Hypnosis as a Pseudoscience

Pseudoscience by definition is “a claim, practice, or belief, that is presented as scientific but does not adhere to a valid scientific method and cannot be reliably tested.” Now hypnosis and hypnotherapy could be considered a pseudoscience. It is a state of consciousness where a person loses the power of voluntary action and is highly responsive to suggestions or directions. However this form of therapy results in a lot of inaccuracies and is prone to dismiss behaviors or down play any evidence that may contradict original belief. The main goal of a hypnotherapist is to achieve a result and not analyze how and why it occurred. When the claim that a hypnotherapist can help with treatments without an actual understanding on how it affects the issue or problem, results in it becoming a pseudoscience. It lacks sufficient evidence where data can be obtained and investigations can take place to be replicated to achieve similar results, as well as the outcome could have no correlation to the hypnotherapy they went under. Finally, the process of hypnotherapy does not follow the scientific method.

Knowledge Question:

To what extent can we use reason to justify whether hypnosis is a pseudoscience, a science, or neither?