ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is to provide an overview of hypnosis for the reader who is unfamiliar with the subject. We will not review theories of hypnosis in any great depth, but sufficiently so to highlight the main theoretical controversies. We state the case that those people who score high on hypnotic susceptibility scales may be an interesting population for study both within and outside of the hypnotic context, by social, cognitive, developmental and clinical psychologists and, in recent years, neuropsychologists. Many of the themes that we cover in this chapter will be taken up in depth by the other contributors to this book.
