Abstract

GEORGE A. ULETT M.D. Ph.D. 1 , SEVKET AKPINAR M.D. 2 , , and TURAN M. ITIL M.D. 3 1 Director, Missouri Division of Mental Health and Chairman and Professor, Missouri Institute of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, University of Missouri, 5400 Arsenal Street, St. Louis, Missouri 63139 2 Post-Doctoral Fellow in Psychiatry, Missouri Institute of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, University of Missouri, 5400 Arsenal Street, St. Louis, Missouri 63139 3 Professor and Associate Chairman —Research, Missouri Institute of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, University of Missouri, 5400 Arsenal Street, St. Louis, Missouri 63139 Forty four normal volunteer subjects were hypnotized by means of pre-recorded standardized video tape induction method. Barber Suggestibility Scale (BSS) was used to test the hypnotizability of the subjects who showed the usual Gaussian-type of percentage distribution. Self ratings of hypnotic depth of the subjects were tested by means of a questionnaire which was developed for this study. Objective scores were highly correlated with both BSS subjective scores (r = .911, P <. 01) and self rating of hypnotic depth (r = .580, P <. 01). The video tape method of hypnotic induction offered the possibility of repetition from day-to-day of a highly objective and standardized procedure which still preserved many aspects of the usual interpersonal hypnotic situation in which the operator is both seen and heard by the subject. The advantage of video tape hypnotic induction in experimental work with hypnosis was emphasized.