Hypnotic simulation of organic brain damage.

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Abstract
Hypnosis was employed as a research tool to create experimentally conditions which allowed investigation of an otherwise unattackable problem[long dash]the separation of psychological and organic effects of brain injury. Nine subjects were administered 6 tests commonly employed to identify organic brain damage, under 4 conditions: normal waking; pure hypnosis; hypnosis, with a hypnotically hallucinated conversion hysteria in which paralysis was developed on the basis of guilt and identification; and hypnosis, with a hypnotically hallucinated organic brain trauma leading to the same paralysis. Ratings of organicity under Condition d were substantially higher than those under the other 3 conditions (which differed little among themselves), indicating that signs of organic brain damage may appear in association with experimentally produced catastrophic anxiety, in the absence of the damage itself.

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