In this part of our new series, Unconscious Processes and Dissociation, we are looking at dissociation as it occurs in hypnosis.
Dissociation in hypnosis refers to a mental state in which the client’s mind becomes compartmentalised. Thoughts, sensations, actions, or memories can operate outside of normal conscious awareness. In this state, the client may no longer feel as though they are consciously directing their own thoughts or experiences. Psychological theory describes this as involving a kind of central “executive control” system in the mind that can be divided by suggestion, with an amnesic barrier preventing some parts of the system from reporting their activity to conscious awareness.
Because of this, hypnotic suggestions can bypass a person’s usual voluntary control and directly influence movement, perception, memory and fixed ideas. At the same time, another part of the mind may still be registering what is happening, even if the person is not consciously aware of it.
The dissociative process
This dissociative process is essential to how suggestion works in hypnosis. When clients become dissociated from their own thoughts, their self-awareness is reduced and they feel removed from their everyday thinking patterns. As a result, they may experience a movement, a change in sensation, or a gap in memory as something that “just happens” to them, even though it is actually produced by their own brain responding to suggestion. This is the process behind many clients describing hypnosis as magical, miraculous, or simply very powerful. When properly guided by an experienced hypnotherapist, dissociation can be used effectively for pain control, habit change, reducing unhelpful mental states such as anxiety, and strengthening helpful ones such as confidence.
Important theories of dissociation
One of the most influential theories comes from Ernest R. Hilgard. He proposed that hypnosis works by splitting consciousness into separate streams, so that some mental processes operate outside a person’s conscious awareness. Hilgard argued that what we experience as a single, unified consciousness is actually made up of multiple control systems, which can become dissociated, particularly under hypnosis.
During hypnosis, executive control over attention, perception, and action can divide so that one stream of awareness follows hypnotic suggestions, while another monitors events in the background. Hilgard famously proposed the idea of a “hidden observer” – a part of the mind that remains aware of experiences such as pain, even when the hypnotised person consciously reports not feeling them. In experiments on hypnotic pain control, subjects reported little or no pain. However, when the hidden observer was addressed directly, they gave much higher pain ratings. This suggested that awareness of pain was still present but dissociated from conscious experience.
Hilgard viewed hypnosis as an experimentally accessible form of dissociation, related in principle (though not identical) to everyday experiences like mind-wandering, divided attention, and certain dissociative disorders. His work challenged the idea of a single, unified self by showing that multiple streams of awareness can operate in parallel.
Another important approach is dissociated control theory. This model suggests that hypnosis weakens the brain’s usual top-down control from the frontal regions over automatic mental processes. As a result, suggestions from a hypnotherapist can directly trigger behaviour with much less conscious oversight. This creates the characteristic hypnotic feeling that actions are happening involuntarily.
The psychologist Stephen Bowers developed dissociated control theory as an updated version of Hilgard’s ideas, rather than proposing a completely separate theory. Bowers argued that in hypnosis can disconnect higher-level executive control from lower-level automatic systems that guide behaviour. Because of this disconnection, hypnotic suggestions can directly trigger actions, making them feel involuntary even though the person’s underlying cognitive abilities remain intact.
Uses of dissociation
Dissociation helps explain many classic hypnotic effects, such as pain relief, automatic movements, and post-hypnotic amnesia. For example, in hypnotic analgesia, the systems that process pain continue to function, but awareness of the pain – or its emotional meaning – is split off from conscious experience. The person reports little or no pain, even though their body may still show physiological responses. Similarly, in suggested paralysis or anaesthesia, motor or sensory abilities are still present, but conscious access to them is blocked. This can mimic neurological symptoms, not because of physical brain damage, but because of dissociation.
In hypnotherapy, dissociation can be used therapeutically, for example to separate overwhelming emotions from traumatic memories or to manage pain. At the same time, it also provides a useful model for understanding how certain psychological symptoms arise from divided awareness and control. Dissociation-focused theories differ from socio-cognitive approaches, which emphasise expectations and social roles. However, contemporary views now integrate both perspectives, seeing hypnosis as guided suggestion working on a mind that is capable of temporarily reorganising and compartmentalising its own processes.
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I hope this has helped clarify these issues—and perhaps inspired curiosity for further exploration. If you’d like me to cover a particular topic or expand on any aspect, please feel free to get in contact.
Coming Next
In the last post of this series on Unconscious Processes and Dissociation, we’ll look at: Accessing and Working with non-verbally Encoded Information