Infant communication and the development of hypnotic responsivity

Abstract

The research on the development of hypnotic responsivity indicates that it emerges, ex nihilo, sometime after the age of 3. The measures used to assess hypnotic responsivity rely on complex verbal instructions, thus precluding investigation of infancy. Recent research on infancy, however, suggests that the ontogenesis of hypnotic responsivity is likely to be found in fundamental human capacities that emerge in the first weeks and months of life. The aims of the article are threefold: (a) to demonstrate that infants possess capacities on the nonverbal plane of communication that are analogous to those required for hypnosis; (b) to identify situations in infancy that are analogous to the hypnotic context; and (c) to examine dispositional and relational attributes in infancy that may account for later individual differences in hypnotic responsivity.