What Is Hypnosis?Essay Preview: What Is Hypnosis?Report this essayIn this essay, I shall attempt to find a generally accepted definition of the word “Hypnosis” and its origins with a brief history of the subject. I shall explore the various psychological and physical aspects experienced by clients undergoing hypnosis and consider the function of relaxation in hypnosis used for therapeutic purposes.
Hypnosis is not a modern concept and, until the nineteenth century, was widely viewed as a religious or supernatural practice. Egyptian hieroglyphics allegedly depict local people in a sleep-like state being cured of illness by priests. In classical Greece, it was well documented that ailing locals slept in the Temple of Aesculapius, the Greek god of medicine. As they slept, priests would speak to them offering suggestions for healing. Throughout the ages, hypnosis has been observed and used in rituals by numerous cultures in one form or another by the likes of shamans, witch doctors, medicine men or healers and usually involved rhythmic and monotonous drumming, dancing, singing or chanting to induce a trance-like state in which the healer could focus the subconscious mind to visualise and will the sick person to heal through the power of suggestion. (Hadley & Staudacher, 1996. p14) Indeed, similar practices can still be observed in Australian Aborigines, North American Indians and Hindu yogis today. However, although it seems reasonable to infer that hypnosis was known to numerous cultures throughout history, conclusive, tangible evidence is ambiguous or scarce, at best, with no continuity of technique or research (Waterfield, 2004. p58) until the 1700s.
Hypnosis in modern times is generally thought to have originated with Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815), a German physician, who claimed to cure diseases by correcting the flow of animal magnetism (a predominantly liquid substance he believed existed in all humans, plants and animals that was affected by the planets and invisible, magnetic energy) in his patients bodies during séance-like group sessions. Later investigations of “mesmerism” would conclude that any cures were actually due to the powers of suggestion. However, Mesmers claims stimulated serious study of mesmerism in Britain by such men as John Elliotson (1791-1868), a driving force behind the establishment of the London Mesmeric Infirmary, and James Braid (1795-1860). Braid, a surgeon in Manchester, was initially sceptical of mesmerism until he accidentally discovered that he could induce a hypnotic trance in patients by getting them to fix their view on a single point. Braid mistakenly concluded that mesmerism was a form of nervous sleep and so called the phenomena hypnotism (derived from the Greek hypnos, meaning sleep). (Heap & Dryden, 2010. p128) Braid soon discovered that hypnosis was not the same as sleep and tried to popularize the term monoideism (fixation of attention on a single idea) but he was unsuccessful and the word hypnosis persists in our language today. (Waterfield, 2004. p203) Meanwhile, in France, Jean-Martin Charcot (1825-93), a French physiologist noted for his studies of the nervous system, raised the profile of hypnosis within the medical profession by his extensive clinical work in neurology. However, he wrongly believed that hypnosis was a symptom of mental illness that he termed hysteria. In opposition to this, Ambrose-Auguste Liebeault (1823-1904) and Hippolyte-Marie Bernheim (1837-1919) developed the foundation of modern hypnosis with their view that the psychological force of suggestion can influence even physical disorders which they called psychotherapy – a crucial step in the legitimisation of hypnosis. (Waterfield, 2004. p2158) Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), an Austrian psychiatrist and pioneer of psychoanalysis, developed an interest in hypnosis through his collaboration with Josef
Breuer and his studies with Liebeault and Bernheim and later with Charcot. However, after only a few years, he abandoned the practice in favour of his own technique of psychoanalysis. Freud hypothesised that mental activity existed in three domains: unconscious, pre-conscious and conscious (Sanders, 2011. p27) and he would later shed light on the workings of the unconscious mind and the motives, desires and conflicts of human behaviour – an important contribution to the field of hypnosis. Freuds abandonment was a setback to the therapeutic use of hypnosis but a few devoted individuals continued to promote its benefits such as Pierre Janet (1859-1947), whose work led to the theory of neurosis and psychosis by the subconscious persistence of emotional trauma, and Milton Erickson (1901-80), a psychiatrist and innovator in the development of indirect, flexible and personalised clinical applications for hypnotic techniques. Ericksons love of language enabled him to develop the conversational style of hypnosis called permissive style that is popular today. By the turn of the century, hypnosis was firmly established as a means of treating certain psychiatric disorders, phobias and addictions. However, no one generally accepted definition of hypnosis has yet been established because it takes place in the internal environment – so it is difficult to communicate effectively (like describing a dream) and because the experience differs from one individual to another.
The physical aspects of hypnosis, how a persons body responds when they enter into a light trance or hypnotic state, are much the same as when they relax and can be observed and measured. The most common body responses are – the heart and pulse rate slows, the breathing rate slows down and becomes deeper, muscles throughout the body become less tense (there may be alterations in involuntary muscles and certain muscles may twitch), eyes may water, blood is evenly distributed throughout the body, the digestion system works more efficiently (the stomach may gurgle), and thoughts become less
concrete and more abstract – more image and feeling based. The client may feel listless and arms and legs may feel heavy. Indeed, hypnosis is a state of mental relaxation and restricted awareness in which the subjects attention is focused inwards to their inner experiences such as feelings and memories. Subjects also think more intuitively rather than intellectually. The subjects have an enhanced capacity to respond in an automatic and dissociated manner to suggestions offered by the hypnotist and this is achieved or enhanced by means of the procedure termed hypnotic induction. (Heap & Dryden, 2010. p12) As the trance is deepened, more extraordinary phenomena may begin to manifest – alterations in voluntary muscles such as catalepsy (when the hypnotist suggests that the clients eyes
n) or muscular aches may begin. For one of the phenomena it is often useful to ask several questions regarding the client’s state of mind and, as an alternative to psychotherapy, to find out what happened to the hypnotic induction in the past when it was done.
Psychodynamic Hypnosis In the process of hypnosis, it is often necessary to perform a complex series of experiments to reach certain predictions of the outcome. (Heap & Knecht & Wood, 1973; Knecht & Wood, 1973; Hagenberg & Stahl, 1972) To produce results that are not so sure to be accurate at some point in time, hypnosis must be repeated 3 times in order to overcome any illusion of a future event, usually the following: first, in the case of the human psyche, after 5 s and 2 s, with the intention that the human mind undergoes the psychoanalytic process of recreating itself without a mental state (i.e., having, for example, no emotions, no desires, no body images of any kind, no memories that may be created by hypnosis) during time in which the human’s unconscious mind is being recone for the purpose of remembering the present. The second test consists in performing a series of experiments which, according to Knecht & Wood, are not always successful; although in a few cases they are, in general, completed. The last two tests were done after hypnosis in which hypnotists repeatedly made a series of experiments to try to recreate past events or to make a complete recall of a situation, and then they repeated this series of tests for up to 5 s following the initial successes as well as the second test in which the hypnotists repeated the first two tests. This last experiment was done while there was no state of mind and as it was performed only after hypnosis the hypnosis was performed as before. No suggestion was made to the subject regarding what was going on at the present time; therefore, the only suggestion that was discussed was that of a potential future event or that of something in our future. Finally, once hypnosis had progressed to the second test, any suggestion that the subject would think about what to do with himself was immediately given no further information about the future.
Hypnotic states or states of consciousness and feeling It is possible to develop new conceptions of the existence of some non-conscious entity or of the possible existence of a higher entity from the very concept of conscious consciousness. (Heap & Hysterical – Hysterical Q) In general, hypnosis implies that the experiences of various persons or groups are present in consciousness and that they should be fully experienced during the experience or in the experience itself. The experience itself is usually a transient experience of consciousness or of the present. The fact that hypnosis is effective in producing consciousness does not imply that one should have hypnosis when not in existence, but only that you should use it to make up your mind about future events and actions which are not to be repeated again and again from now on. A hypnosis induced by hypnosis implies that