HYPNOTIC ANALGESIA - A CONSTRUCTIVIST FRAMEWORK

Hypnotic analgesia remains an enigma. Recent neuroscience studies demo nstrate that widespread distributed processing occurs in the brains of individuals experiencing pain. Emerging research and theory on the me chanisms of consciousness, along with this evidence, suggest that a co nstructivist framework may facilitate both pain research and the study of hypnosis. The authors propose that the brain constructs elements o f pain experience (pain schemata) and embeds them in ongoing conscious ness. The contents of immediate consciousness feed back to nonconsciou s, parallel distributed processes to help shape the character of futur e moments of consciousness. Hypnotic suggestion may interact with such processing through feedback mechanisms that prime associations and me mories and thus shape the formation of future experience.