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Psychological aspects of hypnosis
Psychological aspects of hypnosis
Hypnosis described in psychology
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Few topics in psychology attract people in the extent that it does hypnosis. The reasons for this interest are multiple. Hypnosis fascinates by his unusual and we do not know if what attracts us is the interest in deciphering the mystery. (D. David after Gheorghidiu, 2000)
Anton Mesmer was he who first who induced the state of hypnosis. He used to use a magnet that moves along the patient's body to improve blood circulation. Forgeting his magnet and once at home, Anton Mesmer was forced to resort to another object, a piece of wood, and found that patients responded well. But Mesmer did not realize at the time that the object used was important, but suggestions which induces the patient. (Ovidiu Lungu, 2004)
Mielu Zlate (2007) considered hypnosis as an "altered state of consciousness located between wakefulness and sleep, but closer to waking than to sleep." Subject keeps contact with the environment during the hypnotic trance helped by the hypnotist, and cognitive changes occur at the perception, memory, thoughts, feelings, imagination, etc.. This underlines the increased activism of the brain.
According to the American Psychological Association, hypnosis is a procedure whereby the subject is suggested imaginative experiences to change his subjective experience, to change his perceptions, sensations, thoughts or behavior, (Peter J. Hawkins after APA, 2009).
Hypnotic trance has as main features the reduce of planning function (hypnotized subject loses the initiative and will expect the hypnotist to suggest what to do), attention becomes more selective than usual the subject which is told to obey only the voice of the hypnotist will ignore any another voice in the room) imaginative production is easily evoked (subject may find that the lives distance experiences in time and space), control and increased tolerance for low reality distortion (subject might unconditionally accept hallucinatory experiences), increased suggestibility (subject must accept the suggestions), post-hypnotic amnesia (if the subject gets instructions for this, the deeply impressed subject will forget all or almost all) (Rita L. Atkinson, 2002)
Hypnotherapy applications are endless, from the surgical anesthesia which can be used at birth without pain, treatment of specific problems such as anxiety, phobias (elevator, dentist), smoking cessation, sexual dysfunction. However, failures can come from the subject's attitude against hypnotherapy and hypnosis. A negative attitude may hinder treatment. Subjects can not be controlled during their trance unwittingly. (I. Holdevici, 1991)
Hypnotherapy for depressive persons contains a model proposed by Yapko in
Gould’s attempt at explaining how this type of hypnosis occurs began at first comparing two sides of a certain word. He started by using the word ‘Certainty; one definition is that certainty is warm, provides peace, and security. The other definition is that certainty is also threat; “ certainty is also a great danger...how
King, B., Nash, M., Spiegel, D., & Jobson, K. (2001). Hypnosis as an intervention in pain management. International Journal of Psychiatry in Clinical Practice, 5(2), 97-101.
Everyone is in a consumer’s hypnosis, even if you think you are not. When you go to a store and pick one brand over the other, you are now under their spell. Spell/hypnosis is how companies get you to buy things over other companies and keep you hooked. Either through commercials or offering something that you think will make your life better by what they tell you. For example, you go to the store and you need to buy water, once you get to the lane and look, there are 10 different types of water you can buy.
Sleep teaching and mind control: hypnotism techniques used for manipulation and power over the individual. Hypnotism is not widely promoted in our society as formal education; yet, it lingers on the horizon. In Huxley's Brave New World, hypnopaedia is used to promote economic stability and control emotions of the inhabitants living in England.
Hypnosis is derived from the Greek word hypnos, which means sleep ("Hypnotism"). However, the patient does not sleep during hypnosis. It has been described as a therapeutic method, which uses the "technique of inducement of trance, which is a state of semi-conscious relaxation, at the same time maintaining sensory contact with the environment" (Bernik). Hypnosis can produce various levels of perception, increased memory, increased attention and motor functions, and "higher intellectual functions" (Bernik).
Other methods for deepening a trance, suggested by Hypnotica, involve the feeling of descending from a higher place, such as free falling to earth or being in an elevator. When a deep trance has been established, the next step is to apply the suggestions that the person has created and memorized beforehand. Hypnotica reminds its customers to use the pronoun "I" rather than "you" when formulating suggestions. Finally, to end the hypnosis it is suggested that the person make a clean break between the hypnotic and aware states. A suggested termination is "think to yourself that you are going to be fully awake after you count up to, say, three."
The study of psychology began as a theoretical subject a branch of ancient philosophy, and later as a part of biological sciences and physiology. However, over the years, it has grown into a rigorous science and a separate discipline, with its own sets of guidance and experimental techniques. This paper aims to study the various stages that the science of psychology passed through to reach its contemporary status, and their effects on its development. It begins with an overview of the historical and philosophical basis of psychology, discusses the development of the various schools of thought, and highlights their effects on contemporary personal and professional decision-making.
Hypnosis has been used for a wide range of problems from, opting to remove some symptoms of certain mental diseases, reducing stress and psychological traumas, and treating phobias, to aiming to cause weight loss and cure one from illness and diseases (Keller, 2008). Although hypnosis in general, is considered to be safe and totally harmless when controlled by a physician, the present era has attached danger to it, in that it creates delusions through other people’s lives. According to MacKenzie (2011), “Hypnosis has been perceived as clouding people’s imaginations while they undergo relaxation, both internally and externally. While under hypnosis we experience a heightened sense of imagination and are open to suggestions and changes.” Coker (2010) found Pseudoscience to encourage people to believe anything they want. “It supplies specious "arguments" for fooling yourself into thinking that any and all beliefs are equally valid...
Danielle wakes up in the morning and doesn’t want to get out of bed. She is wide awake but didn’t get much sleep; and has no motivation to start her day. Reluctantly she gets up, showers, and gets ready for work. She skips breakfast as she has no appetite and heads into work. On the way to her job she has trouble concentrating on her driving; instead she contemplates how useless she feels at work and how helpless she is to change the situation. Once at work she can’t remember what meetings she needed to attend, and forgets about an important appointment with the general manager. To most, this sounds like a bad day. But to her this is just the norm of her everyday life. Danielle is displaying many of the symptoms associated with clinical depression. She is diagnosed with the mental illness and prescribed pharmaceuticals, but when she does remember to take her medicine it seems to cause more problems than it fixes with the multitude of side effects. She wants a different solution or approach to manage her problem. Here is where hypnosis may come into play as a viable option.
Starting in chapter twenty-three until the final chapter, twenty- seven, Stoker mentions small, yet significant details that have a great influence on the outcome of the hypnosis. These small details illustrate how Stoker researched and understood how hypnosis worked and its final outcome. Analyzing these small details can hel...
In 1885 he spent a year in Paris learning hypnosis from the neurologist Charcot; he then started using hypnosis with his patients in Vienna. However, he found its effects to be only temporary at best and it did not usually get to the root of the problem; nor was everybody capable of being hypnotised. Meanwhile Breuer, another Viennese doctor, was developing another method of therapy which he called the cathartic method, where patients would talk out their problems.
Freud began experimenting with hypnosis and asking his patients to freely speak while being hypnotized. In this he discovered the existence of an unconscious. Freud referred to this as "free association" and soon began using it with patients who were not hypnotized but merely in a relaxed state. While his patients spoke he found their unconscious minds were releasing memories, sometimes painful ones, that had been trapped within their minds since childhood. He called this uncovering of memories psychoanalysis (Myers 420).
Baddeley, M. (1989). NLP the academic verdict so far. The Australian Journal of clinical hypnotherapy and hypnosis, Volume 10 issue 2 P. 73-81
“Consciousness is defined as everything of which we are aware at any given time - our thoughts, feelings, sensations, and perceptions of the external environment. Physiological researchers have returned to the study of consciousness, in examining physiological rhythms, sleep, and altered states of consciousness (changes in awareness produced by sleep, meditation, hypnosis, and drugs)” (Wood, 2011, 169). There are five levels of consciousness; Conscious (sensing, perceiving, and choosing), Preconscious (memories that we can access), Unconscious ( memories that we can not access), Non-conscious ( bodily functions without sensation), and Subconscious ( “inner child,” self image formed in early childhood).