UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Previously Published Works Title IN MEMORIAM: Emily Carota Orne, 1938-2016. Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5vc0v1hw Journal The International journal of clinical and experimental hypnosis, 65(1) ISSN 0020-7144 Authors Dinges, David F Kihlstrom, John F McConkey, Kevin M Publication Date 2017 DOI 10.1080/00207144.2016.1248121 Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5vc0v1hw https://escholarship.org http://www.cdlib.org/ IN MEMORIAM: Emily Carota Orne, 1938–2016 Emily Carota Orne, wife of the late Martin T. Orne and his compa- nion in research for almost 40 years, passed away on August 1, 2016, from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Emily Orne was born in Boston on September 7, 1938, to Ruth Farrell Carota and Emil Carota. As an undergraduate at Bennington College, she did a fieldwork term at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center, which brought her into contact with Martin, who was Senior Research Psychiatrist there, and Director of the Studies in Hypnosis Project. After graduation in 1959, she did graduate work in psychology at Brandeis University, where she was taught by Abraham Maslow, Ulric Neisser, and Walter Toman. Emily and Martin were married in 1962 and worked together for the next 38 years. In 1964, the Orne laboratory, known as the Unit for Experimental Psychiatry, moved to the Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, in Philadelphia, where she was a Research Associate of Psychology in Psychiatry. Martin died in 2000, and Emily retired in 2014. Emily’s most salient contribution to hypnosis research was to develop, with Ronald E. Shor, the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, Form A, an adaptation for group administration of Weitzenhoffer and Hilgard’s Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale, Form A. The Harvard Scale introduced substantial economies into the assessment of hypnotiz- ability and made it possible for investigators of even limited resources to become involved in hypnosis research. By any standard, it has been the most frequently employed measure of hypnotizability by researchers worldwide, having been cited almost 1500 times (according to Google Scholar) and been translated into many languages. Emily was particularly concerned with the forensic use of hypnosis and was a leading figure in the debate over the hypnotic recovery of memories of child sexual abuse and other traumas. She coauthored influential studies that warned of the dangers that the suggestive nature of hypnosis posed for the accuracy of memory and cautioned that any memory “recovered” through hypnosis should be indepen- dently confirmed. She was also interested in the medical applications of hypnosis and published a number of studies on the use of hypnosis in pain relief and stress management in children with sickle-cell disease. Through all of her research, Emily insisted—as Martin did—that the effects of hypnosis were “real” in the sense that they were subjectively Intl. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 65(1): 1–3, 2017 Copyright © International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis ISSN: 0020-7144 print / 1744-5183 online DOI: 10.1080/00207144.2016.1248121 1 compelling, even as the subject’s interpretation of contextual demand characteristics shaped his or her response to the hypnotist’s suggestions. The research program at the unit was very broad, and Emily was also involved in a wide variety of studies outside of hypnosis, including the effects of sleep and naps on attention and human performance and the psychophysiological detection of deception. Whatever the topic, she devoted herself to the research completely. She had an excellent eye for viewing experimental situations “from the subject’s point of view.” When new studies were being dis- cussed, planned and piloted, Emily, as Martin did, ensured that the investigators could articulate the conceptual and methodological alignment of those studies, would anticipate the possible empirical outcomes (not just the desired one) and consider alternative expla- nations for those outcomes and would bring the investigators back to understanding the perspectives of the subjects in the study. And after the study was completed and being written up, regardless of whether Emily was an author, she was a tireless editor of the unit’s publications. Draft after draft would pass through her hands, returned to its author(s) liberally splashed with red ink, until the final version was as good—clear, concise, and convincing—as it could possibly be before submission. And when the paper came back from editorial review, she would repeat the process all over again. She lavished the same talent on articles submitted to the International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis during Martin’s term as Editor-in-Chief (1961–1992), a period in which the journal rose to preeminence not only as a venue for hypnosis research but also as an exemplar of strong contemporary thinking in psychology and psychiatry. In recognition of her contributions to the field of hypnosis, she was awarded the Benjamin Franklin Gold Medal from the International Society of Hypnosis. Many people worked with Emily, and with Martin, at the Unit for Experimental Psychiatry over their years there, some for short peri- ods of time and some had a long association; that association was highly influential for many. Indeed, whatever the period of time together, whatever career followed, and wherever in the world they went, Emily’s direct and indirect influence continued in various ways. In addition to an ongoing interest in the careers of many of those people, as evident in letters and e-mails from Emily about a publication by them she read or a career move she heard about, Emily also expressed keen interest in the personal activities, family members and loved ones, and happiness of those whose careers she had helped to shape at the Unit for Experimental Psychiatry. 2 DAVID F. DINGES ET AL. Emily Carota Orne is survived by her son Frank T. Orne, her daughter Tracy M. Orne, her brother Noel Farrell Carota, her sisters- in-law Lindsay Stradley Carota and Susie Orne, and their families, and by her caregiver Michael McCullough. DAVID F. DINGES Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA JOHN F. KIHLSTROM University of California, Berkeley, USA KEVIN M. MCCONKEY University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia IN MEMORIAM: EMILY CAROTA ORNE 3