Hypnotic Visual Hallucinations as Imaginings: A Cognitive-Social Psychological Perspective

Abstract

Research pertaining to the phenomenology of hypnotic (suggested) visual hallucinations is reviewed within a cognitive-social psychological framework. Suggested hallucinations are conceptualized as cognitive-social enactments; as imaginings generated by co-operative subjects to meet the social demands of the experimental test situation. These imaginings differ from corresponding perceptions even in highly responsive (i.e., susceptible) subjects, and when provided with the opportunity to do so, the majority of subjects describe such experiences as “imagined” rather than as “seen.” The few subjects who report that they “saw” the suggested object and believed that it was actually there appear to be highly absorbed in their imaginings. Consequently, they fail to attend to information that contradicts the status of their imaginings as external (i.e., “real”) happenings. Responsiveness to hallucination suggestions is no more strongly facilitated by hypnotic procedures than by short instructions aimed at ensuring subjects' cooperation and positive motivation. There is no support for the hypothesis that hallucinations in hypnotic subjects reflect the operation of a hypothetical hypnotic state.