Electrical Skin Resistance During Hypnosis

The great increase of the electrical resistance of the skin during normal sleep (as shown by Richter 1 ) suggested the possibility of analogous changes during hypnosis. In some respects, the analogy between sleep and hypnosis is obvious. The subject is usually relaxed, his eyes gradually close, he shows little spontaneous overt activity, and he does not react to most of the environmental stimuli to which he would react in the waking state. Further, the physician frequently uses the phrase falling asleep during the period of induction. A survey of the literature does not reveal any studies of the sort reported in the present paper. There are isolated reports of records of the psychogalvanic reflex in hypnotized subjects, such as those of Moravcsik, 2 Georgi, 3 Gregor, 4 Prideaux, 5 Peiper, 6 and Prince and Peterson, 7 All of these, however, are studies of the psychogalvanic reflex, that is, of the