Ernest Hilgard
Encyclopedia
Ernest Ropiequet "Jack" Hilgard (July 25, 1904 - October 22, 2001) was an American psychologist, professor at Stanford university, who became famous in the 1950s for his research on hypnosis
, especially with regard to pain control. Along with André Muller Weitzenhoffer
, Hilgard developed the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scales from the 1950s onwards.
, Illinois
, Ernest Ropiequet Hilgard was the son of a physician, Dr. George Engelmann Hilgard. Engineering was what originally attracted Hilgard; he received a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Illinois in 1924. He then chose to study psychology, and he went to Yale, where he received a Ph.D. in 1930. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
in 1958. In 1984 Hilgard was awarded the NAS Award for Scientific Reviewing from the National Academy of Sciences
.
he be brought out of the hypnotically-induced period of deafness. On being‘‘awakened,’’ the student said that he had requested to come out of the trance state because ‘‘I felt my finger rise in a way that was not a spontaneous twitch, so you must have done something to make it rise, and
I want to know what you did’’ (p. 186). The hypnotist then asked him what he remembered. Because the trance was light, the student never actually lost consciousness; all that occurred was that his hearing had ceased. In order to deal with the boredom of being deprived of both sight and sound,he had decided to work on some statistical problems in his head. It was while he was doing this that he suddenly felt his finger lift. This was obviously strange to him, because under normal circumstances he was, like all of us, the ‘‘person’’ who decides on how the body moves. In this case he was not. Not only that, but ‘‘somebody else’’ in his head was responding to
an external request that he had not heard. As far as Hilgard was concerned, the person who responded was the ‘‘hidden observer.’’
One of Hilgard’s subjects made the following interesting statement about what she experienced, making particular reference to what she sensed was her higher self: The hidden observer is cognizant of everything that is going on. . . . The hidden observer sees more, he questions more, he’s aware of what is going on all of the time but getting in touch is totally unnecessary. . . .
He’s like a guardian angel
that guards you from doing anything that will mess you up. . . . The hidden observer is looking through the tunnel, and sees everything in the tunnel. . . . Unless someone tells me to get in touch with the hidden observer I’m not in contact. It’s just there. (Hilgard, 1977, p. 210) The hidden observer protects us from doing anything in hypnosis that we would not do under any circumstance consciously, such as causing someone else physical harm.
This idea of the basic duality of human personality is culturally and historically almost universal. The ancient Chinese
called these two independent consciousnesses hun and po
, the ancient Egyptians
the ka and the ba, and the ancient Greeks
the Daemon and the Eidolon. In each case, the two entities shared their senses and perceptions of the external world but interpreted those perceptions with regard to their own history, knowledge, and personality. For the Greeks
, the relationship was an unequal one. The higher self, the Daemon, acted as a form of guardian angel
or higher self over its lower self, the Eidolon. The Stoic
philosopher Epictetus
wrote: God
has placed at every man’s side a guardian, the Daemon of each man, who is charged to watch over him; a Daemon that cannot sleep, nor be deceived. To what greater and more watchful guardian could He have
entrusted each of us? So, when you have shut the doors, and made darkness in the house, remember, never to say that you are alone; for you are not alone. But God
is there, and your Daemon is there (Epictetus
, 1998/2nd century, 14:11) The belief was that the Daemon had foreknowledge of future circumstances and events and as such could warn its Eidolon of the dangers. It was as if in some way the Daemon had already lived the life of its Eidolon.
, a colleague of Hilgard’s in the Stanford University Psychology Department. The third, published in 1953, was the well written and wide-ranging “Introduction to Psychology” which was, according to his biography on the website of the American Psychological Association, “for a long period, the most widely used introductory psychology text in the world.”
Several editions were co-authored by Rita L. Atkinson and/or Richard C. Atkinson
(another colleague at Stanford and later Chancellor of the University of California at San Diego and then President and Regent of the University of California). The 15th edition, published in 2009, is called “Atkinson and Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology”.
Hypnosis
Hypnosis is "a trance state characterized by extreme suggestibility, relaxation and heightened imagination."It is a mental state or imaginative role-enactment . It is usually induced by a procedure known as a hypnotic induction, which is commonly composed of a long series of preliminary...
, especially with regard to pain control. Along with André Muller Weitzenhoffer
André Muller Weitzenhoffer
André Muller Weitzenhoffer was one of the most prolific researchers in the field of hypnosis in the latter half of the 20th century, having authored over 100 publications between 1949 and 2004...
, Hilgard developed the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scales from the 1950s onwards.
Biography
Born in BellevilleBelleville, Illinois
Belleville is a city in St. Clair County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city has a population of 44,478. It is the eighth-most populated city outside of the Chicago Metropolitan Area and the most populated city south of Springfield in the state of Illinois. It is the county...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, Ernest Ropiequet Hilgard was the son of a physician, Dr. George Engelmann Hilgard. Engineering was what originally attracted Hilgard; he received a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Illinois in 1924. He then chose to study psychology, and he went to Yale, where he received a Ph.D. in 1930. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
in 1958. In 1984 Hilgard was awarded the NAS Award for Scientific Reviewing from the National Academy of Sciences
United States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
.
Hypnosis
Hilgard is specifically known for his theory that a so-called "hidden observer" is created in the mind while hypnosis is taking place. His research on the hidden observer during hypnotic pain management was intended provided support for his neodissociationist theory, which held that a person undergoing hypnosis can still observe his/her own pain without consciously experiencing any suffering. The phenomenon of the "hidden observer" was controversial and critics claimed it could be manufactured by suggestions, indicating that it was possibly no more than an artifact of the instructions given to the research participants [citation or elaboration needed]. Writing in the late 1970s (Hilgard, E. (1977). Divided consciousness: Multiple controls in human thought and action. New York, NY: Wiley), Ernest Hilgard became convinced that we all have another being sharing our lives. Hilgard termed this entity the ‘‘hidden observer.’’ In one of his books, Hilgard described a classic test of how this hidden entity is part of our consciousness. He wrote of a blind student who was hypnotized and, while in a trance state, was told that he would become deaf. The suggestion was so strong that he failed to react to any form of noise, even large sounds next to his ear. Of course, he also failed to respond to any questions he was asked while in his trance state. The hypnotist was keen to discover if ‘‘anybody else’’ was able to hear. He quietly said to the student, ‘‘Perhaps there is some part of you that is hearing my voice and processing the information. If there is, I should like the index finger of your right hand to rise as a sign that this is the case’’(Hilgard, 1977, p. 186). The finger rose. At this, the student requested thathe be brought out of the hypnotically-induced period of deafness. On being‘‘awakened,’’ the student said that he had requested to come out of the trance state because ‘‘I felt my finger rise in a way that was not a spontaneous twitch, so you must have done something to make it rise, and
I want to know what you did’’ (p. 186). The hypnotist then asked him what he remembered. Because the trance was light, the student never actually lost consciousness; all that occurred was that his hearing had ceased. In order to deal with the boredom of being deprived of both sight and sound,he had decided to work on some statistical problems in his head. It was while he was doing this that he suddenly felt his finger lift. This was obviously strange to him, because under normal circumstances he was, like all of us, the ‘‘person’’ who decides on how the body moves. In this case he was not. Not only that, but ‘‘somebody else’’ in his head was responding to
an external request that he had not heard. As far as Hilgard was concerned, the person who responded was the ‘‘hidden observer.’’
One of Hilgard’s subjects made the following interesting statement about what she experienced, making particular reference to what she sensed was her higher self: The hidden observer is cognizant of everything that is going on. . . . The hidden observer sees more, he questions more, he’s aware of what is going on all of the time but getting in touch is totally unnecessary. . . .
He’s like a guardian angel
Guardian angel
A guardian angel is an angel assigned to protect and guide a particular person or group. Belief in guardian angels can be traced throughout all antiquity...
that guards you from doing anything that will mess you up. . . . The hidden observer is looking through the tunnel, and sees everything in the tunnel. . . . Unless someone tells me to get in touch with the hidden observer I’m not in contact. It’s just there. (Hilgard, 1977, p. 210) The hidden observer protects us from doing anything in hypnosis that we would not do under any circumstance consciously, such as causing someone else physical harm.
This idea of the basic duality of human personality is culturally and historically almost universal. The ancient Chinese
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
called these two independent consciousnesses hun and po
Hun and po
Hun and po are types of souls in Chinese philosophy and religion. Within this ancient soul dualism tradition, every living human has both a hun spiritual, ethereal, and yang soul that leaves the body after death and a po corporeal, substantive, and yin soul that remains with the corpse...
, the ancient Egyptians
Egyptians
Egyptians are nation an ethnic group made up of Mediterranean North Africans, the indigenous people of Egypt.Egyptian identity is closely tied to geography. The population of Egypt is concentrated in the lower Nile Valley, the small strip of cultivable land stretching from the First Cataract to...
the ka and the ba, and the ancient Greeks
Greeks
The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....
the Daemon and the Eidolon. In each case, the two entities shared their senses and perceptions of the external world but interpreted those perceptions with regard to their own history, knowledge, and personality. For the Greeks
Greeks
The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....
, the relationship was an unequal one. The higher self, the Daemon, acted as a form of guardian angel
Guardian angel
A guardian angel is an angel assigned to protect and guide a particular person or group. Belief in guardian angels can be traced throughout all antiquity...
or higher self over its lower self, the Eidolon. The Stoic
STOIC
STOIC was a variant of Forth.It started out at the MIT and Harvard Biomedical Engineering Centre in Boston, and was written in the mid 1970s by Jonathan Sachs...
philosopher Epictetus
Epictetus
Epictetus was a Greek sage and Stoic philosopher. He was born a slave at Hierapolis, Phrygia , and lived in Rome until banishment when he went to Nicopolis in northwestern Greece where he lived the rest of his life. His teachings were noted down and published by his pupil Arrian in his Discourses...
wrote: God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
has placed at every man’s side a guardian, the Daemon of each man, who is charged to watch over him; a Daemon that cannot sleep, nor be deceived. To what greater and more watchful guardian could He have
entrusted each of us? So, when you have shut the doors, and made darkness in the house, remember, never to say that you are alone; for you are not alone. But God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
is there, and your Daemon is there (Epictetus
Epictetus
Epictetus was a Greek sage and Stoic philosopher. He was born a slave at Hierapolis, Phrygia , and lived in Rome until banishment when he went to Nicopolis in northwestern Greece where he lived the rest of his life. His teachings were noted down and published by his pupil Arrian in his Discourses...
, 1998/2nd century, 14:11) The belief was that the Daemon had foreknowledge of future circumstances and events and as such could warn its Eidolon of the dangers. It was as if in some way the Daemon had already lived the life of its Eidolon.
Textbooks
Hilgard was also the author of three hugely influential textbooks on topics other than hypnosis. The first, “Conditioning and Learning”, jointly authored with Donald Marquis, was very widely cited up until the 1960’s, and when Gregory Kimble updated a second edition in 1961, Hilgard and Marquis’s names were made part of the title, a distinction, as Hilgard himself noted, usually reserved for deceased authors. A second text, “Theories of Learning”, first published in 1948, was also widely cited, and lasted for 5 editions, the last three (the fifth was published in 1981) with the involvement of Gordon H. BowerGordon H. Bower
Gordon H. Bower is a cognitive psychologist studying human memory, language comprehension, emotion, and behavior modification. He received his Ph.D. in learning theory from Yale University in 1959. He currently holds the A. R. Lang Emeritus Professorship at Stanford University...
, a colleague of Hilgard’s in the Stanford University Psychology Department. The third, published in 1953, was the well written and wide-ranging “Introduction to Psychology” which was, according to his biography on the website of the American Psychological Association, “for a long period, the most widely used introductory psychology text in the world.”
Several editions were co-authored by Rita L. Atkinson and/or Richard C. Atkinson
Richard C. Atkinson
Richard Chatham Atkinson is an American professor of psychology and academic administrator. He is the former president and regent of the University of California system, and former chancellor of U.C...
(another colleague at Stanford and later Chancellor of the University of California at San Diego and then President and Regent of the University of California). The 15th edition, published in 2009, is called “Atkinson and Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology”.
External links
- http://slick.org/deathwatch/mailarchive/msg00383.html
- http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_g2699/is_0004/ai_2699000497
- http://garfield.library.upenn.edu/classics1988/A1988M802100001.pdf
- http://www.garfield.library.upenn.edu/classics1984/A1984SW51700001.pdf
- http://www.apa.org/about/archives/presidents/bio-ernest-hilgard.aspx