What is Trance Logic?
Trance logic refers to a set of characteristics of mental functioning that are specifically found in ‘deep trance’ phenomena of hypnosis, as opposed to ‘light trance,’ which has not even reliable subjective correlates and cannot really be distinguished from simulation experimentally. These characteristics involve particularly an alteration in language processing. Words, in trance logic, are interpreted much more literally, communication being conveyed by focusing on words themselves rather than ideas. There is also an associated decrease in critical judgement of language being processed, and an increased tolerance for incongruity. It is in some ways as if the subject were like a small child with very limited experience to use in interpreting ideas conveyed by the hypnotist. There also is a shift toward what psychoanalysts call ‘primary process’ thinking, or thinking in terms of images and symbols more than words; an increased availability of affect; and other characteristics that simul
