Different Scientific Theories of How Hypnosis Works

The question of how hypnosis actually works is a huge one, and one not currently fully answered. There are however several different theories explained in the following article in some depth. Read the full article here: http://www.hypnosisandsuggestion.org/theories-of-hypnosis.html

"any satisfactory theory of hypnosis should also be a theory bearing on psychology at large" (Hilgard, 1991)
For over a century scientists and clinicians have proposed mechanisms to explain the phenomenon associated with hypnosis. The key theories of hypnosis, historical and current, are presented here. For the more recent models some knowledge of cognitive psychology is useful. Within psychology most current models of how the mind works what is termed 'executive function' make use of the concept of an executive control system (Norman & Shallice, 1980, 1986) (a description of what is meant by executive control is given on this page).

A key debate in hypnosis throughout the twentieth century has been between 'state' vs. 'non-state' theories, properties of these types of theories are given below. Recently attempts have been made to integrate findings from both of these positions.

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Theory	Key Authors	Description	Type
Neodissociation theory	Hilgard	Hypnotic phenomenon are produced through a dissociation of high level control systems.	State, Dissociation
Integrated dissociative theory	Woody & Sadler (1998)	A re-integration of dissociated experience and dissociated control theories.	Dissociation
Socio-cognitive theory	Spanos		Non-state
Response expectancy theory / Social cognitive theory	Kirsch (1985, 1991, 1994), Lynn	An extension of social learning theory. How a participant expectssuggestions to change their subjective experience lead to a change in experience, and can generate involuntary responses.	Non-state
Role theory	Sarbin		Non-state
Integrative cognitive theory	Brown, Oakley		Integrative
Cold control theory	Dienes, Perner	Draws a distinction between: being in a mental state being aware of being in that state Argues that successful response to hypnotic suggestion can be achieved by forming the intention to perform an action, without forming higher order thoughts about intending that action	Cognitive
Ego psychological theory	Fromm
Conditioning and inhibition theory	Barrios