ABSTRACT
Many investigators interested in hypnotic phenomena believe that some of the variance will be found to be attributable to a hypnotic state, which differs in some fundamental ways from the waking state. As one of the phenomena that prominently characterize hypnosis, amnesia has long figured in the lore and anecdotes relating to hypnosis. Spontaneous posthypnotic amnesia for the events occurring within hypnosis has been considered by many as intrinsic to, and characteristic of, deep hypnosis. Posthypnotic source amnesia, first discussed by Wendy A. F. Thorn, occurs when something is learned under hypnosis and the result of the learning is carried into the waking state, but the fact that it was learned under hypnosis is for-gotten. The studies reviewed in the chapter make clear that hypnotic amnesia is a multidimentional rather than a unitary process, manifesting itself in many different ways. The similarities between posthypnotic amnesia and clinical repression have long attracted attention.
