ABSTRACT
The aim of this chapter is to draw together the themes that have emerged throughout the preceding chapters and to discuss some of the implications they convey for our understanding of hypnotic phenomena and the processes that explain them. Throughout this book we have emphasized the value of assessing the phenomenological meaning of the experience of the hypnotic subject and accordingly have focused in detail on the application of a technique of assessment (the EAT) developed by us to examine the subject's or client's own observations about their experience when the events of hypnosis are made available to them via video-tape playback or imagery-induced recall. The EAT has been used both instrumentally and intrinsically as a means to elicit data with respect to a variety of hypnotic phenomena, and in Chapters 4-8 we attempted to describe and evaluate specific hypnotic phenomena that cover a range of items, many of which currently appear on standard hypnotic scales of assessment.
