Hypnoanalysis

Hypnosis and the beginnings of psychoanalysis

Historians of psychiatry describe psychoanalysis as emerging from Sigmund Freud's study of hypnosis and his treatment of the patients then diagnosed with hysteria. Richard Kluft's review of Freud's archived writings and correspondence notes that Freud later abandoned hypnosis, and that this decision opened a division between the two fields that lasted for more than a century.

Hypnosis was also a rival of psychoanalysis in the same period. A historical study of the Berlin physician Albert Moll reports that interest in hypnotic suggestion therapy was strong in the late 19th century, and that his work was soon overshadowed by newer, non-hypnotic psychotherapies, particularly Freud's psychoanalysis.

Hypnoanalysis in the mid-20th-century literature

The word hypnoanalysis appears in the psychiatric literature by the 1940s. The American Journal of Psychotherapy carried a paper titled Hypnosis and psychoanalytic therapy (hypnoanalysis) by Lewis Wolberg in 1947, and a paper with the same title by the same author in 1996. Only bibliographic records of these papers were opened for this page, so their arguments are not summarized here.

Psychoanalytic theorizing about hypnosis itself was also under way. A 1952 paper by Merton Gill and Margaret Brenman with Robert Knight, published in the International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, examined fluctuations in the depth of hypnosis and their meaning for ego function, and a 1965 critique contrasted the Gill and Brenman psychoanalytic theory of hypnosis with a behavioral theory. Kluft argues that mainstream psychoanalysis continued to hold Freud's reasons for rejecting hypnosis long after, which helps explain why hypnoanalysis remained a minority approach.

How the term is used

In the sources reviewed, hypnoanalysis refers to the combination of hypnotic procedures with psychoanalytic or psychodynamic therapy, as in the titles of the Wolberg papers. Analytical hypnosis and hypnoanalytic therapy are used as alternative names in practitioner and training contexts. No single standard definition from a professional body was found, and the term is used with different degrees of psychoanalytic content.

Professional hypnosis societies define the underlying terms separately. The Society of Psychological Hypnosis, Division 30 of the American Psychological Association, defines hypnosis as a state of consciousness involving focused attention and reduced peripheral awareness with an enhanced capacity for response to suggestion. It defines hypnotic induction as a procedure designed to induce hypnosis, and hypnotherapy as the use of hypnosis in the treatment of a medical or psychological disorder or concern.

How it differs from related practices

Hypnotherapy is the broader family of approaches, covered on the Machipedia page Hypnotherapy. Clinical Hypnosis usually refers to hypnosis used as an adjunct within healthcare, often directed at a specific symptom such as pain. Hypnoanalysis is distinguished by its stated aim of exploring the origins and meanings of symptoms using psychoanalytic concepts. Parts Therapy Hypnosis is a separate approach that works with described inner parts of the person.

Regression Therapy and Past Life Regression use hypnosis or guided imagery to revisit earlier experiences, and some hypnoanalytic work also focuses on early memories. Experimental reviews caution that hypnotic age regression, though subjectively compelling, does not restore childlike mental functioning or revive original memories, so descriptions of regression as literal return to the past are not supported by the research reviewed. Psychotherapy is the wider discipline in which hypnoanalysis sits.

What a session is said to involve

The sources reviewed do not set out a standard hypnoanalytic protocol, and none is given here. In general terms, practitioners describe a session as a hypnotic induction followed by suggestions or guided imagery that invite the person to attend to memories, feelings and images, after which the material is discussed and interpreted in psychodynamic terms. The 1996 Wolberg paper is indexed under topics including mental recall, transference and the unconscious, which indicates the themes discussed in that literature.

Hypnotizability differs between individuals. Kihlstrom reports that individual differences in hypnotizability are only weakly related to other forms of suggestibility, so the degree of response to hypnosis in a given person cannot be assumed from general traits.

Practitioners and settings

Hypnoanalysis is delivered by clinicians who may be psychologists, psychiatrists, counselors or lay hypnotherapists, and the sources reviewed do not report how many practice it. The American Society of Clinical Hypnosis states that its certification is open only to licensed health care professionals and that it regards people trained only in hypnosis as lacking the diagnostic and therapeutic skills and licensure needed to treat medical or psychological problems safely.

The American Psychological Association reports that two programs offer certification in hypnosis in the United States, one from the Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis and one from the American Society for Clinical Hypnosis, and that Division 30 and the Society are working on revised training standards. No certification specific to hypnoanalysis was found in the sources reviewed.

Stated aims

Practitioners describe hypnoanalysis as a way to bring forgotten or avoided material into awareness, to understand how earlier experiences shape present difficulties, and to work through emotional conflicts alongside supportive therapy. These descriptions reflect the psychoanalytic premise that symptoms carry meanings linked to unconscious conflict. They are theoretical claims of the approach, and the sources reviewed do not test them.

Kluft suggests that hypnosis and psychoanalysis might each offer the other useful ideas and invites reexamination of the long separation between them. This is an argument for dialogue between the fields and not a finding that the combined approach improves outcomes.

Conditions people seek help for

Common reasons people give for seeking analytic hypnosis include anxiety, low mood, relationship patterns and the effects of difficult experiences. None of the sources reviewed provided outcome data for hypnoanalysis in any of these conditions, so no condition-specific claim is made on this page. Evidence on hypnosis for other purposes, such as clinical pain, is summarized under Research and Evidence and does not carry over.

Research specific to hypnoanalysis

No randomized trial or systematic review of hypnoanalysis as a defined treatment was found. Searches of PubMed for hypnoanalysis and hypnoanalytic therapy returned a small set of mostly mid-20th-century papers and historical commentary, with no controlled outcome studies. The literature that exists is largely theoretical and case-based, and case reports cannot show that a treatment caused improvement.

The absence of trials means the approach is untested, not shown to be ineffective. Any statement that hypnoanalysis resolves the roots of symptoms rests on clinical theory and practitioner experience and not on controlled comparison.

Evidence for hypnosis in other settings

A systematic review and meta-analysis by Yim and Derbyshire, published in the European Journal of Pain in 2026, pooled 57 randomized trials with 4,572 participants and found a small reduction in clinical pain with hypnosis compared with non-active controls (SMD -0.33). Hypnosis did not clearly outperform active controls such as relaxation, pain education or cognitive behavioral therapy. The review concerns suggestion-based hypnosis for pain, not psychodynamic exploration, and its results should not be applied to hypnoanalysis.

Memory research relevant to the approach

Kihlstrom's review of hypnosis and memory concludes that hypnotic hypermnesia, meaning improved memory for past events, is illusory: suggestions to remember increase false recollection as well as confidence in both true and false memories. The review recommends that clinical and forensic use of hypermnesia and age regression to enhance memory be discouraged.

The research is not uniform on trauma and memory. A 2012 review in Psychological Bulletin found strong support for a link between trauma and dissociation, and found no reliable evidence that dissociation is associated with suggestibility or with less accurate recovered memory. That review did not study hypnoanalysis, and it does not remove the concern that hypnotic procedures can introduce suggested material.

Suggestibility and false memory

The main documented concern is the creation of inaccurate memories. A survey of practicing psychotherapists reported by Yapko in 1994 found that a significant number wrongly believed that memories obtained under hypnosis are more likely to be accurate than ordinary recall, and that hypnosis can retrieve accurate memories from as far back as birth. The author warned that such views can lead to recovery of suggested rather than actual memories.

The memory research summarized above supports the same care. Material that emerges during hypnosis cannot be taken as accurate on its own, and confidence in a recalled event is not a reliable sign that it occurred. Clinicians and clients are advised by the memory literature to treat such material as a subject for careful exploration and independent verification where that matters.

Training, professional standards and suitability

For people with a history of trauma, dissociation or a serious mental health condition, professional bodies advise that hypnosis be used only by licensed clinicians with relevant training. The American Society of Clinical Hypnosis requires a master's degree in a health care discipline, licensure, two levels of approved workshops, at least 20 hours of individual consultation and two years of independent practice for certification, and it states that certification separates professional practitioners from lay hypnotists.

The sources reviewed do not provide rates of harm specific to hypnoanalysis, and no register of hypnoanalysis practitioners was found. This page is information only and is not a substitute for assessment or treatment by a qualified clinician. Hypnoanalysis should not delay or replace necessary medical or mental health care.