The Problem of Hypnotizability: A Review

Abstract

This paper summarizes the relatively unsuccessful effort to relate hypnotizability to sex, age, psychiatric diagnoses, suggestibility, and various personality traits. The problems of measurement, subject selection, controls, and experimenter bias are reviewed. Comparison of data is difficult and replication of studies infrequent. This might be attributed to incomplete reporting of methodology, to defects in experimental design, and to various conceptual problems. Concepts which view hypnotizability as a “something” universal, a “something” unique, or a “nothing” are briefly appraised. Finally, hypnotizability is seen as a “term” describing a relationship between a “route” and a “state”–each identifiable by measurable criteria.