Author Biography
Milton V. Kline, Ph.D., conceived the idea of publishing the three texts contained in The Roots of Modern Hypnosis as a single volume. Dr. Kline’s goal was to choose three representative works, each of which illustrated the state of hypnosis at the time in which it was written, and then to unite them. Read in sequence, these manuscripts provide a clear, fascinating, timely and relevant explication of the evolution of modern hypnosis from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries. Before his death in 2004, Dr. Kline was planning a follow-up publication, to be a conceptual and clinical review and analysis of progress in therapeutic hypnosis from the mid-twentieth century to the present.
Dr. Kline edited the three texts contained in The Roots of Modern Hypnosis. He also contributed a new introduction to these works, written especially for this edition.
Dr. Kline was well-qualified to head this project. He was widely acknowledged to be one of today’s foremost experts on medical, psychological, clinical, therapeutic and experimental hypnotherapy and hypnoanalysis. He had more than 50 years of experience in using, teaching and conducting research in hypnosis, and his honors were worldwide.
A clinical psychologist licensed by New York State, Dr. Kline was in private practice in New York City. He specialized in traumatic stress disorders, clinical hypnosis, psychotherapy and neuropsychology, and he was a Diplomate in Forensic Medicine.
Dr. Kline was also the director of the Institute for Research in Hypnosis and Psychotherapy (IRH), which was founded in 1954. The clinical arm of IRH, The Morton Prince Mental Health Center, was founded soon afterward. The Institute and the Mental Health Center were the oldest nonprofit hypnotherapy organizations in the United States; both were chartered by the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York.
In addition, Dr. Kline was the Director of the American office of the International Society for Medical and Psychological Hypnosis, which is based both in Milano, Italy and in New York City. He was a Visiting Professor of Psychology and Hypnosis at the New School of Medicine in Milano.
Throughout his career, Dr. Kline dedicated himself to: the scientific study and validation of hypnosis as an effective treatment modality for physical, psychological and psychosomatic disorders; the dissemination of information on clinical and experimental hypnotherapy and hypnoanalysis to physicians, psychotherapists, clinicians and the general populace; and the promotion of public access to medical and psychological hypnosis.
To that end, Dr. Kline served as an Advisor to The Council on Mental Health of the American Medical Association (AMA) during its historic deliberation on scientific hypnosis. The evidence which he provided to the Council was integral to the subsequent AMA endorsement of hypnotherapy as scientifically sound, both as a method of treatment and as a research tool.
Dr. Kline was consistently at the forefront of organizations concerned with hypnosis and psychotherapy. He was a Past President of the Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, and a Fellow of both the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Association of Orthopsychiatry.
Dr. Kline made vast contributions to the advancement of hypnosis through the publication of his books, papers and journals. He was the Founding Editor of the International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, of which he is now listed as Editor Emeritus. He was also the Founding Editor of the Journal of Clinical Hypnotherapy and Hypnoanalysis, which was scheduled to be activated by IRH as an on-line journal on its Web site (www.hypnosis-institute.org).
Among the many books published by Dr. Kline are numerous volumes which relate directly to hypnosis. He edited The Nature of Hypnosis, one of the three volumes contained in The Roots of Modern Hypnosis. Other books written by Dr. Kline on various aspects of hypnosis include:
* Freud and Hypnosis: The Interaction of Psychodynamics and Hypnosis
* A Scientific Report on “The Search for Bridey Murphy”
* Obesity: Strategy, Treatment and Management
* Forensic Hypnosis
* Clinical Correlations of Experimental Hypnosis
* Psychodynamics and Hypnosis
* Short-Term Hypnotherapy and Hypnoanalysis
Over 60 of Dr. Kline’s publications in the professional journals which relate to hypnosis, from 1950 to the present, may be found in the SCEH Scientific Hypnosis Database (www.hypnosis-research.org). They include:
* Hypnosis and Behavior Therapy
* Temporal Alteration through Hypnosis and Psychotherapy
* Hypnotherapy: The Therapist’s Handbook
* The Induction of Hypnosis: Special Clinical Issues in Patient Management
* Aspects of Multiple Personality Disorders: Clinical Issues in Psychotherapy
* An Instrument for the Measurement of Sleep Induction (with J. Dittborn)
* Previous Psychotherapy Among Hypnotherapy Applicants (with Peter Field)
* Hypnotic Age Regression and Intelligence
* A Measure of Mental Masculinity and Femininity in Relation to Hypnotic Age Progression
* Hypnosis and Age Progression: A Case Report
* Hypnosis and Diagnostic Psychological Testing
* The Application of Hypnosis to Nondirective Psychotherapy
* A Note on Primate-Like Behavior Induced through Hypnosis: A Case Report
* An Outline of the Nature of Some Sexual Reactions to the Introduction of Hypnosis
* Visual Imagery and a Case of Experimental Hypnotherapy
* A Visual Imagery Technique for the Induction of Hypnosis in Certain Refractory Subjects
* A Hypnotic Experimental Approach to the Genesis of Occupational Interests and Choice: II and III
* The Thematic Apperception Test (A Case Report)
* Childhood Fears in Relation to Hypnotic Age Regression: A Case Report
* Delimited Hypnotherapy: The Acceptance of Resistance in the Treatment of a Long-Standing Neurodermatitis with a Sensory Imagery Technique
* Freud and Hypnosis: A Critical Evaluation
* Freud and Hypnosis II: Further Observations on Resistance and Acceptance
* Freud and Hypnosis: A Re-evaluation
* Hypnotic Retrogression: A Neuropsychological Theory of Age Regression and Progression
* Toward a Theoretical Understanding of the Nature of Resistance to the Induction of Hypnosis and Depth Hypnosis
* Living Out “Future” Experience Under Hypnosis
* Psoriasis and Hypnotherapy: A Case Report
* Hypnodiagnosis with a Visual-Imagery Induction and Modification of the House-Tree-Person and Thematic Apperception Tests
* Hypnodynamic Psychology
* Hypnotherapy Symptom Control by Direct Suggestion Including the Use of Pain
* Hypnosis in Dental Medicine: Educational and Clinical Considerations
* The Dynamics of Hypnotically-Induced Anti-Social Behavior
* Hypnotic Age Regression and Psychotherapy: Clinical and Theoretical
* The Value and Limitation of Hypnosis in Psychotherapy: Two Clinical Illustrations
* Hypnotic Age Regression: Some Dynamic Considerations in Relation to its Validity as a Research Technique
* The Reinforcement of Hypnotically-Induced Responses through Age Regression and Age Regression Dreams
* Hypnotic Amnesia in Psychotherapy
* Clinical Interpretation in Hypnoanalysis
* Sensory Hypnoanalysis
* The Role of Desensitization and Homeostasis in Relation to the Therapeutic Gain Derived from Hypnotherapy
* The Use of Extended Group Hypnotherapy Sessions in Controlling Cigarette Habituation
* Research in Hypnotherapy: Studies in Behavior Organization
* The Effect of Hypnosis on Conditionability
* Defending the Mentally Ill: The Insanity Defense and the Role of Forensic Hypnosis
* Multiple Personality: Facts and Artifacts in Relation to Hypnotherapy
* Hypnosis and Hypnotic Dreaming: A Polygraph Investigation (with R.O. Arthur)
* The Use of a Projective Drawing Technique in the Investigation of Hypnotic Age Regression and Progression (with Henry Guze)
* The Alteration of Oral Temperature through Hypnotic Techniques: I. Pilot Experimentation (with Henry Guze)
* Self-Hypnosis in Childbirth: A Clinical Evaluation of a Patient Conditioning Program (with Henry Guze)
* An Experimental Study of the Nature of Hypnotic Deafness: Effects of Delayed Speech Feedback (with H. Guze and A. Haggerty)
* Hypnotic Age Regression and the Thematic Apperception Test: A Clinical Case Study in Occupational Identification (with A. Haggerty)
* The Annual Review of Hypnosis Literature, Volumes I and II (combined), 1950-51 (with A. Haggerty, B. Gorton and H. Guze)
* Psychodynamic Factors in the Experimental Investigation of Hypnotically-Induced Emotions with Particular Reference to Blood Glucose Measurements (with Morton Lindner)
* Hypnosis in Relation to the Word Association Test (with Jerome Schneck)
* A Control Study Relating to House-Tree-Person Testing and Hypnosis (with Jerome Schneck)
* Clinical Psychiatric Status and Psychological Test Alterations Following Hypnotherapy (with Jerome Schneck)
* Hypnodiagnosis and Evaluation of Therapy in Psychiatry and Clinical Psychology (with Jerome Schneck)
* Hypnotic Scene Visualization and the Word Association Test (with Jerome Schneck)
* The House-Tree-Person and Thematic Apperception Tests in Hypnodiagnostic Studies (with Jerome Schneck)
* The Use of Hypnosis in Evaluating Physiological and Psychological Components of Multiple Sclerosis (with A. Shapiro)
* A Differential Study of Emotional Attitudes Toward Hypnosis with Card 12M of the Thematic Apperception Test (with P. Ventur and B. Kransdorff)
* A University Training Program in Dental Hypnosis (with A. Wald)
* The Effects of Hypnotically-Induced Emotions on Continuous, Uninterrupted Blood Glucose Measurements (with Morton Lindner)
* Hypnotherapy and Therapeutic Education in the Treatment of Obesity: Differential Treatment Factors (with E. Wick and R. Sigman)
Given Dr. Kline’s status and expertise in the field of hypnosis, it is not at all surprising that he was in great demand as a teacher and a lecturer. In addition to his role as director of The Institute for Research in Hypnosis and Psychotherapy, Dr. Kline was a member of the faculty. As well as occupying that position, and his work in Milano, Dr. Kline was formerly Director of Hypnosis Training at the Fairleigh Dickenson University School of Dentistry, and Director of the Clinical Hypnosis Training Program at Seton Hall College of Medicine at the Martland Medical Center. He also helped organize, as well as participated in, The First Modern (1961) International Congress on Hypnosis in New York City.
Among the other institutions at which Dr. Kline had lectured are:
* Maimonides Hospital, Downstate Medical Center, New York City
* New York University, Graduate School of Psychology
* Columbia University, Psychology Department
* University of Texas, Southwestern Medical School
* Plenary Lectures at the International Congresses on Hypnosis and Psychosomatic Medicine (World Health Congress) in Kyoto, Japan; Glasgow, U.K.; and Padua, Italy
* Special Lecture on Hypnosis and Pain, 6th International Imagery Association Conference, San Francisco
* Special Lecture on Hypnosis at Harvard University, the John F. Kennedy School of Government
* Workshop sponsored by Chicago University
* Workshop sponsored by The University of Montreal
* Workshop sponsored by The University of California at Irvine
* Workshop sponsored by The University of California at Los Angeles
* Symposium on Hypnosis Research, The University of Kansas, School of Medicine and Graduate School in Psychology
Dr. Kline’s credentials in the areas of hypnotherapy and hypnoanalysis extend even to the arts. He was a former consultant to the Department of Broadcast Standards at NBC on issues relating to hypnosis as portrayed on television. He also served as a consultant in connection with the book, The Manchurian Candidate, and the Broadway show, On a Clear Day, You Can See Forever. Hypnosis is an integral part of the subject matter in both of these works.
