INVESTIGATIVE ASPECTS OF FORENSIC HYPNOSIS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: STARGATE
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP96-00788R001100300002-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 69
• Document Creation Date: November 4, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 18, 1998
• Sequence Number: 2
• Content Type: RP

Approved For Release 2000/06/07 : G1A-RDP96-007668001100300002=6
FORENSIC HYPNOSIS*
Neil S. Hibler.- Ph.D.
Clinical Psychologist
United States Air Force
Office of Special Investigations
Washington. DC 20332
*Investigative Aspects of Forensic Hypnosis. In A.H. Smith & W.C. Wester II
eEds), Comprehensive Clinical Hypnosis. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott.. in press.
/' CL- '/
Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : CIA-RDP96-00788RO01100300002-6
 Approved For Release, 2000/08/07 : CIA-RDP96-00788RO01100300002-6
INVESTIGATIVE ASPECTS OF FORENSIC HYPNOSIS
Neil S. Hibler, Ph.D.
It appears that each time a new and innovative technique is introduced to
do a job more easily or quickly, it becomes somewhat of a fad. So it seems
with hypnosis in law enforcement. The infectious appeal this technique has
achieved seems reminiscent of many other promising "panaceas" in the
investigative field. Unfortunately, all too often the anticipation with
which new techniques are popularized exceeds their actual realization - and
as'a result, the technique raises question as to its own reliability and
validity.
As described earlier in this chapter, hypnosis is fraught with potential
forensic difficulties arising from its very nature. In hypnosis,
suggestion can easily taint the perceptions of an interviewee, and the
filling in of memories, or confabulations, can easily' occur where an
interviewee's need for closure or an eagerness to please inquirers
overcomes actual memory. Worse yet, because of the compelling genuiness
with which hypontic statements are offered those naive to these serious
limitations would be confident' that information derived from trance was
accurate (Margolin, 1981). Other discussion has focused on interviewees'
confusion over what