Using hypnosis in eyewitness memory: Past and current issues

Stemming from the clinical work of Janet (1889/1973), hypnosis has received considerable attention over the years as a method of enhancing memory reports. The underlying assumption, common to both clinical and forensic applications, was that hypnosis can help people recover memories that otherwise would remain inaccessible. Janet was one of the first therapists to use hypnosis to help patients recover memories for traumatic events that he assumed caused their pathological conditions. In a well-known case, Janet’s patient “Maria” was age regressed during hypnosis to her childhood. Janet reported that in one instance she was able to remember a traumatic episode of her life (ie, seeing a child with a facial deformity), and that by consciously reliving the memory of the trauma she was liberated from the symptoms it had caused. The belief that hypnosis can help patients recover buried memories of traumatic events also provided the rationale for hypnoanalysis, which was used after World War I to help soldiers and veterans recover from neurotic symptoms, and what is now called post-traumatic stress disorder. The logic underlying the use of hypnoanalysis was based on the alleged healing power of abreaction, which occurred when patients were