The Sheriff of a nearby county, before DNA identification was available, urgently requested the assistance as a Forensic Psychiatrist. He wanted a psychiatrist trained in the application of psychiatry to the needs of the law. The Sheriff took his deputy and a young couple to a Board-Certified Forensic Psychiatrist.
“This young woman was raped last night, less than 8 hours ago. The rapist threatened her fiancé at gunpoint, shouting, “Run or die.” The woman was driven several miles away by the rapist. She was seen in the emergency room of the local hospital. She refused hospital admission but she’s in “shock.” Will you hypnotize her in the presence of myself, my deputy, and her fiancé?”
The Forensic Psychiatrist told me hypnosis was explained as a form of focally directed attention. A mental status examination of the woman indicated she was competent to consent to hypnosis. Hand clasp and eye roll tests were positive signs of moderate suggestibility. Relaxation induction was used. Shortly thereafter, the woman was able to tap into her memory and describe the awful experience and specific elements of the location and the perpetrator.
Within 2 weeks, the Sheriff made an arrest.
Hypnosis has been used since days of ancient Egypt. Its name, meaning sleep, is a misnomer. It shares no scientific characteristics with sleep. During hypnosis, a region of the brain called the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex becomes less active. This is the region of the brain that helps us stay vigilant about the external environment. “Hypnosis, also known as hypnotherapy, is a state of altered consciousness where a person is more receptive to suggestion and can focus their attention.
“Hypnosis is similar to sleep, but the person can still access their thoughts, memories, and sensations. It can cause a decrease in heart rate, changes in body temperature, and altered blood flow.
“Hypnosis is used to treat a variety of psychological and medical issues, including pain management, stress reduction, and breaking bad habits. It can also be used during surgery.
“A health care provider guides the person through hypnosis using mental images and verbal repetition.
“Hypnosis is generally safe when performed by a trained professional. However, some people may experience mild side effects like dizziness, headache, drowsiness, or situational anxiety.
“Hypnosis is not a reliable method for memory retrieval. In the 1990s, some therapists used hypnosis to convince patients they had been abused as children, which led to many wrongful accusations.”
It can make you do nothing you would not ordinarily do.
You cannot be hypnotized involuntarily.
Hypnosis is an example of one’s mental status requiring the suspension of critical judgment.
The purpose of this treatise: what is critical judgment and is its suspension virtuous, as some propose, or is the suspension of critical judgment the crack in democracy through which cancel culture is invading and flourishing to our detriment?
“Critical thinking is purposeful, reflective, and careful evaluation of information as a way to improve one’s judgment.” In the Information Age, critical judgment is indispensable.
Critical judgment is the ability to analyze and evaluate something to form a reasoned opinion or decision. It involves objectively judging something to determine its merits and faults.
Critical judgment includes being open-minded and using sound cognitive reasoning. Critical judgment involves examining ideas, statements, or behaviors in a well-reasoned manner.
Critical judgment is different from being judgmental, which is taking a view on something based on personal values.
A person using critical judgment does not accept ideas at face value or believe that there is only one way of thinking about something.
Suspended critical judgment is a cognitive process or a rational state of mind in which one withholds judgments, particularly on the drawing of moral or ethical conclusions. The opposite of suspension of judgment is premature judgement, usually shortened to prejudice.
While prejudgment involves drawing a conclusion or making a judgment before having the information relevant to such a judgment, suspension of judgment involves waiting for pertinent facts before deciding.
Positivism, Relativism, Skepticism, and Postmodernism are examples of philosophies strongly advocating suspension of critical judgment as virtuous. Emphasis in these schools of thought is on the position that the antonym of suspended critical judgment is prejudice.
Absurdly, America was asked to suspend its critical judgment while watching TV news of public buildings set ablaze in protests and told, “We have no problems here.”
Even more absurd, for years America was asked to suspend its critical judgment when told, “Our borders are safe,” but we watched nervously as millions of people illegally entered our southern border.
Honest historians will not record the suspension of critical judgment during first quarter of America’s 21st century as virtuous, but as if it experienced mass hypnosis.
Robert S. Brown, MD, PHD a retired Psychiatrist, Col (Ret) U.S. Army Medical Corps devoted the last decade of his career to treating soldiers at Fort Lee redeploying from combat. He was a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Professor of Education at UVA. His renowned Mental Health course taught the value of exercise for a sound mind.
