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A putative relationship between dissociative symptoms and bulimia, not only in cases with histories of childhood abuse and subsequent severe psychiatric disorder, but also in relatively healthier bulimics, has been discussed in the literature. In some studies, scores on the Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES) even predicted binging. In many cases, bulimic symptoms have responded to hypnosis therapy, which allows the patients to relax, control the dissociative feelings, and manage the emotions that lead to binging behavior. Some previous studies have suggested that bulimics and anorexics who binge/purge are more hypnotizable than other patients with anorexia nervosa, scoring higher on the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale: Form C (SHSS:C). This study presents the results of an investigation of bulimic females, screened by interview and psychological testing for the absence of other major psychiatric disorders, as compared to normal controls. The study found that bulimics scored higher than controls on the SHSS:C for hypnotizability, with 15/17 scoring in the highly hypnotizable range (the norm is 10 to 15%), and bulimics also scored higher on the DES for dissociative experiences. In both instances, there was no correlation between test scores and severity of bulimia, as determined by frequency of binging/purging or duration of illness. The only correlation between the SHSS:C scores and DES scores was found in bulimics (r = 0.61, p<0.01); even highly hypnotizable controls did not tend to have elevated DES scores. The authors propose that the relationship between dissociation and bulimia suggests that the dissociative symptoms may be caused by nutritional insufficiencies that generate metabolic disturbances, and that the dissociation is not necessarily a defense mechanism,