Authoritarian versus non-authoritarian induction, fatigue and hypnotic susceptibility: An empirical study of Sigmund Freud's counter-will and hypnosis theories

This study examined specific predictions of hypnotic susceptibility derived from Freud's theories of the counter-will and hypnosis. Participants were hypnotized using either an authoritarian or non-authoritarian induction style while under conditions of fatigue designed to stimulate the counter-will or in a normal non-fatigued waking state. Results demonstrated that susceptibility increased from lowest to highest in the following succession: (1) fatigued subjects with a non-authoritarian induction; (2) non-fatigued subjects with a non-authoritarian induction; (3) non-fatigued subjects with an authoritarian induction; (4) fatigued subjects with an authoritarian induction. In addition, an authoritarian style was more effective in inducing hypnosis than a non-authoriatarian induction style. These results corroborated Freud's theory of hypnosis as a regressive transference relationship in which the participant put the hypnotist in the place of the ego-ideal and his theory of the counter-will in which unconscious antithetic ideas developed during fatigue to reduce the likelihood of success in the participant's instrumental activity.