Ernest Hilgard

Ernest Ropiequet Hilgard, known as Jack (1904 to 2001), was an American psychologist and professor at Stanford University who became famous in the 1950s for his research on hypnosis, especially in relation to pain control. With Andre Muller Weitzenhoffer he developed the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scales. Born in Belleville, Illinois, the son of a physician, he first studied chemical engineering at the University of Illinois and then took a Ph.D. in psychology at Yale in 1930. He is specifically known for his neodissociation theory and the idea of a hidden observer, a part of the mind that can register pain during hypnosis even when the person reports no suffering. The phenomenon was controversial, and critics claimed it might be an artifact of the instructions given to participants. A 2002 survey ranked him the 29th most cited psychologist of the twentieth century. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1958 and to the American Philosophical Society in 1969, and died in Palo Alto, California, aged 97.