The enhancement of memory by hypnosis in the legal investigative situation.

The increasing use of hypnosis on North America to enhance or refresh the memories of victims and witnesses of crime is creating concern, both within the professional hypnosis societies and within the legal profession. The authors review current positions on the issue and survey clinical and experimental data bearing on the efficacy of hypnosis as a means of memory enhancement. The 2 main problems associated with the use of hypnosis in the legal investigative context—confabulation and the creation of pseudo-memories—are discussed, with particular reference to the demand characteristics of the investigative context. Some recent court cases where confabulation was demonstrated unequivocally and several recent American state supreme court rulings are presented. The need for stringent safeguards proposed by M. T. Orne (1978) is discussed, and the relevance of the American experience of the past 15 yrs to the Canadian context is emphasized. (French abstract) (49 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)