Understanding Hypnosis

I feel it useful to provide a definition of hypnotherapy as well as hypnosis before moving on and answering this question of this essay. Linnenkamp Doyle writes, ‘hypnotherapy is the use of hypnosis to treat disease’ something that she documents in her case study. This medical idea of hypnosis needs further exploration in terms of how it has evolved and sparked debate amongst medical and dental practitioners. Four very significant hypnotherapists are arguably Mesmer, Braid, Esdaile and Elliotson, all putting emphasis on the medical aspect of hypnotherapy. Mesmer, for example, devoted his 1779 27 Propositions concerning animal magnetism.

Closer to modern day, in his book Hypnotherapy, Dave Elman not only concentrates on relaxation (a topic which is relevant in this essay), but also puts forward the fundamental medical idea of hypnosis, specifically concentrating on factors such as the use of anesthesia in subjects of hypnosis before they have dental or medical procedures. This medical and dental use of hypnosis, which provides the transition from hypnosis to hypnotherapy, also introduced the related problem of people falsely claiming to have special skills in this area.

For Instance, D Zimmerman, chairman of the council for medical and dental hypnosis, wrote to the British Medical Journal in 1968, expressing concerns that ‘hypnotherapeutic charlatans’ had been invading and jeopardizing medical and dental procedures. Zimmerman writes that ‘it has been brought to the notice of this Society that courses in hypnotherapy are being offered to medical and dental practitioners by persons who hold no recognized professional qualifications’. Zimmerman adds to this a request for the validation of the official society for medical and d...

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...s identified, analyzed, and made me understand the various definitions of hypnosis. It has also demonstrated the psychological and physiological effects to the role of relaxation.

Works Cited

Hypnotherapy: A Handbook

Michael Heap and Windy Dryden (Milton Keynes: Open University Press)

Hypnotherapy

Dave Elman (New York: Westwood Publishing, 1983)

Hidden Depths: The Story of Hypnosis

Robin Waterfield (New York: Brunner-Routledge, 2003)

The British Medical Journal, ‘Hypnotherapy’

D Zimmerman (Vol. 3, No. 5616 (Aug. 24, 1968), p. 501)

Hypnotherapy A Practical Handbook

Helmut Karle and Jennifer Boys, (New York: Free Association Books, 1987)

http://web.archive.org/web/20040710162753/http://www.unbf.ca/psychology/likely/readings/mesmer.htm

Franz Mesner (27 Propositions, 1779)

http://www.brainandhealth.com/Brain-Waves.html