ABSTRACT
This chapter considers hypnotic communication from a humanistic viewpoint, and presents some empirical data that seem to support this theoretical approach. J. Haley has treated hypnotic communication from an interactional standpoint, emphasizing the double-bind aspects of the hypnotist's language. The musical aspects of hypnotic communication are a point of comparison between one of the arts and hypnosis. The chapter compares the grammatical classification of the hypnotic inductions and the nonhypnotic psychological instructions. Four word classes appeared significantly less often in the hypnotic than in the nonhypnotic communications: nouns, adjectives, articles, and prepositions. Instructions in psychological experiments are centered around action upon objects in the environment to achieve specifiable goals, while this practical, reality-oriented interaction is less important during hypnosis. The semantic content of the hypnotic induction implicitly suggests a detachment of attention from the environment, even when it does not explicitly say so. The humanities and the arts like the hypnotist are concerned with vivid, concrete representation, rather than intellectual analysis.
