ABSTRACT
The hypnoid state is one of several dissociative responses to trauma (Putnam, 1985). Considering the pivotal role it played in early psychoanalytic thought, it has received relatively little attention in recent literature. To date, the hypnoid state eludes definition because we lack consensus regarding both its essential features and its psychodynamics. Fliess (1953), Dickes (1965), and Shengold (1989), like Breuer (1895/1957) and Freud (1895/1957) before them, were well aware of the link between the hypnoid state and childhood sexual trauma, but they construe the state as an autohypnotic defense against unacceptable instinctual demands and impulses. When trauma theorists and others have discussed the hypnoid state (Brenner, 1994; Herman, 1992; Putnam, 1993), it has not been their main focus and, therefore, it has not received the attention it deserves.
