Hypnotic susceptibility, amnesia, and IQ in chronic schizophrenia

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the nature and extent of hypnotic susceptibility for a random sample of chronic psychotics (N = 56), mainly schizophrenics (N = 48), using the standardized procedure of the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale, Form A (Weitzenhoffer & amp; Hilgard, 1959). Results are the following: (1) there is a lower frequency of high hypnotic susceptibility scores as well as a lower percentage of success on eye closure, eye catalepsy, and moving-hands items than in the standardization group; (2) there is a higher incidence of posthypnotic amnesia, as found in previous comparable studies; (3) there is strictly no reversibility of amnesia in 78% of the cases; (4) those schizophrenics who passed the amnesia item have a lower IQ than those who failed. Distinctions between genuine posthypnotic amnesia and forgetting are proposed and results on the amnesia item are tentatively related to experimental data on distractibility and disturbed attentional processes in chronic schizophrenia.