ABSTRACT
Amnesia is usually suggested by the hypnotist while the subject is hypnotized, although it may occur spontaneously without the suggestion. The usual way to judge whether or not subjects "passed" posthypnotic amnesia is to employ an objective criterion. Spontaneous posthypnotic amnesia seems to occur more often in clinical settings, where clients fail to recall certain aspects of a session, than it does in experimental settings. Laboratory research has led to the development of standardized, reliable measurements of suggested posthypnotic amnesia. The degree of recognition recall in posthypnotic amnesia is usually higher than free recall, it also is in studies of normal memory. Posthypnotic amnesia should not be considered unusual, because other findings in memory research have shown that material can be available in memory storage but cannot be retrieved for recall. Breaching amnesia addresses the question whether subjects who initially respond to posthypnotic amnesia will report more before the reversal cue, when external pressures to recall are placed on them.
