e hypnotic state as a form of unconscious
regression and need for submission.

The male subject may have a strong, positive identification with his
mother rather than his father. It is part of the unresolved Oedipus
complex. He sees his mother as a kind, loving individual, always ready
to help. Even if the mother did something socially unacceptable, the
individual would defend her vehemently. The father who might do
something wrong would rarely be excused. Just the opposite is true with
the female subject. When asking the female child, "Whose girl are you?",
the answer is invariably, "Daddy's girl." When asking the male child,
"Whose boy are you?", the answer is invariably, "Momma's boy." We accept
this transference of identification as a normal process of growing up.
When it isn't normally resolved, it can account for severe personality
problems. One might assume, therefore, that a woman hypnotist could
better hypnotize a male subject, and a male hypnotist could better
hypnotize a female subject, but this is not true except for cases such
as we have just mentioned.

One school of thought feels that there is a strong submissive tendency
in all of us and hypnosis gratifies this wish. The individual's need for
dependence is also met. In this case, the hypnotist becomes omnipotent,
being able to alter feelings that ordinarily distress the individual.
Normally, adults, when confronted by a particularly upsetting
experience, might want to be held closely by an intimate friend or
member of the family. Don't we frequently put our arm around a friend in
grief trying to comfort him? The inner strength which is created by
hypnosis within the total personality structure of the subject lessens
dependency upon the hypnotist, much in the same fashion that we need the
doctor less as we start to recover from an illness. Self-hypnosis
further lessens dependency for no authoritarian figure is used.

The subject's attitude towards authority is important to know. It is
well-known that officers in the army are more difficult to hypnotize
than noncommissioned men. The enlisted man, by a process of
indoctrination and conditioning, is taught to obey and follow orders
without reasoning. The transference of authority to the hypnotist is
readily accomplished because of this conditioning process. The army
doctor, when treating patients psychologically, replaces his army jacket
with a regular white medical jacket to increase rapport.

One inter