NCJ Number
102964
Date Published
1983
Length
3 pages
Annotation
In this reported interview, Dr. Martin Orne, director of the Unit for Experimental Psychiatry at the Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital, indicates that hypnosis is helpful in dealing with some physical and psychiatric ailments but is unreliable in producing accurate memories in subjects.
Abstract
Dr. Orne comments that although hypnosis can be effective in reducing pain, controlling heartbeat, treating phobias, and increasing self-confidence and productivity, it is highly unreliable in retrieving accurate memories from subjects. Hypnosis is a state in which the subject focuses his/her mind on the hypnotist's suggestions, so that the subject is vulnerable to distortions of memory or perception. The subject is in a state of lowered critical judgment and is susceptible to embracing fantasy. The danger of using hypnosis on a witness in a criminal trial is that the witness may develop a strong confidence in erroneous facts and perceptions spawned under hypnosis. The witness' confidence in flawed evidence may be sufficient to persuade a jury that the testimony is true.