Studies on the Experimental Evocation of Depressive Responses using Hypnosis

Abstract

Seven healthy volunteers were the subjects of 78 experiments during which psychological and physiological data were collected and recorded in a standardized manner. Each experiment consisted of five equal periods (phases) of 30 min., during three of which the subjects were hypnotized. The subjects' continuous reporting provided the means of identifying a variety of phenomenological experiences. Transcripts of the subjects' recorded speech were used operationally to define the following categories of experience: nausea, disgust, vertigo, dizziness, dyspnea, crying, thirst, hunger, olfactory hallucinations, the hallucinatory ingestion of food, the hallucinatory sight of food, and the idea of food. The group results revealed a consistent association between the direction of the secretory rate of total gastric acid and the coincident phenomenological experience irrespective of whether or not the subjects were hypnotized.