An Episode of Acute, Self-Limiting Depersonalization Following a First Session of Hypnosis
ELLIOT N. WINEBURG M.D.1, and
NORMAN STRAKER M.D.2
1 Associate Psychiatrist, Department of Psychiatry, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, N.Y.
2 Minnie Kastor Research Fellow, Department of Psychiatry, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, N.Y.
A stable subject with a negative medical and psychiatric history developed a self-limited episode of depersonalization after an uneventful hypnotic session. Nothing in the subsequent psychiatric examination, except conscious sexual fantasies during the experience, could have predicted this reaction. The authors believe that all hypnotic subjects should be observed after hypnotic treatment.
