Hypnosis
Treatments
The typical uses of hypnotism in fiction concentrate on one of the major abilities of hypnotism. As mentioned in the introduction, hypnotism can be used to:
Recollect knowledge
Take command of a subject
Implant suggestions that the subject will obey while free of the hypnotic trance.
The recollection of knowledge has inspired use in detective fiction, as a tool for witnesses to examine details (such as license plate numbers) that could not be recalled while fully conscious. This appears in many television series, such as Law & Order or Homicide: Life on the Street. In addition, it has been expanded to the notion of remembering "past lives", that is, previous reincarnations of the subject, in such movies as Dead Again.
In real life cases, recollection of knowledge via hypnosis has helped solve many cases, oftentimes corroborating with physical evidence which would have been impossible to obtain otherwise. However, its use on victims of rape or attempted murder to help them jog their memory in identifying an accused has caused controversies including sentences doled out to the wrong person.
This is because the hypnotist might make suggestions that are more likely to be remembered as "truth". Much like a lie detector it is used to glean more information rather than as the smoking gun.
The notion of implanting suggestions is probably the most thoroughly explored; ranging from comedies such as The Naked Gun trilogy to dramas such as The Manchurian Candidate. These films usually center around the concept of brainwashing or mind control. A couple of cases have been recorded where the defence arguing the accused had committed the murder under hypnosis. It was later used as the plot in movies.
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