ABSTRACT
How you think about clinical hypnosis has profound implications for what you perceive to be its potential applications. Over the years there have been many different perspectives offered by clinicians and researchers to characterize the phenomenon of hypnosis (see Lynn & Rhue’s 1991 volume, Theories of Hypnosis, for an excellent elaboration of many of these models). As you would predict, these viewpoints often differ sharply. Each of these perspectives considered individually has played a role in both illuminating and confounding our understandings of hypnosis. In general, theories have a paradoxical effect: They catalyze understanding by helping one discover meanings and relationships in an otherwise apparently random universe, and yet theories can often confound matters by limiting one’s observations to only what the theory allows for.
