Is Hypnosis Reliable in Retrieving Lost Memories?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion centers around the reliability of hypnosis in retrieving lost memories, particularly in contexts such as alleged alien abductions and police investigations. Participants explore the implications of using hypnosis for memory recovery, its potential for false memories, and the ethical considerations surrounding its use in various scenarios.

Discussion Character

  • Debate/contested
  • Exploratory
  • Technical explanation

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants note that hypnosis is often used in cases of alleged alien abduction, suggesting that it can be a method for uncovering lost memories.
  • Others argue that hypnosis is unreliable due to the susceptibility of subjects to suggestions from therapists, leading to the creation of false memories.
  • A participant raises concerns about how therapists can distinguish between real recovered memories and false ones, citing the "Jung effect" which suggests that investigators may unconsciously bias their findings.
  • Some participants propose that hypnosis may be useful as a last resort to gather clues about events that individuals cannot consciously recall, emphasizing the need for verification of any memories retrieved.
  • There is a suggestion that using hypnosis to recover identities may be more reliable, as it allows for verification against known information, although concerns about the potential for false memories remain.
  • One participant expresses skepticism about the overall effectiveness of hypnosis, stating that it is generally regarded as unreliable by the psychiatric community.
  • Another participant warns that if hypnosis fails to recover an identity, the hypnotist might inadvertently implant false memories, complicating the situation further.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express a range of views on the reliability of hypnosis, with no consensus reached. While some see potential utility in specific contexts, others emphasize the risks of false memories and manipulation, indicating a contested discussion.

Contextual Notes

Limitations include the subjective nature of memory retrieval through hypnosis, the influence of therapist suggestions, and the challenges in verifying the authenticity of recovered memories.

Ivan Seeking
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Hypnosis is used to retrieve "lost memories" in cases of alleged [so called] alien abduction. In fact, I believe that this is how nearly all claims of abduction come to light. Typically, before the hypnosis session start, the person claims to have recurring dreams or other problems that led to therapy.

In the popular media, this practice is blasted by critics as being unrealiable and completely useless. Now, I try to stay away from the alien abduction issue, but something in the news caught my ear.

Police turn to hypnosis to help determine man's identity

DENVER -- Police on Friday said they've turned to hypnosis to help identify a man found wandering the streets of Denver last month with $8 in his pocket, a lighter, a "Brasil" baseball cap and no idea of who he is.

The 5-foot-7-inch, 170-pound man, possibly 35 to 40 years old, may be from the New York area, based on psychiatric sessions that included hypnosis and a sedative. [continued]
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/w...ct20,0,1735159.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork

It seems from this and other sources of late that hypnosis can be useful in retrieving lost memoriies. Apparently it is really a matter of technique and certainty, and not that the practice is absolute nonsense, as is usually suggested.
 
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The problem with hypnosis is that the subject is very vulnerable to suggestions by the therapist. A great many people that were hypnotised got false memories.
 
No doubt. However, that doesn't suggest that all therapists "lead" all patients.
 
Ivan Seeking said:
No doubt. However, that doesn't suggest that all therapists "lead" all patients.


How can the experimenter or therapist determine whether a given statement by the subject was a real recovered memory or a false one from "leading" or from other irreducible uncertainties in the method?

Recall the "Jung effect", described by the great psychologist in a footnote in the book he wrote together with the great physicist Wolfgang Pauli: investigators, no matter how determined to be objective, will make subconscious errors that preponderate in the direction of their biases.
 
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selfAdjoint said:
How can the experimenter or therapist determine whether a given statement by the subject was a real recovered memory or a false one from "leading" or from other irreducible uncertainties in the method?

Recall the "Jung effect", described by the great psychologist in a footnote in the book he wrote together with the great physicist Wolfgang Pauli: investigators, no matter how determined to be objective, will make subconscious errors that preponderate in the direction of their biases.
From the Skeptic Dictionary
hypnosis: the good, the bad and the ugly

The godfather of the repression, Freud, wisely gave up using hypnosis in therapy. Unfortunately, however, hypnosis continues to be used in a wide variety of contexts, not all of which are beneficial. Using hypnosis to help people quit smoking or stick to a diet may be useful, and even if it fails it is probably not harmful. Using hypnosis to help people remember license plate numbers of cars used in crimes may be useful, and even if it fails it is probably not harmful. Using hypnosis to help victims or witnesses of crimes remember what happened may be useful, but it can also be dangerous because of the ease with which the subject can be manipulated by suggestions from the hypnotist. Overzealous police hypnotists may put conviction of those they think are guilty above honest conviction by honest evidence presented to a jury. Hypnosis is also dangerous in the police setting, because of the tendency of too many police officers to believe in truth serums, lie detectors, and other magical and easy ways to get to the truth.
 
It seems to me that hypnosis is usefull as a desperation move to try to get some clues as to an event that a person cannot recall consciously.

For example, if this person had remembered being in NYC, and had a specific recollection of eating at someplace called "Pete's Pizzaria", it would be a simple enough matter to look in the NYC Yellow pages and see if such a place exists. If it doesn't, the memory was false, if it does exist, go there and show the regulars a photo of the individual in question.

I believe (and the general psychiatric community will back me up on this)
that hypnosis is an unreliable means of retrieving lost memories. That's why it is normally only used in cases where the memories retrieved can be investigated and verified.
 
Using it to recover an identity would be more reliable, because once you have a target identity it's easy to check if it's correct. So even if the technique doesn't work, they won't be misled.
 
Alkatran said:
Using it to recover an identity would be more reliable, because once you have a target identity it's easy to check if it's correct. So even if the technique doesn't work, they won't be misled.
I agree. The problem is that if it does not work, the hypnotist may be tempted to dig deeper and inadvertently implant a false memory.
For instance, the subject may be conduced to think that he was abducted by aliens, who did him a brainwashing.
For the therapist this has a double advantage: it explains the insuccess in recovering the identity and corroborates the effectiveness of hypnotism.
For the woo-woos it is a new 'evidence' for aliens abduction.
 

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