You are currently viewing Lecture: What is Hypnosis? A Critical Inquiry in Light of the Scientific Disputes

“There’s no finding the border between acting and hypnotizing” – thus is said in an Israeli verdict in the case of White accused in using hypnosis while violating the law.
If the Israeli law forbids using hypnosis (except of limited cases), and one doesn’t know why actually hypnosis is – how can the law be enforced?!
The lecture deals with the juristic and enforcemental problematicalness in Israel, in light of studying the sceintific discourse that has a “hard time” agreeing on the definition of “hypnosis”.
The lecture took place in the session on “Mental Health – Societal Issues”, at the 19th annual conference of the Israel Society for History and Philosophy of Science, that took place at the Van Leer in Jerusalem on June 16th, 2019. One can dowload the lecture’s (Hebrew) abstract or presentation (there’s no film).
An article similar to this lecture was published in English – see a link in the following.

Lecture shortened abstract:
The Israeli law on hypnosis (1984) is unique in the world, and limiting its permissible use.
Defining hypnosis is obviously basic for indicating commiting the offense of using hypnosis.
The sceintific discourse on the definition of hypnosis is highly controversial.
The suggested definitions by APA changed drastically between 1993, 2003, and 2014. They are different of course from the definition in the Israeli law of 1984.
The lecture focuses on a critical analysis of the gaps between the various definitions, especially in light of the law’s enforcement and the public disputes revolving around it.

Lecturers

Marianna Ruah-Midbar Shapiro
Sharon Warshawski

Links

To download the conference’s program (in Hebrew) – click here.

To download the lecture’s abstract file (in Hebrew) click here.

For the (Hebrew) site of the Israel Society for the History, Philosophy and Sociology of Science – who organized the conference – click here.

For the (Hebrew) Call for Papers inviting proposals for the 19th conference – click here.

Date

June 16th, 2019

Language

Hebrew

Academic/Non-academic

Academic item

Bibliographical citation

One is advised to refer to the relecant article, see links above.

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