What Is Hypnosis

Essay Title

"What is Hypnosis?" Describe the psychological and physical aspects of hypnosis and discuss the role of relaxation in Hypnotherapy.

For this assignment I will explore what hypnosis is by looking at a historical account of hypnosis and how this has influenced modern practice and theory. I will also describe the psychological and physical aspects of hypnosis and the importance of the use of Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR) in Hypnotherapy.

The History of Hypnosis

Hypnosis is a complex concept that has been extensively investigated in a scientific manner through history and yet no general accepted definition of the phenomenon exists. Its use dates back to the early Egyptians and Greeks, and images of hypnotic trances can be found in art from such cultures dating back thousands of years. More than 4000 years ago Wang Tai, the founder of Chinese medicine, taught a therapeutic technique that used incantations. The Hindu Veda, written about 1500 BC described similar theories, while the ancient Egyptians more than 3 millennia ago described healing methods similar to modern day hypnosis. 1 C Muses - Consciousness & Reality 1972

In the modern age, hypnosis was revived through the work of Franz Anton Mesmer. An 18th century Austrian physician, Mesmer applied his hypnotic method of "animal magnetism", amidst great controversy, leaving his legacy in the phrase "to mesmerize". Many regarded his work as fraud, claiming any cures brought about were due to the patient's imagination, leading Charles d'Eslon, a pupil of Mesmer, to exclaim, "If the medicine of imagination is the best, why should we not practice the medicine of imagination."

Mesmer's believed that it was magnetism, rather than the patient's own mind, that created his outcomes. This turned out to be a setback for the field of hypnosis from which it took nearly 2 centuries to recover. Even so, Mesmer's work brought a newfound interest in understanding what exactly was behind the mysterious cures provided by his treatment.

Hypnosis was taken to a new level by James Braid, who, in the late 19th century, developed the eye fixation or swinging watch technique which many today consider almost synonymous with hypnotism. It was Braid who coined the term "hypnosis", after the Greek word for sleep, hypnos. At first, Braid felt the trance was a form of sleep, but later grew to understand it as a different state entirely. He also brought to light the understanding that hypnosis is a state that a person reaches internally, with the therapist serving merely as a guide.

Emile Coue, a Frenchman, was an advocate of hypnosis near the turn of the century. Coue felt that the patient's own resources were most important in healing, and this led to him becoming a pioneer in the area of autosuggestion. He would have his patients engage in affirmations, repeating mantras such as "Every day, in every way, I get better and better." twice a day.

Perhaps the biggest name in the field of mental health is Sigmund Freud. Freud's initially became interested in hypnotism, having learned the methods from his mentor Jean-Martin Charcot, who used them extensively in dealing with hysteria patients in Paris. Indeed, this early exposure to the powers of the mind may have greatly shaped Freud's future ideas on the subconscious mind.

Freud's interest in the specifics of hypnosis faded, though he did at one point deliver two papers about the topic. Freud's contributions to the understanding of the mind have helped to create a household name for the subconscious and its inner workings. In fact, Freud once quipped, "If ever we are to develop the perfect form of mental therapy, it would, by necessity, have to include hypnosis".

Medically, hypnosis has been used in some of the most widespread and common problems. Furthermore, it is applicable both diagnostically, as well as therapeutically. It can be applied to some of the major illnesses such as cancer, and similarly applied to some of the more everyday minor ailments such as warts, where some claim hypnosis is first line therapy.

The British Medical Association in 1952 and the American Medical Association's 1958 finally endorsed hypnosis as a valid medical therapy, and while different patients have different results with hypnosis, it is very effective for those with whom it is successful. This is so because hypnosis can be applied in some of those situations for which medicine has never truly found a reliable solution. Some of these areas are pain control, cancer treatment, obstetrics and rehabilitation.

The Psychological and Physical Aspects of Hypnosis

Maldonaldo & Spiegel supplied a useful definition for Hypnosis when they stated "Hypnosis is a natural state of aroused, attentive, focal concentration coupled with the relative suspension of peripheral awareness. It involves an intensity of focus that allows the hypnotized person to make maximal use of innate abilities to control perception, memory and somatic function. Hypnotic capacity represents both a potential vulnerability to certain kinds of psychiatric illnesses such as post traumatic stress, conversion and dissociative orders, and an asset in that it can facilitate various psycho-therapeutic strategies. Because hypnotic capacity is a normal and widely distributed trait, and because entry into hypnotic states occurs spontaneously, hypnotic phenomena occur frequently. Even psychiatrists who make no formal use of hypnosis can enhance their effectiveness by learning to recognize and take advantage of hypnotic mental states" 2

Nowadays, hypnotherapy is understood, by modern science, as when a therapist uses various techniques to bring the client to an 'altered state of mind' or hypnotic mental state. This altered state of mind can be seen as a level of enhanced concentration and at this level useful appropriate suggestions can be made. These suggestions aim to make positive changes in the client's thought pattern which will later reflect in their behaviour. The client has attended for therapy at their choice and given consent. In Hidden Depths, Robin Waterfield quotes from Stephen Fry's Book - Moab is My Washpot in which Fry describes his experience of being induced and says "the business of being put in a trance seemed childishly simple and disappointingly banal". He continues, "I was simply told to put my hands on my knees and to feel the palms melt down into the flesh of the knees. After a short time it became impossible to feel what was hand and what was knee, while miles away in the distance rich, sonorous Hungarian tones told me how pleasantly