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Copyright © 1999 FleetWatch magazine and FleetWatch On-Line. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the prior written permission from the publishers. Views published are not necessarily those of the publishers. |
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August 1999
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The violence sweeping across southern Africa in the form of crime has left many in the transport industry – from hijacked drivers to senior executives assaulted in their driveways - mentally scarred by their horrific experiences. Hidden in the recesses of the mind of many of these people are the memories and fears that haunt after any traumatic experience. What do you do when the horror of a violent incident keeps repeating itself and you can go nowhere without fearing that it will happen again? Are you such a person? If you are, hypnosis may be the answer for despite the caution that must be exercised, hypnosis is becoming more widely used in South Africa not only for personal recovery but also in police and insurance work. For the transport industry, with its record of shootings, hijackings and inside jobs, hypnosis is a tool of reconstruction and one possible route towards finding out the truth. FleetWatch correspondent, Graeme Addison, spoke to a special kind of psychologist who treats trauma victims and, in the course of her work with the human mind, also helps police to solve cases. He was not expecting trouble that Friday afternoon: it was a normal payday. But of course, this was Gauteng. As the owner/manager of a smallish transport enterprise operating quite a few trucks, he knew better than most that where there is money, there is crime - and where there is crime, there is firepower, blood, and death. He drew the cash in fat wads, and standing at the bank counter, forced it into the moonbag on his waist. It was a tight squeeze because he carried a .38 handgun in the same bag. He always took a different route back to the office on Fridays and always at a different time. This time he went somewhat out of his normal way and stopped at a garage with a very open forecourt, his eyes scanning the entrance and exits for any sign of trouble. None. He relaxed and got out of the car. Where they came from he couldn’t say but suddenly there was a gun in his back and the hooded robber, one of three who had tumbled out of a white minivan, made a grab for the moonbag. Garage attendants, he noticed, had scattered. He had practised this move many times with his eyes closed. The thumb forced the zip open and the fingers dived into the pouch to grip the handgun and unclick the safety, all in one movement. His wife had begged him never to do this but he couldn’t stop himself and the rage that surged through him drove him to a kind of madness. He was dropping already, preparatory to rolling, when the first bullet hit him in the neck and the second slammed into his shoulder. He got off two shots himself and thought he saw the robber’s leg jerk sideways; then the thieves ran for it without the moonbag; the minivan screeched away, and he lay there in his own warm, pulsing blood, totally alone, regretting, wishing, hating and regretting. Madness, madness. He saw the faces of his wife and 12-year-old son leaning over him with expressions that said he was cold and dead. This could not be, the warm blood was spreading under his back, he could feel it. But where were they? Where was everybody? Why was he so alone, left to die lying on the concrete with the smell of petrol up his nostrils and the unquenched hatred of the criminals eating his soul…why did nobody come? Hatred, regret, loneliness. Typical abreaction "We call it an abreaction," says Dr Louise Olivier, the Pretoria hypnotherapist who has treated many cases of post-traumatic stress in victims of crimes and road accidents. For ethical reasons, the identity and details of hypnosis patients in this article cannot be revealed. "Basically, anyone who is assaulted or shot suffers from anger, a typical abreaction. A person who lies shot feels like the loneliest person in the world. Later he will remember the feelings – obviously, only if helpers did manage to get him to hospital and save his life, but the despair and the fear have sunk in. "Our task in hypnotherapy is to deal with the abreaction. In about four hypnosis sessions, I try get the patient to verbalise the anger, loneliness and despair that he felt as he thought his life was ebbing away. The object is to bring the experience out of the subconscious and get the patient to recognise and come to terms with what he felt. This is called cognitive restructuring. The patient rebuilds his confidence. It entails telling the unconscious mind that you didn’t die - that you are safe and have nothing to worry about." Hypnotherapy is not a cure-all and Dr Olivier is the first to stress this. As a psychoanalyst who later qualified in hypnotherapy while studying in America, she is currently president of the South African Society of Clinical Hypnosis (SASCH) and runs a busy practice at Moreletapark in the east of Pretoria. Amusingly, Dr Olivier notes that among her patients are sportsmen and women who come to her for performance-enhancement and would not like their competitors to know what is going on. But in general, because hypnosis is deeply personal and plumbs the subconscious mind, people are sensitive about having their secrets revealed. Dr Olivier’s consulting rooms are a mecca for patients of all ages with all kinds of psychological problems, ranging from sexual hang-ups in adults to potty training in small children. She is, however, renowned for treating trauma victims and also for her work with the police and insurance companies in so-called forensic hypnosis. In forensic hypnosis, witnesses try to recall details of crimes or accidents which their conscious minds have suppressed. In some cases, witnesses have been able to remember the number plates of hit-and-run drivers, or call to mind the faces of people who attacked them and so help to compile identikits. Not a truth drug "Louise Olivier is the South African expert in the field of forensics," says Dr Jules Leeb, a gynaecologist who has also qualified as a hypnotherapist and is a member of the 500-strong SASCH. "I often have lawyers phoning me to put someone under hypnosis in order to find out what happened in a crime. But we must understand that hypnosis is not a truth drug. What a person reveals under hypnosis," says Leeb, "is what he or she wants to reveal. You can lie and confabulate under hypnosis, because a person will do anything to defend himself including distort what actually happened." Dr Olivier agrees and in her experience of witness cases, has become well aware of what is called "false memory syndrome". A person may think they are remembering something but the memory may turn out to be incorrect. And in any case, two people will have different memories of the same episode. This is why South African courts require corroborating evidence to back up case information produced under hypnosis. Dr Olivier cites court rulings that the so-called 'Orne safeguards' must be applied when testimony based on hypnosis is presented. Martin Orne, an American psychiatric researcher, drew up a set of safeguards that courts apply. These include
Despite the caution that must be exercised, hypnosis is becoming more widely used in police and insurance work in South Africa. For the transport industry in South Africa, with its record of shootings, hijackings, mysterious gang attacks and inside jobs, hypnosis is a tool of reconstruction and one possible route towards finding out the truth. It is increasingly being used in the United States and other Western countries because it offers a direct means of accessing memories that are otherwise clouded by fear or mental confusion. A leading American proponent of the method is Paul B Kincade, a retired US Navy lieutenant commander, police advisor, jurist, reserve deputy sheriff and certified medical hypnotist. Kincade, who corresponded with FleetWatch during research for this article, is the immediate past president for nine terms of the International Society for Investigative and Forensic Hypnosis. "You are quite correct that hypnosis can help a crime victim or witness to retrieve repressed information that might well solve a case," he told me. "When a person has a traumatic experience, they have an involuntary amnesia as a protective device. While they may not have a conscious memory of some or all of the event, it is also filed away, without any alteration, at the subconscious level and can be recalled via hypnosis." Source of new information However, Kincade warns, the details so recalled may not be as clear as a car registration number. The retrieved memory may comprise sense-impressions and feelings and be "a lot more perceptual, rather than factual." But all the same, it is a source of new information that the investigators must find hard evidence to support. An example would be recalling the colour of a hijack vehicle along with a letter or two of the registration plate. This might be enough to identify the vehicle in the licence database or prompt other witnesses to come forward with information about the route taken by the vehicle. What exactly is hypnosis? It is not fully explained in any medical literature, where theories abound. Specialists like Dr Olivier describe it as an altered state of consciousness which is neither sleeping nor waking. It dissociates the mind from the body. An amazing example of this took place in Witbank recently where Dominee Peter Harris had a gall-bladder operation under hypnosis. A hypnotist himself, he has what is called a "good talent" for suggestibility, the ability to fall into a deep trance. With Dr Olivier to induce the trance, he went into a deep dissociative state to control his pain. Harris remained conscious while the surgeon made incisions in his abdomen. Only his relaxed breathing caused a problem, as the gall-bladder was moving, and he was put under drugged anaesthetic to complete the operation. Hypnosis has been suggested as the answer to all of life’s problems, from seducing a girl into bed to curing cancer. Until recently, it was a popular stage act – "Hysterical Hypnosis" kept theatre audiences amused as subjects barked like dogs or tried to behave like speedboats – but in 1997 stage hypnosis was outlawed in South Africa. An amendment to the Medical and Dental Supplementary Service Professions Act was passed, making it a crime punishable by a fine or imprisonment for anyone to practice hypnosis illegally. Only medical professionals, psychiatrists, dentists and psychologists may perform hypnotherapy. People are advised to contact SASCH, which counts 500 qualified hypnotherapists as members (see end of article). Similar limitations are coming into effect in other countries but in spite of these moves towards greater professionalism, the courts and some pressure groups are still wary of hypnotism. The trend in America is described by Paul Kincade. Hypnotic investigative unit In 1997 the chief psychologist of the Los Angeles Police Department, Dr Martin Reiser, trained ten lieutenants and captains in forensic hypnosis, creating the first hypnotic investigative unit in the US and probably in the world. The group then reviewed 750 unsolved major crimes and brought in victims and witnesses who were willing to be testified. "They obtained new information in something like 85% of the cases and got convictions in around 67% of them," says Kincade. But the long term outcome has been somewhat negative: "Because hypnosis is so effective in obtaining new information, it has become the target of the American Civil Liberties Union and as a result, a large number of state courts have ruled against the use of hypnosis-refreshed recall in testimony." Today, some states permit it, some don’t and some have yet to consider it. A major reverse came in a 1982 ruling by the California Supreme Court that any person who had been hypnotised during a criminal investigation would be considered "impervious to cross-examination" and could therefore not testify. A court later reviewed this ruling and decided it deprived defendants – those in the dock – of their constitutional rights, so they were exempted. "Thus, in that state, it’s all right for a crook to be hypnotised to prepare a defence and still testify but it’s not alright for the poor victim," Kincade told me. South Africa is nowhere near this situation as yet – but it could come if there is a test case before the High Court and lawyers take their complaints to the Constitutional Court. Police are routinely using hypnosis in rape cases to calm the victims and get them to remember what their conscious minds have hidden as too ugly to face. Various community policing units have created trauma sections where psychologists offer victims of violent crimes assistance and support from immediately after the ordeal through to the final court appearance. Because a case can be made that this amounts to "messing with memories" it stands open to legal challenge. Dr Louise Olivier, however, believes that clinical hypnosis has a bright future in South Africa. She cites the example of how Middelburg, Mpumalanga, police used hypnosis on the sister of a 9-year-old Springs boy who had gone missing from the back of a bakkie in the Laersdrif area. Mpumalanga police spokesman Captain Izak van Zyl said the regressive hypnosis sessions with Santie Matthysen, 12, were conducted with the full sanction of her parents. "By hypnotising the sister, the police were able to establish that boy had wandered off. He was killed by a hyena," said Dr Olivier. This may be an unexplored area on the local South African front, but anything that can help the police with their investigations - or help to restore mental balance and confidence to the victims - is a boon in these times. Going into a trance may sound like a cop-out but it’s a realistic option. Editor's Note: SASCH has a website at www.sasch.co.za, or telephone 012 807-5426, email sasch@cis.co.za. FleetWatch readers are welcome to contact Sasch for the names of registered professionals. Alternative Articles |
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