Age Regression and Early Trauma Controversy
Whether hypnotic age regression leads to more accurate earlier memories or if the memories are real at all is heavily debated. The question of whether people should utilize hypnosis to recall memories of early trauma is very controversial.
A study by Dr. Joseph Green, professor at Ohio University, involved 48 students that were found to be highly susceptible to hypnosis. The group of 48 students was divided into two separate groups. 32 of the students were informed prior to the hypnosis that hypnosis could lead to false memories and could not help people remember events that they could not ordinarily remember. The other 16 students were not given any similar information.
The students were asked about an uneventful night during their week, where they experienced uninterrupted sleep, uninfluenced by alcohol or drugs, and inability to recall dreams. While the students were placed under hypnosis, they were told that they had heard a loud noise at 4 a.m. After hypnosis, the students were asked if they remembered hearing a loud noise at 4 a.m. 28% of the informed students and 44% of the uninformed students claimed that they had heard a loud noise at 4 a.m.
Dr. Green found that the “warnings are helpful to some extent in discouraging pseudomemories, but did not prevent pseudomemories and did not reduce the confidence subjects had in those memories.”
Read more about this topic: Age Regression In Therapy
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