Hypnosis as obedience behaviour

Abstract

Obedience to authority has been implicated in hypnotic behaviour from the earliest theories. However, no exact formulation of a model of obedience was available until Milgram's experiments in the 1960s. Milgram's model can usefully be applied to hypnotic behaviour in terms of antecedent and immediate antecedent variables, binding and strain factors and the resolution of conflict. An experiment was carried out to test the hypothesis that the presence of a 'disobedient' hypnotic subject in the same room as another hypnotic subject would lower the susceptibility to hypnosis of the second subject. Results showed that when one subject disobeyed by leaving the hypnotic situation, susceptibility was significantly less than that of control subjects. It is suggested that hypnosis can be viewed as an 'agentic state' whereby the subject gives up autonomy and relinquishes responsibility for his actions to the hypnotist, whilst remaining responsible to the hypnotist for his performance as an hypnotic subject.