Hypnotic experiments in psychosomatic medicine.

ONE of the basic tenets of psychosomatic medicine is that long continued emotional stress can produce widespread somatic changes. Probably'the most insidious form of emotional stress is that which issues from unconscious conflict, since the individual, unaware of the cause of his difficulty, is usually helpless in coping with it. That unconscious conflict can produce psychosomatic illness is confirmed by studies during psychoanalytic therapy. However, few experimental studies have been made reporting on this phenomenon. It is understandable why this is so, since in a field as complex as human behavior it is extremely difficult to provide satisfactory experimental conditions. Following the important observations of Luria (5), other workers (1-4, 6) have demonstrated how hypnosis.may be utilized to study the effects of an experimentally induced conflict on the individual. Where posthypnotic amnesia is suggested or where it occurs spontaneously, the subject, while under the influence of the conflict, is not consciously aware of its existence. This paper deals with experiences under hypnosis which demonstrate in a more or less dramatic fashion how unconscious conflict can produce states of somatic distress. Some of the effects reported are the deliberate product of an artificially induced conflict, while others are accidental by-products of conflicts inadvertently created during hypnoanalytic therapy. The first case demonstrates how a conflict between an irrepressible impulse and a moral prohibition reflects itself in a generalized state of tension, with muscular tremors and neurocirculatory collapse. The subject was an individual who claimed he had no disturbing neurotic difficulties and had volunteered to act as a subject out of interest. An experimental conflict was induced in a deep trance by giving the subject the following posthypnotic suggestion. "When you awaken you will find next to you a bar of chocolate. You will have a desire to eat the chocolate that will be so intense that it will be impossible to resist the craving. At