the videotape, Steve says that what he does is very different from EMDR. One difference he mentions is that She [Francine Shapiro] puts it in a whole treatment context. I don''t. Dr Beaulieu, however, does put it in a whole treatment context (and, as a measure of her thoroughness, she also took training in EMDR to permit a contrastive analysis with that method). It''s all there in the book, the whole treatment context from soup to nuts. All that''s missing is the experiential element, which doesn''t fit between book covers, and that she provides in training workshops. Additionally, there are two substantial sections: one on the nature of trauma, and the other on the research literature that hints at the mechanisms behind EMI. Both are excellent expositions, and her discourse on trauma could be recommended to any clinician regardless of their treatment preferences. Historically, the extension of the term trauma, and its range of application, has taken it from a rarity to a commonality. Initially, the concept of a psychological trauma was reserved for when something quite out of the ordinary had been visited upon its victim, by Nature or by other people. More recent is the label of PTSD, with its list of diagnostic criteria. But the recognition has also spread that much less extraordinary circumstances can have lasting and problematic consequences; indeed, that the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune which even the most ordinary life is heir to can leave disturbances in their wake, which mimic, to a degree, the sequelae of PTSD. Dr Beaulieu embraces this broader view of trauma when she defines it as any experience that leaves an imprint that continues to give rise to negative effects and recurrrences in one or more of the sensory, emotional or cognitive systems. It is for the full range of such conditions, from flaming trauma to simmering pique, that she counts EMI the most effective remedy she has found. The wide-ranging application she proposes for EMI is not unfamiliar in NLP. From the early NLP days it was recognized that the much-vaunted phobia cure (in its various guises) was useful for a great many more conditions of distress and discomfort than would meet a clinical definition of phobia. When things trouble us, or there is hindrance to our designs, there will usually be an emotional component lessening our ability to resolve them. Dr Beaulieu makes a good case for the effectiveness of EMI in such instances. This suggests the method could take its place as a major component of NLP, as well as being a major contribution, from the NLP field, to the psychotherapeutic community at large. This is clearly what Dr Beaulieu would hope and, in her book, she does all she could have to realize that hope. Dr Beaulieu''s achievement is so impressive it seems mealy-mouthed to be picky about this or that, but what''s a critical review without a cavil or two. So here goes: In the section on how to establish a resource state anchor, Dr Beaulieu gives five questions designed to help the client access a resource state. These could be better constructed, usually by switching to an injunctive mode. For instance, the first such question, Was there a time when you had a distinct feeling of hope, courage or strength? opens to consideration the possibility that there was not. The question seems contaminated by obeisance to the social niceties. A question like, When have you had a distinct feeling of hope, courage or strength? points its hearer more directly toward the access intended. Concern about a direct question sounding rude is misplaced as it can be mellowed by manner and tonality. (As an aside, Dr Beaulieu introduces a new term, to me at least, when she uses the pleasingly metaphoric anchorage to denote a resourceful state triggered through anchoring.) When the term submodalities is first used it is not defined. Subsequent mentions do include examples from which its meaning might be deduced, but the unfamiliar term could, nonetheless, trouble a non-NLP reader. Writing of reframing, she gives the (mistaken) impression that the term was an NLP coinage, and compounds this by citing, as its most common usage, what is better known as the V-K Dissociation technique. To quibble on, the lack of an index will annoy some, though the orderly layout of chapters is such as to make an index fairly redundant. Lastly, an appendix gives us a research article by Dr Beaulieu (a good thing) but no indication of whether or where it was published. These are all minor matters in what is a substantial work of considerable worth. Danie Beaulieu is a careful writer and gives the impression of being an equally careful clinician. What she has fashioned in this comprehensive book will reward any NLPer interested in personal change, even as it sets a precedent for how to introduce NLP approaches to a mainstream psychotherapy audience. She is to be congratulated. Dr Graham Dawes was a founding director of the UK Training Centre for NLP (the first NLP training centre outside North America) and, with David Gordon, developed the Experiential Dynamics approach, of which the best known element is their Experiential Array for modelling. Graham Dawes

For a book to refer to regarding experimental proof of hypnotic phenomena, Hypnosis and Suggestibility is a 'non pareil' and a classic in its field.

Author Information

Clark Hull, PhD. (1884-1952) was a psychologist and experimenter. He presented lectures and seminars on hypnosis at the University of Wisconsin, then later at Yale University. Hull's work Hypnosis and Suggestibility was first published in 1933. It was the first extensive systematic investigation of hypnosis using quantitative experimental methodology. In 1936 his contribution to the field of psychology was rewarded with his election as the President of the American Psychological Association. His published contributions to the science of psychology include Principles of Behavior (1940), and this was followed by a revision of his theories in Essentials of Behavior (1943). His last work, A Behavior System, was published shortly before his death in 1952.

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