Academic Psychology

Hypnosis and Suggestibility. By Clark L. Hull, Ph.D. (Appleton-Century Co. 15s.) ALTHOUGH it is common knowledge that acute differences exist between various schools of clinical psychology, much less attention is paid to the fact that between clinical psy- chology and the psychology of the laboratory an almost impassable gulf endures. Academic psychologists are not likely to blazon this abroad, because they hope ultimately to submit clinical psychology to laboratory disciplines. Clinical psychologists, on the other hand, are as a rule too timid to repudiate lip-service to academic psychology, and for the good reason that their own fundamental principles are much too nebulous. Every now and then praiseworthy attempts are made to bridge this gulf, but, more often than not, they end in accentuating the very differences they set out to

reduce. •

Professor Clark Hull's book on hypnosis and suggestibility is a caw in point. He sets Out with the avowed intention of submitting hypnosis to a scientific examination. But having thus secured the sympathy of his readers, he proceeds to alienate all right-thinking clinical psychologists by making two quite unwarranted assumptions. He assumes that the therapeutic interests of the clinician necessarily obstruct a scientific approach, and he assumes that experimental methods do constitute a scientific approach. " The dominant motive throughout the entire history of hypnotism," says the author, "'has been clinical, that of curing humad ills. A worse method for the establishment of scientific principles among highly elusive phenomena could hardly have been devised. As we shall have occasion to observe frequently, one indispensable feature of scientific hypnotic investigation js, the control experiment."

' As regards the first contention, Professor Hull seems to_ have overlooked the fact that the most penetrating analysis. of hypnotic phenomena ever published was based on precisely Mote p-sychci-Therapeutic investigations of abnormal -pheno-

mena he affects to despise. And it is to be noted that whereas

his references to experimental work are up to -date, his official acquaintance with analytical (clinical) formulations

ends, for all practical purposes, about 1914. As for the scientific value of experimental methods, Professor Hull seems to share the illusion so common amongst modern workers that the trappings of an experimental laboratory and the application of mathematical principles are a guarantee of scientific integrity of approach. Whereas the fact is notorious amongst clinical workers that the laboratory situations (tests) used for the purposes of experimental psychology throw a minimum of light on any given psychic state. One can readily imagine the astonishment of the hospital physician if an experimental physiologist were to march into his wards followed by mechanics bearing tambours, and, having mea- sured the response of a number of patients to a mild dig in the

ribs, proceed to propound the " true diagnosis." The clinician does not cavil at artifices of mensuration, but he holds that it is not necessarily-scientific to attempt an analysis of the stratosphere with a two-foot rule.

It is clear that no standard valuation of such a book is possible. " Viewed from the standpoint of the experimental psychologist it deserves considerable praise. The author is painstaking and cautious, and even if his experimental technique is not of an inspired order it will none the less promote confidence in his objectivity. As to the nature of his conclusions, it is perhaps sufficient to quote some of his views—e.g., that ideo-motor action is the basis of prestige- suggestion ; that direct suggestion is clearly allied with hypnosis, but indirect suggestion is probably distinct ; that hypnosis facilitates the recall of childhood and perhaps other remote memories ; that at present no final opinion can be expressed regarding the dissociation hypothesis ; that hypnosis is not sleep and has no special relation to it ; that hypnosis is a state of relatively heightened susceptibility to prestige- suggestion ; and, finally, that whatever else prestige-sug- gestion may be it is at least a habit phenomenon.

The clinical psychologist, whilst not denying the value of such investigations as are intended to measure accurately some of the phenomena of hypnosis, will find himself out of sym- pathy with the scope and methods of experiments intended to further. an analysis of the nature of suggestion. He will be positively critical of those investigations which involve contact with psycho-neurotic and other abnormal data. It is only fair to add that the work on these particular aspects has not always been carried out by the author. But since' he quotes extensively the experiments of other investigators and draws conclusions from them, the reader is entitled to

assume that, in the absence of qualifying criticism the author

approves of the methods employed. , In particular the sections dealing with the relation between suggestibility and

character traits, delinquency and the psychoses respectively show a complete lack of understanding of the structure and function of these phenomena. This lack of understanding is again shown in the section dealing with dissociation, where the concept of the " subconscious " is considered solely in terms of work published by Janet and Morton

Prince. •

Finally, the clinician will 'be 'entirely unmoved by the author's conclusions as to the basic nature of hypnosis. Indeed, the emphasis laid on habit psychology will leave him completely sceptical of the value of the book. For, although the clinician has himself emphasized the fact that hypnotic susceptibility is greatly facilitated by practice, he has rarely sought to explain the nature of hypnosis on the strength of such observations. For the clinical psychologist no more sterile product than the academic " psychology of habit " could possibly be conceived. It has done more than any other product of the laboratory mind to paralyse Understanding of and research on mental phenomena. Pro- fessor Hull adopts an attitude only too common amongst academic psychologists. His contempt for clinical methods is equalled ,only by his contempt for mental phenoniena in general. Clinical psychology, however crude and fallible' its methods may be, has the supreme merit of employing 'psychic instruments _to__ investigate psychic phenomena.

EDWARD GLOVER.