International Handbook of Clinical Hypnosis - E-Lib FK UWKS

304 INTERNATIONAL HANDBOOK OF CLINICAL HYPNOSIS
disorders; patients with multiple phobic symptoms were more hypnotizable than
patients with a single phobia. There was a strong relationship between hypnotizability
and successful outcome of treatment. The present study is the sixth study to
®nd a relationship between hypnotizability and phobic disorders. This indicates
replication across laboratories and across cultures and sets up the basis for a robust
theory.
DISCUSSION
The majority of the studies described have supported Frankel's 1974) hypothesis
about the relationship between hypnotizability and phobias. Dental phobias in
particular have all shown a positive relationship with hypnotizability with no failure
to replicate. However studies by Frischolz et al. 1982) and Owens et al.1989) have
failed to replicate this relationship. Reasons for these differing results have been
described elsewhere Gerschman & Burrows 1995).
There are strong indications that a signi®cant portion of the dental phobic
population is hypnotizable and that a causal relationship may exist relating
hypnotizability to both the acquisition and management of phobic disorders. That
is not to deny that phobic symptoms may be multidetermined, including psychoanalytic,
behavioral, cognitive and biological features.
Further evidence supporting the relationship between hypnotizability and phobic
disorders is related to the underlying vivid imagery skills, high absorptive skills
and ¯exibility in information processing strategies found in both high hypnotizables
and a substantial number of phobics Crawford & Barbasz, 1993). Crawford
1997) further indicates that high hypnotizables have more effective attentional and
disattentional systems than low hypnotizables as well as the ability for faster
processing of information.
IMPLICATION OF THE RELATIONSHIP OF HYPNOTIZABILITY AND
DENTAL PHOBIAS
The implications of these ®ndings have signi®cance for the genesis of dental
phobias as well as for their management.
One may postulate that phobic patients show a tendency to the same kind of
mental functioning that is involved in responding to the hypnotic induction. It has
also been suggested Frankel, 1979) that these patients must also have the capacity
to manifest the kind of cognitive functioning that characterizes the hypnotized
individual.
Auseful treatment strategy offers itself once one recognizes that the phobic
patient's propensity for spontaneously occurring trance phenomena may provide
the context for the symptom to emerge.
Therapeutically, the approach becomes neither one of suggesting away the
symptom nor one primarily based on using hypnosis to look for the speci®c