Orne, M.T. The use and misuse of hypnosis in court. International ...

Orne 1979 IJCEHhttp://www.sas.upenn.edu/psych/history/orne/orneijceh19794311341.html4 de 23 19/03/2012 17:24seriously injured. British Columbia law is such that if the driver had been careless or distracted, herinsurance would be liable to the estate of her dead passenger and she herself would have no substantialclaim; however, if another car caused315 USE AND MISUSE OF HYPNOSIS IN COURTher to run off the road, her insurance company would not be liable and she herself would be able torecover very substantial damages from a special fund created for the purpose. At the time of the accident,however, the woman reported no recollection of such a car. Some time later her attorney referred her to apsychiatrist for help with emotional difficulties stemming from the accident, and also requested that hemight seek to facilitate her memory for the accident. There is little doubt that the driver and her lawyerwere clearly aware of the substantial difference it would make whether or not another vehicle had beeninvolved in the accident; thus it is hardly surprising that under hypnosis she remembered a van comingtoward her and forcing her off the road. If the driver had simply stated that one day she suddenlyremembered that a van had forced her off the road, a jury would be likely to reject such "spontaneous"memories as self-serving and not trustworthy. Memories which are recalled via the use of hypnosis,however, are more apt to be taken at face value. This case was ultimately settled on the courthouse steps.Even so, it represents a use of hypnosis closely analogous to hypnotizing a defendant and open to all thecaveats involved in such a use.THE NATURE OF HYPNOTIC RECALLWhen hypnosis is used with a defendant or plaintiff who has much to gain by recalling one set ofmemories rather than another, motivational factors are superimposed upon the basic mechanisms involvedin hypnotically aided recall. While these motivational factors complicate the picture, the basic facts aboutthe phenomenon of hypnosis and its effects on recall apply to all circumstances where hypnosis isemployed. The unreliability of hypnotic recall is due both to factors inherent in the nature of hypnosis andproperties of the human memory system.Age RegressionWhile direct suggestion is sometimes used to facilitate recall in hypnosis, the procedures most widelyemployed involve some form of hypnotic age regression. This dramatic phenomenon appears to enableindividuals to relive some past event which might have occurred many years ago. However, it is a methodthat can be equally effective in helping an individual to relive recent events, particularly if they involvesome trauma leading to motivated forgetting manifested by the inability to recall significant events. Notonly are extensive clinical observations available concerning hypnotic age regression, but it has also beenstudied systematically in the laboratory, providing data which shed much light on the nature of theprocess, and on the critical issue of the historical accuracy of hypnotically elicited recall.316 MARTIN T. ORNEWhen a hypnotized individual is told that he is 6 years old and at his birthday party, for example, he willbegin to act, talk, and to some degree think like a child. He may play as a child would; address the friendswho apparently were at his birthday party; and describe in detail the room where the party is occurring,the people who are in attendance, the presents he is receiving, and so on. The naturalness with whichthese descriptions are given and the conviction that is communicated by the individual are compellingeven to trained observers. The feelings which are expressed appear appropriate to a child more than to anadult, and the entire phenomenon is such that it is generally described as beyond the skills of even aprofessional actor. In a therapeutic setting, the material that is recovered during hypnotic age regression isoften of great importance to a patient's treatment. As Breuer and Freud (1895/1955) discovered at the endof the 19th century, the reliving of traumatic events may result in the cure of troublesome pathological