Outline for the Study of Hypnosis and Hypnotism
Definitions:
“[Hypnosis is]…an increase in focal attention to one aspect of the total situation and a … constriction of peripheral awareness of other aspects.”
– Trance and Treatment: Clinical Uses of Hypnosis by Spiegel & Spiegel.
“Hypnosis: A state of consciousness involving focused attention and reduced peripheral awareness characterized by an enhanced capacity for response to suggestion.”
– The Society of Psychological Hypnosis
Neurobiology of hypnosis
There are four basic states of awareness: Beta state (alertness, active thinking, and concentration); Alpha state (relaxed alertness and light hypnosis); Theta state (day dreaming, deep hypnosis, drowsiness, and light sleep); Delta state (deep sleep). By closing the eyes, reducing sound, and lying still, the brain receives less sensory input, and the wave frequency is reduced.
Reduced activity in parts of the brain's default mode network (DMN) increases attentional absorption.
Increased activity in the prefrontal attentional systems involved in executive function and concentration.
Increased blood flow in the occipital region involved in visual imagination.
Changes in brain activity and connectivity consistent with decreased self-consciousness, increased control of internal sensations and emotion, and reduced worry.
The prevailing theory of hypnosis is cortical inhibition
In hypnosis, our centers of awareness shift to the internal, subcortical structures of the brain involved in unconscious processes and long-term memory.
It is theorized that the critical faculty of the conscious mind is reduced so that there is less reality testing and suggestions can be accepted more readily.
Hypnotic depth
The subject of hypnotic “depth” is debatable, and established depth scales vary.
The shift from light hypnosis to deep hypnosis tends to occur suddenly.
Suggestibility is not correlated strictly to depth of hypnosis. Hypnosis/trance and suggestibility are two separate phenomena. Although trance usually increases suggestibility, a person can be in hypnosis without being suggestible, and likewise suggestible without the trance.
Signs of hypnosis
Respiration and pulse rate
Lack of movement
Psychomotor retardation
Lack of swallowing response
Lacrimation (tearing of the eyes)
Fluttering of the eyelids
Ideomotor responses (automatic muscle movements) distinct from those of sleep
Time distortion (50 minutes in hypnosis may seem like 20 minutes)
COMMON TOOLS OF HYPNOTISM
Direct Suggestion
Suggestions should be positive. Don’t focus on the problem (ex: “I am losing weight” or “I don’t eat sugar”), because the mind rejects negatives (“losing”) and restrictions (“don’t”); and the client focuses on the problem (“weight” and “sugar”). Focus instead on the desired outcome (ex: “I look and feel great!”). Make suggestions positive, concise, and present-oriented.
The post-hypnotic suggestion, which the subject experiences after the hypnosis session, may be a miniature replica of the original hypnotic experience.
Indirect suggestion
Sounds, gestures, modulation of the voice, and implications of words and phrases.
Imagery
Imagery is not only visual; it can also be auditory, tactile, gustatory, olfactory, or emotive. Emotive imagery is often the most effective. The client is directed to imagine the emotional response that would accompany the desired outcome.
Examples: For smoking cessation: going through the day without a cigarette and mentally rehearsing key moments. For fear of the highway: getting on the entrance ramp or merging into traffic. In performance: stepping out on stage.
Reflex conditioning (establishing an “anchor”)
Repetitively establish positive imagery that the subject can initiate for self regulation; also suggest that this imagery will occur automatically.
Desensitization (imaginal exposure).Involves diminishing the sensations of the nervous system with successive sets of imagery.
Deliver suggestions to reframe the mental perception of the symptoms.
Ex: demonstrate that the same sensations come from excitement; dissociate the sensations of nervous system activation from emotional labeling.
Regression
Access a resource state from the past (ex: a memory of a time before the issue arose; a peak performance experience).
Regression to a traumatic episode or searching for repressed memories should be avoided. However, sometimes the subject does achieve symptom removal (for example, in phobia) by spontaneously remembering the initial sensitizing experience.
Progression
The client imagines the positive imagery of the future condition as it is desired (ex: for weight loss, the image of fitting into certain clothing, feeling more comfortable, feeling proud of an accomplishment).
Ericksonian hypnosis
An approach that is the combination of some methods: indirect suggestion, storytelling, and the use of metaphor. Less interested in the trance.
Final thoughts:
Determinations of what suggestions and imagery to deliver are based on the client’s motivations, expectations, communication style, key words and expressions, and other verbal and nonverbal cues.
Much of hypnosis depends on the ability of the hypnotist to express an idea (the desired outcome) convincingly. The hypnotist concentrates fully on the subject’s desired outcome, and then delivers suggestions and guides imagery as if he or she is experiencing the desired result, in the same manner as an actor intentionally imagines himself or herself in a role.
A key to hypnotism is the total concentration of mental intention on the desired outcome and the hypnotist establishing his or her own conviction in the outcome. On this point the study of traditional hypnotism and stage hypnotism (as opposed to clinical hypnosis) can be very useful.
Select Bibliography
Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis
William S. Kroger
Lippincott publishing, 1977.
Trancework: An Introduction to the Practice of Clinical Hypnosis
Michael D. Yapko
Burnnel Mazel Publishers
Hypnotherapeutic Techniques: The Practice of Clinical Hypnosis
John G. Watkins
Irvington Publishers, Inc., 1986
Hypnotherapy
Dave Elman
Westwood Publishing, Glendale, CA 1964 – (1970 edition)
Handbook of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis
Jesse E. Gordon
The Macmillan Company, New York, 1967
Clinical Hypnosis Principles and Applications
James A. Hall, Harold B. Crasilneck
Practical Lessons In Hypnotism
Wm. Wesley Cook
Hypnotism
Albert Moll
Walter Scott Limited, London, 1889.
Pain Management
Hypnosis in the Relief of Pain
Ernest R. Hilgard and Josephine R. Hilgard
Brunner/Mazel Publishers, New York; 1994.
Visualization and Guided Imagery in Pain Management
R. D. Longacre
Analytical Hypnotherapy
Hypnotic Realities: The Induction of Clinical Hypnosis and Forms of Indirect Suggestion
Milton H. Erickson; Ernest L. Rossie & Sheila I. Rossi
Irvington Publishers, Inc. New York, 1976.
Analytical Hypnotherapy: Principles and Practice
E. A. Barnett
Westwood Publishing Co., Glend
Stage Hypnotism
The New Encyclopedia of Stage Hypnotism
Ormond McGill