The role of imagery in self-hypnosis: its relationship to personality characteristics and gender.

30 volunteer Ss practiced self-hypnosis for approximately 4 weeks and wrote a record of their experiences in a diary following each session. Imagery produced during self-hypnosis was coded in 2 ways: the imagery was either reality oriented or it was fantastic and had primary process qualities. Levels of imagery production remained virtually the same over a 4-week period. Self-hypnotic imagery was significantly greater for the female Ss than for the male Ss, particularly primary process imagery. Verbal expressivity (measured as the average number of words per page of each S diary) was calculated to control for the effects of verbal production on Ss' imagery scores. When imagery scores were standardized based on verbal expressivity, female Ss still produced significantly more primary process imagery than male Ss. Personality characteristics (assessed by standardized personality inventories) were examined in relation to self-hypnotic imagery. "Impulse Expression" was positively related to primary process imagery for the female Ss. "Outgoingness" was positively related to primary process imagery for the entire sample, but especially for the female Ss.

The relation of self-reports of hypnotic depth in self-hypnosis to hypnotizability and imagery production.

The relationship of self-reports of hypnotic depth obtained during self-hypnosis to hypnotizability and to the kinds of imagery produced during self-hypnosis is investigated. The sample consisted of 22 highly hypnotizable Ss who practiced self-hypnosis in 1-hour daily sessions for 4 weeks and kept daily journals in which they detailed the contents of their self-hypnosis experiences. The journals were coded for imagery production by scoring for both reality-oriented and primary process imagery. Ss had been taught to monitor their hypnotic depth using a slightly revised version of the Extended North Carolina Scale (ENCS) of Tart (1979). Previously, ENCS has been used only with heterohypnotic Ss. The self-reports of depth using ENCS correlated highly with hypnotizability as measured by the Revised Stanford Profile Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility. Form I of Weitzenhoffer and Hilgard (1967) and with imagery production. Results demonstrate that ENCS scores are also a valid indicator of self-hypnotic depth among highly hypnotizable Ss. Furthermore, they indicate that both hetero-hypnotizability and imagery production are related to self-hypnotic depth, but that the association between imagery and hypnotizability is due to their individual relationships to self-hypnotic depth.

Perforation of the normal colon during barium contrast examination.

Two cases of perforation of the normal colon during barium contrast examination are reported. Overdistention of the colon with air and barium contrast examination are reported. Overdistention of the colon with air and barium should be avoided in a patient with a competent ileocecal value. While rare, this complication can be life-threatening.

The use of velour as a vascular prosthesis.

Knitted Dacron cloth fabricated into tubes has gained widespread acceptance as an arterial prosthesis. Continued research and development in the field of vascular prostheses is required because existing materials are not ideal. This paper relates general developments in vascular prosthesis research and focuses on specific results with Dacron velour materials. The nature of the velour surface offers several advantages that are important in designing a more satisfactory prosthesis.