IMPLICATIONS FOR PSYCHOTHERAPY DERIVED FROM CURRENT RESEARCH ON THE NATURE OF HYPNOSIS
MARTIN T. ORNE M.D.1
1 Massachusetts Mental Health Center and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass.
We have applied to psychotherapy some hypotheses that arose from our current research on hypnosis. Whether or not there exists a valid analogy between the therapeutic process and the hypnotic state, the specific hypotheses may be potentially fruitful in our inquiries about the nature of the therapeutic process. Any conclusions about their validity will of course have to await concrete results of research. Some of the methodological considerations and tools we have developed to deal with problems in the study of hypnosis may be useful in testing similar hypotheses about psychotherapy.
