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Psychological aspects of hypnosis
Modern use of hypnosis essay
Psychological aspects of hypnosis
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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
The study and use of phycology based theories, proved useful for treating people with mental illnesses and medically unexplainable issues. The interest in phycology has led to the development of, Mental Health Institutes and Mental health services, in which people could get help for certain mental issues.
For centuries hypnosis has been around, however many people till this day do not know much about it. Most still believe hypnotist carry around big clocks using them to swing back and forth in someone’s face, controlling their every action. As the one being hypnotized remains unaware as they proceed to act like a chicken with their head cut off. But for the most part, the truth is most hypnotists can be your average doctor, therapist, dentist, psychiatrists, and friend. It doesn’t take much to hypnosis someone as long as a deep state of relaxation is created, where the unconscious mind is “listening” and the conscious mind is “resting”. The meaning of “conscious and unconscious are really just shorthand terms to describe the general characteristics of the human mind. The “conscious mind” is the bit where we tend to “live” – the bit you might think as “you”. If there’s a little voice reading these words out loud in your head, that’s the conscious mind talking. The unconscious mind is everything else” ("About hypnosis"). In fact some doctors don’t use the word trance when describing the relaxed state because the person is very aware in their so-called unconscious mind. They feel that the word trance implies a different mind level or mental lapse and sends out the wrong idea to people who don’t know the subject.
9)Mind- Body Therapy: Methods of Ideodynamic Healing in Hypnosis, by Ernest L. Rossi David B. Check WW Norton & Co., pg. 163-164 May 1995
could begin to believe in his or herself. Some people could even be anesthetized for surgery using hypnosis.
A technique made up of a series of instructions and suggestions that place a person in a trancelike state of mind, possessing similarities to being asleep. Only, in this trance a person is able to hear and respond to questions or suggestions, these states are otherwise known as hypnosis. However, when it is combined with hypnotic suggestion and therapeutic understanding, it is then referred to as hypnotherapy. This alternative treatment therapy has proven to be beneficial in many circumstances. A few of these being, pain management, anxiety, the cessation of smoking, weight control and many other physiological and psychological circumstances. Over time hypnotherapy has proven to be helpful in treating a wide range of health conditions, not only medical patients but as well as nonmedical ones.
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."
Moreover, dentists have to cater to the fears of the public. In today’s society many people have had bad experiences or have heard horror stories about dentists, so they are generally hesitant to get work done on their teeth. In many cases, people are consumed by so much fear at the dentist’s office that the dentist will have to administer an anesthetic and try to calm the patient’s fears.
Hypnosis is another very common form of mind and body practices. Hypnosis focuses on the brain. It is used to mainly help addicts and people with mental health problems. This technique is used to help someone to begin using their unconscious mind. They are asked to relax at the beginning of the session, they are then drawn away from their surroundings to begin to focus on one object (Billitterl 57). Many people believe that during hypnosis the person undergoing it is asleep, but that is not the true. Actually the person is very much awake, and is very aware of what is going on in the setting around them. If the patient is uncomfortable with what the hypnotist is asking they will simply not reply (58).
Most doctors at the time treated hysteria as a physical illness, except Breuer and Freud. Freud and Breuer had a patient named “Anna O.” who they used hypnosis to treat. They published their findings in Studies in Hysteria, which talked about hypnosis to treat hysteria. In the case of Anna O., her symptoms were relieved after her hypnosis sessions. After disclosing information about her father’s death during hypnosis, Anna O. was able to feel her arm again and speak, which she wasn’t able to do previously. Freud’s work using hypnosis helped him understand the power of unconscious influences on behavior (Burger
The concept of hypnosis produces an enigmatic figure rhythmical swaying a pocket watch to control a subject. Ominous hypnotists and surreal perceptions of hypnotism are fanciful ideas constructed by television, movies, and comics. Hypnotism has become widely popular in mainstream culture because of absurd renditions that bear no resemblance to actual hypnotism; in consequence the therapeutic effects of hypnotism are questioned by a great deal of psychologists and doctors. Hypnotherapy, hypnosis as a medical intervention, should be an acceptable and extensively used treatment of subjective symptoms because it is proven to be effective and does not encompass severe side effects.
Our group was assigned the topic on vasopressor syncope, a common emergency in the dental settings precipitated due to fear, anxiety and stress associated with dental treatment. Our emergency scenario highlighted a young woman, in her late twenties, who avoids visiting the dentist for extended periods of time due to dental fear. Her appointment for NSPT required her to get local anesthetic.She displayed classic signs & symptoms such as being pale, sweaty, feeling warm and clenching the armrest (white knuckles syndrome) and was in an overall state of panic. After seeing the needle, she loses consciousness and the dental team quickly use ammonia vaporole to help her regain consciousness. In the event, she did not regain consciousness BLS procedures are performed and she is placed in supine position with feet higher than her head.
Hypnosis helps by lowering anxiety. In hypnosis, you are brought to a state of total relaxation. In this state, you can work with the subconscious mind. You can get rid of self-criticism and negative habits. If you are worried about being perfect, hypnosis can remove your perfectionism. Basically, you can remove any problem that holds you back from being your most creative.
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...
Baddeley, M. (1989). NLP the academic verdict so far. The Australian Journal of clinical hypnotherapy and hypnosis, Volume 10 issue 2 P. 73-81
The fruit of the Spirit is self-control. As we follow the Spirit’s lead, He will give us the power to better control our own selves. Hypnosis involves the transfer of control away from ourselves to another person. Hypnosis leads to an altered state of consciousness in which the mind is very susceptible to outside suggestion. That susceptibility is what the hypnotist needs in order to modify the behavior of his subject. However, the word susceptible should concern us. Scripture says to be watchful and “self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). The hypnotist is not the only one who wants to modify our behavior; Satan also wants to do some modifying, and we should be wary of giving him any opportunity to make his