Societies, Scientific

The United States population is aging rapidly, and understanding the potential impact and feasibility of lifestyle interventions on the aging process is of central importance for addressing future population health and health care costs.

An account of the founding of the Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis during the years 1949 to 1956 is presented with details of its early development, purposes, and functions. The Society gave rise to the International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, the International Society of Hypnosis, and the American Boards of Medical Hypnosis, Psychology, and Dentistry.

The brief history of hypnosis in America begins with William James's chapter in his Principles of Psychology that got hypnosis off to a good start as a legitimate part of psychology. In the 20th century, before World War II, the idea of performing scientific investigations of hypnosis took place at Harvard University through William McDougall, at the University of Wisconsin and Yale University under Clark Hull, and, in its clinical aspects particularly, through the personal efforts of Milton H. Erickson.

The first international society of hypnosis founded in this century, the International Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis (ISCEH), was organized in 1958 as a direct result of societal conflicts between The Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis (SCEH) and the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis (ASCH). Initially, it consisted of National Divisions built around key contributors in 30 different countries. This article describes the inception, organization, and development (including controversies and conflicts) of ISCEH up to 1973.

The article describes the rationale for and the process of developing a new definition of hypnosis by the Society of Psychological Hypnosis, Division 30 of the American Psychological Association. Both theoretical and practical implications led to the production of the definition, which is targeted toward informing clinicians, researchers, and the lay public alike. The definition is presented at the conclusion of the article.

The APA Division 30 definition of hypnosis is laudable in some respects. For instance, the committee rightly defines the "induction" as nothing more or less than the first suggestion after the introduction. However, the definition stumbles over its nonposition on whether the word hypnosis must be uttered during the procedure. This equivocation invites research designs that preemptively define a hypnotic group and a control group in terms of whether or not the word hypnosis is used in the protocol.

Alternative descriptors of the capacity to experience hypnosis, intended to describe the same phenomenon, appear in the current literature. Published members of the Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis (SCEH) were surveyed to determine their preferences. The descriptors were empirically derived from recent International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis articles and input from the executive committee of SCEH. Participants also indicated their primary theoretical conceptualization of hypnosis.