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The authors tested the hypothesis that hypnotic age regression produces a shift from secondary- to primary-thought processing in hypnotizable participants. Thirty participants were tested for hypnotizability using the Elkins Scale of Hypnotizability (EHS). Participants were exposed to a tailored hypnotic arm-levitation induction and a hypnotic suggestion to age regress to 5 years of age and to have a dream. Primary-process thinking was assessed using the Primary-Process Thinking Scale. An independent t test with 2 levels of hypnotizability (middle and high) showed high hypnotizables demonstrated higher ratings of primary thought processing than those in the middle group.

To examine the role of hypnotic suggestion in identity in past-life regression, 2 experiments were conducted at the request of Korea's major national television companies. A real historical person and a fictional character were selected as past-life identities. After hypnotic induction, a past-life regression suggestion was given. While counting backward to past-life, the suggestion of a specific identity was interspersed 3 times. In 5 of 6 subjects, the same past-life identity that had been suggested was produced, with relatively rich content accompanied by emotional and historical facts identical to the suggested identity. This study found that it was quite simple and easy to manipulate past-life identity. The role of suggestion in the formation of past-life memories during hypnosis is crucial.

Regressive behavior is a known sequela after severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). However, prolonged "infantile-like" behavior has received little attention in the literature, suggesting that this is a rare phenomenon. It is typically characterized by long-lasting childish, extremely dependent, and sometimes aggressive behavior, which is distinguished from the expected recovery process. The relevant theoretical framework lies in the field of disorders called "Neuropathologies of the self" (NPS). We report three cases of young adults who, following a severe TBI, developed continual regressive behavior. The Disability Rating Scale (DRS) was used to assess possible change in their condition. First, while admitted, which was performed in retrospect, and again 6 years later at the time stated. Inter-rater reliability for the scale items showed adequate correlation. Results showed no significant difference in patients' scores, indicating persistent functional difficulties. We conclude that this "regressive syndrome" presents an unusual form of behavior that is stable over time. It seems to be in line with other NPS disorders, and may stem from an interaction of organic factors and primary mental complexity. Nevertheless, further research is required to examine the factors affecting the emergence and recovery from this phenomenon.

Ciguatera toxicity is a poisoning from consuming reef fish that had fed on dinoflagellates such as Gambierdiscus toxicus found along coral reefs. The toxin is oil soluble, odorless, colorless, tasteless, heat stable, and is concentrated in larger carnivorous fish such as amberjack, barracuda, eel, grouper, red snapper, sea bass, and Spanish mackerel. Onset of symptoms is usually within 6-12 hours after ingestion. Gastrointestinal symptoms lasting 1-2 days include abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Neurological symptoms may persist for weeks or several months or--rarely--years and include circumoral and extremity paresthesias, temperature sensation reversal, itching, weakness, ataxia, and others. A patient with burning hands and feet who had not found relief using other methods had diagnosis of ciguatera toxicity assisted by hypnotically refreshed memory followed by rapid relief with hypnotic suggestions in 1 session and remained free of symptoms.

Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) practitioners and anti-ECT activists have divergent interpretations of both the treatment and its history. Despite claims by ECT opponents that practitioners do not acknowledge memory side effects, the published literature on the procedure demonstrates psychiatrists' awareness of this issue. And though current ECT practitioners claim that memory side effects were mostly the result of outmoded methods, investigators continue to publish studies that indicate ongoing memory problems. This article explores the conflict between pro- and anti-ECT groups around the issue of memory side effects in the broader context of changes in American psychiatry and society.

Although diverse cases on hypnosis and hypnotic complications have been reported, little on hypnotic play has been discussed. One exception that the author is aware of is a report by Orne (1965), which states that complications that arise from hypnotic play are minor in nature. Contrary to Orne's report, 2 clinical cases treated by the author were observed to have suffered from severe hypnotic complications over long periods of time after hypnotic play. In these cases, spontaneous rehypnotization, including dissociative symptoms, appeared and greatly disturbed the patients' academic as well as daily lives. Regressive symptoms and personality changes were also observed. When these cases were revisited 35 years later, however, none of those disturbances was reported to have lasted into the patients' adulthood. Both of these former patients were reported to be mentally and physically healthy, each living happily as the mother of 2 children.

Cognitive hypnotherapy (CH) is a comprehensive evidence-based hypnotherapy for clinical depression. This article describes the major components of CH, which integrate hypnosis with cognitive-behavior therapy as the latter provides an effective host theory for the assimilation of empirically supported treatment techniques derived from various theoretical models of psychotherapy and psychopathology. CH meets criteria for an assimilative model of psychotherapy, which is considered to be an efficacious model of psychotherapy integration. The major components of CH for depression are described in sufficient detail to allow replication, verification, and validation of the techniques delineated. CH for depression provides a template that clinicians and investigators can utilize to study the additive effects of hypnosis in the management of other psychological or medical disorders. Evidence-based hypnotherapy and research are encouraged; such a movement is necessary if clinical hypnosis is to integrate into mainstream psychotherapy.

The prospect of utilizing memory plasticity (the constructive and transitory nature of memory) for therapeutic purposes has not been widely recognized. However, a number of theoretical and clinical venues throughout the last century have shown its potential application. Intensive research conducted during these last decades, pointed out the possibility of influencing human memory in relation to new memories and their specific components. Moreover, the research showed the feasibility of planting alternative early childhood memories and thus altering memories of personal history. Additionally, researchers found that memory is naturally very fallible due to everyday phenomena of forgetfulness, distortion and intrusion of past and present information. Throughout the course of this paper, the integrative overview of these empirical findings with the aforementioned clinical and theoretical foundations serves as a substratum in an attempt to present an integrative therapeutic approach, named Memory Focused Interventions (MFI).

The authors tested tailored hypnotic inductions for age regression with an affect bridge to access meaning-laden events. They used emotional intensity, spontaneity, elaboration, and transitional-object measures to assess the genuineness of the topographic shift to primary process characteristic of hypnotic age regression. An affect bridge was used to access stressful events within the age range of 3 to 6 years. The Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale, Form C was administered to determine high hypnotizables-reals, (n = 8, scores 9-12) and low hypnotizables-simulators, (n = 8, scores 3 or less). The groups behaved differently on frequency of transitional objects, spontaneity, and intensity but not on elaboration. The hypnotizable-reals but not the simulators produced a plethora of primary-process childlike affective responses that could not be produced by the role-playing simulators.

To explore the nature of past-life memories in hypnosis, 64 normal male adults aged 21 to 23 were selected using the Korean version of the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility (HGSHS:K) and a simple belief in past-life scale. They all received hypnotic past-life regression 3 times. The influence of HGSHS:K scores on the production rate of past-life memories was statistically significant; however, the influence of belief was not. The percentage of subjects who responded to hypnotic past-life regression increased with hypnotizability. Content analysis showed that cultural background and religious concepts influenced past-life memory production. Animals as past-life identities, for example, were reported whereas all past-life identities were human in a Canadian study.

The effects of tailored versus scripted hypnotic inductions were tested with the intention of shedding light on age regression phenomena. From an initial pool of 31 volunteers, 10 males and 10 females who scored 3 or better on the Stanford Hypnotic Clinical Scale, participated in this study. Participants were assigned to either scripted or tailored hypnotic induction conditions for regression to age 5. The age specific developmental task was to indicate for each of 10 abstract figure pairs, which of each pair "was upside down". Both groups showed significant focal point dependency. However, the tailored induction group showed significantly greater focal point dependency characteristic of 5-year-old children, in contrast to the scripted induction group. It appears that tailored hypnotic inductions may provide a better avenue for the ego to regulate its own degree of regression. The better match to personality style takes advantage of the naturally occurring ego-syntonic capacities of the participant, thereby facilitating greater hypnotic responsiveness.

The first findings from a 5-year, overlapping-cohorts longitudinal study of typical language development are reported for (a) the interrelationships among Language by Ear (listening), Mouth (speaking), Eye (reading), and Hand (writing) in Cohort 1 in 1st and 3rd grade and Cohort 2 in 3rd and 5th grade; (b) the interrelationships among three modes of Language by Hand (writing manuscript letters with pen and keyboard and cursive letters with pen) in each cohort in the same grade levels as (a); and (c) the ability of the 1st graders in Cohort 1 and the 3rd graders in Cohort 2 to apply fast mapping in learning to spell pseudowords. Results showed that individual differences in Listening Comprehension, Oral Expression, Reading Comprehension, and Written Expression are stable developmentally, but each functional language system is only moderately correlated with the others. Likewise, manuscript writing, cursive writing, and keyboarding are only moderately correlated, and each has a different set of unique neuropsychological predictors depending on outcome measure and grade level. Results support the use of the following neuropsychological measures in assessing handwriting modes: orthographic coding, rapid automatic naming, finger succession (grapho-motor planning for sequential finger movements), inhibition, inhibition/switching, and phonemes skills (which may facilitate transfer of abstract letter identities across letter formats and modes of production). Both 1st and 3rd graders showed evidence of fast mapping of novel spoken word forms onto written word forms over 3 brief sessions (2 of which involved teaching) embedded in the assessment battery; and this fast mapping explained unique variance in their spelling achievement over and beyond their orthographic and phonological coding abilities and correlated significantly with current and next-year spelling achievement.

The accurate prediction, at a pre-dementia stage of Alzheimer's disease (AD), of the subsequent clinical evolution of patients would be a major breakthrough from both therapeutic and research standpoints. Amnestic mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is presently the most common reference to address the pre-dementia stage of AD. However, previous longitudinal studies on patients with MCI assessing neuropsychological and PET markers of future conversion to AD are sparse and yield discrepant findings, while a comprehensive comparison of the relative accuracy of these two categories of measure is still lacking. In the present study, we assessed the global cognitive decline as measured by the Mattis scale in 18 patients with amnestic MCI over an 18-month follow-up period, studying which subtest of this scale showed significant deterioration over time. Using baseline measurements from neuropsychological evaluation of memory and PET, we then assessed significant markers of global cognitive change, that is, percent annual change in the Mattis scale total score, and searched for the best predictor of this global cognitive decline. Altogether, our results revealed significant decline over the 18-month follow-up period in the total score and the verbal initiation and memory-recall subscores of the Mattis scale. The percent annual change in the total Mattis score significantly correlated with age and baseline performances in delayed episodic memory recall as well as semantic autobiographical and category word fluencies. Regarding functional imaging, significant correlations were also found with baseline PET values in the right temporo-parietal and medial frontal areas. Age and right temporo-parietal PET values were the most significant predictors of subsequent global cognitive decline, and the only ones to survive stepwise regression analyses. Our findings are consistent with previous works showing predominant delayed recall and semantic memory impairment at a pre-dementia stage of AD, as well as early metabolic defects in the temporo-parietal associative cortex. However, they suggest that only the latter predictor is specifically and accurately associated with subsequent cognitive decline in patients with MCI within 18 months of first assessment.

In a multisite study of 351 children with autism spectrum disorders, 21 children with developmental delays, and 31 children with typical development, this study used caregiver interviews (i.e., the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised) at the time of entry into other research projects and follow-up telephone interviews designed for this project to describe the children's early acquisition and loss of social-communication milestones. Children who had used words spontaneously and meaningfully and then stopped talking were described by their caregivers as showing more gestures, greater participation in social games, and better receptive language before the loss and fewer of these skills after the loss than other children with autism spectrum disorders. A significant minority of children with autism without word loss showed a very similar pattern of loss of social-communication skills, a pattern not observed in the children with developmental delays or typical development.

We investigated the effects of correcting for demographic biases on the sensitivity and specificity of the Modified Mini Mental Status Exam (3MS) using a sample of English-speaking older adults (N=8901) from the Canadian Studies of Health and Aging. The sensitivity and specificity of the original 3MS were compared to the 3MS regression-adjusted for the influence of demographic variables and then to 3MS percentiles based on published normative data with age and education corrected cutoff scores. According to receiver operating characteristic curve analyses, the regression-adjusted 3MS was no more accurate than the original 3MS when screening for dementia, and it was less accurate when screening for cognitive impairment. The use of 3MS percentiles based on normative data with age and education corrected cut-off points were less accurate than the original 3MS when screening for both cognitive impairment and when screening for dementia.

The present study examined the relationship between executive function, self-awareness and everyday functional competence in individuals with brain injuries. Executive function was assessed using measures of categorization and deductive reasoning ability, both of which were shown by multiple regression analysis to make significant contributions to the performance of Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL), suggesting that both measures can serve as predictors of everyday functioning in persons with brain injuries. Self-awareness contributed significantly to functional competence, but its contribution was mediated through categorization ability. Executive function was correlated significantly with posttest performance estimation (self-evaluation of own performance), but not with self-prediction of test performance prior to testing. The results are discussed within the framework of a conceptual model illustrating the multifaceted nature of executive function and its relationship to self-awareness and everyday functional competence. The results of this study indicate that categorization, deductive reasoning, and self-awareness of individuals with brain injury are good predictors of IADL functional performance, and can help in planning better treatment interventions.

This paper emphasizes the importance of anecdotes, in conjunction with experimental data and careful clinical observation,for an understanding of hypnosis. Anecdotes are presented that bear on (a) individual differences in hypnotizability, (b) the stereotypes of hypnosis, (c) the importance of careful wording in preparing experimental subjects and clinical patients for hypnosis, (d) the notion of hypnosis as involving a partial, but not complete, setting aside of critical judgment, which permits the hypnotized person to engage in fantasy and make-believe, (e) confabulation in hypnotic age regression, (f) the differentiation of hypnotic and therapeutic suggestion, (g)the nature of hypnotic suggestion, and (h) some experiences with the posthypnotic persistence of an uncanceled suggestion.

Children with closed head injury (CHI) perform poorly on complex tasks requiring working memory (WM). It is unclear to what extent WM itself is compromised, and whether WM varies with factors related to the CHI, such as injury severity, age at injury, and time since injury. We studied verbal WM in 126 school-age children with CHI, divided into mild, moderate, and severe injury severity groups. WM distributions were significantly skewed toward lower scores in the moderate and severe groups, although the distribution in the mild group was normal. Age at injury and time since injury predicted WM components only for the moderate group. Survivors of moderate or severe childhood CHI have persisting WM deficits limiting the computational workspace required for many cognitive tasks.

Age-associated changes on measures of episodic and working memory were examined in 15 adults with Williams Syndrome (WS; M age = 48.3 years, SD = 14.7; M IQ = 62.9, SD = 8.5) and their performance was compared to that of 33 adults with mental retardation (MR) with unspecified etiologies (M age = 54.2 years, SD = 8.9; M IQ = 61.7, SD = 6.5). Among the group with WS, older adults were significantly poorer than younger adults on the free recall task, a measure of episodic memory. Although this finding is consistent with normal aging, it occurred at a chronologically early age in adults with WS and was not found in their peers with unspecified MR. Although both groups showed small declines with age on a backward digit span task, a measure of working memory, for the group with WS the rate of decline on backward digit span was slower as compared to their performance on the free recall task. The findings from this study indicate a chronologically early and precipitous age-associated decrease in long-term, episodic memory in adults with WS.

Dissociative Fugue is a somewhat rare condition that therapists may see only once or twice over the course of a professional career. A brief review of the uses of hypnosis in the treatment of Dissociative Fugue is followed by a presentation of the case of a 51-year-old man who presented with the clinical picture of Dissociative Fugue State and who experienced complete amnesia for the time prior to the fugue state. This article focuses on the pitfalls that the psychotherapist in a general practice may face when working with such a patient and offers specific recommendations and scripts that may be useful in proceeding with treatment.

In this preliminary clinical investigation, hypnosis was used in the differential diagnosis of epileptic versus psychogenic seizures (PS). Eight patients with a clinical profile suggesting the presence of PS were given a hypnotic suggestion in which they had to go back in time to the exact moment of their last seizure. They were then asked to concentrate their attention on any unusual feeling or bodily sensation. All 8 patients presented a PS during the age regression protocol. In 6 cases, independent testimony from family members corroborated the morphological similarity of the induced attack and the ones presented in their natural environment. Also, the seizures ended abruptly after a command was given to stop them. A control group of 5 epileptic subjects did not present any signs of discomfort or seizure behavior during the hypnotic protocol. It is argued that a simple procedure as the one described in this investigation can be useful as a diagnostic tool in the differentiation of epileptic from PS attacks.

Evidence indicates that hypnotic responsivity in children younger than 8 years of age differs significantly from that of older children and adults. The sudden increase in responsiveness around age 8, differing patterns of item difficulty for young children, specific problems with hypnotic dream and age regression items, and the lack of conceptual distinction between volition and nonvolition argue for a fundamental discontinuity between young children and adults regarding responsivity. These differences result from underlying developmental processes that characterize young childhood, including limitations in executive cognitive functioning, more overt forms of involvement, and reliance on authoritative others for direction, regulation, and support. The unique features of young children's hypnotic responsivity offer the opportunity to reconsider hypnosis within a developmental context.

The 1956 publication of The Search for Bridey Murphy was a noteworthy event for the field of hypnosis. This internationally best selling book, written for lay readers, described several recorded sessions of alleged time-regression to a prior life nearly two centuries before 1956. While subsequent investigations disproved that claim, there were a number of important implications for the science and practice of hypnosis. Although it was concluded that the Bridey Murphy interviews were products of cryptomnesia, the book was a significant factor associated with a resurgence of public and professional interest in the modality.

The contribution of Durkin and Glatzer to examination of transferences and the therapeutic process emphasizes the nature of peer transferences that of are sufficient depth to resolve personality conflicts. In the past two decades additional emphasis on the totality of the treatment relationship and of self psychology has added to understanding elements in the transference and curative process. A clinical illustration provided by Durkin and Glatzer is reexamined in light of these advances.

In this article the author reconsiders the ideas of Durkin and Glatzer (1973/1997) on the process of transference and the function of regression in dyadic and group treatment in light of developments in contemporary analytical theory and practice. Transference is reexamined theoretically as a function of internal psychological processes. Transference regression are also considered in relation to the nature and treatment of character pathology.

This article explores the theoretical and clinical underpinnings of a specific form of group-centered psychotherapy. In this modality, the nature of the phenomena developing in the clinical situation are related to the prevailing levels of the therapeutic regression occurring in the group. It is suggested that the most regressive phenomena tend to be experienced as groupwide phenomena with individual members assuming the position of part objects, whereas lesser degrees of regression center on the experience of whole-object relations. Five dimensions of the therapeutic situation are explored: regression, the group as a setting, the nature of anxiety, the creation of objects, and symbolization. This model allows for a differentiated exploration of therapist-centered and peer-centered transferences. A session is discussed in detail.

Incest has become more prominent in public awareness over the past 15 years. The major focus of this interest has been on the incest survivor. The incest offender has received less attention. A hypnotic approach to treating incest offenders is outlined that involves a seven-stage approach. A case example is presented and future research directions suggested.

Historically hypnosis with deaf people has been an underutilized intervention as the deaf were assumed not to be responsive to hypnotic suggestion. Recent research has begun to challenge these assumptions. Matthews and Isenberg (in press) compared the hypnotic responsiveness of deaf and hearing subjects on the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale, form C (SHSS:C) all of whom received the hypnotic suggestions via sign language. Those results supported the notion that deaf subjects are capable of responding to hypnotic suggestion and may be as hypnotically responsive as hearing subjects. The purpose of the present article is to examine the similarities and differences of responses between deaf and hearing subjects to the individual items of the SHSS:C and compare those responses to the SHSS:C norms.

This article summarizes data from three studies (Maré, Lynn, Kvaal, Segal, & Sivec, in press; Lynn, Maré, Kvaal, Segal, & Sivec, 1993) designed to extend research on the "hidden observer" to two phenomena of clinical relevance: hypnotic dreams and suggested age regression. Subjects received suggestions for a hypnotic dream or age regression and then received suggestions for a "hidden observer" (i.e., the subject possesses a part of the self that is aware of images and ideas that the conscious mind is unaware of) with respect to the dream or age-regression experience. Hidden reports contained more personally relevant information than the target suggestions (i.e., dream, age regression). Subjectives were also less likely to recall hidden reports. The high rate of hidden-observer responding (> 80%) was also evident in nonhypnotized simulating and relaxed subjects, although they did not exhibit as much primary process thinking in their dream reports as hypnotized subjects. Case studies of a trauma client and a forensic client are used to illustrate the clinical potential of hidden-observer suggestions.

An ongoing controversy in the field of group psychotherapy is whether transference regression is greater in groups than in individual treatment. There appears to be a general consensus that group behavior may be understood as operating on at least three levels--the conscious--rational, the oedipally determined transference, and the preoedipal maternal transference level. The more rational levels are associated with transference dilution, whereas the more primitive levels accompany transference intensification. Dilution occurs as a result of reality demands and inputs of the group situation and because of multiple targets of displacement. Transference intensification is a product of mutual stimulation, contagion effect, frustrating inputs, and support of the group theme. Certain patients benefit most from the dilution features of a group, and others profit most from intensification. The therapist's technique and the patient's pathology are the main determinants of which aspect gets emphasized and utilized.

This essay evaluates the notions of fixation and regression in the psychoanalytic theoretical conceptualization of homosexuality. Charles Socarides has had a central role in formulating the most prominent and influential psychoanalytic metapsychological understanding of homosexuality in recent years and for that reason this essay focuses principally on him. The concepts of fixation and regression are central to his understanding and I argue that the evolution of these concepts in contemporary usage renders them irrelevant to formulating the current psychoanalytic understanding of homosexuality and that their continued use by analysts reflects a negative attitude toward homosexual behavior on the part of Socarides and many other analysts that stems from an extremely narrow and idealized conception of human development.

A substantial number of people facing physical and/or psychological crisis report having a near-death experience (NDE) involving a subjectively real experience of an alternate reality. Where NDE content is associated with positive emotions, benefit might be gained by hypnotic recall of the NDE, yet such recall might involve possible risk in the form of reactivation of the original crisis. In this article we describe a study involving hypnotic recall of positive NDEs by one male and five female subjects. We describe in detail some procedures to minimize risk, including a hypnosis protocol.

Secondary gain has long been viewed as a variable that can significantly affect a patient's recovery from such conditions as chronic pain disorders, factitious and somatoform disorders, and other psychological disorders. Secondary gain has not been evaluated in terms of its impact on major illnesses such as cancer or autoimmune disorders. In this paper I discuss how secondary gain can be present in such illnesses and how it results in a resistance to health. This resistance to health can lead not only to medical noncompliance, but can also ultimately affect the progression and recovery from the illness. I describe how hypnosis can be used to ferret out this resistance to health and how patients in a hypnotic state will indicate or express their resistance to becoming healthy. The advantage of this approach is that it enables the clinician to deal directly with the patient's unconscious resistance to health.

Hypnotizable (N = 9) and simulating subjects (N = 8) were age regressed to the previous week's hypnosis session and received a suggestion to hear a phone ring during the earlier session (no phone actually rang). Pseudomemory rates in response to open-ended questions were low in this study (0% hypnotizable and simulating subjects) and in previous research (Lynn, Weekes, & Milano, 1989; 12.5% hypnotizable; 10% simulating subjects) in which the phone-ring suggestion was not embedded in the context of age regression. In response to a forced-choice question, 22.22% of the hypnotizable and 25% of the simulating subjects indicated that the suggested phone ring was an actual event, a pseudomemory rate somewhat higher than our previous study in which none of the subjects reported pseudomemories in response to a forced-choice question. When the occurrence of the target stimulus of a pseudomemory suggestion is publicly verifiable, the pseudomemory rate is low.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the role of a clinical context in the experience of hypnotic age regression. Twenty-five patients experienced hypnotic age regression in an experimental and clinical context in counterbalanced order. Patients obtained significantly lower scores for experimental age regression than for clinical age regression, in particular when the experimental assessment preceded the clinical assessment of age regression. Moreover, scores for clinical and experimental age regression were only significantly and positively correlated when the clinical assessment of age regression preceded the experimental assessment. These findings give a tentative indication that more patients are able to experience clinical age regression than can be predicted from their responses to an experimental suggestion for hypnotic age regression where almost no opportunities for patient contact or maximizing of hypnotic responsiveness are provided.

A 56-year-old woman displayed a condition of alternating unilateral lachrymation while she was undergoing psychotherapy. Although she was aware of this condition only since her marriage, hypnotic age regression revealed its existence in childhood, together with mutism and a catatonic trance-like state. Further investigation revealed the connection of this symptom with her family constellation and the reappearance of the unilateral crying as an adult. In this paper we review the neurophysiology of lachrymation, discuss the hypnosis sessions, discuss the symptom as a psychosomatic condition and as a dissociative phenomenon, and present a case report of her background.

Hypnoplay therapy is beneficial in two stages of the treatment of multiple personality disorder, as illustrated in two cases. First, when applied to child alters, this method provides an alternative route to the disclosure of secrets, the nonverbal expression of thoughts and feelings, and the safe abreaction of powerful emotion. Second, during postfusion, hypnoplay therapy can help the patient to establish a reliable self-object and to complete developmental periods that were absent or severely curtailed.

A chemically dependent man was treated using hypnotherapy and related psychotherapeutic techniques. I started by taking a psychosocial history and then introduced such interventions as pattern interruption and symbolic task assignments to establish initial sobriety. The majority of the sessions focused on age regressing the patient to events correlating to drug and alcohol abuse. During these events I introduced myself via hypnosis as "the voice from the future" to redefine the events and extract the useful learnings. With a new-found positive self-image, the patient was hypnotically age progressed to review future scenes. In each scene he successfully abstained from drug and alcohol use. The patient remained drug and alcohol free during treatment and the 6-month and one-year follow-ups.

Based on research with children, we hypothesized that hypnotically age-regressed adult subjects would respond differentially across stimuli conditions on the autokinetic illusion. We assigned 18 highly susceptible subjects, assessed on the Harvard Group Susceptibility Scale, to one of three treatment groups: waking control, standard hypnotic induction, and age regression. Three target shapes, a control stimulus (circle), a representational stimulus (profile of a man), and a symbolic stimulus (cross) were presented. Results failed to show reinstatement of childlike performance on this perceptual illusion. The conceptual and empirical implications for future age-regression studies on memory, perception, and emotion are discussed.