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Dangers

A suggestion that requires conscious interpretation can have undesirable effects. The following reports are some examples of these effects:
"A patient who was terrified to go into the street because of the traffic, was once told by a hypnotist that when she left his room, she would no longer bother about the traffic and would be able to cross the road without the slightest fear. She obeyed his instructions so literally that she ended up in a hospital."
"In one case, a woman had experienced 10 years of fatigue, irritability, and periods of childish behavior during which her perceptions were distorted. The source of the problem was traced back to a stage performance 10 years earlier, when she was regressed to a traumatic period of her life."
"In one case, a dentist using hypnorelaxation with a patient complied with her request to provide direction suggestions to stop smoking. The patient's underlying psychological conflicts, which the dentist was not qualified to assess, led to the development of an anxiety/depressive reaction."
"A woman undergoing psychotherapy facilitated by hypnosis attempted to use the procedures she had learned to relieve her husband's dental pain. During the deepening technique of arm levitation, her husband's fingertips 'stuck' to his head, and a therapist had to intervene to end the trance state."

Extreme reactions

Licensed hypnotherapists have expressed concerns that practitioners of hypnosis who are unlicensed can evoke intense emotions in clients that they are not trained to treat. These abreactions can occur recalling traumatic events.

False memory

False memory obtained via hypnosis has figured prominently in many investigations and court cases, including cases of alleged sexual abuse. There is no scientific way to prove that any of these recollections are completely accurate. Individuals have been led by an errant hypnotist to believe in things that they later were able to show did not happen.


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