ABSTRACT

Scientific research on hypnosis began two centuries ago with Mesmer's first "magnetic" treatments in 1774. Hypnosis had been known and practiced for thousands of years, but Mesmer was the first to seek a scientific explanation for the powerful psychological forces he had learned to control. Research in hypnosis was a major influence on the development of the psychologies of motivation, the unconscious and social influence. The key issues of hypnosis fall into the following categories: the role of unconscious mentation in hypnosis; phenomenological versus behaviorist aspects of hypnosis—with special emphasis on the confusion of metatheories with scientific methodology; continuity and discontinuity between waking and hypnotic states; and physiological changes and psychological behaviors distinguishing hypnosis from the waking state. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book.