John Goodrich Watkins (17 March 1913 - 12 January 2012) was a United States psychologist best known for his work in the areas of

hypnosis Hypnosis is a human condition involving focused attention (the selective attention/selective inattention hypothesis, SASI), reduced peripheral awareness, and an enhanced capacity to respond to suggestion.In 2015, the American Psychologica ...

dissociation Dissociation, in the wide sense of the word, is an act of disuniting or separating a complex object into parts. Dissociation may also refer to: * Dissociation (chemistry), general process in which molecules or ionic compounds (complexes, or salts) ...

, and

multiple personalities Dissociative identity disorder (DID), better known as multiple personality disorder or multiple personality syndrome, is a mental disorder characterized by the presence of at least two distinct and relatively enduring personality states. The di ...

. With his wife, Helen Watkins, he developed

ego-state therapy Ego state therapy is a parts-based psychodynamic approach to treat various behavioural and cognitive problems within a person. It uses techniques that are common in group and family therapy, but with an individual patient, to resolve conflicts that ...

, which uses analysis of underlying personalities, rather than traditional talk therapy, to find the causes of psychological problems. The most famous example of the use of ego-state therapy was the interrogation of the

Hillside Strangler The Hillside Strangler, later the Hillside Stranglers, is the media epithet for one, later discovered to be two, American serial killers who terrorized Los Angeles, California, between October 1977 and February 1978, with the nicknames originating ...

, in which Watkins solicited a confession by revealing the killer's multiple personalities. Watkins also published research suggesting that hypnotic techniques for pain reduction may work by displacing the pain into “covert” ego states. Accordingly, the pain is not eliminated by the hypnotic intervention but is dissociated from conscious awareness and fully experienced by an underlying ego state. The underlying ego state may suffer trauma as a result experiencing the pain. Watkins graduated from the

University of Idaho The University of Idaho (U of I, or UIdaho) is a public land-grant research university in Moscow, Idaho. It is the state's land-grant and primary research university,, and the lead university in the Idaho Space Grant Consortium. The University ...

and received a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. He was

professor emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

at the

University of Montana The University of Montana (UM) is a public research university in Missoula, Montana. UM is a flagship institution of the Montana University System and its second largest campus. UM reported 10,962 undergraduate and graduate students in the fal ...

, where he taught for many years. John G Watkins died on 12 January 2012. He was 98 years old.

Publications

Articles

* * Watkins, John G. (1988). "The Management of Malevolent Ego State s in Multiple Personality Disorder".

Books

* * * * * *

References

1913 births 2012 deaths Columbia University alumni University of Idaho alumni University of Montana faculty American hypnotists 20th-century American psychologists {{US-psychologist-stub