Some Hypnosis and Psychology Information

I have information about our hypnotherapy centre here and further hypnosis and hypnotherapy links on my links page.

So...

You only have to spend a short time reading alt.hypnosis to discover that there is very little that is known and proven about hypnosis and a lot that remains controversial, despite the fact that hypnosis - in one form or another - has been used and studied for over a hundred years. When you read alt.hypnosis please bear in mind that much of the controversy comes more from the fact that the newsgroup belongs to the "alt" hierarchy - opinions are often presented as fact and then argued over for days - than that hypnosis is of itself quite so controversial. I hope in these pages to present some information about hypnosis and psychoanalysis which is, as far as I can manage, accurate and balanced.

History of hypnosis

Hypnosis is generally regarded as a follow on from Mesmerism - as practised by Anton Mesmer (b. 1734). In truth, hypnosis has been around for considerably longer than that - perhaps for as long as man has been capable of higher brain function. There are certainly references to practices that resemble hypnosis as long ago as in the ancient Egyptian, Greek and Persian cultures. In Greece the mentally ill slept in a room set aside for them in the numerous Aesculapian sleep temples. They were ritually prepared by the priests, who interpreted their dreams so as to 'cast out bad spirits'.

Mesmer thought that he was tapping into some "magnetic" force - one he referred to as "animal magnetism" - and, indeed, he even used magnets to do it. His theories weren't so far fetched when you consider that human health had long been regarded as dependant on the ebb and flow of fluids or "fluxes". Even today, if you question a homeopath about the theories behind their science or faith healers (who have downgraded the emphasis on "faith" these days) or any number of the so called "new age" alternative therapies, then you are likely to find "energies" of one kind or another associated with health or an imbalance of them associated with the lack of it.

I don't know of anyone who attributes the effect we call hypnosis to these energies any more - we now insist that the hypnosis effect is a purely mental thing. Mesmer himself discovered, after a while, that magnets were not actually required to produce mesmerism in a subject and then fell into the trap of believing that he had some innate power himself which was responsible for the effect. Some of his later practices were even more bizarre - he tied cords to trees and had patients hold them while he moved among them, quietly talking to them or fixing them with a penetrating stare.

The term hypnosis was brought to England in 1841 by a Scottish physician by the name of James Braid from the Greek hypnos, meaning sleep. Sadly the term had come into general use before Braid came to the realisation that sleep was not a particularly good description of hypnosis. He tried, but failed, to get the name changed to "monoidism" which was much more in line with the then current understanding of the process.

Hypnosis was certainly widely used for surgical anaesthesia until the discovery of ether and chloroform - the modern counterparts for which have now almost entirely replaced it. Personally I regard that as one of the tragedies of history since hypnosis would surely be better studied, understood and accepted had it continued to be used in that way. This may well have been one of the first instances of drug companies replacing a safe and effective treatment with a much more dangerous one.

Current thinking

It is difficult to write an authoritative paragraph of current theories about hypnosis since there is no single authority one can go to. Weight of opinion seems to regard hypnosis as a state of some kind although there are those such as T.X. Barber who insist that hypnosis is not a state. He does so based on much scientific study and is correct in pointing out that none of the tests we do to determine if someone is in hypnosis apply universally to any hypnotised subject. Many people believe that in hypnosis most of the brainwave patterns change from normal beta to alpha or a mixture of alpha and theta waves but that is not true in all cases and there are many normal states of concentration or relaxation where the brainwave activity is predominantly alpha and/or theta. There are also a number of scales which have been developed to gauge depth of the hypnosis or hypnotic succeptability such as the Harvard, Davis-Husband and Lecron-Bordeaux scales but these can easily be shown not to be valid in all cases.

The view I accept is that hypnosis is a state and that it involves focused concentration coupled with deep relaxation and heightened awareness. Rarely, awareness seems to cease under hypnosis, especially in those who are somnambulistic, but you will find that even in those instances the subject can be made to remember all that occurred during the time they were under hypnosis.

Hypnosis does seem to be involved directly with the unconscious part of the mind so a good understanding of the unconscious (some people refer to it as the "subconscious" or "non-conscious") will help considerably in your understanding of hypnosis. Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, was the first to identify and attempt to describe the unconscious mind. These days there are few who doubt that most of our thoughts and actions have their beginnings in the unconscious and the word is a common and oft used part of our language. There are numerous other "Freudisms" which have come into common use - who hasn't been accused of the occasional "Freudian slip"? And yet, despite all of his writings and teachings and despite the fact that there is the whole science of psychoanalysis which is based on his work, there are few who have read Freud and are familiar with his definition of the unconscious and its role in our behaviour.

Freud's favourite approach to explaining the unconscious was to start with an examination of dreams. In dreams we are probably as close to seeing the unconscious at work as in any other state of being. Freud's theory of dreams was thus: Sleep is important to us and the unconscious mind uses dreams to protect our sleep. Dreams are responsible for fulfilling our wishes while we sleep so that those drives and wishes do not cause us to wake. In small children dreams are simple and clear - for example, a child who went to sleep upset about being denied an ice-cream would likely dream of being given it and the pleasure of eating it. As we mature and social forces have more impact on our wishes and drives, demanding that we deny them in favour of keeping to the rules of society, simply acting out those desires in the dream state would cause anxiety which might disturb our sleep. So from that is born the dream censor. A part of our unconscious "encrypts" our desires and drives and they become experienced through metaphor rather than in the clear and simple constructions of early childhood.

One of the greatest hypnotherapists Milton H. Erickson discovered how effective it is to talk to the unconscious in its own language - that of metaphor. Many current hypnotherapists base their style and methods on those of Erickson and a good half of what is taught as Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) - the part they refer to as "Meta Programming" or "The Milton Model" is straight Ericksonian hypnosis.

So now we have discovered that hypnosis involves the unconscious and, whether state or not, there are a number of things that are common in those who are hypnotised. Now I shall describe some more signs which are generally taken as indicators of hypnosis, some are common and some not so common: Usually there is a predominance of alpha and theta brainwaves (which can be measured with EEG equipment). A lowered skin resistance by a factor of around 20%. Facial flush. Dilated pupils and the pupils often raise so that, if the subject's eyes are open you will see mostly the whites of their eyes or, if closed, you will see a crease in the upper lid. There is often a pronounced flicker of the eyelids as the subject enters hypnosis. You will usually find that when someone exits hypnosis they will have underestimated the time they were in hypnosis - often by a factor of about 2.5 or 3 to 1. On occasion they overestimate but that is considerably rarer. Many people experience total muscle relaxation and you can see the effect of this as their head lolls to one side and all of the muscles in their face sag into repose. Almost opposite to this is catatonia where the muscles become rigid and stiff and many hypnotists will attempt to induce this in order to test the level of hypnosis in a subject. Some people experience a falling sensation as they enter hypnosis and you may observe a jolt as this happens. You might also observe a subject swallowing often as they enter hypnosis - this seems to be due to an increase in the production of saliva.

Apart from these often observed phenomena there are many more subjective ones which, again, vary from person to person and even from session to session. People will often describe a detached feeling as if they found it difficult to be aware of where and how their limbs were placed. Usually they will feel cold since their metabolism generally slows right down as they relax under hypnosis (you will notice that most hypnotists have well heated consulting rooms). Often they will report that their limbs felt especially heavy or light.

Regardless of all of these phenomena there is no particular "hypnotised feeling" and even those sensations are generally not so strong as to convince the subject that they were under hypnosis. For those who are used to hypnosis it is easy to recognise the effects but someone new to hypnosis will often argue that they weren't really hypnotised, could have opened their eyes any time they liked, and heard every word you said. Were you to give them a post hypnotic suggestion they are likely to justify after the event why it was that they carried it out. More about justification later - it explains a lot about why psychoanalysis has not taken the world by storm.

Suggestions

Probably the vast majority of hypnotherapy these days is suggestion therapy although regression and guided imagery (fine use of metaphor) are becoming more popular. My chosen modus is hypno-analysis but more of that later. Hypnosis has been used as a form of therapy since its inception and much of it was based on the idea that the mind is much more open to accepting and acting on a suggestion when influenced by hypnosis. Our acceptance of this idea dates right back to the early days of hypnosis with the Paris schools of Emil Coué and Hippolite Bernheim (yes really). Coué said that when an idea takes root in the imagination it must be discharged by a motor action. Normally there is a barrier between the imagination and any suggestion you might make to it - the conscious mind, often refered to as "the critical factor" in hypnosis circles. He went on to say that for an idea to take root in the unconscious you must have the subject's attention, that there can be no contradiction from the psyche, and there must be emotion involved. Whether this statement has been tested in isolation I really don't know - perhaps you would tell me if you find some research. It has, however, been thoroughly tested by hypnotists and is the basis upon which suggestion therapy is founded.

Even those who use regression therapy, guided imagery or hypno-analysis must be aware of the awesome power of suggestion under hypnosis. A failure to be aware of it could lead to suggestions being installed by the hypnotist which neither he nor his subject intended. This is also one of the reasons that hypnotherapists are generally very insistant that newcomers to the art take some good training before practising on their friends and relations!

At the opposite end of the spectrum to those who don't believe in hypnosis or the power of suggestion are those who are afraid that they could be programmed under hypnosis to do things that are outside their moral code. This particular subject is hotly and often debated in the alt.hypnosis newsgroup. One of the phenomena associated with hypnosis is a heightened awareness and there is always, at some level, that critical factor present and ready to jump in should things get out of hand. There are good books about programming killers etc and they do mention hypnosis but you will note that, where they are based on fact rather than fiction, many other methods are used in conjunction with hypnosis and the process is done over a period of years - adjusting the person's whole sense of reality. I know of no hypnotist who has been able to do the same thing and there is Coué's requirement that there is no contradiction in the psyche to any suggestion which is made.

Considering Coué's law again we find some important things to bear in mind when designing suggestions. The most important of which is that there must be no contradiction from the psyche. There is more to this statement than meets the eye; the unconscious seems to delete negatives so you would do well to add a fourth rule to Coué's list: suggestions must be phrased in a positive way. This is a trap that many hypnotists and would-be hypnotherapists fall into. Rather than suggest that someone will feel a sense of pride in being a non-smoker they suggest that the person will NOT smoke. The negative there was easy to spot and equally easy for the unconscious to delete - thus reversing the sense of the suggestion.

Another point about suggestion is that post hypnotic suggestions do not last for an indefinite period. They seem to last for 10 to 12 days. Many will argue that suggestions have lasted for years but you will usually find on examining these cases that the subject was conditioned rather than responding to a post hypnotic suggestion. Examine the effectiveness of suggestion therapy for weight loss in particular and you will find that it is rare for suggestions, and particularly short suggestion based therapies, to continue in their effectiveness over a long period of time. Suggestion therapy is particularly good in helping people to give up smoking since the number of people who remain non-smokers when they have managed not to smoke for two weeks is very high.

A problem with suggestion therapy (and, indeed, with any other therapy which addresses symptoms rather than causes) is a phenomena called symptom substitution. This is almost universally recognised in association with giving up smoking - an oral habit - which is often replaced by over eating - another oral habit. Suggestion therapy for giving up smoking needs to be carefully designed to avoid this problem and for smoking that is generally not to difficult to achieve. For other problems which are often addressed by hypnotherapists - phobias, depression and panic attacks - symptom substitution is rather more of a problem. Many hypnotherapists do not even consider symptom substitution or argue that it does not exist.

Psychoanalysis and Hypno-Analysis

Hypno-Analysis is pretty much just psychoanalysis under hypnosis except that where psychoanalysis is usually considered to take something in the region of 1000 hours when it is carried out with the client in a state of hypnosis this is shortened to between 8 and 12 hours. That is a huge reduction and the explanation is that under hypnosis the process involves the unconscious to a much greater extent and it is generally easier for a client to access traumatic material when under hypnosis. In studying the principles of psychoanalysis we should reach a good understanding of hypno-analysis.

First I would like to clear up a common misunderstanding about psychoanalysis: The analysis is something that the client does rather than something that the psychoanalyst does. The analyst facilitates the analysis by getting the client to free associate and ensuring that they continue to do so.

Psychoanalysis is all about free association. Free association is really just a matter of the client relating the first thing that comes into their mind and you may wonder how this could lead to any kind of satisfactory conclusion (indeed, if you go through analysis yourself you will almost certainly wonder that even when you understand the process!). If you consider a child with a guilty secret - that secret seems to occupy the forefront of their mind to the extent that it is very difficult for them to avoid divulging it. In psychoanalysis we are searching for matters that have been repressed - kept hidden from consciousness by the unconscious mind. When a person free associates the repression seems to rise to the forefront of the unconscious and the battle to keep it from consciousness intensifies. Like the child who has a guilty secret the unconscious will tell you everything but the repression itself. As free association continues more and more hints to the repressed material will surface into consciousness. It almost seems to be a game that the unconscious plays - it finds memories which contain as many similarities to the repressed event as it can and presents those rather than the repression itself. It is also similar to dreams - so similar in fact that many psychoanalysts have attempted to shortcut the process by interpreting dreams. But there is no shortcut. Offering an intellectual description of the repression fails to release it. Instead the repression must surface in its entirety into consciousness for the emotion attached to it to be released.

Repression

Repression occurs when the psyche is overwhelmed. When it can't cope with emotion the unconscious burys it so that the conscious mind does not suffer from it. If you consider the fight or flight mechanism you will see that where there is a known danger we respond with fear which leads to fight or flight. When we experience fear which can not be attributed to anything then we have nothing to fight and nowhere run - we experience anxiety. Should we experience something which we are unable to deal with then the unconscious will repress it so that, as far as our conscious mind is concerned, it never happened. The unconscious is looking after not only our sleep but our waking consciousness as well.

Children seem much more capable of repression than adults. They are generally more prone to circumstances where they need to repress things too, having less ability to understand and deal with events than experienced and mature adults. Observe the strange logic that children display and you will begin to appreciate why this is so.

More of repression later.

Development

At birth the infant's concept of self includes not only his body with its concomatant needs and emotions but his immediate environment. Indeed, baby's first task is to discover his identity - where he ends and the rest of the world begins. His most sensitive and sensuous organ is the mouth and you will notice that he uses this to explore the world. His emotions run hot and cold - delight or rage being predominant. Psychologists call this stage of development the "oral" phase and describe the character as "schizoidal". Schizoidal refers to the mood swings and should not be confused with the use of schizophrenic to describe what should more properly be called multiple personality disorder.

Initially the world happens to a baby rather than her being aware of any effect she may have on the world. Around the time she reaches the stage of being a "terrible two" she begins to experiment on how she can affect the world. Some psychologists refer to this as the "anal sadistic" stage of development - anal because sensuality has become focused on the anus rather than the mouth and because this phase of development usually accompanies toilet training. Sadistic refers to the common behaviour of the child which usually includes biting, hitting and other aggressive actions.

Following the anal stage comes the genital stage - so named because sensuality has become focused on the genitals.

Character

The adult character has rather more to do with influences and experiences during these early developmental stages than on later events. Self made men aren't! There are many folk sayings which are sage observations of real life - "give me the boy and I will give you the man" being particularly apropriate in this case. Adult responses are likely to reflect early responses to similar events (and don't forget the metaphoric nature of the unconscious mind). A child who is not taught social responsibility during the anal phase of development will become a psychopath - unaware of any responsibility for the world and conscious only of achieving his own objectives. Conversely, those who are punished too severely for their sadistic behaviour will remain timid and posess a very low self esteem.

Perhaps you can see this relationship between the foundations of character and later behaviour which becomes built upon it. Later experiences are interpreted according to the decisions and interpretations which have already been made about previous experiences.

A person's character is determined largely by the developmental stage where their sense of identity came into being. For the majority of people this will be during the oral phase. Each character type is more prone to particular mental and psychological illnesses - the oral types to phobias, compulsions and depression (including manic depression or bi-polar disorder), anal types to paranoia, obsessional behaviour and hypochondria, and the genital type to hysterical illnesses.

To be continued...