The “Greenbaum Speech” is D. Corydon Hammond’s 1992 lecture, originally titled “Hypnosis in MPD: Ritual Abuse,” and it became widely circulated under the nickname “Greenbaum Speech.” In it, Hammond discusses hypnosis with multiple personality disorder (MPD)/dissociative-disorder patients, trance training, imagery techniques, and claims about ritual abuse and mind-control programming.[1][2][3]
The main contents of the lecture, based on the available transcripts and descriptions, include:
Trance training and hypnotic techniques for people with dissociative disorders.[1][3]
Unconscious exploration and the use of imagery/symbolic imagery to manage symptoms such as physical distress and overload.[1][3]
Autonomic calming methods for patients with hyperarousal.[3][4]
Discussion of hypnotic relapse prevention after integration therapy.[3][4]
A section on ritual abuse, including Hammond’s claims about programming, brainwashing, and how to “get on the inside” of such material therapeutically.[1][3][4]
The lecture is also known for presenting speculative and highly controversial claims about alleged ritual-abuse systems, including descriptions of programming methods and internal “parts” or “cores” in patients; the transcripts show Hammond describing these as things he believed clinicians might encounter.[1][3][4]
Its effects were significant in dissociation and trauma-treatment circles because it became one of the most discussed and debated pieces of early-1990s material on MPD/DID and ritual abuse.[1][6] The lectures ideas have been widely criticized and contested, especially because the ritual-abuse and mind-control claims were part of a broader of intense controversy around recovered-memory practices and suggestibility in therapy; the sources provided here document the lectures content, but they do not establish the factual accuracy of the claims themselves.[1][3][4]
Sources: