The practical application of medical and dental hypnosis 9781315831305, 1315831309, 0876305702

Table of contents :
Content: Selected Contents: Zeig, Foreword. Outline of History and Theory of Hypnotism. Suggestion and Hypnotizability. The Phenomena of Hypnosis. Induction Techniques. Clinical Applications of Surgical Anesthesia. Hypnosis in Obstetrics. Hypnosis in Children. Clinical Applications of Hypnosis to General Medicine. Clinical Applications of Hypnosis to Psychiatry. Hypnosis in Dentistry. Hypnosis in Psychology.

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THE

PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF MEDICAL AND

DENTAL HYPNOSIS Milton H. Erickson, M.D. Seymour Hershman, M.D. Irving I. Secter, D.D.S. with a new Foreword by Jeffrey K. Zeig, Ph.D.

The Practical Application of Medical and Dental

HYPNOSIS Milton H. Erickson,

M.D.

Past President and Co-founder, ASCH

Seymour Hershman,

M.D.

Past President and Co-founder, ASCH

Irving I. Seder,

D.D.S.

Past President and Historian, ASCH

p

Routledge Taylor & Francis C rou p www.routledgementalhealth.com

T r a n s fe r re d to dig it al printing 2 0 1 0 by R o u t le d g e R o u tle d g e T a y lo r and F ra n c is G ro u p 2 7 0 M a d iso n A v e n u e N ew Y o rk . N Y 1 0 0 1 6 R o u tle d g e T a y lo r and F ra n c is G ro u p 2 P ark S q u a re M ilton P ark . A b in g d o n O xon O X 1 4 4R N

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Erickson, Milton H. The practical application o f medical and dental hypnosis / Milton H. Erickson, Seymour Hershman, Irving I. Secter. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0-87630-570-2 1. Hypnotism—Therapeutic use. 2. Hypnotism. I. Hershman, Seymour. II. Secter, Irving I. III. Title. RC495.E725, 1989 615.8’512—dc20 89-23918 CIP Copyright © 1961 by Milton H. Erickson, M.D., Seymour Hershman, M.D., and Irving I. Secter, D.D.S. Copyright © 1990 by Brunner/Mazel, Inc. All rights reserved. No part o f this book may be reproduced by any process whatsoever without the written permission o f the copyright owners. Published by

B R U N N ER /M A Z E L, INC. 19 Union Square New York, New York 10003

Foreword

The history o f twentieth century hypnosis prim arily reflects the contributions o f the late psychiatric genius M ilton H . Erickson, M .D . I f one were to list the important historical figures in hypnosis, in the eighteenth century one would nam e M esm er; in the nineteenth century, B raid, Esdaile, Liebault, Bernheim, and C harcot; and in the twentieth century, Erickson. Erickson dominated modern hypnosis and alm ost single-handedly legitim ized it and brought hypnosis into a state o f respectability in the professional community. In the process, he revolutionized its practice. Previous to Erickson, the practice of hypnosis was regarded as an authoritarian, operator-based model where direct suggestions were “implanted” into a passive subject. Erickson

FOREWORD

developed a patien t-based m odel o f tailorin g indirect hypnotherapy to elicit strengths (dorm ant resources) that could be utilized in strategic steps. Thereby, he changed the direction o f hypnosis. In traditional practice, hypnosis was directed from the outside in, that is, hypnosis was conducted as a series o f com m ands dictated from the operator to the subject. Erickson’s work was from the inside out: indirect m ethods were used to elicit strengths from the patient rather than force-feeding suggestions into the passive subject. Erickson formulated the central concepts of modern hypnosis. His contributions seem to have sprung de novo; he did not build on the work o f predecessors. However, there were many junior colleagues and students of Erickson who followed his lead and built the application of his methods in far-reaching ways. Early protégés were the co-authors o f this book, Seym our H ershm an, M .D ., a physician in general practice, and Irving I. Secter, D .D .S ., M .A ., a dentist and M aster’s level psychologist. T h ese three were the backbone o f the Sem inars on Hypnosis Foundation, a group who traveled the country in the early and mid- 1950s to teach workshops on clinical hypnosis to professionals. In 1957 the practitioners who taught for the Sem in ars on H ypnosis Foundation were instrum ental in form ing the A m erican Society o f Clinical H ypnosis (A S C H ), and the Sem inars on H ypnosis Foundation eventually m erged into the educational arm o f the A S C H . O ther notable lecturers of the Sem inars on Hypnosis group included William Kroger, M .D ., Edward E . Aston, D .D .S ., D avid Cheek, M .D ., and Leslie LeC ron. In the 1950s the attendees at these sem inars were mostly physicians and dentists, and this book w as directed to that

FOREWORD

audience. C urrently, hypnotic practice has shifted and become' the purview of psychotherapists such as psychologists and M aster’s level mental health professionals. T h e teaching o f the Sem in ars on H ypnosis Foundation group on the Ericksonian/indirect approach to hypnosis is, however, valuable for all m edical, dental, and psychotherapeutic clinicians. In this book you will encounter fundam ental principles of Ericksonian hypnosis o f which I have listed ten important postulates: i.

Use indirection. C onsider the following passage: In contrasting [direct and indirect approaches], one might em ploy the following direct approach to the production o f hypnotic deafness: “When I count to ten, you will find yourself getting more and more deaf, until finally, at the count o f ten, you will be unable to hear anything at all.” O n the other hand, the indirect approach might proceed in this fashion: “I wonder how it feels to a person who is about to lose his hearing. I wonder if he notices the fact that sounds seem to grow very, very slightly less distinct at first, if he finds that they seem to be fading off into the distance? And I wonder if the person then sits in his chair, leaning forward toward the sound. . . .” (pp. 274- 275)

T h is indirect method m ay stand as the greatest contri­ bution that Erickson m ade to the field o f hypnosis and

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FOREWORD

psychotherapy. It deserves careful study by practitioners in all health fields. 2.

Make hypnosis interactional. M ilton Erickson invented the interactional trance. It continues to be the case that the vast majority o f practitioners o f hypnosis, even those using the indirect method, carry out their work on patients who are essentially passive. T o Erickson, trance was bilateral com m unication. H ypnotized p atien ts w ould have extensive on goin g dialogu e with Erickson. It w as presupposed that this dialogue would enhance the trance and in no way interfere with the devel­ opment o f even som nam bulistic (deep trance) states. In this book you will find transcripts that elucidate the interactional trance that w as one o f the hallm arks o f Erickson’s form al induction technique. A distinction between the m aster practitioner and the journeym an is that the m aster uses inter­ actional trance, whereas the journeym an continues to work with a relatively quiescent patient. 3.

Move in small, directed steps. R ead in g Erickson’s cases is often like reading O . H enry short stories: there is a discrete denouement and suddenly the sym ptom is resolved. H ow ever, Erickson w as m ore akin to a m aster craftsm an —he worked meticulously in small steps. By building in a directed fashion, he asked patients to do tasks that were em inently possible. After doing these m inor tasks, the patient would “suddenly” realize m ajo r change. 4.

Focus on the symptom. H ypnosis is a sym ptom atic therapy. H ow ever, it is not a superficial approach. People benefit immeasurably by gaining

FOREWORD

control of their sym ptom s. There can be a snowballing effect even from a small salutory change in a sym ptom . 5.

Have respect for the patient. A s a hum anist, Erickson recognized the fact that the therapy should focus on the patient, not on the therapist. He adm onished therapists to think, “What does my patient want to do next?” rather than to think, “What shall I, the therapist, do next?” At the sam e tim e, Erickson was suprem ely confi­ dent. H e wanted his patients to know that they could do things, such a s develop anaesthesias. Erickson’s confidence and interest in the patients’ ability to succeed was com ­ m unicated verbally and nonverbally. 6.

Recognize that hypnosis is cooperation. T h e induction o f hypnosis is prim arily the induction of cooperation. It is a way in which therapist and patient jo in forces to surm ount the patient’s difficulty. H ypnosis secures the attention o f the patient to m axim ize constructive collaboration with the therapist. 7.

Communicate precisely. Erickson admonished his students that “the hypnotist must be constantly aw are of ju st what he is saying to the subject” (p. 59 ). Erickson used com m unication with the precision o f a surgeon using a scalpel. H e focused the words, the implication o f the words, the nonverbal behavior, and the implication o f the nonverbal behavior. 8.

Utilize the symptoms. Erickson advised his stu dents to utilize sym ptom s. Carefully consider the case reported on page 326 of a child

FOREWORD

who regularly m ade squeaking noises. R ather than chal­ lenging the sym ptom , Erickson sent the boy to his room until the boy could increase the frequency o f the sound. T h at new frequency could be continued for a full day. Subsequently, it was indirectly suggested that the squeaking behavior could be increased even m ore. Within a week’s tim e, the boy discarded the habit when he realized, to his own credit, how cum bersom e it would be to m aintain. 9.

Tailor the hypnotherapy. By studying Erickson’s transcripts in this book, it will be apparent that he worked hard to individualize his approach. H e assiduously avoided cookbook approaches by cham pion­ ing the importance of individual differences: Erickson created free-form hypnosis and therapy to fit the values and the styles o f the individuals with whom he worked. 10.

Point the therapy to the future. Erickson’s approach to psychiatry was practical. H e set about helping patients to secure the best possibilities for living effectively. Promoting change took precedence over acquiring insight into an unchangeable past. C onsider the following quote: “O ne o f the purposes hypnosis and hypnotherapy should accomplish is to make plain to the patient that he has not only a past that is highly im portant to him ; he also has a present that is m ore im portant, and a future even more so than the present or the past” (p. 324). The Practical Application of Medical and Dental Hypnosis is interesting from a historical perspective. O ne can see how hypnosis has evolved in the alm ost thirty years since the

FOREWORD

original publication o f this text. While the vast majority of information contained herein is refreshingly up-to-date and eminently useful, some concepts are antiquated. For example, hypnosis is operationally defined as an increased susceptibility to suggestion. In his later work, Erickson de­ emphasized the importance of suggestion as a central concept in hypnosis. As Erickson progressed, he promoted the im portance o f identifying, accessing, developing, and utilizing strengths. Also, in some of the induction transcripts, the practitioners suggest that patients go “deeply asleep.” Modern practitioners rarely use this metaphor. This book contains a wealth o f practical information. There are commonsense tips on working with all types of clinical problems. Through actual transcripts, one can see how Erickson conducted hypnosis and taught students. Practitioners from all fields will learn not only important methods of hypnosis, but also ways to communicate with patients more effectively. October 1989

Je ffre y

K.

Z e i g , P h .D .

Director The Milton H. Erickson Foundation

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Contents

Foreword by Jeffrey K . Zeig, P h .D . Preface 1

Outline o f H istory and Theory o f Hypnotism

2

Suggestion and Hypnotizability

19

3

The Phenomena o f H ypnosis

45

4

Induction Techniques

5

iii

xiii

129

C linical A pplications o f Surgical Anesthesia

6

H ypnosis in Obstetrics

7

H ypnosis in Children

8

C linical Applications o f H ypnosis to General Medicine

3

207

217 241

267

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CO N TEN TS

9 10 11

Clinical Applications of Hypnosis to Psychiatry Hypnosis in Dentistry 359 Hypnosis in Psychology References of Interest Index

x ii

461

425 452

321

Preface

The m aterial in this book has been adapted from that pre­ sented in seminars throughout the country du ring the past several years. T h ese sem inars are conducted at the post­ doctoral level, for physicians, dentists, and psychologists. T o avoid the verbosity of the spoken word, some revisions have been made. For inductions and other techniques, the full flow of conversation has been preserved as transcribed from tapes, so that the reader may capture the entire se­ quence and interplay of events. Each of the co-authors is engaged in the active practice of his specialty. T h is fact is im portant because of the assur­ ance it gives that cases presented, techniques dem onstrated, and theoretical discussions are all based on day-to-day exp e­

PREFACE

rience rather than on any purely academ ic approach to topics or secondhand access to clinical material and prob­ lems. It is im possible to put into book form the full give and take that exists in an actual teaching situation. A good many of the considerations that will occur to the reader have been taken into account, however, in the various question and answer periods, which have served as a basis for supple­ m enting the individual approaches of the co-authors. T h ere is no adequate substitute for actual participation in an active interpersonal training situation. T h is book is not intended as a substitute and it w ill have lim ited usefulness when em ­ ployed alone. As a supplem ent to and preparation for actual training, it does serve im portant needs, not the least of which is that students can be relieved of the need for taking notes, and feel free to participate fully and actively in the training situation. Sem inars and texts can serve only as beginnings in the training of individuals for the em ploym ent of hypnosis in their specialties. Beyond that point, it is essential for each student to practice, analyze, discuss with others, and gain as extensive and intensive experience as possible. W here two or more students are close enough to meet occasionally, the interaction of experiences and outlooks will help to provide continuing training and advice, either form ally or through inform al groups. Clearly, no sem inar or single text can provide basic train­ ing for the internist, obstetrician, gynecologist, anesthesi­ ologist, dentist, oral surgeon, psychologist, or psychiatrist. It is necessary to assum e that each specialist has his basic

xiv

PREFACE

training and then to demonstrate methods and approaches by which he can apply his special training to the areas bene­ fited by the employment of hypnosis. Inevitably, the various discussions of problems in any given specialty have over­ tones that also apply to others. Each specialist who seeks to employ hypnosis is dealing with people and with the prob­ lems of human nature. Regardless of the specialty involved, people are people and certain general lessons are applicable in many fields. Since hypnosis is a psychologic technique, the more expe­ rience and knowledge its practitioners have of human na­ ture and the psychodynamics of human behavior, the more effectively they will use it. A good deal of attention has therefore been paid to the nuances of psychodynamic inter­ action. In the long run, everyone using hypnosis in the heal­ ing arts will find that he needs to gain a good deal of famili­ arity and facility in this area. If he observes the psychologic processes that are activated when he employs hypnosis, he will achieve definite gains on that basis alone. How much further he can go depends on personal incentives and sup­ plementary study of psychologic and psychiatric literature.

XV

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1

Outline of History and Theories of Hypnosis

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^ H - y p n o t i s m is as old as tim e and probably originated when man first crawled out of the prim eval mud. It has been em ployed for centuries in one form or another in all parts of the world. Prim itive societies still use the “ beat-beat-beat of the tom-tom” and ritualistic dances and tribal rites to in­ duce a trancelike state sim ilar to hypnosis. T h ere are even several hundred references to the apparent use of hypnotic­ like methods in the Bible. F or instance, the laying on of hands to obtain cures was well known during the tim e of Christ. T h e king’s "royal touch” or divine healing during the M iddle Ages is another form of hypnosis. Receptive and sug­ gestible individuals eagerly sought to have the godlike figure

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touch them and the hypnotic state was induced in a m atter of seconds. In the O rient, yoga is still another form of hyp­ nosis. Yoga uses breathing and postural exercises to effect physiologic responses in the body. T h e Greek and Egyptian priests used hypnosis over two thousand years ago in the treatm ent of various ailm ents.

Modern history T h e modern history of hypnosis began with Franz M esm er in 1773 . M esm er worked with the Jesu it priest, M axim ilian H ell, who was the royal astronom er in Vienna. T h ey used magnets in the treatm ent of several cases of hysteria. H ell thought that the magnet cured because of its physical prop­ erties, while M esm er believed that the cures were produced by a redistribution of some sort of fluid, which he called an i­ mal magnetism to distinguish it from m ineral magnetism. Later he abandoned the use of magnets, since his doctrine was continually m isunderstood. Many people thought that he attributed his cures to m ineral magnetism. M esm er later observed Father Gassner obtain cures by the laying on of hands and by m aking passes over the sub­ ject’s body. In 17 75 , M esmer expressed the opinion that G assner was using anim al magnetism without knowing it. Gassner’s bishop soon forbade any further m anipulation of this kind. M esmer then elaborated on G assner's technique. H e pos­ tulated that a fluid circulating in the body was influenced

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Outline of History and Theories of Hypnosis

by the m agnetic forces originating from astral bodies. T h e theory sounded scientific at the time. It coincided with the discovery of electricity and advances in astronomy. M esmer later contended that he, himself, had this force and that patients could be cured when the m agnetic rays flowed from his fingers. Public pressure forced him to leave V ienna, and he moved to Paris in about 1778 . T h ere, he developed a bath­ like structure, or “ b acquet," lined with iron filings and magnets. When a patient entered the bath, he “ recov­ ered” from his ailm ent. N eurotics, neglected by their wellm eaning physicians, flocked to M esm er’s salon from all over Europe. He developed a large follow ing with a very high percentage of cures. He also established a trem endous rep u ­ tation that incurred the anim osity of his colleagues. In 1784 , the French Academ y appointed a committee consisting o f Benjam in Franklin, Lavoisier the chemist, Dr. G u illotin , the inventor of the guillotine, and others to investigate Mesm er. T h e commission found that certain persons, supposedly very sensitive to anim al magnetism and capable of experi­ encing convulsive reactions when they touched trees that had been magnetized by stroking, could not tell which trees in an orchard had been magnetized unless they saw the mag­ netizing perform ed. If they were told that a tree had been magnetized, they could have convulsions when they touched it. T h e commission declared that the effects attributed to anim al magnetism were the results of im agination and de­ nounced M esm er as a fraud. He subsequently fell into dis­ repute. T h ese scientists failed to recognize, however, that

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suggestion resulting in strong rapport was actually respon­ sible for the so-called cures. Though Mesmer was discred­ ited, he actually laid the foundation for modern dynamic psychiatry. His investigations led to a better understanding of the relationship of suggestion to psychotherapy. Interest in Mesmerism was revived by Dr. Elliotson, Pro­ fessor of Medicine at University College, London, the phy­ sician who, in 1838, introduced the stethoscope to England. Dr. Elliotson was asked to resign from his college and hos­ pital appointments because of his profound interest in Mes­ meric phenomena. After his resignation, he and others car­ ried on their research on Mesmerism. They published their findings in a journal entitled Zoist. In 1841, another English physician, Jam es Braid, who had originally opposed Mesmerism, became interested in the subject. He stated that animal magnetism was not involved in the cures; that they were due to suggestion. He developed the eye-fixation technique of inducing relaxation and called it “ hypnosis.” Since he initially thought that hypnosis was identical with sleep, he used the term hypnos from the Greek word for “ sleep.” Later, after he recognized his error, he tried to change the name to mon.oeid.ism, meaning con­ centration on one idea. Th e term “ hypnosis” has persisted despite the fact that it is technically a misnomer. In 1845 Jam es Esdaile, a surgeon, working in the back woods of India, performed hundreds of major and minor surgical procedures on natives under Mesmeric anesthesia. Esdaile's book, Mesmerism in India,1 published in 1850, 1 E sdaile, James, H ypnosis in Medicine an d Surgery: O rig in a lly en title d M esm er­

ism in India. N ew Y ork : J u lia n Press, Inc., 1957.

6

Outline of History and Theories of Hypnosis

describes over two hundred and fifty surgical operations, many of them extrem ely form idable ones, such as am puta­ tions oí the leg, rem oval of huge scrotal tum ors weighing from eighty to a hundred and twenty pounds, am putation of the penis, and other com parable surgery. H e accurately described many of the phenomena of hypnosis as we know them. Even today this volum e is a valuable scientific docu­ ment. Lik e present-day investigators, he noted the dim in u ­ tion of surgical shock in his hypnotic patients. He o r his native assistants mesmerized the subjects early in the m orn­ ing and left them in a cataleptic state. Esdaile then went about his business, later return in g and swiftly operating. His cases were all docum ented and observed by local dignitaries and physicians. W hen Esdaile returned to England and re­ lated his experiences, however, he was ridiculed and ostra­ cized by his colleagues. H e went to Scotland and eventually reported many more surgical successes. It is interesting to note that he rem arked in his beautifully written book that it was difficult both to convince people of the validity of his work and to fight public opinion. T h ese words are equally true today. Concurrently, in Nancy, France, Dr. A m broise-Auguste L iéb au lt, a French physician, read about B raid ’s work and became interested in hypnosis. In order to avoid being branded a charlatan, he worked without financial rem unera­ tion. H is results were noticed by H ippolyte Bernheim, a fam ous neurologist, who taught at the medical school. Bern­ heim sent L iéb au lt a patient suffering from sciatica, whom he had unsuccessfully treated for over six years. Liéb au lt cured him with several sessions o f hypnosis. T h is interested

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Bernheim in Liébault’s work and together they treated over ten thousand patients. Bernheim wrote the first scientific treatise on hypnosis, Suggestive Therapeutics, in 1886. T h is belongs on any reading list dealing with the historical de­ velopment of hypnotism. In France, hypnosis encountered a very serious obstacle in the person of Charcot, another French neurologist, who disagreed with Bernheim's and Liébault’s ideas that sugges­ tion was the important factor in hypnosis. Charcot con­ tended that hypnosis was just another manifestation of hys­ teria. In a decade, he found only a dozen cases of "m ajor hypnotism.” His experiments were performed mainly on three subjects who were hysterics. Charcot revived Mesmer’s theory of animal magnetism and a bitter controversy raged between the two schools of thought. History has proved that Charcot was wrong and Bernheim and Liébault correct. At this time many other famous scientists such as Broca, Heidenhain, Krafft-Ebing, and others became interested in the subject of hypnotism. Freud heard of Liébault’s and Bernheim’s work and in 1890 came to Nancy. He had employed hypnosis with Breuer, a physician who was interested in using this tech­ nique on mentally disturbed individuals. Freud wanted to develop his own hypnotic techniques; he studied with Char­ cot and Bernheim. For his purposes, he found the cures too superficial and therefore abandoned the method. Freud’s rejection of hypnosis unfortunately retarded this field for over fifty years. There is some basis for the belief, however, that Freud developed his penetrating insights into human behavior and the workings of the mind from his early work

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Outline of History and Theories of Hypnosis

with hypnosis. He found, too, that hypnotism was a very helpful tool for recovering buried memories. Because o f the trem endous incidence of shellshock am ong soldiers du rin g W orld W ar I, Ernst Sim m el, a Germ an psy­ choanalyst, became interested in using hypnosis for the treatm ent of war neuroses. He developed a technique that he called hypnoanalysis. H ere for the first time the use of hypnosis was com bined with psychodynamic techniques. H adfield and Horsley, w orking independently, and later G rin ker and Spiegel d u rin g W orld W ar II, used b arb itu ­ rates to induce a state of drug hypnosis (narcosynthesis) in order to bring traum atic m aterial to the surface. D uring the last war hypnosis played a prom inent part in the treatm ent of com bat fatigue and other neuroses. T h e merger of hypnotic techniques with psychoanalysis was one of the most im portant medical developments to come ou t of W orld W ars I and II. W orld W ar I revived a great deal of interest in hypnosis in the U nited States. H ull, a psychology professor at Yale, became interested in the ex­ perim ental aspects of hypnosis. H is data and observations are described in his book, H ypnosis and Suggestibility.1 Since then many books have appeared on this subject and at present hypnosis is on the march. Several schools such as the U niversity of C alifornia, L o n g Island University, Roosevelt U niversity, T u fts U niversity, and others are teaching hypnosis in this country. T h ese are not enough, but at least a start has been made. It is gratifying that more physicians and dentists are becom ing interested in this age-old science. Recently the British M edical Associa1 H ull, C. L. Hypnosis and Suggestibility. New York: D. A ppleton-Century, 1933.

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tion, after a thorough investigation of hypnosis, decided that all medical students and physicians should be well grounded in the fundamentals of hypnotherapy, that hypnotherapy is a very valuable technique in the treatment of neuroses and for anesthesia in obstetrics and surgery. Similarly, the Amer­ ican Medical Association has recently endorsed the use of hypnosis by qualified medical practitioners.

C u rren t developm en ts In 1956 a committee of the American Medical Association met to consider how hypnosis could be integrated into med­ ical teaching and reported their findings in the Jou rn al of Septem ber 13, 1958.® A number of other leading medical journals have also published articles on hypnosis. T here are now several journals devoted exclusively to the experi­ mental and clinical applications of hypnosis, (1) The Amer2 G eneral practitioners, m edical specialists, and den tists m igh t Find hypnosis val­ uable as a therapeutic adjun ct within the specific field of their professional com ­ petence. It should be stressed that all those who use hypnosis need to be aw are o f the com plex nature of the phenom ena involved. T e ach in g related to hypnosis should be un der responsible m edical or dental direction, and in tegrated teaching program s should include not only the tech­ n iques of induction bu t also the indications and lim itations for its use within the specific area involved. Instruction lim ited to induction techniques alone should be discouraged. C ertain aspects o f Lypnosis still rem ain unknown and controversial, as is true in m any other areas o f m edicine and the psychological sciences. T h erefore, active p articip atio n in high-level research by m em bers o f the m edical an d d en tal p ro ­ fessions is to be encouraged. T h e use of hypnosis for entertain m en t purp oses is vigorously condem ned.

10

Outline of History and Theories of Hypnosis ican Journal of C linical Hypnosis, ( 2) British Journal of M edical H ypnotism , and ( 3 ) T h e Journal of Clinical and Experim ental Hypnosis, and two journ als in Spanish.

It is interesting to note that from time immemorial hyp­ nosis has m asqueraded under a m ultiplicity of labels. At the turn of the century there was the Ja n e t method of re­ laxation, the Pierce method, and the D uB ois method. M ore recently, there was Jacob son ’s progressive relaxation. At present, autoconditioning and autogenic training are very p opu lar in Germany. O ther convenient labels for hypnoanesthesia are the Russian Psychoprophylactic Relaxation and R e ad ’s N atural Childbirth. It is believed that the approach of the faith healer em ­ bodies various forms o f hypnotic suggestions. References to this method of relaxation are noted in the literature.

Theories Som e brief m ention should be made concerning the various theories o f hypnosis. In an operational definition, hypnosis may be viewed as an increased susceptibility to suggestion, as a result of which sensory and m otor capacities are altered in order to initiate appropriate behavior. T h e difficulty with most theories is that they do not separate the trance induc­ tion process from the actual phenomena resulting from the hypnotic state. T h ey are different entities. In hypnosis, the concern is with a segment or phenomenon of behavior that cannot be separated from the total realm of human behavior.

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W hether done consciously or unconsciously, man has used suggestion a n d /o r hypnosis long before he was ever aware of it. Hypnosis is a part of everyday life. Many persons have been hypnotized thousands of times, although they may not have recognized this fact. For exam ple, a fisherman sitting in his boat and fishing for several hours may find that the shim m ering and dancing of the water lulls him into a sort of reverielike state. A man may glance at his watch and make the statem ent, “ My goodness, have I been here for six or eight hours? Why, it seemed like only three or four to m e.” Any repetitious visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, or gustatory sensation can induce a state of increased sus­ ceptibility to suggestion. V erbal and nonverbal stim uli can readily produce relaxation when the stim ulus is repetitiously m aintained. Many a person has memories of sitting in a classroom while the professor droned monotonously on and on. H e may recall that there were times when his eyes got very heavy and his head began to nod, and he actually went into a hypnoidal state. T h is often merged into actual sleep. Awareness can fluctuate up and down the entire broad spectrum of consciousness. Hypnosis and susceptibility to suggestion play an im por­ tant role in everyone’s life, especially in advertising. A radio or T V com m ercial, repeated over and over again, can even­ tually become a conditioned stim ulus ultim ately affecting behavior toward the desired response. In some individuals, the hypnotic state may be an atavism, analogous to the inanim ate state of catalepsy commonly ob­ served in frightened anim als when they "freeze to the land­ scape” in order to escape detection. T h e presence of a highly

12

Outline of History and Theories of Hypnosis

evolved cortex in the hum an now makes unnecessary the various instinctive defense mechanisms, unless the individ­ ual is subjected to inordinate fear or danger. In some the atavistic tendency is closer to the surface than in others. It accounts for the fact that some individuals are readily hypnotizable while others are not. Schneck likewise believes that the state of hypnosis is a re­ turn to a very prim itive level of psychophysiologic function­ ing and is present in all living anim als, especially the hu­ man. H ypnosis can be observed throughout the anim al king­ dom. A snake hypnotizes a bird by its sinuous movements. In turn a snake can be hypnotized by stroking. Strangely enough, snakes are deaf. A ll of us have seen pictures of or heard about the flute player who "ch arm s" the snake into a sort of hypnotic-like state. A ctually, it is his to-andfro m otions that cause the induction of a hypnotic-like state in the snake. A nim al hypnosis has been well described. Anyone who has ever been on a farm knows that he can place a chicken on the ground and draw a line next to the eye closest to the ground, and the chicken will develop a tonic im m obility o f the lim bs. A butcher who puts a chicken’s head under its wing can observe the im m ediate extensor rigidity of the chicken’s lim bs. T h e chicken lies immobile. T h is is a form of animal hypnosis. It is im portant to em phasize that hypnosis is not a state of sleep. T h is is evidenced by electroencephalographic studies and tests of reflexes, circulation time, and blood pressure, which reveal themselves as identical to the w aking state but different from the sleep state of the same individual. Both

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hypnosis and sleep are altered states of awareness. O ne may merge into the other. T h e closing of the eyes, often as­ sociated with hypnosis, is used to blot out visual stim ula­ tion; as a result, there is concentration on the operator’s ver­ balizations. T h is is a common phenomenon. M usic lovers at a concert who wish to concentrate put their heads back and close their eyes to hear better. At present, conditioned reflexology, which is yet another term for hypnosis, is very p opular in the Soviet U nion. Pav­ lov, the great R ussian physiologist, is probably as well known to the R ussian scientists for his research on hypnosis as he is for his work on conditioned reflexes. Pavlov says it is true that words and ideas acquire a conditioned m eaning for us. C onditioning is only a part of hypnosis, however, and both this concept and Pavlov’s idea of cortical inhibition are really too sim ple to explain the hypnotic phenomenon. Pav­ lov also erred in his assum ption that hypnosis was a modified form of sleep. Another theory propounded by Ferenczi, the psychoana­ lyst, was that hypnosis was a regression to infancy. W here one used a perm issive technique, this was called a m a­ ternal type of hypnosis. Ferenczi believed that the indi­ vidual being hypnotized was merely regressing to infancy in a sort of dependent child-parent relationship. T h is theory is not tenable, as was pointed out by M cD ougall .3 If it were true, a woman could be expected to hypnotize only those who resem bled her mother and a m an only those resem bling his father. Hypnosis does not work that way. 3 M cDougall. W illiam . Outline of Abnorm al Psychology. N ew York:

Scribner’s Sons, 1926, pp. 132-34.

14

Charles

Outline of History and Theories of Hypnosis

R o b ert W hite thinks that the subject in hypnosis acts as the hypnotized person thinks he sh ould act. H e refers to this as “ m eaningful goal-directed strivin g.” F o r the induc­ tion of the trance, this m ight be true to some extent, b u t it does not exp lain how a child, who knows n othing ab ou t m eaningful experiences, can go into a hypnotic state and m anifest m ost o f the phenom ena o f hypnosis. N o r does it ex ­ plain how an ad u lt can be regressed to infancy or even to the age of one o r two. T h e validity of the regression can be su b ­ stan tiated by elicitation o f the Babinski reflex, which occurs only du rin g the first year o f life .4 Still another theory is Ja n e t’s, in which he contends that a part o f the personality is sp lit off to produce dissociation. T h is, too, fails to exp lain other types o f behavior m anifested in hypnotic subjects. N ot all individuals are dissociated. H ypnosis can be induced by sensory m odalities other than words, nam ely, by nonverbal, extraverb al, and intraverbal stim u li or com m unication processes. A nyone listen in g to a speaker is in two-way com m unication with the speaker, eval­ u atin g the intonation o f his voice, his gestures, his d e­ m eanor, and the listen er’s own response to all these. “ A na­ lyzers” in the brain are constantly pred ictin g o r assessing what we feel, see, or hear. T h ese “ analyzers” correct or over­ correct stim u li from w ithout and w ithin. T h ey are, as in electronics, known as feed-back m echanism s. T h e re is a con­ tin u al process o f com m unication goin g on a t all tim es b e­ tween in dividuals an d with the total environm ent. W ords and gestures and other stim u li can be interpreted only + G idro-Frank, L., and Bowersbuch, Nf. K.: "A Study o f the P lan tar Response in H yp n otic A g e Regression," J. N ew . & M en t. Dis. 10 7 :443. 1948.

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in terms of past memory experiences. Actually, hypnosis, which facilitates learning processes, becomes a very power­ ful control mechanism in the presence of good rapport, for it enables suggestions to be accepted uncritically. T h is affects responses in the organism. Finally, the basis for understanding the very nature of hypnotic responses certainly requires a knowledge of human nature. We are interested in explanations of hypnosis itself, but we are concerned even more with an understanding of how it fits into the framework of all human behavior.

16

2 Suggestion and Hypnotizability

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T h e preceding m aterial has been leading to the practical applications of hypnosis. Before this m atter can be consid­ ered, an understanding of the relationship of suggestion and hypnotizability will be required. Pertinent in this regard is a paragraph from an article written by H eron of the U n i­ versity of M innesota, entitled "P rin ciples of H ypnosis,” pub­ lished in the Southern M edical Jo u rn al. In this he says, in essence, that everyone, whether as a layman or as a profes­ sional man, spends a good portion of his w aking tim e en­ deavoring to control certain segments of the behavior of other persons. F o r exam ple, physicians and dentists are con­ cerned with those aspects of the behavior of their patients that have to do with their health. Do their patients look

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upon them in a friendly manner? D o they accept surgery when advised? Do they follow directions on the prescriptions that are written? Do they take more rest and sleep when they need it? T h ere are only a few ways in which control of behav­ ior can be attained: by mechanical means, by the use of drugs, by the use of rewards, by the use of punishm ent, by the use of reason and, very im portantly, by the use of su g­ gestion. It is suggestion that is basic in hypnosis. M any attem pts have been made to define hypnosis, both in terms of phenom ena involved and in term s of possible causal mechanisms, but no definition has yet satisfactorily answered all the questions raised by the subject matter. Bernheim advanced the concept that suggestion is the basic factor in producing and in utilizing hypnosis. Suggestions need not be of a verbal nature only. T h ey can occur at any sensory level. T h ese include, of course, the olfactory, the gustatory, the auditory, the tactile, the visual, and many others. Suggestion and hypnotizability are very highly correlated. In hypnosis, repetition is an im portant factor, as it is in many things, especially in learning. Initially, suggestion and repe­ tition can be considered of basic importance. If asked for a capsule definition of hypnosis, one might say: suggestion and repetition. Everything else that the student learns will be modification, am plification, variation, and explanation of these two basic ingredients. T o these may be added m onoedism , concentration on one idea to the exclusion of all others, as suggested by B raid, or in other words the elim ination of all external stim uli except

20

Suggestion and Hypnotizability

those needed to initiate the desired behavior. T o this we may add expectant desire, imagination, visualization, and the prestige of the operator. All these play an important part in the initial induction of hypnosis. Any one or any combina­ tion of these factors may be involved in producing the hyp­ notic state. Bernheim pointed out that there is really no marked dif­ ference between normal acts carried out in the hypnotic state and those carried out in the normal, waking state. T h e term “ normal state” might give the impression that hypnosis is an abnormal state. Actually, it is a continuum from the or­ dinary state of wakefulness. Furthermore, all the phenomena of the trance state can be demonstrated in at least a minor form in the waking state. If this is accepted, then hypnosis can be considered as the control of behavior (speaking of behavior in terms of thought and action) through suggestion. It is sometimes nec­ essary to influence patients for their own welfare, and sug­ gestion does this very well. Th e suggestions can include a variety of activity, such as the behavior or suggestions in­ volved in a mother’s singing her baby to sleep: the monot­ onous, mellifluous, repetitious sound of the lullaby, produc­ ing a soporific effect on the child. Repetitions of direct statements in advertising— Buy Bonds, Buy Bonds; Drink Sparkling Pop, Drink Spark­ ling Pop— are effective in producing the desired behavior by virtue of their repetition. In regard to one soft drink, this method of advertising has been so effective that it is one of the most widely consumed beverages in the world, not excepting water.

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Propaganda advanced by governm ent agencies and others to influence behavior falls within this category. Dentists and physicians occasionally use placebos. T h ey give them to their patients and say, “ T a k e this and it will make you w ell,” and the patient does take the placebo and it does make him well. B u t is it the innocuous medication that has accom plished this? N o, it is the suggestive therapy that has been previously mentioned. A t this point it would be well to advance some common definition o f the word “ suggestion.” W ebster defines sug­ gestion as the presentation of an idea, im pulse, or belief to the mind. However, a psychologically effective suggestion m ust not only be presented; it m ust also be accepted uncriti­ cally— not uncritically in the sense of being without any evaluation of any kind, bu t uncritically in the sense that it is reacted to favorably, and leads to initiation of appropriate behavior. T o be effective, the suggestion m ust be acted upon by the subject or patient, even if there are no logical grounds for his acceptance of the suggestion. T h u s this definition of suggestion can be reached: Suggestion is an idea that one accepts uncritically and favorably, resulting in the initiation of appropriate behavior. Before considering a few of the psychologic principles connected with suggestion, it would be desirable to dem on­ strate one physiologic phenomenon that gives a rationale for accepting a num ber of the psychologic phenomena. T h is is the Kohnstam m Phenomenon.

22

Suggestion and Hypnotizability

D e m o n str a tio n I s doctor

KOHNSTAMM

PHENOMENON

A ( dem onstrating )

D octor K has agreed to help us. D octor, will you please stand up, facing parallel to the wall and abou t a foot away from it? Feet together, heels together, toes together, shoul­ ders back, chest out, stom ach in, at the position o f attention. W ith your left hand, press it against the wall as if you were goin g to push a hole in the wall. Push hard so that you can feel the tension b u ild in g u p in your arm s, your u pp er arm , your shoulder m uscles. In twenty seconds, at the count of three, take a giant step away from the wall. ( Lapse of twenty seconds.) O ne— two— three. ( Subject steps away from wall and his left arm rises o f its own accord.) T h e re is a per­ severation o f m uscular activity in the arm which caused that to happen. D id you voluntarily help the arm go up? d o c t o r k ( su bject ) N o. d o c t o r a ( dem onstrating ) T h a n k you very much, D octor K. doctor

a

( dem onstrating )

T h e foregoing dem onstrated an entirely physiological re­ sponse. T h is may furnish a rationale for accepting the fact that such things do happen psychogenically.

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Psychological principles Many of the devices used to help patients psychologically involve the same mechanism, except that it occurs on a psy­ chologic basis. T h is leads directly into the first psychologic principle, the law of concentrated attention.

TH E

LAW

OF

CONCENTRATED

ATTENTION

T h is p rin ciple states that when spontaneous attention is concentrated on an idea, the idea tends to realize itself. When the idea involves m uscular or other motor activity, it is known as ideom otor activity. W hen the sense organs are involved, as in feeling, tem perature change, and so on, we speak of ideosensory activity. If a person holds his arm out to the side, stiffly and rigidly, with his eyes closed, and thinks to him self that there is a rope tied to his wrist, upon which someone is pullin g harder and harder to force it in front of him, the arm will gradually move toward the front without any conscious effort. T h e arm moves, and it is on a psychologic basis, without any voluntary activity. T h a t is ideom otor activity. W hen sensations are involved, such as those related to tem perature change and anesthesia, the proc­ ess is known as ideosensory activity. T h ese activities com ­ bine to form a neuropsychophysiologic reorientation and reintegration within the person, with the resultant, sensory a n d /o r m otor changes described.

24

Suggestion and Hypnotizability

T H E LAW O F R E V E R S E D E F F E C T

T h e second im portant psychologic principle involved in suggestion is C ou e’s “ law of reversed effort,” which is some­ times known as his law o f reversed effect. It says this: When the will and the im agination come into conflict, the im agin­ ation always wins. W hen one thinks that he would like to do som ething but feels he cannot, then the more he tries the more difficult it becomes. If a person were asked to walk along a twelve-foot plank placed on the floor, he would have no difficulty in doing so. B ut if the plank were placed on two chairs about twenty or twenty-four inches from the floor, he m ight have some difficulty traversing the plank from one end to the other. T h en if the plank were placed across a courtyard at the twelfth story between two office buildings, what motivation would he need to have to induce him to cross that plank? W hat happens to him? He gets up there and notices the distance from the ground. T h e n he thinks to himself, “ I m ight fall,” and then, “ I might not get across.” T h e harder he tries to traverse that plank, the more difficult it becomes for him. T h is principle will be used over and over in hypnotic induction procedures.

T H E L AW OF D O M I N A N T E F F E C T

T h e third principle is the law of dom inant effect. H ere we learn that attaching an em otion to a suggestion makes it

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more effective. Furtherm ore, a stronger em otion tends to repress or elim inate a weaker one. For exam ple, if two stu ­ dents are studying and one does not feel like studying any more, he may suggest to his friend, “ L e t’s go to a m ovie.” H e may follow this with the rem inder, “ You rem em ber the last time you studied hard before an exam you flunked?” T h e chances are that his friend will then put his books aside and say, "W ell, let’s go.”

Suggestibility Suggestibility has been described as the degree with which one readily accepts suggestions. T h is must be distinguished from gullibility, which involves the use of deceit. Erickson has described suggestibility further as a capacity, or indica­ tion of on e’s capacity, to respond to ideas, which is normal. Suggestibility is a function of normal behavior. All o f us who are norm al are suggestible. If that were not so, we would spend all our time analyzing the suggestions made to us: “ What does he mean by that?” and we would have no time left for normal, ordinary responses.

Hypnotizability W ho is hypnotizable? And who is not hypnotizable? G en­ erally speaking, although there is no statistically signifi­

26

Suggestion and Hypnotizability

cant correlation between intelligence and hypnotizability, clinical experience does seem to indicate that the more in­ telligent, the m ore extroverted, and the stronger willed the person is, the more likely he is to be a good hypnotic su b ­ ject. W hen persons say, “ I can’t be hypnotized,” a reason­ able response to that statem ent is, “ W ell, that’s very inter­ esting, but I certainly w ouldn’t brag about it.” Why not brag about it? Because those who make the poorest subjects, generally speaking, are children under the age o f six, psychotics, morons, and others of low-grade intelligence. Why should this be? T h ese persons have difficulty with monoedism , concentrating on one idea. T h e m ind of the child wanders, as does the m ind of the m oron or the psychotic. T h ey can’t hold onto ju st one idea. T h u s they find it diffi­ cult to cooperate. T h is is not to intim ate that if a person is unable to go into hypnosis, there may not be another reason for the failure. Such reasons will be discussed later. C er­ tainly, however, inability to enter hypnosis is not som ething in which to take particular pride.

Tests T h ere are various hypnotizability or suggestibility tests and the im portant ones will be described. It is im portant to note at this point that the longer one uses hypnosis and the more expert he becomes in it, the less he will use tests merely for the purpose of testing. T e sts do not really tell very much. When the reactions of an individual are positive to any of

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the tests, there is a likelihood that he will be a good hypnotic subject; if the response is a negative, all that can be inferred is that the patient has not responded to that particular test and that particular tester at that particular tim e. T h ere is nothing to indicate that the sam e individual would not respond to that test at another tim e, or to that test with an­ other tester, or to a different tester with a different test and a different tim e and a different place. Many hypnotists be­ lieve that every normal person is hypnotizable under proper conditions by a skilled operator. G enerally speaking, there­ fore, the experienced hypnotist does not bother with tests. O f course, any one of the tests may be used as the initial procedure for inducing the early stages of hypnosis, but ordinarily it is ju st as well to start with the actual induction o f hypnosis and gauge the progress of the patient without the use of form al tests. U ntil he has gained confidence, the be­ ginner can initiate hypnosis under the guise of testing, and then deepen positive responses until hypnosis is effected. If a negative response is obtained, for whatever reason, the operator can tell the patient, “ W ell, this time you did not respond to this test,” and he can use his own ju dgm en t about the value of continuing with that patient at that par­ ticular time. When this procedure succeeds, hypnosis has become an extreme o f positive response to suggestion.

HAND

CLASP

TEST

One of the commonest tests is the hand clasp. It is fre­ quently used by the stage hypnotist, who is concerned with

28

Suggestion and Hypnotizability

discovering very rapidly those who are likely to respond. A t this poin t it is worth m ention in g that the stage hypnotist d e­ liberately sets up the m isconception that he has a special pow er and with this power im poses his w ill on the ind ivid­ ual. Any experienced hypnotist will know that this is utter nonsense. N o one hypnotizes anyone else. A ll that is pos­ sible for anyone to accom plish, in spite of or regardless o f the stagin g o f the process, is to lead or gu id e the su bject into the hypnotic state. If the su b ject is unw illin g or if the su b ­ ject is unable, there w ill be no hypnosis. T h e re can be hyp­ nosis w ithout an operator, b u t there can not be hypnosis w ithout a w illing, able, and cooperative subject. W hen a patien t is w earing a rin g o r other jew elry with sharp edges, there is p oten tial danger o f injury. It is wise to have the ornam ent rem oved first. W ith this precaution, if one wishes to use the test, the procedure is roughly as fol­ lows: Clasp your hands together, interlocking the fingers. Squeeze the palms of your hands together. Close your eyes, so that you are not visually distracted and so that you can pay all your attention to these instructions that I am giving you. Now: press the palms of your hands together and try to ex­ clude all the air that is between your hands. Press the fingers tightly together against the backs of your hands, so that you can bring the palms of your hands tighter, tighter together. Feel the tips of your fingers as they press against the backs of your hands, blanching them. Your hands become so tightly clasped that you cannot tell one hand from the other. T h e harder you press, the tighter locked they become. As a matter of fact, when you try to get your hands apart, you

29

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won’t be able to. And the harder you try {Law of Reversed Effect)—the harder you try, the tighter shut they will be. At the count of three you will try, but you won’t be able to. One—two— three. Try, but you can’t.— Stop trying.— Now, though, you can do it. O f course, the same processes are involved here as with the hand against the wall. It is a physiologic and a psycho­ logic phenom enon. W hen a patient has no difficulty, it is because he has ju st relaxed his hands and deliberately tried to get them apart. If he has cooperated fully, however, the sam e thing will happen as happened with the arm muscles in the dem onstration of the Kohnstamm Phenomenon. T h ere is an enlargem ent of the knuckles, so that there is an actual physical difficulty in movem ent and a tim e lag is in­ volved before the patient can get his hands apart. B u t to the patient who does not know this physiologic factor, psy­ chologic suggestion makes it seem that the instructions have enabled him to accomplish this. A nd having accepted the sim pler instructions enables him to accept the more diffi­ cult ones, until in progression he is able to accept more com plicated instructions, such as anesthesia, age regression, negative hallucinations, autom atic writing, and the like.

EYEBALL

SET

TEST

In the same category of tests is the eyeball set test. T h e in­ structions are as follows: Sit comfortably in your chair, close your eyes and, without moving your head, look upward at a point above eye level

30

Suggestion and Hypnotizability

as if you had a coin or an object placed at your hairline. Now. w ith your eyes fo c u se d stra ig h t ahead, let your eye­ balls tilt up to where they are looking at that point at the junction of your forehead and your hairline. Next, close your eyelids tighter and tighter shut, as if I had glued them together with cement, as if I had sutured them together with surgical thread. So tightly shut that you cannot get them apart. One—two—three, try, but you can’t get them open. Stop trying.—Now you can do it. While the patient’s eyeballs are rolled up, it is physically impossible for him to open his eyelids. He doesn’t know this. In order for him to open his eyes, he is compelled to drop his eyes and then his eyelids can come apart. Through this test, a hypnotist can find out just how cooperative his patient is. With any of these tests, it is advisable to watch the patient very carefully. If it seems obvious that he is not following suggestions and will succeed in unclasping his hands, open­ ing his eyes, or meeting whatever challenge has been made, the operator says immediately, “ Stop trying,” or “ Now you can do it.” In this way, the patient finds himself following the operator’s suggestion rather than opposing it. A major objection to the use of these tests is that the myth of the hypnotist’s “ power” is thus perpetuated. T h e impli­ cation here is that hypnosis necessarily involves a dominance-submission relationship. T h e fact is that anxieties arising from such a misconception may actually contribute to a patient’s resistance to the induction process.

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APPLICATION

RELAXATION

OF

HYPNOSIS

TEST

B ecau se the a p p lic atio n o f hypnotic techniques to dentistry is based on the scientific p rin cip le that associates tension with low erin g o f the p ain th resh old and relax atio n with ra is­ in g o f the p ain thresh old, relaxatio n is one o f the m ost im ­ p o rtan t accom p lish m en ts in dentistry. It is also im po rtan t for the m edical m an. T o o often , the p atien t w ith h yp erten ­ sion , w ith em otio n al involvem ents, is told, "Y o u m u st re ­ la x ,” b u t he is n ever shown how. T h e follow in g d e m o n stra­ tion w ill show a m ean s o f re la x a tio n th at will serve several p u rp o ses: ( 1 ) to re lax the p atien t; ( 2) to increase the p ain th resh old ; ( 3 ) to gain co op eratio n for oth er things, an d ( 4 ) as a step p in gsto n e to hypnosis.

R E L A X A T IO N T E S T WITH VOLUNTEER DENTISTS

D e m o n s t r a t io n 2 :

FOUR

d o c t o r b ( dem onstrating )

We are not going to use this demonstration as a stepping stone to hypnosis. W hen I use hypnosis, you are the ones who are going to produce it. I ’ll tell you when, so ju st don’t worry about it. A patient may come to the dental office m anifesting great fear and anxiety. T h e dentist can speak as follows: “ You’re doing the very things that make it possible for you to feel pain. T h e more tense one is, the m ore easily one feels pain. But the more re­ laxed one is, the harder it is to feel pain. Physicians can teach their patients how to relax so perfectly that many of them have

32

Suggestion and Hypnotizabilily

their babies w ithout p ain , and dentists can teach their patients to relax so p erfectly that a great many o f them can have dentistry done w ithout pain, even w ithout using drugs. W ou ld n ’t you like me to show you how to relax, so that you may m ore easily elim i­ nate p ain ?’’ It is seldom that one gets a “ N o ” to that particular question, for everyone wants to learn how to relax and in this m anner patients are su p plied with the m otivation. ( T o volunteers)

L e t us all get into a com fortable position. R e la x as well as you can with your feet flat on the floor and your hands in your lap. It’s pretty hard to teach you how to relax your whole body all at one tim e, so you are goin g to be shown how to relax the various parts o f your body one at a tim e. O nce you learn how, you ’re going to be able to re lax the entire body quickly. I'd like each of you to find a spot on the ceiling. Fin d a spot to look at, keep your eyes fixed on it, and do not rem ove your eyes from the spot until the exercise is over. T h is w ill take abou t two m inutes at the most in your offices. N ext, you give the patient a rationale for keeping his eyes on the spot. I ’m asking you to keep your eyes on the spot, so that you won’t be distractcd by other visual things and you can pay attention m entally to all the things I ’m goin g to ask you to do here and now. (to volu n teer /)

I want you to relax your arm as well as you can, so that it ju st hangs heavy and lim p there, so that when I lift it, it will

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be as if you were a rag doll. A rag doll can ’t lift its arm . Fine, you’ve paid attention. T h is patient doesn’t have m uch to learn. H is arm is q u ite lim p. H e is already relaxed. (to volun teer 2)

Ju s t let yourself go real lim p. Now, there was a little lag there; did you notice it? T h e re are tensions that are keeping that arm up. Ju s t let your arm get so heavy now, really heavy. D o nothing at all to help me. T h a t ’s m uch better. Do you notice the difference? Fine! If you can accom plish it that quickly, fine. If not, let it go. (to volun teer j )

T h e re is a definite tension there; if there weren’t tension, you w ouldn’t be ab le to keep your arm up. So keep your eyes on that spot. L e t your arm get really heavy. D o nothing abou t it. M ake no effort to help it. Ju s t let it be lim p. T h in k of your arm as being a rag d o ll’s arm and do nothing at all. You feel me w orking but you want to help me. You are h elping me, but you are exercising tensions. R elaxation con­ sists of d o in g nothing. So d o nothing. Ju s t let your arm hang heavy now. D rop it on your lap now. T h a t ’s it! L e t it drop and stay dropped. J u s t let it drop. D o nothing about it. O .K . Ju s t relax as well as you can. (to volun teer 4)

Pretty good, pretty good, but there’s tension there, D octor. Ju s t let your arm drop. T h a t’s m uch better! T h a t’s pretty good now; not bad at all. N o, you see you’re liftin g your arm . L e t me lift it. Now let it drop. O .K .

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Suggestion and Hypnotizability

T h ere are various degrees of response. In w orking with a gro u p we have the advantage o f b ein g able to see the various responses individuals can make. (to volunteers)

K eep your feet flat on the floor. Rut while your eyes are glu ed on that one spot, I would like you to take a slow, deep breath and then let it out very slowly. A s you let it out, become aware o f the feelin g of com fort that there is in your abdom en. L earn how to breathe properly. Now , take an­ other slow, deep breath and hold it until I count to five before you let it out. H o ld it now. O ne— two— three— four — five. Now , let it ou t very slowly and really enjoy that nice sensation o f com fort that enters your abdom en and your chest and y ou ’ll begin to appreciate what relaxation actually m eans. I t ’s so pleasant, so com fortable. W ith relaxation comes a feeling of heaviness, of a heaviness as in sleep. As you become m ore and m ore relaxed, you becom e m ore and m ore aware of that feeling of heaviness. W hile your eyes are visually occupied, pay mental attention to the soles of your feet and as you relax more an d more, you become aware of the feeling o f heaviness in the soles o f your feet. You can think to yourself, “ My feet are becom ing heavier and heavier.’’ A s you think abou t it, they do becom e h-e-a-v-i-e-r and so you fee! it and enjoy it. A llow the patients about ten seconds between each of the follow ing suggestions as they are m ade, so that the patients can begin to feel and sense these things. O ne o f the com m on errors is to rush the suggestions. (to volunteers)

Now you can becom e aware, as you increase your relaxation, o f that heaviness creeping up into your ankles and in tim e

35

PRACTICAL

APPLICATION

OF

HYPNOSIS

into your lower lim bs. T h en that heaviness may creep up into your en tire low er body and in to the abdom en. Your whole body from the waist down may becom e h-e-a-v-y with relaxation, so pleasant, so com fortable. T h a t heaviness may creep u p into your hands and arm s, u p your chest, into your neck, your whole body from the neck down feelin g very heavy. Now, let this relaxation enter your jaws. You know that the p roper position o f the jaw at rest is with the teeth apart. A n interm axillary space is form ed. If you have difficulty in keeping the jaw s apart, you may wet your lips and that will help you keep them apart. Now som e o f you have been b lin kin g as a m eans o f defend­ ing yourselves against eye fatigue. T h a t ’s good. T h a t’s the way the body defends itself against eye fatigue. It takes tensions to keep your eyes open and it is m ore com fortable for you when there are n o tensions. D on ’t d o anything to m aintain those tensions. D on ’t fight to keep your eyes open. It will be m ore com fortable to keep them closed. If they want to closc, ju st let them close. T h a t ’s fine. Once they are closed, keep them closed. Very, very good. D on ’t fight to keep your eyes open. T h ey really want to close; you’ll be more com fortable with them closed. L et them close. T h at's fine. You d o n ’t have to spend too much tim e on the eye closing. I£ the response is too slow, ju st ask the patients to close their eyes. (to volunteers)

Now , while your eyes are closed, visualize the color black o r the color gray, or any color so that you can em pty your m inds o f thoughts. T h in k o f nothing. D o nothing. T h a t’s

36

Suggestion and Hypnolizability

the secret of relaxation, doing nothing and thinking of nothing. Ju st visualize a blankness so that you can relax in mind as well as in body. T h a t’s fine, ju st r-e-l-a-x a-1-1 o-v-e-r, in m ind and in body. T h a t’s fine. Enjoy it, breathe slowly and deeply. Now with each breath that you take, you’ll begin to feel yourself getting more and more deeply relaxed. It’s so com fortable. It’s such a desirable state to be in, deeply relaxed, as close to sleep as it’s possible to get; yet, remain conscious, hear the sound of my voice, follow my instructions and enjoy this relaxation. Now continue that breathing slowly and deeply while I talk to the m embers of the audience. A nd you can listen, but pay no attention be­ cause you will remem ber this anyway. Many dentists are satisfied to carry their relaxation or hypnosis no further than this. W hat has the dentist accomplished if he has used this procedure up to this point? F irst, with the subject’s eyes closed, he has removed from the patient’s visual range an entire host of negative suggestions which, up to this point, have made dental visits very uncom fortable to the patient. When the patient’s eyes are open, he looks at the syringe and it disturbs him. H e sees the rotary instrum ents and wonders, “ W hat’s he going to do with that?” or, “ Is it going to hurt?” or, “ I haven’t seen that before— that is ju st terrible.” W hat he does not see does not disturb him. T h e dentist removes all those negative suggestions by having the patient close his eyes. Second, by relaxing the patient, the dentist has raised his pain threshold until it becomes more difficult for him to appreciate as pain those ordinary stim uli that are regarded as painful. At this point, with a patient who has previously refused a local anesthetic, it is possible to gain his acceptance of that procedure

37

PRACTICAL

APPLICATION

OF

HYPNOSIS

by careful technique. When the patient can go into very deep hypnosis and can develop his own anesthesia, then no chemical anesthesia will be needed. T h e dentist can advise his patients that every time they come to his office they can relax as they are now relaxed. T h ey will be able to follow his instructions and distract their minds from the situation in any way that is pleasant for them. It is helpful to give them something else to think about, such as a pleasurable scene of their own choosing in which they are participants, so that they are psychologically away from the office. Now, what has happened if the patient can depersonalize him self from the situation? T h e patient who has gone to the seashore or the patient who has gone to the opera and is listening to the music with his head and feet somewhere else is not there with the body that is experiencing the tooth grinding and the surgical pro­ cedure. H e will find dentistry an enjoyable experience, enjoy­ able as he has never previously felt possible. T h e dentist will find patients com ing to his office to relax and enjoy themselves. A t home they have the children, the menu, the budget, and other problems, but in his office they can forget everything and everyone. In asking patients to alert themselves, one should instruct them to do it slowly. “ I ’m going to count to four, and I want you to orient yourself so that you are wide awake and alert, and feel comfortable and happy, having enjoyed this nice rest. Every time you come here you will be able to relax at my request or suggestion, much as you are relaxed now. Every time you come here you will be able to do it m ore quickly. You will be able to relax more deeply, to do it better, and you will find dentistry more and more enjoyable. You will not need to find it fearful at all. You will find it pleasant and com fortable.” T h e reason for taking one’s time is this: A sudden awakening

38

Suggestion and Hypnotizability

from a reverie, or n ap, may cause one to awaken with a headachy feeling. I f the patien t is given a chance to reorient him self, he usually wakens with a wide-awake, rested feeling. (to volunteers) G entlem en, you feel pleasant and com fortable. B efore I ask you to alert yourselves, I ’m goin g to test your relaxation. M ake no attem pt to help me, because if you help me one iota you are taking away from your relaxation. D on ’t do anything to change the way you feel. D o nothing to take away from your relaxation. (to volu n teer i )

W hen I test you here, let me do it. Y ou do nothing about it. O f course, this fellow was pretty well relaxed to begin with. T h e only thing that keeps his arm up is the fact that I ’ve got hold of his sleeve. W hen I let it go there was no tension at all there. (to volunteer 2) D o nothing abou t it. I ’ll do what is necessary. Fine. Ju st stay relaxed now. D oin g w onderful, w onderful. A nd this gentlem an, too, was very good to begin with, but m aybe he w ill tell you what he has accom plished by way o f learn ing to relax still m ore. (to volunteer 5 ) D o nothing abou t it. Ju s t stay deeply and com fortably relaxed. D eeply and com fortably relaxed. Let me do every­ thing. D on ’t do a thing now. Y ou see, you want to help me,

39

PRACTICAL

APPLICATION

OF

HYPNOSIS

but d o n ’t. Let me do the work. If you help me the least bit, you are taking away from your relaxation. You don’t want to do anything to change the way you feel. Let your arm feel heavy like a lum p o f lead, so that it is so heavy that you can­ not lift it. L et it feel that way. Now you see, you are doing the work, and that takes away from the way you feel. D rop your arm on your leg. T h a t’s it! L et it stay there. Ju st let it stay there, feeling heavy. T h a t’s it; you’ve got the idea now. D o you feel the difference? Let it stay heavy now. Do nothing at all. I m anipulate it. You do nothing at all— much better, much better. W onderful, wonderful. C om plim ent your patient on whatever degree of success he has been able to accomplish. (to volunteer 4)

Very fine! Enjoy the situation; enjoy the feeling of heavi­ ness. Deeply relaxed, breathe slowly and deeply, slowly and deeply. T h is individual really learned something, because there is an obvious difference in the response that he made now and the previous response. H e did very, very well. T h a t’s real relaxa­ tion; you can feel the difference. W hen there is heaviness, it is obvious; when there is tension, one can feel the tension. In a gro u p demonstration it is possible to observe the indi­ vidual differences. If we had used the first volunteer alone, we would not have learned very much, because he did n ’t have to learn very much. H e already knew q u ite a bit about relaxing. (to volunteers)

Gentlem en, I think you should all be pleased with your­ selves. You’ve done very well to be able to continue to learn

40

Suggestion and Hypnotizabilily

m ore and m ore. Each tim e you do it, you w ill do it more q u ic k ly , m o r e e a s ily , a n d r e la x m ore deeply. Any tim e you

want to, gentlem en, you can arouse yourselves— I ’ll help by coun tin g to four. O ne— two— three— four. H ere is an im portant fact. U nless suggestions are given to the contrary, no m atter how deeply you are hypnotized, you always know what is goin g on. A person in the deepest som nam bulistic state may act and behave as though he were perfectly wide awake. Y ou ’ll have difficulty som etim es in know ing when the p atien t is in a trance and when he is not. Even in the deepest hypnosis, one is no m ore unconscious than were ou r volunteers. Even in the deepest hypnosis, the su b ject could term inate the situation when he desired it as easily as could o u r volunteers. H ypnosis is different in alm ost every way from sleep. I f anything, the patient is m ore alert, m ore able to cooperate in activities, m ental o r physical, than the so-called wide-awake person.

41

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3 The Phenomena of Hypnosis

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1 n any adequate orientation to hypnosis, it is essential to clear up the various misconceptions that are prevalent. U n ­ fortunately, some of these misconceptions are held by ex­ perienced hypnotists. T h is state of affairs is hardly su rp ris­ ing in view of the mystical and confused attitudes of the early workers, beginning with Mesmer. As with any other scientific discipline, the weeding out of errors and miscon­ ceptions is a long-term process. Ever since Braid, there have been workers who showed an excellent grasp of hypnotic processes and phenomena. It was the insights provided by Freud, however, that have made it possible to develop clearer and more adequate bases for evaluating hypnosis and its applications.

45

PRACTICAL

APPLICATION

OF

HYPNOSIS

At the present stage of psychologic and psychiatric knowl­ edge, there is still substantial resistance to the insights of dynamic psychology. W ithin the realm of a dynamic orien­ tation, the field, of course, is still subject to revision.

Misconccptions about hypnosis N ot all the misconceptions about hypnosis can or need to be presented here. T h ose will be discussed which most often seem to concern prospective subjects and patients, or which serve as sources of difficulty during the induction process. Much of this m aterial can thus be used in the orientation of new subjects.

THAT

MEDICAL LEARNED

OR

DENTAL

FROM

A

HYPNOSIS

STACE

CAN

BE

HYPNOTIST

T h e first misconception has to do with the belief that m ed­ ical or dental hypnosis can be learned from a stage hypno­ tist. One can learn hypnosis in that m anner for work on the stage. If the purpose is m edical, dental, or psychological work, however, one cannot learn from the stage hypnotist. A great deal of professional study and earnest, sincere effort are prim ary requisites. T h e knowledge of hypnosis here is oriented about a patient’s needs and reactions rather than audience entertainm ent.

46

The Phenomena of Hypnosis

T H A T

H YPN O TISTS

HAVE

S P E C IA L

POWERS

A n o th er m iscon ception is to the elTect that anyone who uses hypnosis m u st have very sp ecial pow ers, sp ecial know l­ ed ge, sp ecial ab ility . A ctu ally , hypnosis is a com m on p h e­ n om enon in all h u m an liv in g. A nybody who can co m m u n i­ cate with anyone else can learn to use hypnosis.

T H A T

H Y P N O S I S

WOR KS

M I R A C L E S

A th ird m istaken idea, p revalen t a m o n g lay persons, is that h ypnosis w orks m iracles. H y pn osis d o es not w ork m iracles. It is gen u in e, honest, an d earn est d iscip lin e o f lea rn in g and effort. A n y th in g that is accom p lish ed d ep en d s u p o n w ork an d atten tio n given to the task in hand.

T H A T

H YPN O SIS

M EANS

U N CO NSCIO USN ESS

M an y persons believ e th at to becom e h ypnotized on e m ust becom e u nconscious. T h a t im pression is a very seriou s error. T h e su b je ct does n ot n eed to be u nconscious. H y p ­ n osis re q u ire s h im to u tilize his ab ility to hear, to see, to think, to u n d erstan d, and to feel in a certain d ire cted way, b u t it does not re q u ire unconsciousness. T h e h y p n o tic su b ­ je ct is a responsive creatu re and the o p e ra to r w ho em ploys hypnosis is a respon sive creatu re. N o un con sciousn ess is re ­ q u ired .

47

PRACTICAL

THAT

APPLICATION

HYPNOSIS THE

OF

INVOLVES

HYPNOSIS

SURRENDER

OF

WILL

T h ere is no surrender o f the will. H ypnosis is a dual effort, with cooperation between the subject and the operator. One does not necessarily surrender his will when he lets some­ one else drive his car, bu t there can be cooperation and there can be perm ission given for someone else to drive the car. It is a m atter of assignm ent of roles in a given situation.

TH AT

HYPNOSIS

WEAKENS

THE

MIND

T h ere is no question o f hypnosis weakening the m ind any more than there can be a weakening of the mind from or­ dinary everyday living. T h e operator lacks the power, as an operator or practitioner of hypnosis, to reach into the skull of his subject and alter the brain cells in such m anner that the m ind becomes weakened. O ne can only effect a stim ulation of the su bject’s thinking and his feeling, en­ ablin g him to function more adequately or less adequately, as the situation demands.

THAT

H YPN O TIZABILITY

MEANS

G ULLIBILITY

T h ere is a common confusion between hypnotizability and gullibility. Suggestibility may be defined as the uncritical acceptance o f an idea. By “ uncritical” is not meant any

43

The Phenomena of Hypnosis

abandonment of an intelligently critical attitude. Suggesti­ bility may be further defined as the capacity of a person to respond to ideas. In the individual’s capacity to respond there is necessarily the implication that he is utilizing all his understandings, both critical and associative.

THAT

A HI S

HYPNOTIZED

PERSON

WILL

TELL

SECRETS

Another misconception is that one will talk and tell secrets, as with drugs. Hypnosis, as already noted, is a cooperative venture. There is no undue or miraculous disclosure of secrets. Anybody who has had practice with hypnosis in psycotherapy knows how extremely difficult it is to get the patient who comes seeking therapy, who “ wants to tell you everything,” to overcome his reluctance to tell it. Hypnosis can aid him in telling what he needs to tell, but hypnosis cannot force him to tell anything that he does not wish to tell. There is a general lay misconception about the hyp­ notic subject being at the mercy of the operator. T h is is most certainly incorrect.

FEAR

OF

NOT

AWAKENING

HYPNOTIC

FROM

THE

TRANCE

One should again bear in mind the fact that hypnosis is a cooperative venture. Tw o persons are involved, two persons with perhaps divergent purposes. T h e subject goes into a

49

PRACTICAL

APPLICATION

OF

HYPNOSIS

tran ce state. T lia t su b je ct has p u rp o ses know n to that p e r­ sonality, o r p erh ap s not know n to that p erson ality. T h e r e w ill be no difficulty in aw aken in g, because the trance is con ­ tin gen t u p on the ach ievin g o f p u rp o ses an d that in clu des aw ak en in g as an in teg ral part. O n e m ay en co u n ter the p ossib ility that a given su b je ct is u n w illin g to aw aken from the trance, b u t that is the p a ­ tien t's ow n choice. P atien ts w ho want to rem ain in the trance m ay som etim es attem p t to defy the hyp n otist to aw aken them . In cases o f such recalcitran t su b jects, one sim ­ ply reverses the tech n iq u e of trance in d u ctio n . T h is m atter w ill be d iscu ssed in greater d etail in the section on “ M a in ­ ta in in g the T r a n c e .”

W ORRY

A B O U T

TH E

H Y P N O T IS T

DROPPING

DEAD

T h e q u estio n has been asked m any tim es: “ S u p p o se you hypnotize som eone an d have him in a d eep trance an d then you d ro p d ead o f heart failu re. W hat w ould h ap p e n ?” A c­ tually, o f course, if the hyp n otist w ere to d ro p d ead , that w ould term in ate any co operativ e, in terp erso n al re latio n sh ip betw een the su b je ct an d the o p erato r, an d th at w o u ld e lim ­ in ate the en tire situ atio n . T h e su b je ct w ould p ro b ab ly aw aken to find o u t why the h ypnotist w as n ot m ore a tte n ­ tive.

50

The Phenomena of Hypnosis

Defining hypnosis It is im portan t to note first o f all that, in everyday life, all persons evidence som e types of hypnotic phenom ena: the reverie, the abstraction, the ab sorption in an idea, the for­ gettin g of many things. M any an in dividual, while listen­ in g to a lecture or a sym phony, becom es so absorbed in what he is hearing that he becom es tem porarily unaw are of his su rroun din gs or o f som e p art of his su rro u n din gs: he may forget that he is sittin g on a chair; he may forget that he is w earing shoes, b u t if this is draw n to his attention, he begins to feel his feet. A ctually, he was cap ab le of feelin g his feet before this fact was m entioned, bu t he was not consciously aware of them. In ordinary consciousness one has a certain relation ship to extern alities and the total reality in which he lives. In hypnosis there is also a certain awareness o f things, b u t it is m uch m ore channeled and concentrated. T h e prim ary m ark o f the hypnotic trance is the capacity of the person to lim it his thinking and feelin g to his con­ ceptual life, to m em ory images, visual im ages, auditorysensory im ages of all sorts. It is his conceptual life, his ex ­ p erien tial life with which he tends to deal, rather than irrelevant realities existin g in his general environm ent.

51

PRACTICAL

THE

APPLICATION

OF

HYPNOSIS

TRANCE

It has already been indicated that hypnosis is not physio­ logic sleep. W hat is a trance? T h e word "tran ce” is a very handy term. It should be emphasized that a trance is a cer­ tain psychologic state of awareness that one can learn to recognize, and that it differs from the ordinary state of con­ scious awareness. T h ere are light, m edium , and deep trances. T h e kind of trance needed is one that serves the purpose for the particu­ lar patient. If the purpose is to work on some profound physiologic problem , it might be best to seek a very deep, stuporous trance. Likewise, when working on a profound psychotherapeutic problem , a very deep trance m ight be desirable. O rdinarily, for other purposes, light or medium trances will be sufficient. A m ajor difficulty for the beginner will be to recognize and accept the fact that the phenomena of hypnosis appear in light trances, m edium trances, and deep trances in rather disorderly fashion, depending on the capacity of the subject to respond. T h u s, one subject will display the phenomena typical of a deep trance in what is actually a light trance, while another subject in a deep trance will show many of the phenomena of the light trance. T h e only kind of a trance to seek is the one that serves the purposes of the particular patient or the experim ental subject. T h e beginner need not be disappointed if he has a light trance, o r a m edium trance, bu t never has a deep trance; he may obtain deep trances without recognizing them until he has had more experience.

52

The Phenomena oj Hypnosis

Separateness of trance induction and trance state

If a man takes a trip somewhere, whatever develops at his destination is independent of the trip itself. T h e trip was one thing; his activity at the com pletion of the trip is another. Sim ilarly, the induction of a trance is one thing, but the trance state itself and the utilization of it are en­ tirely different matters. T h a t is a basic reason for obtain­ ing as much practice as possible in learning how to induce a trance. Once that is learned, the student can then be con­ fronted with a m ajor problem of what he is goin g to do with a trance state. Confidence A nother im portant factor is the m atter of confidence. R e ­ cently a doctor was asked to hypnotize a subject. Everything went well until the operator asked the subject to review a book on chemistry. T h e operator d id not believe that it would be possible for the subject, who was in a very deep trance, to review a book on chemistry. T h e operator m ani­ fested that lack o f confidence im m ediately and the subject, awakened from the deep trance, asked, “ W hat’s wrong with you?’’ The importance of cooperation in hypnosis T h e im portance of cooperation in hypnosis has been men­ tioned earlier. T h e subject m ust cooperate with the hypno­

53

PRACTICAL

APPLICATION

OF

HYPNOSIS

tist and, more than that, he must in turn cooperate with the subject very completely and thoroughly. Anesthesia cannot be induced in a subject if, at the time the anesthesia is sug­ gested, the hypnotist is thinking, "B u t it won't work; I know it will not w ork.” H e will inevitably convey through the intonations of his voice and his inflections, his belief that it will not work. T h e hypnotic subject is going to be convinced by this. He is not goin g to pay attention merely to the words. He will pay more attention to the inflection. Everyone knows that a woman can say, “ W hat a beautiful h at!” and the woman wearing it looks at the speaker as though she wants to m urder her. T h e words are all right; the inflection happens to be all wrong. In the m atter of cooperation, one tries to deal with the subject as thoroughly and com pletely as possible. Rem em ­ ber that the subject is the im portant person. Orientation should focus on the subject O ne’s orientation should concern the subject, not himself. It is generally recognized that early in the practice of hyp­ nosis, when the operator tries to hypnotize someone, he is likely to think, “ W hat shall I say now; what shall I say next; ho\v can I get him to do som ething?” Actually, the hypnotist should be thinking about his subject, wondering what next the subject can do. W ould the subject like to levitate his hand? W ould he like to close his eyes? W ould he like to nod his head? In other words, the hypnotist’s thinking should always be oriented around the subject, not around the com­

54

The Phenomena of Hypnosis

plete unim portance o f what he h im self can do in the p roc­ ess of hypnotizing the subject.

RECOGNITION

OF

THE

TRANCE

T h e question will com e u p over and over again : “ H ow does one recognize the hypnotic trance?” T h e best way of learn­ ing this is to observe experienced hypnotists as closely as possible. In add ition , d u rin g practice sessions, it is essential to watch the subject carefully, because the hypnotic su b ­ ject is in contact with the hypnotist, in rap port with the operator. H e is not necessarily in rap port with a wealth of other ideas; he is respond ing to the ideas w ithin his head, rather than to externals. T h e result is that all his physical m ovem ents are altered. H is face is im m obile, ironed ou t in expression. T h e r e is a delay in his responses to external things. A subject may be told to look at the wall of the room to his left. In ordinary everyday life he w ould sim ply turn his head to face the wall, bu t in a trance he w ill turn his head and his eyes independently until both eyes and head are facing the wall. M oreover, there will be a tim e lag in his responses. H ere is an im portant thing that sh ould help in the recog­ nition o f states of hypnosis. C atalepsy is not necessarily m an­ ifested in the way ju st described. L o ok at the eyeballs and see what type o f eyeball m ovem ents the su bject is m aking. L o ok at his face and see what sort o f facial rigidity there is— the frozen face of the hypnotic su bjcct, the loss of m obility.

55

PRACTICAL

APPLICATION

OF

HYPNOSIS

L o ok at the way the hypnotic su b ject walks and the econom y o f effort he expends. Special motor phenomena M argaret M ead m ade a m otion picture study of the B a li­ nese, who em ploy hypnosis extensively in their daily life. W hen the Balinese walk across a field, they may be con­ sciously aware at the start b u t they lapse into the conscious­ ness of the hypnotic state halfway across the field. W atching these m ovies, an observer can realize that there has been a sudden change in the m otor activity o f the w alking. It is possible to recognize the exact point when the w alker drifted into an autohypnotic state. Economy of movement W atching a su bject do autom atic w riting in the trance state, one can note the econom y o f m ovem ent, the frozen face, the loss of m obility, the loss of reflexes, and the loss of swallow ing. T h e r e is a failu re to m ake involuntary re­ flex responses. F or exam ple: if som eone were to turn and suddenly speak you r nam e, there would be a tendency for the head to jerk, the sh oulders to move, or the eyeballs to move. T h e r e w ould be a m om entary hesitation of the lips, because of the response. T h e hypnotic su b ject w ould not do that. T h e r e is a certain tonicity th rough out the body that prevents the su b je ct’s do in g that im m ediately.

56

The Phenomena of Hypnosis

Time lag A nother m anifestation of hypnosis is that of tim e lag. One can suggest to the subject that his hand is going to lift, that sooner or later it is going to lift higher and higher and higher, that soon it will give a little jerk. It is a few seconds later that the jerk occurs. T h ere is a tim e lag du rin g which the hypnotic subject m entally digests and understands and puts into action the idea presented. It takes a little time for the response to be made.

Giving the subject time to respond T o o many persons work with a hypnotic subject and say, “ Now I want you to do so and so,” and expect the subject to do it immediately. A subject needs time. If one is work­ ing with a subject in a group or audience situation and one wishes the subject to become negatively hallucinated, one can tell him , “ T h e audience has left the room and there’s nobody here but you and me. T h e re really isn’t. We are all alone.” T h e subject can look out over the audience and see everybody. But when one is w illing to wait and there is no urgency that the subject develop negative hal­ lucinations immediately, when one waits a little— perhaps five or ten m inutes— the subject can look around and say, “ W here did they go? I think it’s rather rude that they all left like that, bu t at least you and I can go ahead and have a good time discussing hypnosis.” H e has had tim e for the

57

PRACTICAL

APPLICATION

OF

HYPNOSIS

psychoneurophysiologic processes necessary to blot out his perception of the visual stim uli afforded by the audience. Literalness T h ere is also a tendency for subjects to be literal in their behavior. If a subject is asked to raise his hand, he will lift it at the wrist and then perhaps lift the arm as well. Yet, in everyday life all o f us have learned that raising our hands means lifting the arm s as well. If a subject is asked, “ W ill you tell me your name?” he will respond with either “ yes” or “ n o,” and that is actually the correct response. T h is lit­ eralness in the hypnotic su bject’s behavior is especially im ­ portant. W hen it is not recognized and observed, the hyp­ notist may very well not know what the suggestions were that he actually gave his subject and will therefore be at a loss to understand the behavior which develops.

Special techniques WORDS

AS

THE

TOOLS

FOR

HYPNOSIS

O ne of the most im portant aspects o f hypnosis is concerned with com m unication or words. Any surgeon ought to know what instrum ents, sutures, and sponges he has. Sim ilarly, anyone interested in hypnosis should have some ideas of what words are, and how one com m unicates understandings and ideas to another person. A very brief illustration of

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this is the sim ple statement, “ T h e teacher says the princi­ pal is a fool.’’ T h is is an easily understood statem ent. It com ­ municates a certain idea. But how can exactly the same words be said to mean som ething that is entirely different? " T h e teacher,” says the principal, “ is a fool.” T h ere, another m eaning, completely different, is expressed. T h e use of words has not been altered; the sam e words have been used, in the same order, bu t the pause gives an entirely different meaning. When learning hypnosis, it is essential to listen carefully to what is being said to the subject, to understand why it is being said, and to make note of the inflections, the pauses, the words, and the sequence of ideas that are presented. As work progresses with subjects, their trem endous tendency to be literal will become apparent. An effort must be made to understand what hypnotic subjects understand by what is said. Prim arily, the hypnotist must be constantly aware o f ju st what he is saying to the subject.

INDIRECT

SUGGESTION

T o o many persons think that the best way of dealing with a subject is to give him direct suggestions, to order him, to command him, in order to induce or to bring about hyp­ notic phenomena. It is most im portant to recognize that the com m unication of ideas, thoughts, or feelings to hypnotic subjects can be accomplished not only by direct authority methods. It can also be suggested indirectly. For the most effective use of hypnosis, it is essential to study the hypnotic

59

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suggestions given, to appreciate the importance of indirect suggestions. One does not tell the contrary little baby, “ Go outdoors and play,” for the baby then knows it is a good tim e to stay in the house and irritate his mother. O ne wonders, instead, if there is a bird out in the back yard and the contrary little baby goes ou t there to see the bird and everybody is pleased. G ood hypnotic suggestions are not always necessarily direct. Indirect suggestions may be even more effective for indirect suggestions enlist the participation of the subject.

M AINTAINING

THE

TRANCE

Spontaneous arousing of the patient A num ber of points should be stressed. O ne of them is the m atter o f hypnotizing a patient, working with him, and having him suddenly and spontaneously rouse from the trance state. Many operators are very much at a loss when this happens. It may represent an error in their own u nder­ standing or an error in their technique, or it may represent a need on the part of the patient. T h e hypnotist must be aware of the fact that a subject can arouse at any time that he pleases, even if this does not happen to please the operator. In all work with a patient, it is necessary to bear in mind that each new procedure is a new experience for the patient. Since this is so, the question arises in his mind, "Shou ld I re­ main in a trance for this procedure?” T h erefore, in inducing a trance, it is essential to point out what procedures are go­

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The Phenomena of Hypnosis

ing to be used and to instruct the patien t that, as lon g as he rem ains in the special situation, the trance is to be m ain ­ tained unless given instructions otherwise. As p art of his interpersonal contact with the patient, the dentist in partic­ u lar sh ould m ake brief com m ent from tim e to tim e abou t the im portance of rem ain in g relaxed, should com plim ent the patient u pon the relaxation of his arm s or o f his face or of his neck. T h e trance m ust be reinforced continually. Allowing patient to arouse and go back into trance If the patient has the need to arouse, the op erator will soon find that ou t and can give a posthypnotic suggestion to the effect that the patient can arouse at any m om ent, take a look arou nd, and go righ t back into the trance. Som e p a­ tients need to have that p articu lar assurance before they can continue in a deep trance. T h u s, a dentist may extract a half dozen teeth and want to proceed to som eth in g else. T h e patient, however, wants to rouse to see how things are p ro­ gressing. Me arouses and looks around. It is a very natural inclination. If the dentist has given him the posthypnotic suggestion that he can look around and drift right back into the trance state, that is what he usually does. Lapse of patient into sleep when neglected A noth er question that has been raised is abou t the reverse sequence. A doctor will have the experience of p u ttin g his patien t into a trance, d o in g som e work, then stepp in g out of the office, com ing back and, to his su rp rise, finding the

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HYPNOSIS

patient in physiologic night-time sleep. T h is can happen, especially with children, but now and then it happens with adult patients. By stepping out of the office, by discontinu­ ing his contact with the patient, the doctor terminates the trance, but the patient feels so com fortable, so relaxed, and drowsy that he imm ediately shifts into physiologic sleep. W ith this type of patient, it is sufficient to point out that he can enjoy all the satisfactions of night-time sleep and re­ main in the trance, even though the hypnotist has discon­ tinued his contact with him very briefly to answer the phone or to step out to see another patient. It ought not to be a problem , but it should be som ething of which to be aware as a possibility. Refusal to arouse W ith patients who object to certain suggestions, the hyp­ notist is entitled to bring about other phenomena in order to achieve his purposes. Now and then he will encounter a refractory patient who flatly, absolutely refuses to arouse; probably the psychiatrist encounters these patients more often than they are seen in the other professions. In such a case, all the hypnotist needs to do is to recognize one fact: It was he who induced the trance, it was a cooperative ven­ ture, and now the patient is insisting upon continuing it. T h e hypnotist may have induced the trance by the sugges­ tions that the patient get tired, sleepy, that his eyes close, that he relax more and more, go deeper and deeper into trance. All he needs to do now is to reverse the record. “ Y ou’re deep in trance now and you do not want to arouse.

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Y ou ’re really in deep trance.” T h e patient has to agree with this. " B u t y ou ’re b egin n in g to arouse ju st a little bit, you r relaxation is d isap p earin g ju st a little. H an g onto it ju st as long as you can, b u t it’s d isap p earin g ju st a little bit at a tim e and, even though you ’re trying hard to stay in trance, you are arou sin g a bit m ore and ju st a little bit m ore, rousin g m ore and m ore and m ore.” A ll of this is the exact reversal of the procedure that was used to put the patien t into the deep trance. H e can also tell the refractory patient, " I w ant you to be sure to continue in trance. I want you to be sure to rem ain deeply in trance until you get the signal to arouse. Shall I give you the sign al now or five m inutes from now?” W hen a child refuses to go to bed on tim e, the parent can ask, "D o you want to go to bed at eight or five after eight?” T h e y certainly are goin g to choose the five m inutes after 8 : 00 . It is the p atien t’s com m itm ent of him self to arouse at a signal rather than now. Yet the operator has really pleased the patien t by lettin g him have his way, instead of forcibly co m pellin g him to follow the o p erato r’s will. T h a t is the im portant thing.

Hypnotic phenomena Before tant to and to n ature

discussing hypnotic phenom ena as such, it is im por­ add som ething to the concepts o f general orientation som e of the basic theories of hypnosis. A ll hum an is characterized by the ability to respond to ideas and

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the capacity for accepting them, elaborating them, and de­ veloping them. In hypnosis the subject is particularly re­ sponsive to ideas. T h e capacity to respond to ideas is of spe­ cial value. Every physician and every dentist knows the experience of wishing that he could talk sense to his patients. W ith the utilization of hypnotic techniques, the practitioner has the opportunity of getting a patient into a psychologic state of awareness in which he can actually listen to the ideas offered. T h e capacity to respond, to be hypnotized, merely means that there has been m anifested and developed, rather ade­ quately, our ability to listen to, to receive, and to respond to various ideas and thoughts: to a mental concept, in other words. One of the striking phenomena of hypnosis is the ability of the hypnotic subject to substitute mental ideas, visual, auditory, and tactile images for actual, concrete real­ ity. A waking person can look at a glass of water and he thinks about the glass of water in terms of a particular sili­ cate structure with HsO in it. B u t the hypnotic subject has an idea of what a glass of water looks like, of what it should be, and he can see the glass of water because he can substi­ tute his mental image for the real one. H e can actually see a glass of water that is not really there. H e is using his mental images, his memories and understandings of how a glass of water appears. T h u s, in hypnosis the subject is taught to respond to ideas and thoughts, to feelings and concepts, as well as to reality objects. T h e phenomena of hypnosis are rather extensive. Brief definitions or discussions will be given of a num ber of phe­ nomena. Every professional user of hypnosis needs to be

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aw are of the variety of experiences that he w ill encounter when he uses hypnosis in his own practice. F irst of all, the difference between the conscious m ind and the unconscious m ind. It is com m on experience to talk abou t things bein g in the back of o n e’s m ind, in the depths o f the m ind, o r in the forgotten part of the m in d; one can also readily think abou t the conscious m ind. T h o se m inds— the conscious m in d and the unconscious m in d— exist within the sam e person. T h e unconscious m in d is constantly feed­ in g the conscious m ind. It is possible to em phasize this distinction by m entioning som ething entirely unrelated. T a k e the word “ house.” J u s t to hear the word or to see it unexpectedly brings forth a flood of m em ories. Yet, where were they ju st the m om ent before? A noth er exam ple: most in d ivid uals w ould declare em ph atically that they are well aware of them selves and that they know what is goin g on, but, as m entioned before, until the in d iv id u al’s attention is specifically directed to the feel­ in g o f shoes on his feet, he is not likely to be particularly aware of them . T h u s on e’s attention can be directed to this o r to that particu lar phenom enon that has been goin g on w ithout conscious awareness. W hen u sin g hypnosis, the p articu lar phenom enon that sh ould be em ployed is this direction o f attention to things within the su bjects or patients, so that they can attend to these and be directed to utilize their own capacities to re­ spond to ideas. T h e hypnotist wants his patien t capable of resp on d in g to any idea, any concept, whether it be anesthe­ sia, m em ory, o r otherwise.

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R A P P O R T

O n e of the first co n d itio n s o f the trance state to be n oticed is that of rap p o rt. E xactly what is m eant by rap p o rt? It is that p ecu lia r re lation sh ip , e x istin g betw een su b je ct an d o p erato r, w h erein , sin ce it is a co operativ e en deavor, the su b je c t’s atten tion is d irected to the o p erato r, an d the o p e ra ­ to r’s atten tion is d irected to the su b ject. H en ce, the su b je c t ten ds to pay no atten tion to e x te rn als o r the en viron m en tal situ atio n , to resp o n d on ly to the person d o in g the hypno­ tizing.

Subject’s choice of persons with whom to be in rapport CASE

OF

MRS.

DOROTHY

P.

A medical student brought his wife in with the request that she be taught to go into a trance for hypnotic delivery. She dem anded that her husband be present. She wanted to be in rapport w it!/ him. She also brought in a form er classmate of hers, a fem ale medical student with whom she also wished to be in rapport. When she was put into a trance, she found herself in rapport with her classmate, out of rapport with her husband, and in rapport with the hypnotist. It was only consciously that she thought she wanted to be in rap­ port with her husband. T h e su b je ct alw ays has the p riv ileg e o f in c lu d in g in the h ypnotic situ atio n an y th in g that he w ants. H e also has the

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right to exclude from the hypnotic situation anything that he wishes. Transfer of rapport R ap port can be transferred from one person to another. T h u s, one could hypnotize a subject and be in complete rapport with that person, and that subject in com plété ra p ­ port with the hypnotist alone. But the hypnotist could ask the subjcct to be in rapport with someone else who, in turn, could transfer the rapport to still another individual, who could suggest a term ination of the trance with thé original hypnotist. T h e m atter of rapport is a very im portant consideration because it is based upon trust and confidence in the persons who are involved.

CATALEPSY

By catalepsy is meant that peculiar state of balanced muscle tonicity where a subject in the deep hypnotic trance is en ­ abled to rem ain in a set position for an indefinite period of time. T h u s, the su bject’s arm can be raised and it remains elevated. Catalepsy is a phenomenon that may appear in the light, m edium , deep, or stuporous trance. It should be re-emphasized here that all hypnotic phe­ nomena, in the main, do not necessarily belong to any one particular stage of hypnosis. Catalepsy can be present in the light stage and absent in the deep stage, or present in the

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deep stage, not present in the m edium stage, but present in the light stage. Each subject is a law unto himself; he m ani­ fests the various types of hypnotic phenomena in accord with his own experiential life.

IDEOMOTOR

ACTIVITY

A nother significant phenom enon is ideom otor activity. W hat is meant by ideom otor activity? A person can be sit­ ting in the back seat of a car, mentally braking_the car with the pressure of his foot on the floor until he notices that his leg is getting tired. T h en he takes his foot off the floor but, before he knows it, he may have his foot on the “ brake” again. H e may go to a football game, eager for his team to forge ahead. As he watches the game, he bends forward until he is touching his neighbor and has to apologize. A few m inutes later, he may be leaning over and touching that person again. A num ber of hypnotic techniques are based upon ideom otor activity. Som e of them will be illustrated in the text in the descriptions of hand levitation or related procedures. A nother form of ideom otor activity is autom atic writing. H ere, one offers to the subject the idea that his hand will pick u p a pencil and will write a sentence, a phrase, or a whole story, giving an account of some long-forgotten expe­ rience. As the subject gets the idea of picking up a pencil and actually writing, his arm becomes dissociated and pro­ ceeds to write freely and easily. A utom atic w riting can be

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used to advantage by the psychiatrist, physician, dentist, or clinical psychologist.

IDEOSENSORY

ACTIVITY

Ju s t as there can be ideomotor activity, so can there be ideo­ sensory activity. T ak e , for exam ple, the lover, who gazes in­ tently into the fireplace and lets the flames outline his sweet­ heart’s face, or the girl who lies on the beach, looking at the filmy clouds above and seeing a beautiful dress. Consider the patient sitting in the dental chair, who recalls that once before a dentist used procaine and made his jaw num b. He sits there with all the sensations of num bness im aginable, ju st from hypnotic suggestions. T h a t is the developm ent of ideosensory activity.

INTERRELATIONS

OF

SENSORY

EXPERIENCE

T h e visual life of the person is connected with his auditory, gustatory, and tactile life. When one induces a visual altera­ tion in the person’s experience, one is also likely to induce some auditory alterations, unknowingly. T h e various aspects of the experiential life of a person are interrelated. It is helpful to bear this in mind. When difficulty is experienced in producing, for exam ple, visual hallucinations, these can often be accelerated and prom oted by bringing about an alteration of the su bject’s auditory experience, or an altera­ tion of his sensory experience.

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HYPNOSIS

T h e dentist reports that he can have a child look at an im aginary television screen or a window with a patterned curtain on it and see things there. Because the child h allu ­ cinates things there, the child develops an anesthesia all the better. In working with hypnosis, it is im portant to rem em ­ ber that there are relationships of all the m odalities of experience.

M U LTIPLICITY SENSORY

OF

POSSIBLE

PHENOM ENA:

ALTERATIONS

T h ere can be any n um ber and variety of sensory alterations. One can produce hallucinations in the visual, olfactory, gustatory, auditory, or kinesthetic field, in any way that is desired, if the subjects are given an opportunity to vary their psychoneurophysiologic processes. H allucinations of all sorts, positive and negative, can be elicited. In positive hallucinations som ething is seen that is not there: in nega­ tive hallucinations, there is failure to see som ething that is actually present.

CASE

OF F R A N K

J.

A subject recently reported, “ I’m not really in a trance, and what I cannot understand is that I hear everything that is going on in this room. I know my eyes are shut. I know I am fully conscious. I am certain that I am not hypnotized, but why do I have the feeling that I am in the living room of my childhood home? Because I can see the walls and I

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can see the pictures and I can feel the floor with my feet, but I know I'm not hypnotized and I really am wide awake.” Frank J was actually experiencing a positive hallucina­ tion, the revivification of a past memory that was part of his mental history, his experiential history. H e was actually ex­ periencing it, while at the same tim e he had a conscious awareness of his surroundings. T h is is one exam ple of a particular type of dissociation, with a duality of conscious and unconscious functioning.

AMNESIA

W hat is am nesia? In everyday living it is possible to forget, literally and instantly, things that seem im possible to forget. It is a frequent and em barrassing experience to be intro­ duced to someone, to repeat his name, utter a few polite re­ marks, then wonder what his name is. A man stops for d i­ rections, listens very carefully, but as he turns his attention to staring off down the road, he asks himself, “ Now ju st what did he tell me?” It should be borne in mind that the hypnotic subject has had plenty of experience in forgetting any num ber of things. T h e hypnotist helping him to develop an amnesia for a cer­ tain thing is merely utilizing that capacity of the individual to forget, directing it to some one given thing. T h e best way to produce an am nesia is by distracting the su bject’s attention and then proceeding to utilize the knowl­ edge of hypnotic techniques. In the hypnotic state, the su b ­ ject can direct his attention to the forgetting of things. Often

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HYPNOSIS

in a light trance there is a tendency for the subject to forget a few o f the things that occurred. He may have the feeling that he has actually rem em bered them all, however, because he cannot rem em ber that he has forgotten some of the things. Am nesia is a common phenom enon in the trance state. In the deep trance, the subject can go into a profound hyp­ notic state and awaken from it an hour later, after a wealth of activity, and still think he has ju st entered the office. Am nesia is one of the phenom ena that tends to develop spontaneously. It may vary from time to time, according either to the purposes of the operator or the purposes that the subject wants served.

SELECTIVE

AMNESIA

Selective am nesia is still another phenomenon. H ere the word “ selective” is the im portant thing. Since there can be selective hallucinations of all sorts, it is possible to have selective amnesias: it is possible to forget the names of all friends whose first nam es begin with the letter “J , ” for ex­ am ple. A subject can single out all those persons whose first nam es begin with the letter “ J , ” and develop an amnesia for these names. O r he can develop a negative hallucination or selective blindness for everybody in the audience who has white hair. T h u s the subject can be asked to develop an am nesia for certain experiences or certain classes of experiences, for cer­ tain attitudes or for certain learnings. Since the subject is

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capable of responding to ideas in the hypnotic trance, one n eeds m erely to d ire c t the ideas to w hich the subject is to respond.

HYPERMNESIA

Ju st as there can be am nesia, so can there be hyperm nesia: the increased ability to rem em ber. It is astonishing how de­ tailed and extensive the memories can be. M em ories that belong in the rem ote past seem to be elicited with exceed­ ingly accurate detail. T h e law of parsim ony or M organ’s C anon m ust be kept in mind in dealin g with this area of psychologic functioning, however. A ll phenomena must be explained on the sim plest possible basis. One can induce a subject to rem em ber a num ber of things long forgotten, bu t one must also beware of trying to have him rem em ber im possible things. It is doubtful, for exam ­ ple, that anyone can rem em ber things that happened in ulero. T o rem em ber things, there m ust be some kind of con­ ceptual foundation. In utero sensory experiences are lim ­ ited to those of mechanical pressure. T h ey are certainly not visual, not auditory, except as transm itted in fluid waves. T h erefore, the hypnotist should not try to carry on a conver­ sation with a hypnotic subject on the level of his intrauterine life. If someone were asked what he had eaten for dinner on his fourth or even his fourteenth birthday, he might gaze at the questioner in bewilderm ent. H e might spend hours and days and weeks and months analyzing and trying to re­

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APPLICATION

OF

HYPNOSIS

member. In the hypnotic trance, he could be regressed so that he might recall completely and accurately what he had for dinner and under what circumstances on that particular birthday. Memories long considered forgotten can be se­ cured in this way, for in the hypnotic state there is no feeling about too many things having happened since. The hyp­ notic subject can direct his attention, utilize his attention, and take advantage of all the associations that are recorded in his mind to help him select specific past memories.

CASE

OF

PATRICIA

M.

A dentist recently reported the follow ing ab ou t a patient of his: Patricia, a girl in her twenties, cam e to his ofTice. She h ad n ’t had any dental work for m any years because o f an u psettin g childhood experience. A dentist had then slapped her face fo r crying until he stopped her. She subsequently developed a fear o f all dentists. Because of recent dental difficulties, she was com pelled now to com e in for treatm ent. As soon as she sat down in the dental chair, she started sh akin g and shuddering, said, “ I can't stand it in here,” and started to go into a hysterical panic. T h e dentist took her back to the reception room. W hen the girl explained what had happened, he tried to reassure her. Nevertheless, when she returned to the dental chair, she had another hysterica! episode. T h e dentist decided to put her in a trance. H e spent the tim e of the first appointm ent in d ucin g a trance, and su g­ gested an am nesia for what had happened in her childhood. H e was able to lead her back to the dental chair and to do two extractions. She cam e out of the trance prem aturely,

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however, developing another hysterical episode. Again, he took her out of the operating room and into his office, in­ duced another trance, and, this time, explained to her the importance of remaining in the trance. He took her back, did sonic more work, then aroused her sitting in the dental chair, and explained everything to her. Now she is a willing patient.

SUPPRESSION

AND

REPRESSION

It is a com m on tendency to try not to think ab ou t u n p leas­ ant things and to keep them , if possible, altogether out of the m ind. E ven tu ally, the thing that has been suppressed and kept out of the m ind becom es a forgotten thing, a m atter of repression, involuntary and beyond the conscious control of the person. It governs behavior at an unconscious level. H ypnosis can b rin g forgotten m aterial, repressions, to the foreground. It can be done by visualization or by having the patien t develop auditory hallucin ation s, tactile h allu cin a­ tions, or w hatever seem s app rop riate.

DISSOCIATION

W hat is m eant by dissociation? Several exam ples w ill serve to exp lain . T h e su bject, F ran k J , who was in his livin g room , tellin g of the scene as a child, yet statin g at the sam e time that he saw him self in front o f a group o f doctors, was show­ in g a type of dissociation. In the hypnotic trance, one can

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APPLICATION

OF

HYPNOSIS

ask a subject to dissociate and to see the self sitting on the other side of the room. CASE

OF

MISS

BURT

M iss B u rt, who had had a radical m astectom y, knew from experience that she always fainted whenever sutures were rem oved. She decided to use autohypnosis to let the surgeon take out the stitches. W hen he cam e into her room for this purpose, she asked him , “ D octor, do you m ind if I take my head and my feet and go out into the solarium ?” A s far as she was concerned, her head and feet were out in the solarium ; she was looking at the pleasant scenery there. She m erely left her body behind. All her m ental experiences, all her skin sensations, were those associated with the solarium . H er body was left behind in the room and, of course, she had no feelin g of the sutures b ein g rem oved. W hen she deem ed a sufficient tim e had elapsed, she picked up her head and feet, and returned to jo in her body on the bed. CASE

OF

SUZANNE

In a hypnotic study on color blindness, Suzanne, an excel­ lent subject, did not want to spend the tim e necessary in the laboratory. She asked very sim ply, "W hy d o n ’t you send me to my room , where I can read a book, and ju st work with my body while I go there?” In other words, Suzanne wanted a certain type o f dissocia­ tion. She was perm itted, psychologically, to go to her room and reread that book in which she was interested, while the hypnotist worked with her body in the hypnotic state

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in the laboratory. T h en later she was aroused and it was necessary to call h er b ack from h er room . It was discovered

that she had reread several of the most interesting chapters. O f course, she could not read the chapters she had never seen, but she could be interested in rereading. In her dis­ sociated state, the conscious part o f her mind was greatly absorbed with reviewing a previous bit of reading, while her unconscious m ind cooperated with the hypnotist in the matter o f developing color blindness.

D E P E R S O N A L IZ A T IO N

A person is gen erally acu tely aw are o f his iden tity, b u t he can fo rg et a b o u t h im self in certain situ atio n s. W hen som e person s go to su sp en se m ovies, they becom e e x p erie n c in g creatu res a b so rb ed in the m ovie an d all q u estio n o f p erson al iden tity is lost. In the h y p n o tic state, a su b je c t can be in ­ d u ce d to forget his p erson al iden tification . H e can actu ally be p ersu ad ed to assum e the iden tity o f others, as he u n d e r­ stan d s those oth er persons. M any in d iv id u als have h ad the ex p erie n ce o f aw aken in g sp on tan eo u sly in the m o rn in g an d o f w o n d erin g briefly ju s t w here they w ere, who they w ere, o r w here th eir feet w ere. A ll th is m ay d evelo p sim p ly from a loss of contact w ith the vario u s p arts o f the b od y in th at half-aw ake state. It is an e x a m p le of p u re d eperson alization .

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APPLICATION

OF

HYPNOSIS

SO M N A M BU LISM

By somnambulism is meant that type of hypnosis in which the su bject goes into a very deep state and presents to the observer the appearance of b ein g wide awake, b u t when one watches him, listens to him , and observes him closely, it be­ comes evident that he is really in a deep hypnotic trance. T h e behavior of som nam bulists w ill be presented in later dem onstrations to illustrate deep hypnotic phenom ena, so that the sam e m anifestations will be recognized in su bjects who are p u t into light or m edium trances. R e ad in g alone is not sufficient for gain in g concrete u nderstan din g of this or m ost other phenom ena. T h e greater on e’s practice with p a­ tients or subjects and the m ore opportun ity one has to o b ­ serve experienced operators, the b etter he will recognize, understand, and be able to utilize hypnotic phenom ena.

SUBJECTIVITY

AND

OBJECTIVITY

O ne can either be highly su bjective or highly objective in the trance state. T h u s, a psychiatric patien t can be hypno­ tized and told, “ I w ant your assistance in dealin g with a very difficult problem . I want you to see over there a man nam ed Jo h n Jon es. H e has a nam e that is the sam e as yours, but there are a lot of Jo h n Jon eses in this world. W hile you your­ self are Jo h n Jon es, there is also this other Jo h n Jo n es over there, who has a certain kind of problem . I want you, as a

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The Phenomena of Hypnosis

thinking creature, b u t not necessarily as a rem em berin g creature, to assist me in helping that Jo h n Jo n es over th ere.” O ne sim ply has the patient objectify in that hallucin ated Jo h n Jo n e s all his own problem s, having him describe that Jo h n Jo n es as a worried, anxious, fearful, phobic sort of personality, or w hatever may be app licab le to the p articu lar situation . T h e n this Jo h n Jo n es, who is a thinking creature, is asked to discuss objectively that Jo h n Jo n e s’s problem . H is personality is objectified w ithout any conscious aw are­ ness that he is looking at and exam in in g his own personality. O r, one can have him look at a hallucin ation that he does not recognize and with which he feels no kin sh ip, and he can be told, ‘ ‘T h a t person there, whose nam e you d o n ’t know, whom you cannot recognize, is goin g to suffer acute em otional distress. I want you to feel what it is, so that you can tell me w hat kind of distress that person is su fferin g.” T h u s he is asked to subjectify his own experiences for o b ­ jective evaluation.

TIM E

DISTORTION

M any individuals have had experiences centerin g arou n d tim e distortion. O ne can be sound asleep in bed, dream in g that he is clim bin g a m oun tain and that he slipp ed and fell, for m iles and m iles, for hours and hours, until finally he crashed at the bottom o f a bottom less canyon. A ctually, he fell out o f bed. It did not take very long to reach the floor, bu t in that process, at night when the dream er was asleep, that little fall from the bed to the floor seem ed an endlessly

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OF

HYPNOSIS

lon g experience. T h e r e are many records of sim ilar instances in the scientific literature. In other words, tim e can be a clock experience or a su b ­ jectiv e experience. On a cold, wet, rainy day, the bus is two m inutes late and the w aiting passenger feels that he has w aited hours for the bus to show up. T h e n on a nice, b right day he sees his girl. H e hasn’t seen her for some tim e, be­ cause he has been ou t of town, and he now has a w onderful chance to chat with her w hile he is w aiting for the bus. T h e n , of course, it seem s as though the bus appears before he has even had a chance to say hello. In actuality, the bus may be ten m inutes late. Subjectively, it is m uch too early. Su bjective tim e can be long or it can be short. A nother item that sh ould be stressed is that thought is exceedingly fast and, consciously, one can be aw are of only a sm all portion of the actual thinking one does. F or exam ple, a reader may see the word “ d o g ,” an d a wealth of m em ories o f dogs o f all sorts, b elon ging to the past or present, com e u n bidden and with great rapid ity into the m ind. In hypnosis, the feeling o f subjective tim e can be utilized an d shortened or prolonged. T h e person can be m ade aware of the wealth of his thinking when one gives him a sense o f short o r prolon ged subjective tim e. It is a com m on exp eri­ ence. T h e work that L in n C ooper d id in this regard was an o rigin al con tribution to psychologic thinking .1 1 Linn M . C oop er, M .D., and M ilton

H. Erickson, M .D. T im e Distortion in

H ypnosis. B altim ore: W illiam s and W ilkin s C om pany, 1954.

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The Phenomena of Hypnosis

CASE

OF

MISS

A N I T A A.

Erickson’s Miss A nita A is an excellent exam ple. H e worked with her for about three months, using every hypnotic tech­ n ique that he could, but found himself unable to break down her amnesia for the first twenty-two years of her life and for most o f the eight subsequent years. Every hypnotic device he knew proved of no avail. But when he used time distortion, in ju st twenty seconds o f distorted time he was able to get Miss Anita A to recover, for later narration, her entire history.2

Special considerations DANGERS

OF

H YPN O SIS

Let us consider the dangers of hypnosis. Aside from all the harm that a stage hypnotist can do in making patients resent hypnosis, there are other possible dangers. They do not de­ rive from the fact that hypnosis was used; they are rather due to oversight. There is no harm from surgery, but the sponge left in the abdomen can be a very harmful thing. The sponge does not signify that the surgery was necessarily the wrong procedure, but it represents an error. A posthyp­ notic suggestion given the patient to govern his behavior in the dental office is a parallel example. It should not be * Cooper and Erickson, op. cit., pp.

16 7 -73 .

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APPLICATION

OF

HYPNOSIS

given in such fashion that it governs his behavior outside, except within those limited circumstances where the dentist wants it for that particular purpose. CASE

OF

DR.

RUDOLPH

F.

An accidental experim ental situation will serve to illustrate this point. A physician and a dentist, both well experienced in hypnosis, were experim enting one day. Doctor F, the physician, gave the dentist a loss of the sense o f smell, so that he could smell household am m onia and have no reaction to it. A bout a year later the dentist happened to mention that he was having some trouble in the office. All the spirits of am m onia that he had purchased seemed to be absolutely flat and dead. H e had also noticed that there had been a change in the taste of his food, that he could not smell his wife’s perfum e, and that flowers were scentless, etc. As the dentist discussed this, Doctor F recalled that a year pre­ viously he had given the dentist a hypnotic loss o f the sense of smell. H e immediately corrected his posthypnotic sug­ gestion. T h e dentist’s reason for having perm itted this to continue was his own experimental-mindedness. After a year, his intellectual curiosity was thoroughly satisfied and he thought that he might as well go back to sm elling things again. H ad a physician done that with a patient, the patient might have resented it very bitterly at an unconscious level and might have kept away from the doctor thereafter; he would have been justified in doing so.

When giving posthypnotic suggestions or suggestions in­ tended to govern a patient’s behavior, the practitioner must be sure to give them in such manner that the suggestions are

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The Phenomena oj Hypnosis

limited to the purposes serving medical or dental reasons. The suggestions must not intrude into the extrapatient life of the subject or the extraprofessional life of the operator.

C O N T R O L

OF

A N E STH E SIA

Adequate control of hypnotically induced anesthesia cannot be too strongly stressed. CASE

OF

MRS.

FANNY

D.

Mrs. Fanny D , a hypnotic subject, telephoned her physician, stating that she had sprained her ankle. She said that she had a particularly busy day planned. She requested that she be given an anesthesia over the telephone, so that she could do her necessary house and yard work. She was told that there was a possibility that she had fractured the ankle and that she would be given an anesthesia to last until she got to the doctor’s office. She could reach that in half an hour. As soon as she arrived at the doctor’s, or at the expiration of the half-hour period, the anesthesia would disappear. She reported as instructed. T h e doctor diagnosed a sprain that could tolerate a reasonable am ount o f exercise. When Mrs. D called with this inform ation, her anes­ thesia was re-established. She was advised, however, that it governed only the pain developed from the ankle. If she did more than the average am ount of housework, the anes­ thesia would weaken. If she attem pted yard work, it would surely disappear. T o keep her anesthesia and do her m od­ erate am ount of housework, she had to abide by the sug­ gestions given.

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PRACTICAL

APPLICATION

OF

HYPNOSIS

M rs. D. telephoned again that night to request hypnotic anesthesia for m enstrual cram ps. She was asked whether her period was early, late, or on tim e. She stated that it was early. She was asked if she was sure it was m enstrual cram ps and how long it had been since she had had m enstrua! cram ps. She hadn’t had any for over a year. She was asked the location of the pain. She replied, “ I t ’s on the right side, but it’s a typical m enstrual cram p.” Mrs. D w-as advised that she could go to sleep and be free of all m enstrual cram p pains, but any other pains would not be covered by the suggestion. She went to sleep, slept for abou t two hours, then called back to state she had persistent, severe pain. She was given som e relief for her pain but only with the definite prom ise from her that she would see a surgeon early the follow ing m orning. She got some sleep for the rest of the night, went to see the surgeon the next m orning, and rem ained in the hospital for an em ergency appendectom y.

Suggestions must be given only for the purpose that is being served, never for any other purpose. The suggestions that are given must be explicit. CASE

OF

MISS

AMELIA

L.

M iss L walked into her psychiatrist’s office with a badly swollen jaw. H er statem ent was, “ I have ju st com e from the dentist’s. H e shot my jaw full of stuff; then he let me drive home. By the tim e I got this far, I found I was pretty wobbly, so I decided to stop in and see you and have you p ut me in a trance, because I ’ve got to get home. I have a five-mile trip to m ake in the car and I m ust get home soon. I want to go into a trance and I want the anesthesia to

84

The Phenomena of Hypnosis

continue a few days, a week, or a m onth, whatever I need.” T h e patient was dem anding, but obviously the psychiatrist’s task was not sim ply to accede to her wishes. She was given instructions to have a posthypnotic anesthe­ sia only if she drove home carefully. T h e n a furth er lim it was placed upon the anesthesia. It was to be m aintained only for a reasonable length of tim e, so far as body healing, tissue healing, etc., were concerned. She could not keep the anesthesia for her own am usem ent later. Know ing this patien t as he did , the psychiatrist realized that she was q u ite capable o f en tertainin g a posthypnotic anesthesia for her jaw for a m onth, ju st for the fun o f it, as an experim ent. M iss L was also given a further restriction upon the anes­ thesia, so that if any new or different sensation developed in her jaw , it w ould not be governed by the anesthesia. She was told that this m ight im ply the presence of a new condition, and in such event she should consult her dentist. M iss L was a hysterical person who could q u ite conceivably do harm to herself because o f her own personality patterns. T h u s the lim itations placed upon the anesthesia were designed to protect her. O ne always tries to protect the patient from the self.

Use of hypnotic aids USE

OF

RECO RD IN G S

F or developing a hypnotic techn iq ue

Records are used by some hypnotists to induce trances in their patients. In developing a hypnotic technique, it is

85

PRACTICAL

APPLICATION

OF

HYPNOSIS

often w orthw hile for the student to make a tape recording of his own voice, to listen to it, an d find ou t exactly what he says to a patient. H e needs to listen to his own voice to hear how convincing it is and to discover how he can im prove it. One physician has stated that in developing a hypnotic tech­ n ique, he wrote out thirty typew ritten pages, single spaced, of all the ideas he thought he sh ould em ploy in w orking out a verbal technique. H e then reduced the thirty pages to twenty-five, to fifteen, to ten, then to five, cu ttin g out the unnecessary verbiage, recognizing the progression of ideas and their em phasis. T h e student who has an appreciation of his own voice and of how he says things can u nderstand his own inflections better. H e can learn a great deal ab ou t hypnotic techniques with the use of the tape recorder. A dapting someone else’s language T h e question is often raised as to whether one sh ould get a ready-made script that som eone else has developed, use the sam e langu age in on e’s own voice, or develop an in d iv id­ ual script. If he uses som eone else’s script, the student should read it through, then rew rite it in sentences and paragraph s adap ted to his own literary style. It w ould also be advisable to m ake a tape recordin g of it. It is perfectly all right to follow an outlin e if the student can adapt it to his own voice, literary style, and m anner of talking, to incorporate it into his own W'ay of givin g suggestions. T a p e recordings can be very valuable in this way as a teaching m ethod.

86

The Phenomena of Hypnosis

PRACTICING

HYPNOSIS

WITH

AN

IMAGINARY

SUBJECT

A nother question may arise: W here will the student get a patient to work on, ju st to practice on? A t a sem inar re­ cently, one doctor carried out an interesting test. She was instructed to get up on the platform in front of an empty arm chair and told to imagine that she had a patient sitting there. She was advised to go ahead and hypnotize the pa­ tient. T h e instructor would sit beside her, watch her, listen to her, and be ready to criticize her. T h e doctor did an excellent jo b , hypnotizing her imaginary patient and giving him some posthypnotic suggestions. In doing this, she went into a trance, which was a good way of learning autohypno­ sis. T h e student of hypnosis can have a tape recorder in operation. H e will observe the time he spends hunting for som ething to say. T h e thing that he has ju st finished saying is usually the cue to what should be said next. In m aking the tape recording and listening to it, he can actually lull him self into an autohypnotic trance and analyze the record­ ing in the trance. In this way, he can get his ideas of how to talk to patients and how to bring about desired results. D em on stration 3 s

THE DEEP TRANCE

HYPNOTIC

Anybody can learn to go into a deep hypnotic trance. Some people learn to do it very rapidly, some very slowly. It required three hundred hours to teach one good hypnotic subject how to

87

PRACTICAL

APPLICATION

OF

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go into a deep hypnotic trance. T h e capacity o f the subject to go into a deep trance is an ab ility of the m ind to respond to ideas, to accept them, and to understand very quickly how to carry them out. Every hypnotic trance dem onstrates the responsiveness o f the m ind to ideas, thoughts, and concepts of various sorts, as well as the operation o f varying psychological m echanism s an d behavior. T h e follow ing is an illustration o f the type o f pyschological behavior that can be em ployed, even in the light or m edium trance. It is a dem onstration conducted before an audience of students: (to subject) D o you want to com e u p on the stage here? I understand that you’re a som n am bulistic subject. T e ll m e, are you wide awake or not? (Su bject nods.) Y o u ’re sure o f that? W hom do you know in the audience? Y our husband and the Jen n in gs. Anyone else? (Subject shakes her head.) May I call you by your first nam e, Ja n e ?

e ric k so n

T ran ce induction (to audience) I am goin g to ask Ja n e a num ber of questions and I am goin g to find ou t, when I ’m talking to her, how rapidly she goes into a trance.

e ric k so n

e ric k so n

(to subject)

D o you still think you’re wide awake? Y ou ’re positive of that? R eally positive? Now , tell me. You say y ou ’re sure

88

The Phenomena of Hypnosis

that you’re w ide aw ake an d I w onder if, when you n od your head “ yes,” if your head w ill shake this way when I ask the n ext qu estio n . A re you w ide awake? (L o n g pau se.) D o you know ? D o you really know if you ’re wide aw ake, or w hether y ou ’re in a trance? Y ou can think you ’re wide aw ake, ca n ’t you? Y ou can also think you ’re in a trance, b u t you really d o n ’t know. Isn ’t that righ t? Now , can you shake your head this way? C an you n od y ou r head “ yes” ? A ll right, now when I ask you, “ Is your n am e Ja n e ? ” y o u ’re g o in g to shake your head, even though you know it is Ja n e . Is y ou r n am e Ja n e ? D o you think it is? W hat is y ou r n am e? You d o n ’t know. (to audience) O n e can see there a very, very ra p id develo pm en t o f the so m n am b u listic state.

e ric k so n

e ric k so n

(to su b ject)

By the way, y ou r nam e is Ja n e . T h a t ’s all righ t. D o you w ant to keep y ou r eyes op en an d talk to me?

R a p p o rt: p a tte rn o f un conscious thinkin g e r ic k s o n

(to su b ject)

So your n am e is Ja n e and you ’re d eep asleep. Is that all right? N ow , do you know where you are? Y ou are where I am . T h a t ’s righ t. W here are we? D o you know where in Sh reveport? In the hotel? W here in the hotel are we? On the second floor. A nd w here on the second floor? In a b ig room ? O n the stage.

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PRACTICAL

APPLICATION

OF

HYPNOSIS

(to audience) W hat has ju st been dem onstrated is an exam ple of spon­ taneity in the association o f ideas. T h e subject started in Shreve­ port, in the hotel, on the second floor, in the big room, on the e ric k so n

stage. H ad I asked a person in the w aking state his whereabouts, he w ould have started his associations with where he was, o f course. T h e subject started with “ you,” defining the state o f rapport. A nd when asked, “ W here are we?” “ Shreveport. C ap­ tain Shreveport. T h e second floor. In the b ig room . O n the stage.” A n excellent, system atic association o f ideas was shown. W hen one wants to use hypnosis therapeutically, one must bear in m in d how clearly hypnotic subjects think. T h ey start with general understandings, then they com e closer and closer to an exact understanding. T o o often, the physician, the dentist, the psychologist tries to define a situation for his subject by p in poin tin g it in a very direct way. H e should instead be laying the general fundam ental, psychologic background. F or this subject, it was sufficient to define the fact that she was with me. T h a t defined a state of rapport, the relationship in the hypnotic state to me.

Spontaneous n egative hallucination (to subject) By the way, Ja n e , was I talking to aynbody? Is there anyone here but you an d me?

e ric k so n

JA N E

J u s t with you. (to audience) T h e subject has ju st stated that she was here only with m e. In other words, she has defined the rapport, dem onstrated that

e ric k so n

90

The Phenomena of Hypnosis

she has dropped all interpersonal relations with any gro u p pres­ ent. H er response was, " Ju s t with y o u ," the hypnotic situation itself. T h e group does not belong in the hypnotic situation and that is a very clear and beautiful definition o f the two situations. W hen she is in rapport with me alone, she does not hear m e talking to others. T h e tone of my voice is not such that it arouses her attention. As far as she is concerned, I cannot be talking to anybody else because she cannot conceive that there is anybody else here to talk to. She developed her spontaneous negative hallucination very quickly as a function o f the state o f rapport. (to subject) Now, Jan e , is your husband here? H e ’s not here. I ’m goin g to ask you to look straight ahead o f you. Look over in the general direction in which I raise my hand. Now what do you see? You see a room . W hat’s in the room — anything? T h ere are a lot of chairs? A re they vacant chairs? Ju st

e r ic k so n

vacant chairs. e r ic k so n

(to audience)

I cannot very well be talking to people when there are just em pty chairs. She looked around. W hat d id she see? She looked all arou n d and she saw a room . I had her look again: W as there anything in the room? W ell, what do you find in a room ? You have the general concept of furn iture and she saw chairs. Now, if I had wanted to, I could have had her see the audience, but since she had developed a negative hallucination for the audience, that was expressive o f her wish. She is desirous of working with me, rather than with the audience.

91

PRACTICAL

APPLICATION

OF

HYPNOSIS

T r a n sfe r o f in fo rm atio n fro m the con scious to the un conscious m ind ERICKSON

A re you restin g com fortably, Ja n e ? Y o u ’re feelin g rested, at ease? D o you rem em b er sp eak in g to m e earlier today? JA N E

Yes. ERICKSON

D o you know who I am ? JA N E

Yes. ERICKSON

W ho am I? Yes, I ’m D r. Erickson.

(to audience) N ow , there is an o th er in d ication . She went in to a trance, a

e ric k so n

very d eep trance. She obviou sly d id not seem to know w ho I was, especially when I raised that gently search in g qu estion . H a d I spoken to her earlier today? She really d id n ’t know, b u t actually, o f course, d id her unconscious sp eak to m e earlier today? She spoke to m e consciously. T h e re fo re she had not talked to me with her unconscious. N atu rally the u nconscious had n ot been sufficiently cu riou s a b o u t me to discover my identity. T h e know l­ edge d id exist within her conscious m in d ; she went through the process o f ab stractin g in form ation from her conscious m in d and g e ttin g it dow n into h er u nconscious m ind. T h is is the reverse o f the m ore usual procedure, w hen the u nconscious m in d puts in form ation in to the conscious m ind.

92

The Phenomena of Hypnosis

(to subject) W ell, Jan e , you are in a trance, a deep trance. Is that agree­ able to you? Is there any particu lar thing that you would like to have me do? Any particu lar experience that you would like to have? M ay I do som e o f the things that are instructive? For whom would they be instructive? T h ey m ight be instructive for you, isn’t that right? T h erefore, I w ould like to have you think over som e of the things that you’d like to have me say to you, some of the things you’d like to do for the experience of it, for the understanding that you can get. Is that agreeable? W ould you like to have m e su rprise you with som e o f the things that you can really do?

e ric k so n

P ositiv e hallucination e ric k so n

(to subject)

A ll right. W hat is your husban d’s profession? H e ’s a phy­ sician, a general surgeon. W ould you like to have an experience that can be of value to him ? T h e r e ’s som ething I ’m going to ask you to do, Jan e . D o you see that ch air right there? I want you to watch that chair. Shortly you’re going to see, down in front o f that chair, som e red open-toed shoes, with a white cross over the top. T h e y ’re open-toed, they’re high heeled, there’s a strap that fits around the heel. I want you to see those shoes. T h e n you’ll see the feet in those shoes and then you’ll see the legs extendin g up, but still that ch air will be empty. It’s an odd-looking sight, isn’t it? T h en you ’ll begin to see at knee level and there’ll be a dress covering the knees, but you won’t be able to see further than halfway u p the thighs.

93

PRACTICAL

APPLICATION

OF

HYPNOSIS

C atalep sy (to subject) Ju s t be com fortable. T h is arm can be m oved any way you want it to be. R eally enjoy watching that figure grow. Now you can see u p to the waistline o f that dress. I suppose you’d call it a p rin t dress, sort o f a gray with white figures on it. H ow does that person look? It seems to be that the legs are stretched out com fortably at rest. Any questions com e to your m ind? It looks like your dress. T h a t ’s right. If you ’ll look over to the side, you’ll see a little pearl button with a sm all pearl k nob on it. T h a t’s your dress. T h a t ’s right. Now, you'll look a little higher and you ’ll reach the shoulder level. H igher. A re you su ie that’s you? (A rm s and legs in cataleptic position.)

e r ic k so n

D issociation e r ic k so n

(to subject)

Now , if you’ll look, you’ll not only see yourself there, but you ’ll feel yourself sittin g there. H ow does it feel to sit over there? I t ’s not as com fortable over there as it is here. A re there really two o f you? T h e re m ust be two of you. You d o n ’t understand that?

94

The Phenomena of Hypnosis

R e call (to subject) A ll right, Ja n e . T h e r e ’s Ja n e over there and here’s Ja n e over here. I want som e help from you sittin g here, Ja n e . I w ant you to look at that Ja n e over there, because the one who sits over there is goin g to think about som ething, som ething that you’ve forgotten, som ething that you don ’t even rem em ber. It’s som ething that happened when she was about seven or eigh t years o f age, som ething that am used her or pleased her very m uch. O r it m ight be som e­ thing that displeased her very m uch, but it is som ething that she w ould, or you w ould, be glad to tell me ab ou t that Ja n e , som ething that that Ja n e w ould be w illing for me or for any stranger to know. I want you to watch her face as

e r ic k so n

she begins to rem em ber som ething that happened when she was seven o r eight years old. She’s goin g to get a very illu ­ m inative expression on her face, either of pleasure o r d is­ pleasure. You tell m e how her face looks. W atch it now. D on ’t miss a single phase of that expression. T e ll it to me -apidly. T h e re was a trestle that she had been w anting to walk, except her m other w ouldn ’t let her. So she d id any­ way. A nd how does she look now? JA N E

It was fun on that trestle, but she got a spanking when she got home. e r ic k s o n

W hat does her face look like now? I can ’t see it. JA N E

You can’t see it?

95

PRACTICAL

APPLICATION

OF

HYPNOSIS

ERICKSON

N o , I c a n ’t. JA N E

A little sad, you know, but it w as fun an d worth it. ERICKSON

Sad? H ow do you feel tow ard that Ja n e ? JA N E

Sh e’s a pretty go o d Jo e . e ric k so n

D oes she still look sad? JA N E

N o. ERICKSON

H ow does she look? JA N E

She ju st looks. e ric k so n

(to audience)

T h is m atter of g e ttin g a detach ed and dissociated view of oneself, this m atter o f b ein g ob jective, is well illu strated here. She can look at h erself an d see sadness an d gladn ess all at the sam e tim e w ithout really feelin g that she is p articip atin g. e ric k so n

(to subject)

H ow do you feel, sittin g here, ab o u t Ja n e over there? JA N E

A little pecu liar. e ric k so n

In w hat way d o you feel p ecu liar? JA N E

J u s t sort o f lik e there were two o f me.

96

The Phenomena of Hypnosis

Age regre ssio n (to subject) Now , suppose you watch that Ja n e over there. W hat do you think is goin g to happen to her? You don ’t know. W ell, I want you to look over there and watch Ja n e , because things are g o in g to change. She’s going to get faint and hazy an d then all o f a sudden you ’ll see her sittin g there, a seven-yearold child. D o you like her? Y ou really do? H ow is she dressed?

E R IC K SO N

JA N E

Oh, she has a cotton dress on, you know, with ruffles. e r ic k so n

A nything else, Jan e ? JA N E

Shoes. M ary Ja n e shoes. E R IC K SO N

Look at her. T e ll m e what she is thinking. Look at her! W hat is she really thinking about? She’s thinking about the rash on her arm ? I d o n ’t see that rash. W here is it on her arm ? JA N E

Both arms, from eating too many straw berries. M a told her not to. T h e straw berries were good.

D epersonalization (to subject) T h a t girl is changing. If you d o n ’t want any of this, you w on’t understand. You d o n ’t know who the girl is, but that

e r ic k so n

97

PRACTICAL

APPLICATION

OF

HYPNOSIS

little girl is the sam e little girl, only you don’t know her. T e ll me a bou t her. JA N E

I d o n ’t even know her. e ric k so n

W ell, what does she look like? JA N E

A little girl. e ric k so n

A little girl? Sh e’s ab o u t to cry and you’ll be able to guess why she’s crying. JA N E

I don't know her. ERICKSON

You don’t know her. T h a t’s right. You ju st know w hat’s in her m ind. T h a t gives you an odd feeling, doesn ’t it, to know what’s in her m ind? JA N E

N o. ERICKSON

W ell, ju st look in. Y ou ’ll see w hat’s in her m ind. W hat is she crying about? You don ’t know. Oh, she m ust have got a spanking? W hat m ade you think she got a spanking? JA N E

Because she’s crying and there isn’t anything else to cry about. ERICKSON

W ell, look into that g irl’s m ind a little b it m ore, ju st sort o f feel the way a little girl does. Now what thoughts com e into you r m ind? Look at her again and tell m e why sh e’s crying. M aybe she fell down and hurt herself? W ell, why don ’t you ask her?

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The Phenomena of Hypnosis JA N E

I did. ERICKSON

A nd what did she answer? JA N E

She won’t answer.

L ite ra l thinking (to subject) Oh yes, she w ill. Listen carefully, because she’s answering. H ear it now. She fell down on her skates? T h a t ’s what she said? H er knee isn’t skinned up. How d id she fall?

ERICKSON

JA N E

D id you fall down and skin your knees? She d id n ’t. H er feet went out from underneath her. (L augh s) (to audience) It cam e as a su rprise to Ja n e that there is anoth er way to fall. She discovered that. T h e su b ject’s behavior illustrates the e ric k so n

lim itations, the restrictions, an d the absolute accuracy with which human thinking can adhere to a single line of thought and be separate from all other lines of thought. Ja n e was actually recalling her own memory, b u t even though it was her own memory, she could lim it her th inking ab o u t her memory very, very nicely. (to subject) W ould you like to look at that girl again? W hat is she doing now? She feels better. Why?

e ric k so n

JA N E

Because it doesn’t hurt so bad. (R egression of vocabulary.)

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ERICKSON

W ho is that little girl? JA N E

I d o n ’t know her. ERICKSON

W ell, su p pose you ask her what her nam e is. H e r n am e w ill su rp rise you when she tells you. JA N E

W hat's y ou r nam e? She says Betty. ERICKSON

She said it is Betty? Y ou d o n ’t know anyone nam ed Betty? H ave you ever been called Betty? N ow you look at that girl. L o o k at her carefully. She says her n am e is B etty. N ow keep your eyes open an d watch her. D oes she still say her n am e is Betty? JA N E

She ch anged. ERICKSON

C h an ged? In what way d id she change? JA N E

I d o n ’t know. ERICKSON

W ell, she looks like you. A b o u t how o ld is she? JA N E

A b o u t eigh t. ERICKSON

W ell, why d id she say h er nam e is Betty? JA N E

I d o n ’t know . ERICKSON

W ou ld you like to find ou t why she said her n am e is Betty? W ou ld you? W e’ll d o that later.

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The Phenomena of Hypnosis JA N E

She looks kind o f like me. ER IC K SO N

O f course! T h a t’s you when you were a little girll JA N E

Sh e’s pretty snaggle-toothed. ER IC K SO N

W ere you given any nicknam es when you were seven or eight? W hat were the nicknam es? C an you tell me? You let a boy friend call you Betty? I think that is a very pretty nam e, d o n ’t you? You did then. Ja n e is a better nam e, isn't it? It still is, isn’t it?

Age regressio n E R IC K SO N

ja n

(to subject)

A ll right, now. I’m goin g to let that girl grow. W atch her. W atch her. She’s grow ing up. T e n years o ld ; then all of a sudden she’s fourteen; then sixteen. Look at her. W atch her— Eighteen— e (laughs)

E R IC K SO N

D id you enjoy watching her? H ave you ever watched your­ self grow like that before? A ll right, now close your eyes. I’m goin g to arouse you and I want you to rem em ber after­ ward everything that happened in the trance state. W ill you do that? I want you to discuss it for the audience and you ’ll do that with com fort, will you now? Now take it easily, com ­ fortably, and wake up, ready and w illing to tell the audience everything that happened in this trance state. Awakening, wide awake. N ow what do you think you’re going to do?

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(Indirect reference to posthypnotic suggestion, so that su b ­ ject may elect to have am nesia fo r the suggestion itself.) JA N E

Oh dear, I never talked with on e of these. (Indicates m icro­ phone.) I get m ike fright. D o you ju st talk into it? (T o D octor Erickson) You see, I d o n ’t need to tell them ; they already know. (L augh ter) T h ey w eren’t here, were they? Yes, they were. T h a t’s a most peculiar feeling, when you know som ebody isn ’t there and all of a sudden you know they were and they’ve been here all the tim e. M akes you feel sort of odd. It really does. I ’ve had that done to m e b e­ fore. It’s a strange feeling, b u t I was sittin g over there in that chair. H m m . . . I went all the way back (regression) when I was seven years old and w alked the railroad trestle and my m other spanked m e. It was fun though. T h e n I grew up. O h, you know I had forgotten that little boy that lived next door to m e and called me Betty. I really was pretty snaggle-toothed. ERICKSON

You actually had forgotten that little boy?

R eturn of su b ject to tran ce by re c a ll o f re g re ssio n m a te ria l JA N E

W hat was his nam e? M aybe it was George. (Laugh s) A nd I grew up. (V oice changes back into trance) W hen I was first over there, I had on this dress, but then I went back and was a little girl and then I grew u p to eighteen and you m ust have aw akened me, because I don ’t rem em ber. I

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stopped there. Did I stop there? (Amnesia for waking state.) Hmm . . . you know, I can still see her. ERICKSON

I think that the audience thinks that you’re wide awake. ja n e

M aybe I am.

R e call o f su b ject to re a lity situation (to subject) I think you’ve got a b etter understan din g than they have. Y ou ’re talk ing to the audience; you’re aware o f the au d i­ ence, bu t you’re still seeing yourself over there, isn’t that right?

ERICKSON

JA N E

T h a t’s strange, yes . . . (to audience) A nd you’ll agree she’s wide awake, won’t you? (Laugh ter)

e ric k so n

JA N E

W here d id they all com e from ? Oh my. I ’m confused! T h e re wasn’t anybody here. W hat did we d o with that little girl? So th at’s in my m ind? I can still see her.

M anipulation o f tran ce (to subject) You can still see it in your m ind?

e ric k so n

JA N E

Yes, it m ust be.

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ERICKSON

W ell, w ho is that little girl? JA N E

It was m e. ERICKSON

A n d w here are you? ja n e

I ’m at the H otel C ap ta in Shreve. ERICKSON

W here? JA N E

I ’m in Shreveport. D o you m ean what street? ERICKSON

W here are you righ t now? JA N E

O n the second floor, in the . . . I've forgotten the n am e o f the room . ERICKSON

Lakew ood? JA N E

L ak ew ood . A ll ;hose peop le. B u t they w eren't here b efore, were they? ERICKSON

W ere they? JA N E

Yes.

In d ire c t suggestion (to su b ject) Lo ok .

e r ic k s o n

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The Phenomena of Hypnosis JA N E

W here d id they go? ( W hispered.) e r ic k s o n

W here d id they go? (to audience) W here d id they go? I said “ look ” an d a ll I n eed ed to say was that on e word, in a q u e stio n in g way, in a d o u b tin g way. A n d she p icked it up im m ediately. T h e im portan ce o f the use of in ­ ton ation , inflection, the in terperson al com m u n ication lias been e r ic k s o n

discussed previously. T h e a b ility o f p atien ts to pick up a lack of confidence in the voice m ust constantly he kept in m in d.

A b ility o f su b je ct to s te e r own thoughts e r ic k s o n

(to su b je ct)

W hat are you look in g at, Ja n e ? JA N E

W hy does that little girl stay there? e r ic k s o n

W hy does that little girl stay there? M aybe sh e’s en joy in g herself. M aybe you ’d like to find ou t som e oth er forgotten m em ories that she has. Sh e’s the on e th at’s got the boy frien d who calls her Betty. W hat’s his nam e? JA N E

G eorge. e r ic k s o n

W hat is G e o rg e’s last nam e? ja n e

U h . . . G ates.

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ERICKSON

G eorge G ates. (to audience) N ow she’d com pletely forgotten his first name. She’d forgot­

e r ic k s o n

ten the incident of bein g called Betty, so she asked the little girl over there what the little boy's last nam e was. T h in k of what a circuitous ro ute her m em ory took of projectin g outw ard, then verbalizing, then gettin g the answer back, and all that is h ap ­ pen in g within her.

Autom atic w riting (to subject) H ave you ever done any autom atic w riting, Ja n e ? Yes? D o you know what autom atic w riting is? A ll right. A fter you’re awake, I want you to be very puzzled about G eorge’s last nam e, but your hand will write it autom atically. N ow go to sleep, Jan e , deeply asleep, and I want you to rouse up, ju st as you were before you cam e u p on the stage. (Im plied am nesia for a ll preceding dem onstration.) I’m goin g to talk

e r ic k s o n

to you about autom atic w riting. You will write what I ’ve told you to write (A voidance of restim ulating m em ory), but it’ll seem to you as if you’ve ju st gotten up on the stage. W ide awake. W ake up, Ja n e . W ake up, Ja n e , wide awake, com pletely awake. Is it very hard to face the audience? Are you stage struck? ja n e

A little. e r ic k s o n

Ju s t a little. W here’d the notebook com e from ? D id you b rin g it u p with you?

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The Phenomena of Hypnosis JA N E

I don ’t know. e r ic k s o n

It isn ’t yours? Does sittin g in front of an audience distress you at all? M ake you shed tears? . . . W hat’s that? ja n e

M akes me shed tears, I think. e r ic k s o n

W here’d you get the notebook? M aybe there’s a nam e on it. It is? I think it’s pretty, too. W ere you sh edding tears? N o, I don ’t really think you were. By the way, have you ever rem em bered som ething that you’ve com pletely forgotten? ja n e

W hat d o you mean? e r ic k s o n

Som ething you had com pletely, absolutely forgotten. D id you ever reach back an d get it? By the way, do you know what autom atic w riting is? You d o n ’t know what it is? You really d o n ’t. W ell, I wonder if the audience knows what it is. D on’t you think they’d like to see som e autom atic w riting? ja n e

I f they’re here. (B orderline state im plied.) e r ic k s o n

W ell, that’s another question. (Issue evaded.) D o you think they’d like to see som e autom atic w riting? T h e r e ’s a pencil. You know, very shortly som ebody is goin g to pick u p that pencil and write the nam e. T h is sounds like nonsense, but it really isn ’t. T h a t som eone will write the nam e of Betty’s boy friend. You ju st watch that pencil. Ju st watch it. Look at that pencil. A hand is goin g to reach out and pick it up and write the nam e o f Betty’s boy friend. (Su b ject has

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op po rtu n ity to depersonalize her han d com pletely, if she chooses.) W ho is Betty? Som ebody in the aud ien ce? D o you know B etty ’s boy frie n d ’s nam e? W hat is it? JA N E

G eorge. e r ic k s o n

C an ’t rem em b er the last n am e. T h o se p eop le lived n ext door, bu t you ca n ’t rem em b er it, can you? Y ou r h an d is g o in g to pick u p that pen cil an d w rite it. W atch y ou r hand. T h e han d is g o in g to pick it up. I t ’s go in g to w rite a n am e an d you w on’t know what the n am e is u n til the last letter is ja n e

w ritten. ( w rites) T h a t ’s it, tool

ERICKSON

T h a t was it. T h e m in d is an am azin g thing. F u n n y how the pen cil turn ed ou t to be on e o f those that w rites with ink that fades ou t. N ow y o u ’ll have to w rite the n am e all over again . e ric k so n

(to au d ien ce)

N o t on ly has the n am e faded ou t on the p aper, b u t the n am e has also fad ed ou t o f her m ind. e ric k so n

(to su bject)

W ou ld you like to know that nam e? JA N E

A ll right. ERICKSON

W ell, you co u ld w rite it on that blan k piece o f card b o ard . W hat’s that? O h yes, you can w rite it. D o you see it there? I t ’s h ard for m e to read it, m ixed u p with that other

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w riting. Is your husband in the audience? H old it up and ask him if there’s w riting on that card, other than yours. Is everybody gone, too? JA N E

H ow come the people are com ing and going? Why d o n ’t they stay put? ERICKSON

W ell, shall I order them to stay put? W hat’s that? T h ey ’re back now and they’ll stay put. JA N E

T h a t’s funny.

S u b ject’s defense o f suggested id ea ( n egative hallucination) ERICKSON

W hat’s funny? JA N E

D o you see some w riting on there? ERICKSON

Yes, I see some w riting there. JA N E

T h e r e ’s no w riting there. HUSBAND

Yes, there is. JA N E

W ell, what are those things? HUSBAND

T h ere's som e other, too. ERICKSON

H e’s wrong? H usbands often are. (Laugh ter.) But you m ight ask this gentlem an here if there’s addition al w riting on that.

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HYPNOSIS

H e's probably somebody else’s husband? Find out if there’s a bachelor in the crowd. L e t’s see, there’s a lady over there. She’s nobody’s husband. Ask her. JA N E

Can you see anything? WOMAN

Yes. ERICKSON

W here did you write it? Show me. JA N E

Right there. ERICKSON

Now look. (Laughter at subject’s look of surprise.) JA N E

T h a t’s turned the wrong way. ERICKSON

And the other side is blank? (to audience) Many doctors want to talk sense to a patient when they have no real understanding of why the patient makes false or contradictory remarks. T h ey will try to talk sense when they should be trying to understand the peculiar situation that makes the patient tell them something that isn’t so. H ere’s a perfectly normal person in a trance state, dem onstrating the extent to which knowledge can be kept out of the mind. T o her, all people are wrong when they say that isn’t a blank card. Everybody’s wrong. T h ere is no doubt at all in her mind. Somehow or other, she cannot see that writing. e r ic k s o n

(to subject) I think your husband was right for once! Oh, I shouldn’t let him hear this.

e r ic k s o n

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The Phenomena of Hypnosis JA N E

Oh, all men do it. E R IC K S O N

W ell, this is the one an d only tim e he’s ever been right, except that one other occasion when he said, " I d o .”

Tim e distortion to see m ovies (to subject) W hat was the last movie you attended?

ER IC K SO N

JA N E

T h e Trouble with Harry. E R IC K SO N

D id you enjoy it? Is it worthwhile seeing again ? W ould you like to see it again? W ell, ju st go to sleep, go deeply asleep. Now I want to tell you som ething. W hile you’re asleep time can change and becom e very, very slow, or it can become very, very rapid. You know, when you wait for someone, even if it's only two m inutes, if you’re an xio u s for them to com e, that two m inutes seems so-o-o-o long. Isn ’t that right? It seems as if you could have done a whole d ay’s work in that two minutes. A ll right. We all have that experience at one tim e or another and now I’m goin g to let you have the experience in a pleasant way. I'm goin g to have you see a movie, a m ovie that you’d like to see again, T h e Trouble with Harry. O ver to my right there’s goin g to be a m ovie screen. I ’m goin g to give you m ore tim e than you need to see the entire movie, m ore tim e than you need to see it from beginning to end. It w on’t start until I say S T A R T and, when I say S T O P , the m ovie will be ended, m ore than

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ended. D o you understand? It will be ju st as you saw it be­ fore, no faster and no slower. Y ou ’ll really enjoy seeing that m ovie. N ow I ’m goin g to give you ten seconds in which to d o it and that’s sufficient in your m ind to see the entire m ovie. You know that, d o n ’t you? N ow when you think ab ou t the speed o f thought, you know that ten seconds is enough to see the com plete m ovie and m ore and you’re goin g to do that, aren ’t you? W hile you are asleep turn your head slightly, open your eyes and see the m ovie screen over there. G et you r eyes accustom ed to the darkness and keep them open, because the m ovie’s ab o u t to start. D id it start? A ll right. N ow it’s ju st abou t ready to start and I’m goin g to give the sign al. N ow it's ready, ready, S T A R T I . . . STO P! N o, I d id n ’t see it. I sh ould have? D id you see it all? JA N E

Yes. e r ic k s o n

You saw it all. A nything m ore? JA N E

N o. (to audience) I had her do that to em phasize the point o f tim e distortion. It is a very real su bjective phenom enon. T h e y d o see the m ovie from begin n in g to end. In a recent dem onstration, I gave a su b ject fifteen extra seconds. A n d she saw fou r o r five extra cartoons. T h e speed o f thought is extrem ely rap id and there is no m otor behavior to slow u p the su b jective experience. N ow she has done autom atic w riting; she’s shown tim e dis­ tortion ; sh e’s uncovered m em ories, and she’s dem onstrated the e ric k so n

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capacity of the retina to become anesthetic to stim uli. She was unable to see the writing on a card. She saw the card with her own writing on it as a blank. She readily accepted the suggestion that her words had been written with a pen that had disappear­ ing ink.

Lim its to age regression H ere are the questions, answers, and discussion which fol­ lowed the dem onstration. Q U ESTIO N

I don ’t want to go into the Bridcy M urphy situation, but how far can one be regressed?

CASE

OF

LEONARD

A.

ERICKSO N

I think the best answer that I can give you from personal experience is to tell you about an excellent subject. I spent an entire day, from about eight o’clock in the m orning until four o ’clock in the afternoon, without any interrup­ tion, regressing Leonard A from the age of 19 down to infancy. I had him sitting in a chair, very carefully fixed up with pillows. It was a nice armchair, on a platform that was especially rigged for the chair. T h ose seven hours were spent regressing him, with my suggestions being built up very carefully. A t about one o ’clock he was given his last really verbal suggestion, to the effect that as he continued to sleep he would keep on going back and back and back into his infancy; just my breathing and just my touching of him would constitute a suggestion that he would get

113

younger and younger, until he was as young as he could possibly be. O f course, som e tim e in the afternoon, L eon ard had regressed beyond the stage at which I co u ld talk to him, but he could feel and he could hear me breathing. T h en , when I felt he had regressed as far as possible, while he was sittin g there acting and look in g infantile, I reached over with my loot, which was out o f his range o f vision, and touciied the trigger on the chair. T h e ch air looked as though it were a stable thing to bounce arou nd in, b u t the trigger released the chair and the chair fell back. T h e norm al reaction of a m an who suddenly found him ­ self in a chair that was fallin g back w ould be to throw out the feet and the hands in a righ tin g reflex. But this nin e­ teen-year-old su bject did not kick out his feet, nor d id he throw up his hands from where they were hanging beside him . Instead, he let out a frightened, inarticulate squaw k and wet his pants, the correct behavior for an age under one year. In his studies on infants, W atson has described the reflex behavior for a baby o f six or eight m onths as a squaw k and urination. B u t there was not only the loss o f the righ t­ ing reflex here. A worker cam e in and tested Leon ard for a Babinski. H e showed what the neurologist thought was a positive Babinski. W hen L eon ard wet his pants, showed the loss of the right­ ing reflex, and the apparen t Babinski, there was nothing I could accom plish with him for he could no longer under­ stan d me. A ll I could do was to have him cleaned u p and put to bed, and let him slowly com e out o f the hypnotic sleep and go into physiological sleep, then wake u p next day; he was o u t o f contact with me. M uch o f the night the su bject was still apparently in the in fantile state for he

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continued to wet his bed. I had a lot of apologizing to do because he blam ed the hypnosis for his bed-wetting. T h is was an experim ental su bject where we can try that kind o f work. W ith a nonexperim ental subject, one never attem pts regressions of that sort.

CASE

OF

JANINE

M.

Regression was also em ployed with another subject, Ja n in e M , a twenty-year-old nurse, who had never seen her father. A ll she knew abou t her father was that her m other had secured a divorce, moved to another state, and severed all connections with friends and relatives. T h e mo'ther had refused to give the daughter any inform ation whatsoever ab o u t her father. T h e girl was ab ou t five feet three inches tall; the m other was approxim ately the sam e height; both were brown-eyed and dark-haired. T h e m other had changed her nam e. Ja n in e M d id n ’t even know what her nam e had been originally. W hen the g irl was hypnotized, she was regressed and told to visualize herself as an infant. She was then told to pick ou t some incident and, on the screen where she visualized herself as an infant, she saw herself high up above the ground. She described a m an with reddish-gold h air and an u pper gold front tooth. She estim ated his height at six feet. She scrutinized him , observed what the m an and the baby were looking at. T h e re was a lot of noise and it looked like a parade. A fter she’d done that and I had obtained all the inform ation, she said to her m other, “ M other, I have ju st com e from seeing the psychiatrist. I know what my father looked like. H e was over six feet tall. H e was blue-

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eyed. H e had a m oustache and reddish-gold hair. H e had a gold u pper front tooth.” T h e m other replied, ‘‘N o psychiatrist ever told you that. H as your father been in town? H as he looked you up? H ow did he find you?” Ja n in e was actually ten m onths of age at the tim e her father held her in his arm s to watch the parade. T h e m other answered all the g irl’s questions, when she found her dau ghter really knew how her father looked. T h a t was a ten m onths’-old memory. T h e father had disappeared shortly after that p arad e.*

R evivification of m em ories T h a t gives you som e idea of how far back you can go, but it is a different m atter to get the p atien t really to regress to that degree. N o ten-months’-old baby could talk to me, but my patient could look at a screen and see these things. T h e y ’re merely projections of m em ories, ju st as Jane, projected herself in a certain cotton dress with ruffles, a little girl who was think­ ing happily that her nam e was Betty, when she was entertainin g that child fantasy. Ja n e was still Ja n e , sittin g here in the chair, yet still Ja n e over there, but in a different sort of way, a way that Ja n e could talk about. • M ilto n H . E rickson , M .D ., "P s e u d o -O rie n ta tio n in T im e as an H y p n o th era p e u tic P ro c e d u re ," J o u r n a l o f C lin ic a l a n d E x p e r im e n ta l H yp n osis, II, 4, O c to b e r 1954, p p . 269 272.

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T ran ce p ersisten ce and ra p p o rt Q U E S T IO N

From all appearance, when you brought her out of that trance, she appeared norm al, but she was still in a trance. W hat did you suggest for that state? E R IC K SO N

W ell, the situation is this. Ja n e cam e u p to the platform to assist me in instructing the group. She will therefore rem ain in rapport with me and be very acutely aware of and alert to anything that I say to her. As soon as the dem onstrating situation is broken up, she will be in the ordinary waking state. But as long as she is on the stage before the audience, assisting me, she will rem ain in a trance, no m atter how wide awake she seems to be. T h e sam e w ould be true of any m em ber of an audience who is a good som nam bulistic subject.

Suggested a lte ra tio n o f sen se o f taste Q U E ST IO N

Can you dem onstrate a change in the sense o f taste? ER IC K SO N

I will dem onstrate it with Ja n e . (T o subject.) A ll right, Ja n e . Look at me. Y ou ’re still asleep, aren ’t you? Now the audience is here; you’re aware o f it. You ju st saw me drink a glass of water, d id n ’t you? I w ould like to have you drink a glass of water, too. W ou ld you like to? It's nice and cold and refreshing, but after the first three swallows you’re

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going to find that it is very bitter. I want you to describe that bitterness. W ill you? A ll right. ja n e

You gave me som e water. It was bitter. ERICKSO N

W hat did I put in it? W hat did it taste like? JA N E

Strange. ERICKSO N

G o ahead. If I gave you green persimmons to drink— go ahead and use the handkerchief. It was awful? How would you like to try this glass? JA N E

Is this one all right? ERICKSO N

W ell, you find out. You had only two sips. T ak e another. T h a t was nasty, too? W ell, I ’ll give you a glass to take the bad taste away. It’ll be very delicious and you’ll enjoy it. W hat did that taste like? JA N E

Better. It was decent water.

P rep aratio n of somnambules Q U ESTIO N

H ad you prepared her for this beforehand? ERICKSO N

I was introduced to her last night. T h is m orning I walked in and recognized her. I sat down at her table, but spent most of my time talking to another doctor there. T h a t’s the preparation she has had. She is a remarkably good subject.

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The Phenomena of Hypnosis

R efusal to dem onstrate panic reaction fo r subject protection Q U ESTIO N

Could you demonstrate a panic reaction, or would that take too long? ERICKSON

W ell, to demonstrate a panic reaction is a rather painful thing. I never like to induce a panic unless there is an im m ediate gain. For exam ple, I recently induced a panic state in an expectant mother. I did it for a very definite reason. Often, when the head hits the perineum , the patient reacts with a panic response. Knowing this patient as I did, and knowing her capacity to develop shock responses, I let her develop a panic and then let her discover that a panic could be handled, dealt with and resolved, so that when she does have her baby, she will not get a shock response when the head reaches the perineum . I don’t think there would be any object in producing a panic in Jan e. It’s a rather shaking experience and would not be instructive in any way.

Posthypnotic hallucination QUESTION

How about posthypnotic hallucinations, like a photograph or a picture on the wall when you wake her up? e r i c k s o n (to subject) Jan e, after you’re awake and down in the audience, do you

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m ind being a bit em barrassed by that powerful orangecolored tie that your husband is wearing? H e really ought to have better taste. JA N E

I ’m goin g to throw that one away. e r ic k so n

You are, are you? I wonder why he put that one on today. T o irritate you? I w ouldn’t be surprised. H usbands are that way. H e knew you d id n ’t like it. ja n e

H e wasn’t goin g to be bossed arou nd by me. e r ic k so n

You know, some people won’t ever learn to take advice about their clothes. ja n e

He does pretty well m ost o f the tim e. E R IC K SO N

T h e r e ’s nothing like com ing to his defense, but that orange tie— you ju st d o n ’t like it. Shall we let him wear it very long, for the rest of today? JA N E

I let him do those things once in a while, so he won’t fee! henpecked.

In d irect induction E R IC K SO N

(to su b ject)

You know, that’s the think he isn’t being. to hypnotize, but not hypnotized. A re you

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best way to henpeck a man. L et him It’s a good hypnotic technique, too, to let them know they’re really being going to start looking at m e with a

The Phenomena of Hypnosis

sidelong glance after that com m ent? Any other— what’s that? JA N E

You did it to me. E R IC K SO N

T h a t ’s right. I did it to you. Now I think we can give Ja n e a rest. T h a n k you very much for h elping us, Ja n e . You were a w onderful subject.

H andling of con flicts Q U E ST IO N

When you discover a conflict, what steps do you take to rem ove it? D o you suggest am nesia, or d o you have some other solution? E R IC K SO N

W hen I discover a conflict by hypnosis, I usually leave it untouched and walk arou nd it until I find out what it is and som ething about its nature and character. 1 m ight try to deal with it, later, but first I try to ou tlin e it w ithout getting the patien t at all disturbed by that conflict.

Loss o f contact with patient Q U EST IO N

R egard in g loss of contact with a patient at a certain depth, would you care to com m ent on that? E R IC K SO N

Yes, I lost contact with a patien t not long ago. I asked this patient to recall a m em ory. It was a very general memory

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about the tim e she was approxim ately sixteen years old. She started thinking about it. T h en , since she was qu ite a good subject, she slipp ed into a very deep trance while she was trying to recall it. She regressed to the age o f sixteen and found herself at a cam p in M aine. (T h is occurred in Phoenix.) She hadn’t m et me at the age o f sixteen. She’d never heard of Phoenix at that age. T h e re she was at the cam p, looking arou n d to find o u t what had happened to the other cam pers. She looked arou n d for q u ite a while. O f course, she couldn ’t hear me, because I wasn’t there. I was com pletely out of contact with her. Fortunately, at the tim e we were m aking a tape recording for som e research and I started to talk, gradually m aking references to the things I already knew abou t her and very shortly I had re­ established contact with her. H ad I established a physical contact, it w ould have been m uch easier, b u t she had taken me by surprise. A nother way I m ight have gotten in contact with her w ould have been to violate her rights an d priv­ ileges as an in dividual. She happened to be sittin g with her hand raised and I could have jerk ed her hand down rudely. O r I could have pushed her, which w ould have m ade her look arou n d and com e out o f the trance, but she certainly would have resented these things had I done them.

D uration o f posthypnotic suggestion s QUESTION

H ow lon g can posthypnotic suggestions rem ain effective? ERICKSON

I gave a posthypnotic suggestion to one o f my su bjects and she carried o u t the suggestion fifteen years later. T h a t sug­

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gestion was, “ I don ’t know when we’ll m eet again, b u t

sooner or later, somewhere, some time, we’ll meet again. W hen we do, if the tim e, the situation and occasion are appropriate, after we greet each other, you will go into a deep trance.” Fifteen years later, I was in a restaurant with an anthropologist. H e looked around to find a place for us to eat and said, "T h e r e ’s a booth over there and only one g irl in it. I ’ll go over and see if she’ll let us jo in her.” W hen he inquired, she said “ yes.” H e cam e back to get me and my tray. W e w alked over. I stepped into the booth an d there was the subject. She greeted me and I greeted her. I intro­ duced the anthropologist. She knew of him and, since he was in my com pany, she felt that the situation was app ro­ priate. A fter greeting us, her head went down and much to the anth ropologist’s surprise, she went into a deep trance.

H andedness and autom atic w riting QUESTION

Suppose the subject had been left-handed and you had not known it. If you told her that her righ t hand was goin g to w rite that nam e, what w ould she have done? ERICKSON

She m ight have corrected me, or she m ight have discovered that she had an unu su al facility with her right hand and written it with her right hand.

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Reactions to attack s on personal standards Q U ESTIO N

Someone has mentioned the opposition some individuals may have to being approached on their religious tenets or moral persuasions. W hat are the manifestations of this? ERICKSO N

T h ey tend to tighten up; they tend to show anxiety or a willingness to argue with you, or to explain to you that this is a topic that does not enter into the hypnotic situation.

Handling of posttraum atic experiences Q U ESTIO N

Can you, with posthypnotic suggestion, blot out the memory of some previous unpleasant experience? ERICK SO N

You can blot it out, but there’s a better way of doing it. Let the patients exam ine their previous unpleasant experi­ ence, understand it in full, and reduce the value and im ­ portance of it. For exam ple, the high school girl who slips on the dance floor and sprawls out, just “ simply dies." T h en for the rest of her life she’s afraid to dance. Yet, you can put her in a trance and have her exam ine the experience and recall it in full. T h en you raise the question with her of just how terrible it actually was. Let her appreciate the feeling she had then, but also ask her how she should view that little episode now that she is an adult? In this way she sees

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it in its p roper perspective and then it’s very easily blotted

out as an unimportant thing.

Readiness fo r hypnosis Q U EST IO N

In the dem onstration you started out by saying, “ Do you think that you ’re really aw ake?” and you seem ed very, very sure that she wasn’t awake. However, I wasn’t surel ER IC K SO N

I raised the question if she were really awake and that aroused a d o u b t in her m ind that allowed her either to awaken or to go into a trance. Since the situation was one that requ ired a trance, she went on into a trance. QUESTION

T h e re was no induction? ER IC K SO N

She was already in a trance, a light one. C om ing up on the stage, she cam e for a definite purpose. She was goin g to assist. T h erefore, she was in the proper m ental set, the physical set, the psychological fram e o f reference. QUESTION

W ould that be m ore o r less the stage that the dental patient w ould be in on return in g for futu re visits after having been in a trance once? H e w ould induce him self even before he got to the office. ER IC K SO N

T h a t's right.

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4 Induction Techniques

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T

J L he m aterial that follows is presented largely as it was taken from sem inar tape recordings, since the purpose is to show how individual hypnotic techniques vary. T h e im por­ tant thing for the student of hypnosis to bear in mind is that each individual approach should be studied and evalu­ ated carefully, in an effort to determ ine which aspects of the techniques presented may best be utilized or adapted to lit the student’s own personality requirem ents.

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P rogressive relaxation D e m o n ttr a iio n 4 :

ENTIRE

GROUP

DOCTOR S

If you would like to relax and have the sensations o f what com plete relaxation can be, m ake yourselves as com fortable as you can. U sually it is nice to sit loosely, lim ply in a chair, with your feet flat on the floor or in any other position that may be com fortable, with your hands on your laps or hanging down. F in d a fixation poin t on the ceiling. Pick any poin t, but stick to it. Pay attention only to that point on the ceilin g and to my words. Ju s t pay attention effortlessly. Now , your eyelids should be getting qu ite tired from looking u p at that point. Let your arm s han g loosely and your legs hang loosely. T a k e a slow, deep breath and let it out very slowly, becom ing aware o f the com fort­ able feeling as you begin to breathe deeply. T h e n take another slow, deep breath and hold it while I count to five and then let it out slowly. H old it now. O ne— two— three— four— five. R eally enjoy that nice, pleasant, com fortable sensation in your abdom en. Now , with relaxation com es a feelin g of heaviness. T h a t’s one of the signs o f relaxation. A nd w hile your eyes are occupied with that point you’ve selected, pay attention to your feet, to the soles o f your feet and, as you becom e m ore relaxed, let you r feet becom e heavier and heavier. T h in k to yourself, “ My feet are becom ing heavier,” and, as you think that they are becom ing heavier, they do becom e heavier, m om ent by m om ent, heavier and heavier. T h e n

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this heaviness creeps up into the ankles, the feet and ankles, heavier an d heavier— u p the legs, into the thighs, the whole body from the waist down now, heavy with relaxation. M om ent by m om ent your body feels heavier and heavier and it's so pleasant, so com fortable. A nd that heaviness creeps up into the chest, up the hands and arm s into the neck. Now, the whole body from the neck down feels heavy, the feet, the ankles, the legs, the thighs, the abdom en, the chest, heavy, heavy, heavier. Pay attention to your jaw s as your lower jaw relaxes and notice that your mouth opens slightly. T h a t’s the proper position o f the jaw at rest, with the teeth and lips apart. If it helps you to keep them apart by w etting your lips, it is perfectly all right to do so. T h e jaw s are lim p and loose, lips apart, teeth apart. M any of you have been b lin k in g your eyelids to protect your eyes against fatigue. B lin k in g is the way the body prevents eye fatigue. L e t them blin k. It takes tension to keep your eyes open and we’re fighting tension. L e t’s not fight to keep the eyes open. L e t them do what they want to do, let them c-l-o-s-e. O nce they’re closed, keep them closed. D on ’t fight to keep your eyes open, relax com ­ pletely, close them now. Ju s t close them and keep them closed. W ith your eyes closed, visualize a darkness, the color gray o r black. Em pty your m ind o f thoughts, think o f nothing, do nothing. T h a t’s the secret o f relaxation. R e la x all over now, in m ind and body. Ju s t re lax and enjoy the nice com fortable feeling. N ow breathe slowly and deeply, exactly as if you were asleep, and with each breath that you take, go deeper, deeper and deeper relaxed, deeper and deeper relaxed. Soon you ’ll be as close to sleep as it’s possible for you to get and yet rem ain conscious and cooperative. So com fortable, b reath in g slowly and deeply and en joyin g every m om ent. N ow I would like you to use your im agination, your ability to visualize. You can visualize yourself stan din g in front o f your

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easy ch air an d , as you think ab o u t it, the im age o f it becom es m ore clear an d you can see you rself m ore clearly in fron t o f that easy ch air. J u s t think ab ou t it. As the p ictu re gets m ore an d m ore clear, let your right hand exten d straigh t in fron t of you, ju st as a sign al to m e that you are visu alizin g the p ictu re. T h a t ’s fine, let your arm stan d right ou t in front o f you. K eep it ou t there; th at’s fine. It w ill be easy for you to m ain tain it there p leasantly an d com fortab ly. A s you visualize the ch air, ju st think ab o u t that ch air. N ow visu alize you rself with y ou r back to the ch air an d think ab ou t you rself with y ou r back to the ch air s-l-o-w-ly d escen d in g into that ch air. A nd, as you descend in to that ch air, you go d eep er an d d eep er an d d eep er relaxed. Y ou r arm s are d ro p p in g, heavy w ith relaxation , as you sit dow n deeply, deeply into the ch air. Y ou can feel you rself in the ch air, becom in g w arm , with your seat b ecom in g firm ly attached to the seat o f the ch air, your back an d the back o f the ch air becom in g as one, so that you can not m ove yourself from the ch air w ithout ch an gin g the way you feel. A nd you feel so co m fo rtab le, so pleasant, that you w o uldn 't do an y th in g at all to ch ange the way you feel. In ju st a m om ent I am g o in g to ask you to d o som ething, and y ou ’re g o in g to try to please m e by d o in g it. I ’m go in g to ask you to lift you rself up from that ch air an d y ou ’re g o in g to try to d o it because you want to please me. Yet on the oth er hand, you ’re not g o in g to want to ch ange the way you feel. T o lift yourself up from the ch air will req u ire tensions and y ou ’re really not go in g to w ant to exercise tensions, because you really w ant to be co m pletely relaxed. W hen I coun t to three, you will d e lib e r­ ately try to m ove from your ch air, b u t you w on’t be ab le to move because you really d o n ’t want to. Y ou w ant to please me, b u t you w on’t be ab le to an d it’s go in g to be difficult. So, at the coun t o f three, try to m ove yourself from the ch air, b u t you c a n ’t.

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Induction Techniques O ne— two— three— try. S to p trying now. It's too m uch like work. J u s t relax a-1-1 o-v-e-r now. C o n tin u in g in this m an n er co u ld resu lt in hypnosis. It’s a pleasant sensation b u t, even in the deepest stages o f hypnosis, you are no m ore unconscious than you are now. T h e r e is alw ays an aw areness. It’s a kin d of detached feelin g. Y ou can ignore what you wish to ignore an d pay atten tion only to what you need and w ant to pay atten tion to. Y ou can pay atten tion to me, or you co u ld pay atten tion to any o f the panel m em bers. D u rin g this p eriod you w ill h ear o u r voices, som etim es separately, som e­ tim es togeth er, bu t you will find it w orthw hile to learn how to re lax an d how to b e ab le to teach others to relax. ERICKSON

You can keep righ t on relax in g, go in g d e ep er an d deep er into the trance, an d all the tim e you do, you are learn in g to u n d erstan d with y ou r u nconscious m in d an d you’re learn in g to u n d erstan d also with your conscious m in d. Y ou can all learn from this exp erien ce and carry it into the practice sessions. Y ou can also d o th is in your own offices, where you can learn by yourselves through your own efforts. N ow I w ant tim e to seem infinitely long, infinitely 1-o-n-g, and then slowly an d g rad u ally I want you to arouse, slow ly an d grad u ally arouse. A rou sin g, arou sin g, know ing that you can go back again som e oth er tim e, arou sin g, arou sin g— an d all o f you can now w aken, wide aw ake. You m igh t all lik e to twist a ro u n d in your ch airs an d reorien t yourselves. N ow I ’m g o in g to call on D octor A to d em on strate a tech­ n iq u e. Pay atten tion to exactly what D octo r A says, w hat he does, an d what the su b je ct does. A fte r D octo r A has finished, I will offer m y critiq u e.

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T ran ce induction in previously unhypnotized subject D e m o n stra tio n 5 DOCTOR A

For the best dem onstration o f trance induction techniques we require a different subject than we w ould if we were dem on ­ strating deep hypnosis an d the phenom ena that occur in deep hypnosis. W hen deep hypnosis is presented, obviously we need to have a subject who is capable o f goin g into the deepest stages o f hypnosis and this usually is best accom plished with a wellconditioned subject. On the other hand, were I to work with a well-conditioned subject now, he would go into hypnosis so quickly that little w ould be learned abou t trance induction. For this reason I am goin g to ask for a volunteer to work with me in this dem onstration who has never used hypnosis, who has never been hypnotized, upon whom no attem pt has ever been m ade to induce hypnosis. N ow with that lim itation or qu alifica­ tion, may I have a volunteer, please? (to subject) Now, first of all, D octor R , you have som e idea o f what a patient does in regard to the way he adjusts his body, so that he is com fortable. W e got that from D octor S's dem on ­ stration, so suppose you do ju st as his subjects did. M ake yourself as com fortable as you can. A lso, I'm going to ask that you select a spot somewhere on the ceiling. It doesn’t m ake any difference, ju st select a spot that will be conven­ ient for you to focus on. I ’m goin g to ask that you keep

d o c to r A

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Induction Techniques your eyes focused on that spot until I ask you later to do otherwise. As you keep your eyes focused on that spot, D octor R , you will notice that your legs begin to get very heavy, very pleasantly heavy. Now, as you keep your eyes on the spot, your arm s begin to get very pleasantly heavy. A nd, as you keep your eyes on the spot, your body itself begins to get very pleasantly heavy. A nd now. D octor R , your legs are heavy, your arm s are heavy, your whole body is pleasantly heavy, an d soon your eyelids, too, will begin to get heavy. W hen they do, you will let them close. Y our eyelids are heavier and heavier and heavier. If I may, I ’m goin g to touch your forehead with your eyes closed and you will go deeper and deeper asleep as your eyes stay closed. Sleep deeply. A nd it seems. D r. R , that with each breath that you take, you are feeling yourself slipp in g m ore deeply into this lovely, deligh tfu l, heavy, sleepy state, and you sleep deeply, sleep deeply. You sleep deeply, yet you are com pletely aw are of everything that happens. You will listen only for the sound of my voice; everything else you want to shut out from your awareness, as you slip more deeply into hypnosis. A s you sleep deeply, D octor, I should like to have you think abou t your hands and, with your eyes closed, I should like you to get a picture in your m in d ’s eye o f what those hands of yours look like. A s you think o f your hands, you w ill notice that som ething begins to happen to the fingers o f one of them or to one finger o f one hand, o r possibly the thum b. It doesn’t m ake any difference really, ju st so that you feel that som ething is happening. It seem s that a great deal is h appening to the little finger o f your left hand. As the finger begins to twitch a little m ore, you w ill p rob ­ ably notice that it begins to feel a little lighter than the

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other fingers, with of that finger which that hand. Soon all that they will start

OF

HYPNOSIS

a very pleasant sensation of lightness soon will spread to the other fingers of your fingers will be so pleasantly light to lift in the a ir and get lighter and

lighter. T h a t feeling of lightness seem s to spread through your hand, ju st as a tiny grass fire will spread through a dry field. Spreading, spreading, your hand is getting lighter an d lighter. Soon your hand will be so light that your wrist will bend and your hand will begin to com e up floating into the air. Y our arm gets light, your forearm , your hand, and your fingertips. Your forearm gets lighter and lighter and it feels as if som ething were actually tugging on that arm , lifting, lifting, lifting so that soon your arm will be floating, lifting and floating. Y ou ’re going to be trem endously interested in this feelin g o f lightness in that one hand and arm . Y ou ’re looking forw ard now to that arm really com ing up. Soon, you’ll feel a decrease in the pressure o f your arm on the arm rest o f the chair. You will be aware of the arm startin g to lift m ore and m ore, lighter an d lighter. T h a t’s fine. Now , D octor, as I touch your arm and your hand, they both becom e com pletely norm al. T h a t's right, that’s right— com pletely norm al, while your whole body rem ains com ­ pletely relaxed. It’s been very nice w orking with you, D octor, and I v'ant to thank you for your great w illingness to cooperate for the benefit o f the entire gro u p as well as yourself. In a m om ent I ’m going to ask you to arouse yourself. Ju st take your tim e and, when I reach the count of three, you’ll be wide awake, alert, trem endously interested in learn in g still m ore and, when you are awakened at the

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Induction Techniques coun t of three, your body will be com pletely norm al in every respect. O ne— two— three— alm ost aw ake— wide aw ake. T h a t ’s right. W ell, thank you very m uch, D octor. Now w hile D octor E rickson com m ents, suppose you ju st rest. D octo r F.rickson suggests that m aybe you w ould like to com m ent. M aybe you w ould like to tell the gen tlem en here ju st what you exp erien ced . S U B JE C T

W ell, it w asn’t hard to relax after d riv in g in from New O rlean s! You feel very easy an d a certain num bn ess gets to the soles o f your feet an d you get very drowsy. I could listen to every word. I h eard him give a com m an d to raise my hand, but the best I co u ld do was ju st to raise my wrist. I co u ld n ’t, I d id n 't feel the lightness that he suggested in m y arm , bu t I d id feel it u p to ab o u t the level o f the wrist. A nd I defin itely had som e influence from the suggestive direction which he gave. d o c t o r a ( d em on stratin g ) D octor, have you used hypnosis you rself ? S U B JE C T

W ell, I think that m ore o r less in your practice an d m ine, we all use it to som e degree. B u t I haven ’t used it directly. d o c to r A

(dem onstratin g)

H ave you seen stage hypnosis? S U B JE C T

Yes, I ’ve seen stage hypnosis. a ( d em on stratin g) I think that som e o f you w ill u nderstan d why I asked that

d o c to r

qu estio n . T h e su b ject used the w ord “ co m m an d.” H e said that I had co m m an ded his arm to rise. T h a t ’s on e thing that we, in this w ork, sh ou ld n ot think o f: com m an ds. C ertainly,

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there was no command. But the subject revealed some con­ nection with stage hypnosis when he used the word “ com­ m and.” ERICKSON

Now for a comment on what Doctor A did. T h e first thing that he did was to talk casually to the subject, giving general explanations. T h en , the next thing he did was to suggest that the patient choose a spot to look at— not one that Doctor A commanded or chose for him. By suggesting that the patient select the spot, he gave him the freedom to participate. One always wants to give a patient the freedom of participation. T h en D octor A went on, " I ’m going to suggest that you keep your eyes on that spot.” After a pause he said, "A s you keep your eyes on that spot, you will notice that your legs are getting heavier and heavier.” In other words, Doctor A introduced himself in the first person pronoun, em phasizing his role, then he shifted to the second person pronoun, placing the respon­ sibility on the patient’s own activity. T h en he showed repetition. From the legs he went on to the arms: “ As you continue to keep your eyes on that spot, you will notice that your arms are very, very pleasantly heavy.” He paused between these words. T h ere is no sense, unless you want to be a stage hypnotist, in rushing your suggestions to the patient. You want the patient to cooperate slowly and comfort­ ably and actually; at the same time, you expedite matters very much. Also, Doctor A paused between his suggestions to give the subject tim e to digest their meaning, their significance, and to initiate within himself some activity: “ Now, as you keep your eyes on the spot, your body will get heavy, your legs, your arms, and your body. Now your eyelids will get heavy.” You are

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em phasizing the positiveness of the legs, the arm s, and the body as a whole. At this point D octor A speeded u p by touching the patient on the head and closing his eyes. H e d id that as a courtesy— not as a m eans of forcing him, but as a means of dem onstrating one way of expeditin g things. T h en he quickly shifted into, “ W ith each breath that you take, you will relax deeper and d eep er,” m aking it contingent upon the patien t to respond to his own behavior. Certainly every patient does breathe and he does so repetitiously. Why not utilize the patien t’s own repetitious behavior to induce m ore and m ore the deep trance phenom ena? I think all of you noticed that the patient began breathing a little bit more slowly, a little bit m ore deeply, and he was re­ spon ding to som ething that was h appening within him self. Finally, D octor A started with the subject of finger m ovem ent, hand m ovem ent, and arm levitation. T h e re was a little twitching of the finger. T h e n D octor A introduced the hand, the wrist, an d o f course, tim e passed too qu ickly to perm it the furth er levitation, but there was a slow progressive spread o f m ovem ent. Also, while the patient was still in the light trance state, D octor A expressed thanks to him . O ne really ought to respect the unconscious and give thanks to it, ju st as you give thanks to the ordinary conscious m ind. T h en , when the patien t was aroused, I think all of you saw him trying to open his eyes and not suc­ ceeding, and I think all of you saw him reorienting him self in relationship to his hands and his hand m ovem ents. It was neces­ sary for him to get back in touch with him self, because early dissociation had begun.

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Hand levitation ( indirect perm issive technique) D e m o n stra tio n 6 d o c t o r h ( dem onstrating)

I w onder if there is som ebody who w ould like to volunteer to assist me in dem onstrating hand levitation to the group as an original induction technique? W e can try this first with the eyes open, perhaps. C om e forw ard, D octor. T h a n k you for com ing forw ard to help. If you’ll sit very, very com fortably in the chair and allow the palm s of your hands to rest com fortably on your thighs you m ight find it very interesting to watch those hands and perceive exactly w hat’s goin g to happen, o r you m ight like to experience now the feelin g of all the sensations in your hands, really feel them. You can feel, for exam ple, the texture of the cloth as your hands rest on your thighs. You can feel the warmth of your thighs com ing through the cloth and touching those fingers and those hands. You can feel that ring on the left fourth finger which perhaps you d id n ’t even notice until I ju st m entioned it. All these sen­ sations I ’d like you really to feel intensely to enjoy the feel­ ings of those sensations and to wonder what other sensa­ tions you might feel in your hands as you watch them and feel them. You may find that possibly one of those fingers has a very, very strong desire to move. Now , just sit there and wonder what will happen to those hands next. K eep feeling every sensation in those fingers,

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w ondering which finger will first have the desire to move. W ill it be on the right hand; will it be on the left hand? W ill it be the right m iddle finger; will it be the left m iddle finger? O r perhaps the left in d ex finger— one of those fingers can very, very easily get the sensations o f w anting to move. T h ere, the left index m oved ever so slightly. You can watch it move. You can watch it m ore, ever m ore, as the sensation gets stronger and stronger. T h en perhaps you can see the finger next to it begin to move now. T h ere, the ind ex finger m oved again, just a little fraction. T h e left index finger slid down and you can feel every little bit o f texture o f the cloth o f the su it that you’re wearing. You can feel those fingers begin ning to feel an even stronger desire to spread apart m ore, or perhaps to move closer together, or perhaps press down o r even lift up. Y ou can feel those things and enjoy them and I'd like you to feel them m ore strongly and ever m ore strongly, to feel them getting stronger with every sensation. T h e left index finger, perhaps, begins to feel lighter, and the one next to it, and the fourth finger, and the m iddle finger. You can allow the sensations o f lightness to get stronger and stronger until those fingers actually begin to lift off your thigh. You can watch them and really see it occur. You enjoy the feelin g of the fingers on your left hand wanting to move, or possibly the fingers on your right hand. Perhaps, as one hand is m oving upward, the other may have an in­ tense desire to press down, or perhaps they will both want to press, or both of them may want to lift. Ju st keep watching them , keep w ondering what is goin g to happen to that finger that has m oved ever so slightly before. W onder if it is really getting lighter, if you can feel that n ext finger gettin g lighter and still lighter. If you think ab ou t it and

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w onder abou t it, perhaps you can feel the fact that the thum b ju st m oved a little bit. You can feel your breathing getting m ore and m ore relaxed, and you can feel your whole body getting more relaxed. You can feel m ore com fortable as you sit and allow these sensations to get stronger and you can enjoy all the feelings. Ju s t wait and see how long it will be before those fingers lift up, because the lightness that is gettin g stronger and stronger in those fingers can spread, can radiate throughout all the fingers, the entire hand, the elbow , the arm and shoulder. You can feel yourself relax­ ing m ore and more. Perhaps you m ight even begin to feel a heaviness in your eyes. T h e index finger keeps lifting an d looks as if it is about ready to lift off the trousers. T h ere's no hurry. T h e r e ’s plenty o f tim e. O r perhaps you m ight really like to experi­ ence the com fort o f goin g into hypnosis more rapidly. T h e experience is yours. You m ay utilize it as you please. You can feel your eyes getting m ore and more tired, you can feel those fingers increasing in their sensitivity. If you keep on w ondering when that finger will lift, which one will be the first to leave your trousers, your hands will continue to get lighter and lighter, and you will feel the sensations getting stronger. Perhaps you will feel that ring you are wearing. Possibly your ring finger feels as though it were attached to a string with a gas-filled balloon at the end o f it and you can feel the gas balloon p ullin g away at the ring, tuggin g it upw ard. You m ight even get the idea of six or eight or ten balloons having been attached to that string. T h en , perhaps that string now has twenty o r thirty or forty gas balloons attached to it. T h e hand gets light as the sensation o f light­ ness increases. T h e hand gets lighter and still lighter and still lighter. You can feel it getting stronger now. You can

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watch it. Feel your eyes gettin g m ore and more relaxed. T h ey are begin ning to close; you are breath in g m ore deeply. W ith every breath you take, that hand continues to get lighter and lighter. N ow , notice how the right hand is pressing down harder, while the left hand continues its lightness and feel yourself getting drowsy and sleepy. Perhaps you m ight enjoy closing your eyes and you can feel those sensations even more strongly. You can keep your eyes closed and you can con­ tinue to sleep deeply and soundly and begin to visualize the liftin g o f that left hand as it continues to get lighter and lighter. R eally begin to feel it lifting, liftin g higher, as it gets lighter and still lighter. Enjoy the sensation there. N otice that the m iddle finger m oved a little b it; really see that hand move, even though your eyes are closed, begin­ nin g to lift higher as you go deeper and soun der into a very com fortable state of relaxation, into a type of sensation that we describe as sleep, despite the fact that it is really not physiologic sleep. It differs from sleep in that you are not unconscious, as you are in sleep. You are conscious of every sensation that you feel as the hand gets lighter and lighter. You can hear everything I say and you can make yourself aw are of anything that you think is im portant to the situation, or you can m ake yourself unaw are of anything that you feel is u nim portant. T h e im portant thing is for you to be com fortable, to be relaxed, and to feel that hand gettin g lighter, still lighter, still lighter. In your m in d’s eye, really begin to see that hand lifting, lifting, liftin g higher and higher. As you continue to think abou t that and wonder abou t when that hand will want to lift, w onder whether it m ight occur as you go back to your seat, o r whether you need to wait until tonight o r tom orrow . N otice that as I

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count to three, that you begin to feel m ore alert, more awake and at the count of three, find that your eyes are open. I want to have you feel very free and com fortable. O ne— two— three. S U B JE C T

It was nice. I was ju st begin ning to relax when you brought me out. d o c t o r h ( dem onstrating) W e’re sorry we can ’t spend all the tim e we’d like to Doctor. Y ou ’ll have to forgive us. T h a n k you very much. e r ic k s o n

D octor H thanked the subject for com ing forw ard to assist in the dem onstration. Your patient, when he sits down in your dental chair or m edical oflice, is there voluntarily. A ppreciation is trem endously im portant to him— and to you. “ You m ight like to feel all the sensations in your h an d ." . . . “ You m ight like to . . T h u s you give the patien t adequ ate opportun ity to participate and to participate in his own way. “ You m ight enjoy all those feelings.” C ertainly you do want the patient to enjoy his own feelings. In fact, that is why he is com ing to you. T h en , as D octor H talked, he gave his suggestions, urgently som e of the time, then m ore slowly at other tim es. T h a t m atter of rhythm is im portant. A t tim es you want to rush a patient along, then you want to give him tim e. D octor A likes to m ake long pauses— he pauses between words. D octor H has shown you another way of m aking pauses, i.e., by urgency and then slow ing down, and then again urgency— by a certain rhythm. D octor H gave the su bject a wealth of opportun ities. H is hand could lift, the fingers could spread, they could move forw ard or backward. H e could press down or could lift up. In other words, he gave the subject an opportun ity to respond in

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any way, and an y response w ould be the one that had been suggested to him . “ T h e fee lin g will get stro n ger in your hand, until you can fee! it actu ally liftin g ." T h is creates urgency, but p o stp o n in g the actu al liftin g as the feelin g gets stronger m akes it a w aitin g situ atio n , a very im pressive w aiting situ ation . T h e n D octor H in trod u ced the m atter o f b reath in g and of g o in g into a trance. H av in g m ad e that gen eral in trod u ctio n , he w ent back to the m ovem en t of the han ds again , b u t he had la id the fo u n d atio n for a general trance state. A fte r suggestin g fu rth er hand levitation , he w ent on to the m atter o f the eyes, in tro d u cin g an o th er type o f beh avior. T h e n he introdu ced still an o th er type o f b eh avior by the altern atio n o f the han ds— on e pressing dow n an d on e liftin g up. Y ou never know whether y ou r p atien t w ants to resist you or co operate with you. T h e y often have both feelings, so you can have them resist by pressing dow n with on e hand and liftin g u p with the other. You are m eetin g their needs in a very com prehensive fashion . D octor H a lso said, “ Y ou can keep your eyes closed .” It was not a co m m an d ; it was an ob serv ation , so m eth in g that could be accepted by the su b ject. H e then showed how to u tilize the slow p rogress into the trance by ex p la in in g the en tire trance situation here in term s that the do ctor could u nderstan d, b u t in the d en tal office o r the m edical office, you w ould exp lain in term s that the p atien t co u ld u n d erstan d. D r. K, I think I'll let you g o ahead now.

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D irect au th o ritativ e hypnosis D em on stration 7 k ( dem onstrating ) Since we’ve had several subjects am ong the m ales here, how about one of the ladies com ing up and offering to be a subject? Now for teaching purposes I ’d like to run briefly over some o f the usual questions that the patient is likely to ask abou t hypnosis. I t ’s always a good idea, before you attem pt an induc­ tion, to correct some of the p o p u lar m isconceptions and ideas, so that the patient knows what he is supposed to do, what he is supposed to feel, and how he's supposed to react. d o c to r

(to subject) T h a n k you for com ing up, Sandra. Now you’ve been here all m orning. D id you know very much about hypnosis, Sandra, before you cam e here? SAND RA

N o. k (dem onstrating) W ell, try to put yourself in the place of one of your patients and see what questions you would ask if you were com ing in to see me for the first tim e.

d o c to r

SAND RA

You m ean I'm to . . . ? k (dem onstrating) Y ou ’re a patient. W hat questions would you be apt to ask?

d o c to r

SAN D RA

Am I going to sleep?

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K ( dem onstrating ) W ell, you will hear everything that I say and you will also hear extraneous noises, or extraneous sounds, unless I tell you that you won’t, or unless you yourself don ’t want to hear them.

d o c to r

SANDRA

If I don ’t want to be hypnotized, can you hypnotize me? k ( dem onstrating) No, it’s difficult to hypnotize an individual against his will.

d o c to r

SANDRA

I can't think of anything else. ( dem onstrating) W ell, for a few more, first of all, it’s always a good idea to tell the patient that hypnosis is a learning process, that we will start with simple, elementary suggestions. Some of these suggestions are: Close your eyes: start counting to yourself; your legs are getting heavy. I have no way of knowing that you are going to count to yourself, but if you’re willing to cooperate on these sim ple, elementary suggestions, then of course you will be willing to accept the more complicated suggestions that you so ardently desire, assum ing that you are a patient com ing in for, say, pain relief or for the relief of illness. T h e sequence is im portant, doing exactly what you are told to do, or what I suggest that you feel. If you do these, then you are going to be in a complete state of relaxation, which we will call hypnosis. W ould you like to ask any questions?

d o c to r k

SANDRA

No. k ( dem onstrating ) A ll right. W ould you mind getting yourself into a nice com fortable position? It's always a good idea to have the

d o c to r

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patient's neck in a relaxed position. T h u s, while we are talk ing and she is trying to follow suggestions, she,need not be bothered by the tension in the neck m uscles as a result of sittin g upright, because this may be a very distracting influ­ ence. W hat I’m going to dem onstrate is a direct, auth oritative technique, which we have found to be especially efficacious with obstetrical patients and in gro u p therapy. T h e latter is a treatm ent not ordinarily associated with hypnosis, in which you train your patients as a group. For psychotherapy, it is m ore advantageous to use the direct, perm issive approach which has been dem onstrated previously. (to subject) Now, Sandra, w ould you m ind looking u p at any spot that you'd like to on the ceiling and ju st concentrate on that spot? T h in k and feel, if you w ould like to, that your eyes are goin g to get very, very heavy; that your lids are goin g to get very tired as you gaze intently at that one spot on the ceiling. If you’d really like to experience what it’s like to go into a nice, deep state of relaxation, you are going to say to yourself, “ I really think that my eyes are goin g to get very, very heavy, very, very tired, getting heavier and heavier at) the tim e.” As you look at that spot, you notice that your lids are getting heavier and heavier. T h ey are begin n in g to droop. Keep your lids open. T h ey are begin ­ ning to water. Y our eyes are begin ning to water, which is a good sign. A t the count of three, if you w ould really like to experience relaxation, it’s very easy to go into this deep state o f relaxation. A ll you have to do is ju st let your eyes close. A fter you close your eyes, then you will notice that

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your state o f relaxation — that’s good, take a deep breath— is going to get more profound. O ne— they are closing still m ore, then open in g slightly; two— so heavy, but it feels good; three— shut your eyes tight and with each breath now, you are going to go deeper relaxed, and deeper relaxed and (whispering) deeper relaxed. T h a t’s right. If you would like to go still deeper, Sandra, all you have to do is think that your legs are gettin g heavy, beginning with your toes. You will feel a sense o f num bness o r heavi­ ness in your toes, which is going to go up, up your legs. Your legs are goin g to be so heavy that you can ’t uncross them. As your legs get heavier and heavier, you’ll feel your­ self goin g deeper and deeper (w hispered) relaxed, so pleas­ ant, deeper and deeper relaxed with each breath that you take. A nd, if you want to go deeper, then start coun tin g backward from 100 to o, and with each count backward, you will find yourself slip p in g deeper and deeper into relaxa­ tion. It’s so soothing, so pleasant. If you want to go very, very deep, if you w ould really like the experience o f what it’s like to go into a deep and profound state o f relaxation, all you have to d o is raise your arm straight toward the ceil­ ing. If you want to go into a deep state o f relaxation, spread your fingers apart. Now, if you want to go still deeper and even deeper, you can ju st raise your hand slowly tow ard the ceiling. B u t if you don ’t want to go deeper, you d o n ’t have to. B u t if you want to go deeper, ju st raise your right arm straight up toward the ceiling at the count o f three. Your head is get­ ting so heavy and you feel so drowsy, deeper and deeper relaxed. At the count of three, you will raise your right arm straight toward the ceiling. O ne— two— breathing deeply, soundly, deeply relaxed— three— that’s right, straighten out

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the fingers now. N ow your right arm is g e ttin g stiff and rigid. J u s t straighten your fingers ou t if you w ant to. If you w ant to let y ou r arm drop, it w ill d ro p like a lu m p o f lead righ t in to your lap, co m pletely relaxed. (S an d ra drops her arm .) I lift the arm . It falls lim ply, righ t into your lap, com ­ p letely relaxed . T h a t ’s fine. Y o u ’re a very good su bject. L e t this arm , every m uscle, every fiber o f your body, be co m ­ pletely relaxed , in soun d, deep, relaxed sleep. Very good. W hen I co u n t to three, you will open your eyes an d you will have no headache. Y o u ’re go in g to feel w onderful. Y ou ’ll feel as if y ou ’ve had a few m in utes o f actual sleep, bu t o f course you know you w eren ’t asleep, because y ou ’ve heard every w ord that I said . A t the coun t of three, you will open your eyes and you will feel fine. I ’d like to tell you one m ore thing, that no on e w ill be ab le to p u t you in to this deep state of relaxation unless you wish to be p u t into it and this inclu des m yself or anyone else. You w ill open y ou r eyes slowly at the coun t o f three. Y o u ’ll feel w onderful, com pletely relaxed, fu ll o f energy. You n ever felt better in y ou r en tire life. O ne— two— three. SA N D R A

V ery p leasant! E R IC K S O N

C om m en t on D octor K ’s tech n ique is rath er difficult. F irst o f a ll, lie tried to answ er the p atien t’s qu estion s an d I think all of us sh ou ld bear in m in d the real im portance o f answ ering a p a ­ tie n t’s qu estion s, tryin g to answ er them so that the p atien t really feels that you ’ve tried hard to give him an a d e q u a te u n d er­ stan din g. T h e n D octo r K stated that he was go in g to use an a u th o ritativ e technique. Everybody ob jects to crass auth ority assertin g itself, so he follow ed that by the sim p le statem en t that

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the direct au th o ritativ e technique works best on obstetrical cases and in gro u p situ ation s. T h a t is correct. In the ob stetrical situ a ­ tion, p atien ts c a n ’t dispu te reality; there is so m eth in g th at’s g o in g to h appen an d they’re really faced by an au th o ritativ e sit­ uation . You are m erely u tilizin g a part o f th eir reality situ ation . In the gro u p situ ation , everybody knows that the lead er spoke to the oth er fellow , not to him I T h a n k goodness, he spoke to the other fellow auth oritatively . T h u s, we can accept au th o ritativ e in struction s in the gro u p , because we do not need to take them personally an d we can m ake m ore a d e q u a te response. T h e n , as D octor K gave his in struction s to Sandra, he also talked to the aud ien ce. It is hard to d istin g u ish w hat he was saying to the au d ien ce an d what he was saying to the su b ject, but he talked in a casual tone o f voice, as if he were really interested in w hat he said to her. F o r exam p le, “ Y ou r lid s’ll get very tired ,” not, “ Y our lid s’ll get very tired .” A n d you co u ld really feel that suggestion o f “ v-e-r-y t-i-r-e d ,” which w ould m ake the su b ject look w ithin herself to find ou t how tired that “ v-e-r-y t-i-r-e-d” was. W hile very au th oritative, D octo r K. always in trod u ced his au th ority by a reason ab le q u estio n : “ I f you really w ould like to go into a d eep er state of re lax atio n — if you w ould really like to — ju st take a deep breath and re la x still m ore.” D octor K. gave his suggestion, b u t he prefaced it with a qu estio n an d the q u es­ tion in itself was actually a su ggestion . “ A n d if y ou ’d really like to go still deeper, it ’s so easy. J u s t sh ut your eyes at the coun t of three. . . . A n d if you’d like to go s lill deep er. . . .” A ll through D octor K 's rem arks there was that constant repetition . “ If you feel you ’d lik e to go a bit deep er; if y ou ’d like to go still d eep er; if y ou ’d really like to go still m ore deeply; if you w ould really like to g o into a very, very, very d e ep trance. . . O f course, D o cto r K offered his su ggestion s in his ow n in d i­ v id u al way, as we have already discussed. T h e r e are m any differ­

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ent ways of verbal com m unication. O ne can certainly com m uni­ cate by intonation and D octor K dem onstrated tiiat technique very nicely. "Y o u ’re going deeper, and deeper, and deeper (whis­ pered) and deeper,” giving his suggestions by that type o f com ­ m unication, ju st as D octor H showed urgency by a slow ing down and a sort of rhythm. D octor K did it by inflection and inton a­ tion. T h en there was his m ethod of raising the hand. I d o n ’t know whether D octor K did it intentionally, b u t if you paid attention to what he was saying, "Y ou could raise your hand,” was what he said, instead of ‘‘raise your arm ,” and each tim e, very correctly, there was that liftin g of the hand, but an apparent inability to lift the arm. A s you looked at the arm , you could also appreciate another fact and that was that the su b ject’s arm was trem endously heavy. It therefore becam e necessary for D octor K to say, “ A nd now your arm will lift straight u p .” T h e re was a definite em phasis upon that word, "straigh t,” even though it was said in a perfectly casual way. It is im portant to note the posthypnotic suggestions that he gave in aw akening the subject. O ne gives posthypnotic sugges­ tions sim ply, unaffectedly, and w ithout any elaborate way of stating them. D octor K told his subject that she would feel bet­ ter, w ouldn’t have any headache, and w ould have enjoyed her experience. T h ese are sim ple, straightforw ard com m ents. Yet they carry a trem endous am ount o f weight with the subject.

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Coin technique D e m o n stra tio n 8

s ( dem onstrating) I am not going to talk abou t hypnotizing people, because I realize how people prefer to hypnotize themselves and it works out a lot better that way. If there is som eone who w ould like to go into the hypnotic state, especially som eone who has never experienced it before, I’d like to have such a person first. Later, perhaps, we can get som eone who has tried and failed. B u t for the first subject, we w ould like one on whom we can dem onstrate an ordinary psychophysical technique and show the patient what it is that he needs to do to go into the hypnotic state. I ’m very glad to meet you. H ave you experienced hyp­ nosis before, Doctor?

d o c to r

S U B JE C T

N o. s ( dem onstrating ) Is there any question that you would like to ask me about go in g into the hypnotic state?

d o c to r

s u b je c t

T h ere are no psychological after-effects, are there? s ( dem onstrating) N o, except in this respect, that you may feel much more com fortable than you do now. T h a t is one psychologic after­ effect that you might probably enjoy.

d o c to r

S U B JE C T

C ould it relieve this slight pain in the back o f my neck?

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s (dem onstrating) Very likely. As a m atter of fact, we could even look forward to accom plishing that and it would probably give you an excellent reason for follow ing my instructions exactly as I

doctor

give them to you, would it not? s u b je c t

Yes. s (dem onstrating) All right. Now, all you really have to do is follow instruc­ tions and it’s qu ite sim ple. I ’m not going to ask you to do anything that you w ouldn't want to do. T h e only instruc­ tions that I am goin g to give you are ones designed to show you what it is necessary for you to do to enter the hypnotic state. T h is business about people hypnotizing others is a fallacy. Even here this afternoon, where people were helped into the hypnotic state, I think you were able to see that it was the individual him self who accom plished the fact. R ight?

doctor

s u b je c t

Yes, but I doub t my ability to do it. s (dem onstrating) W ell, let me tell you this. It merely consists of the need to follow a definite program . Are you a dentist or a physician?

doctor

S U B JE C T

A dentist. s (dem onstrating) Y ou ’re a dentist. O .K . Now there are many laboratory pro­ cedures, which, if followed exactly as the m anufacturer spec­ ifies, will bring results ju st as advertised. R ight?

doctor

S U B JE C T

Yes.

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s (d em on stratin g)

doctor

When you vary this procedure, according to your own ideas, you may get a variation in the resu lt. R igh t? S U B JE C T

Yes. doctor

s (dem on stratin g)

L a te r on you may be ab le to vary this p rocedu re accordin g to your own experience, b u t right now let m e be the m an u ­ facturer p rovid in g the m aterial with a rigid specification: so m uch w ater to so m uch pow der; bake at such-and-such a tem peratu re. O .K .? Y ou follow m e exactly as I tell you an d th at’s all there is to it. W e’ll get the results. N ow this is called a coin technique. H ere is the way it works. I place this coin in the palm o f your hand. T h e n I ask you to close your fingers gently over it and turn your h an d over. H o ld it only tightly enough so that the coin do esn ’t fall. A ll right? N ow we stretch your hand straigh t in fron t of you an d you keep it there. Y o u ’ll find it’s rather easy to do that. W e let your th u m b com e righ t ou t here. (A way from the hand.) N ow here is in struction n um b er one. You keep y ou r eyes fixed on that th u m b n ail. F rom now on, u ntil this exercise is over, you keep your eyes g lu e d on that th u m b n ail until I suggest otherw ise. O .K . T h a t ’s the first instruction . I ’m goin g to start co u n tin g now and, with each coun t, you will feel changes in the fingers o f y ou r hand. W hile your eyes are visu ally occu p ied with this thum b, y ou r m en ­ tal processes, y ou r m in d can pay atten tion to the feelin gs in y ou r fingers, to the relation o f the fingers to the coin , how the fingers feel against the coin, an d the feelin g o f re la x a ­ tion and looseness that follow s. N ow , as I coun t, allow your

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fingers to relax an d straighten o u t with each count ju st a little m ore, so that even tu ally the fingers straighten ou t to a p oin t where the coin drops. W hen the coin drops, that is a signal for two things to h ap pen : first, for your eyes to close: second, for your whole body to go lim p an d m elt right into the ch air, ju st as if you were g o in g to sleep, into a deep, deep sleep. Som etim es, though, the eyes get so heavy from fixatin g on that th u m b n ail, so tired, that they close long before the coin drops. T h a t ’s fine, if it happens. If your eyes close befo re the coin drops, let them stay closed. T h e n you can pay a ll your atten tion to the way your fingers feel. I ’m go in g to repeat these in struction s so that you can fo l­ low them exactly. Y ou keep your eyes glu ed on the th u m b ­ n ail. I coun t and, as 1 coun t, you pay atten tion to your fin­ gers an d feel them straigh ten in g ou t an d relaxin g. T h e y relax to a poin t where the coin drops. T h e n , unless your eyes are already closed, the eyes close and you go deeply re­ laxed. T h e thud o f the coin on the floor takes you in to a d eep er relaxed state. If you were in the dental ch air righ t now, I w ould say, “ I will hold my hands over here so that, when you d ro p your arm , you will not b an g it an d hurt yourself, so that you d o n ’t have to fear to re la x .” I think that you really u n d erstan d these instruction s q u ite thoroughly. I ’m go in g to go ah ead with the procedures, an d you can fo l­ low through an d do your part. A ll righ t. Pay atten tion now. O ne— pay atten tion to your fingers an d feel the nice re lax ation th at’s go in g to com e into them . W ith each coun t ju st a little bit m ore. Y our fingers are re lax in g an d straigh ten in g out. Y ou r eyes are gettin g heavy an d w an tin g to close. T h e y ’re startin g to b lin k . Soon they will be closed an d that will be perfectly all righ t. T w o — eyes gettin g heavier, fingers straigh ten in g ou t fine, d o in g

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Induction Techniques

very well. T h re e — eyes begin ning to tear a little bit, eyes begin ning to tear, eyelids blinking, fingers straightening out, doin g very, very well. Y ou ’re m aking an excellent su b ­ ject. Four— eyes can h-a-r-d-l-y keep open now, fingers straightening out more and more. Five— eyelids closing, fingers opening. It's perfectly all right for you to close your eyes any tim e you want to. Six— fingers straightening, eyes closing and eyeballs rollin g up. Y ou ’re doin g fine. Let them close, if they want to, b u t keep your m ind deeply relaxed. ( 9 4 4 - 3 1 * 1 9 >- 2 1 2 -

— : Hypnotic techniques for the therapy of acute psychiatric disturbances in war. Amer. J. Psychiat., 1945, 101, 5, 668-672. — : T h e therapy of a psychosomatic headache. J . Clin, hr Exper. H ypnosis, 1954,2,1, 27-41. — & Rosen. H arold: T h e hypnotic and hypnotherapeutic in­ vestigation and determination of symptom-function. / . Clin, hr Exper. Hypnosis, 1954, 2, 3, 201-219. — : A clinical note on indirect hypnotic therapy. J . Clin, ir Exper. Hypnosis, 1954, 2, 3, 171-174. — : Pseudo-orientation in time as a hypnotherapeutic procedure. J . Clin.hr Exper. Hypnosis, 1954, 2, 4, 261-283. — : Self-exploration in the hypnotic state. J . Clin. & Exper. H ypnosis, 1955,3, »• — : Naturalistic techniques of hypnosis. American Jou rn al of Clinical Hypnosis, 1958, 1, 1,3-8. — : Pediatric hypnotherapy. American Jou rn al of Clinical H yp­ nosis, 1958, 1,1, 25-29.

4 55

PRACTICAL

APPLICATION

OF

HYPNOSIS

---------& --------- , E. M.: Furth er considerations of tim e distortion: subjective time condensation as distinct from time expansion. Am erican Jo u rn a l of C linical H ypnosis, 1958, 1, 2, 83-88. ----------- : H ypnosis in p ain ful term inal illness. Am erican Jo u rn a l of C linical H ypnosis, 1959, 1, 3, 117-121. -------- : Breast developm ent possibly influenced by hypnosis: two instances and the psychotherapeutic results. American Jo u rn a l of C linical H ypnosis, 1960, 2, 3, 157-159. ---------: Psychogenic alteration o f m enstrual functioning. American Jo u rn al of C linical H ypnosis, 1960, 2, 4, 227-231. •-------- : Book review: M ariner’s hypnosis in anesthesiology. A m eri­ can Jo u rn a l of C linical H ypnosis, 1960, 3, 1, 63. Esdaile, Jam es: H ypnosis in m edicine a n d surgery. Ju lia n Press, Inc., >9 5 7 -

Estabrooks, G. H .: H ypnotism . E. P. D utton & Co., Inc., 1957. Freytag, Fredericka F.: Th e hypno-analysis of an anxiety hysteria. Ju lia n Press, Inc., 1959. G orton, Bernard E. M .D .: T h e physiology of hypnosis. Psychiat. Q uart., 1949, 2 3 ,317-343, 457-485-------- : Physiologic aspects of hypnosis. In hypnosis in modern m edi­ cine, (J. Schneck, Ed.), 246-280. Springfield, C. C. T h om as, 1953. -------- : T h e an n u al review of hypnosis literature. (W ith Kline, M. V., H aggerty, A. D. and Guze, H .) Volumes I and II (Com­ bined) 1950-51. New York, T h e W oodrow Press, 1953. -------- : T h e method of Schultz, "autogenic training." In WeitzenhofTer, A. M. G eneral techniques of hypnotism , New York, G rune and Stratton, 1957. -------- : A utogenic training. Am. J . Clin. H ypnosis, 1959, 2, 31-41. H eron, W. T .: Hypnosis and dentistry. Northwest Dentistry, 1949, 28, 154-158. -------- & Abram son, M ilton: An objective evaluation o f hypnosis in obstetrics. Am erican Jo u rn a l of Obstetrics an d Gynecology, 195°. 59- 1069-1074. -------- : D ental hypnosis and personality. Personality, 1950, 1 , 349354-

456

References of Interest

-------- : H ypnosis as a factor in the production and detection of crime. Th e British Jo u rn a l of M edical H ypnotism , 1952, 1-15. -------- , & Abram son, M .: H ypnosis in obstetrics. Experim en tal H y p ­ nosis (Ed. LeC ron, L . M.), New York: M acm illan, 1952. -------- : Hypnosis and psychology. Northwest Dentistry, 1954, 33, 215-220. -------- : H ypnosis as an anesthetic. British Jo u rn a l of M edical H yp­ notism , 1955. 6, 20-26. -------- : Principles of hypnosis. Southern M edical Jo u rn a l, 1955, 48, 307-310. -------- : C linical application s of suggestion and hypnosis. Sprin g­ field, 111.: Chas. C. T h om as, 1957. -------- : An old art returns to dentistry. Sem inars on H ypnosis, 1958. -------- & H ershm an, Seym our: An old art returns to medicine. Sem inars on H ypnosis, 1958. -------- : Instruction in hypnosis. H ypnosis in M odern M edicine, Chap. 11, (Ed.- Schneck, J . M.) (2nd edition), Springfield, 111.: Chas. C. T h om as, 1959. -------- : H ypnosis in m edicine. M innesota M edicine, 1959, 42, 941943-------- : T h e psychology of hypnosis. Jo u rn a l of the American A cad­ emy of G eneral Practice, 1959, 20, 92-101. Hershm an, Seym our: H ypnosis in the treatm ent of obesity. J . Clin, if Exper. H ypnosis, 1955, 3, 3. -------- : Hypnosis and excessive sm oking. J . Clin, ir Exper. H ypnosis, 195®, 4» i---------: H ypnosis in m edicine and surgery. Jo u rn a l of the Arkansas M edical Society, 1957. -------- : Use of hypnosis in obstetrics. Northwest M edicine, 1959. ---------& H eron, W illiam T .: An old art returns to m edicine, Sem i­ nars on H ypnosis, 1958. -------- : Is modern m edical and dental hypnosis hazardous? A m eri­ can Jo u rn a l of C linical H ypnosis, In Press. H u ll, C. L .: H ypnosis and suggestibility. An experim ental approach, New York: D. Appleton-Century Co., 1933.

457

PRACTICAL

APPLICATION

OF

HYPNOSIS

Krebs, Stanley L .: Fundam ental principles of hypnosis. Ju lian Press, Inc., 1957. Kubie, L. S. & M argolin, S.: T h e process of hypnotism and the na­ ture of the hypnotic state. Amer. J . Psychiat., 1944, 100, 611622. Kuhn & Russo: Modern hypnotism. New York Psych. Library Pub., ‘947-

LeCron, L . M .: Experim ental hypnosis. New York: Macmillan Co., »9 5 2 -

LeCron, L . M. & Bordeaux, J .: Hypnotism today. New York: Grune and Stratton Inc., 1947. Mann, H . G roup hypnosis in the treatment of obesity. Am. J . Clini­ cal Hypnosis, 1959, 1, 114-116. Mann, H. Hypnotherapy in habit disorders. Am. J . Clinical H yp­ nosis, 1961, 3, 123-126. Moll, A.: Hypnotism. London: Walter-Scot, 1890. ----------- : Th e study of hypnosis. Ju lian Press, Inc., 1958. Pattie, F. A. A report of attempts to produce uniocular blindness by hypnotic suggestion. Brit. J . Med. Psychol., 1935,15, 230-241. -------- . T h e genuineness of hypnotically produced anesthesia of the skin. Amer. J . Psychol., 1937, 49, 435 -443 -------- . T h e production of blisters by hypnotic suggestion: a review. J . Abn. Soc. Psychol., 1941,36,62-72. -------- . Some American contributions to the science of hypnosis. Amer. Scholar, 1943, 12, 444-454. -------- . T h e genuineness of unilateral deafness produced by hyp­ nosis. Amer. J . Psychol., 1950,63,84-86. -------- . T h e effect of hypnotically induced hostility on Rorschach responses./. Clin. Psychol., 1954,10, 161-164. -------- . Theories of hypnosis. In R. M. Dorcus (Ed.), Hypnosis and its therapeutic applications. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1956. Pp. 1/1-1/30. Methods of induction, susceptibility of subjects, and criteria of hyp­ nosis. In R. M. Dorcus (Ed.), Hypnosis and its therapeutic ap ­ plications. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1956. Pp. 2/1-2/24.

458

References of Interest

-------- . T h e genuineness of some hypnotic phenom ena. In R . M. D orcus (Ed.), H ypnosis a n d its therapeutic applications. New York: M cGraw -H ill, 1956. Pp. 6/1-6/18. -------- . M esm er's m edical dissertation and its debt to M ead's ‘‘De im perio solis ac lu n ae." J . H ist. M ed. all. Sci., 1956, 11, 275-287. -------- . (with F. Kodm an). H ypnotherapy of psychogenic hearing loss in children. Am er. J . Clin. H ypnosis, 1958, 1,9-13. Reiss, R obert & Scheerer, M artin : M emory and hypnotic age regres­ sion. International University Press, 1959. Schilder, P.: T h e nature of hypnosis (1921, 1926). New York: In­ ternational U niversities Press, 1956. Schultz & Lu th e: A utogenic training: G rune & Stratton, 1959. Secter, I. I.: G aggin g controlled through hypnosis. D ent. Survey, 1952,28, 1366-1367. ---------: H ypnosis. Dent. Item s Interest, 1953, 75, 160-167. -------- : We don't have to be disliked. D ent. Survey, 1953, 29, 322324-------- : A practical attitude towards hypnosis in dentistry. C al. M ag., 1954, 15, N o. 7, 8-9. -------- : C onsiderations in resistances to initial inductions o f hyp­ nosis. J . Clin. Exper. H ypnosis, 1957, 5, 77-81. -------- : Suggestion in the dental care of children. J . H ypnosis Psy­ chol. D entistry, 1958, 1, N o. 4, 10-11. ---------: T h e psychologically oriented dentist, an editorial. A m eri­ can Jo u rn a l of C linical H ypnosis, 1959,2,1-2. -------- : Conserving time in patient orientation. / . H ypnosis Psychol. Dentistry, 1957, 1, N o. 3, 4-5. -------- : Some notes on controlling the exaggerated gag reflex. A m er­ ican Jo u rn a l of C linical H ypnosis, i960, 2, 149-153. -------- : H ypnotizability as a function of attitude towards hypnosis. American Jo u rn a l of Clinical H ypnosis, i960, 3. -------- : Some notes on T .A .T . card 12m as a predictor of hypnotiza­ bility. Am erican Jo u rn a l of Clinical H ypnosis, 1961, In Press. -------- : Som e notes on personality factors as related to hypnotiza­ bility. Am erican Jo u rn a l of C linical H ypnosis, 1961, In Press.

459

PRACTICAL

APPLICATION

OF

HYPNOSIS

-------- : T o n gu e thrust and nail b itin g sim ultaneously treated dur­ ing hypnosis. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 1961, In Press. -------- & H eron, W. T . H ypnotherapy for relief of pain. Dent. Items

Interest, 1953. 75, 391-393. -------- & Cochran, J . L . R estoration by hypnotherapy of loss o f the sense of taste. J. Nervous Ment. Disease, 1956, 123, 296-298. -------- & H eron, W. T . C linical application s o f hypnosis in den­ tistry. Dent. Survey, 1954, 30, 331-333. Sidis, B.: The Psychology of suggestion. New York: D. A ppleton Co., I9 *°W eitzenhoífer, A. M .: Hypnotism: an objective study in suggest­ ibility. New York: Jo h n W iley and Sons, Inc., 1953. -------- : General techniques of hypnotism. G rune & Stratton, 1957. W olberg, Lew is: Medical hypnosis— V olum e 1 and 2: G rune & Strat­ ton, 1948.

460

Index

aggression, 322-323 allergies, 298 A m brose, G ordon, 243 am nesia, 71*72; see also selective a m ­ nesia anesthesia control of. 83 by dissociation, 334*335 su rgical, 207*213 angin a, 309 anim al m agnetism , 4, 5, 6, 8 an xieties, 246-249 autocon dition ing, 11 autogen ic training, 11 autohypnosis, 194-204 au tom atic w riting, 106-109, 123, 345346 B abinski reflex, 15 Beecher, H . K ., 210

B ernheim , H ippolyte, 7 8, 20, 21 Bertillon , A., 242, 243 B raid, Jam es, 6, 7, 45 Brcnm an. M., 26S B reuer, J ., 8 Broca, P., 8 b ru xism , 257-258 catalepsy, 67-68, 94. 410-411 cerebral palsy. 311-312 C harcot, J . M., 8, 269 coin technique, 153-160 CoUon, G ard in er, 207-208 concentrated attention, law of, 24 conditioned reflexology, 14 confidence, 53 confusion technique; see indirect in­ duction conscious m ind, 65 constipation , 289

461

Index C ooper, Linn F., 80 cooperation, im portance of, 53*54 cortical inh ibition , 14 D avy, Sir H um ph ry, 207 dental considerations, 257 263 dentistry; see hypnosis depersonalization, 77, 97*99 derm atologie conditions, 301*302 D ick R e a d ’s n atu ral ch ild b irth , 11 direct auth oritative hypnosis, 146-152 direct hypnotic suggestion, 271*272 contrasted with indirect approach, 274*276 directive hypnotherapy; see direct hyp­

notic suggestion dissociation, 15, 75*77, 94; see also an­ esthesia dizziness, 306-308 dominant effect, law of, 25-26 DuBois method, 11 E astm an , N., 211 E lliotson , Jo h n , 6, 242, 269 em otional hypertension, 310 enuresis, 244-245, 294-297 E sdaile, Jam es, 6-7, 269 expectancy technique, 169-173 eyeball set test, 30*31 fears, 282-283 Ferenczi, S., 14 F ranklin , B enjam in , 5 Freud, S., 8, 45 g ag reflex, control of, 390-421 G assner, Fath er J . J ., 4 GUI, M ., 268 G u illotin , J . I., 5 habits therapy of, 325-328 treatm ent of, 291-298

462

h allucin ation ; see negative hallucin a­ tion; positive hallucin ation ; posthypnotic hallucination hand clasp test, 28-30 hand levitation, 140*145, 405*406, 410 H eidcn h ain , R . P., 8 H ell, M axim ilian , 4 H eron, W ., 19 H ingson, R obert A. Jr ., 211 H u ll, C. L .,9 h yperm nesia, 73*74 hypertension; see em otional hyperten­ sion hypnoanalysis, 9 hypnosis in children, 241*263,310-312 clinical app lication s of, to psychiatry, 321*355 in dentistry, 359-421 direct auth oritative, 146-152 general app lication of, to general m edicine, 267-317 history of, 3*11 indirect, 178-185 in obstetrics, 217-237 phenom ena of, 45-125 in psychology, 425*451 theories of, 11-16 H ypnosis an d Suggestibility (H ull), 9 hypnotic aid s, 85-86 hypnotizability, 19-41 identification, use of, 262-263 ideom otor activity, 68-69 ideosensory activity, 69 im agery, use of, 259-262 indirect induction, 190*194 indirect perm issive suggestion, 272-274 contrasted with direct approach, 274276 indirect suggestion; see suggestion induction techniques, 129-204 in children, 259-263. 388 389 see also trance induction insom nia, 289-291

Index Jaco b so n 's progressive relaxation , 11; see also progressive relaxation Ja m es, W illiam , 267 Ja n e t, Pierre, 15, 208 Ja n e t m ethod, 11 K auders, 0 ., 273, 274 K lin e, M ilton V ., 271 K ohnstam m Phenom enon, 22-23, 30 K rafft-Ebing, R ., 8 Lavoisier, A. L., 5 L ié b a u lt, A m broise-Auguste, 7, 8, 242, 243 Lin d n er, R obert, 268 literalness, 58 M cD ougall, W., 14 m agnetism ; see an im al m agnetism ; m ineral m agnetism M ead, M argaret, 56 m edicolegal liability, 380 M énière’s syndrom e, 306 M esm er, Franz, 4-6,45, 241, 269 M esm erism , 6 M esm erism in In d ia (Esdaile), 6 m igrain e headaches, 305-306 m in eral m agnetism , 4 m onoeidism , 6, 20 m u ltip le sclerosis, 288 n ail bitin g, 252-253, 293-294 n atu ral ch ild birth , see Dick R ead narcosynthesis, 9 negative h allucin ation , 90-91, 109-111 obesity, 292-293 objectivity, 78-79 obstetrics; see hypnosis " O ld A rt R etu rn s to D entistry, A n" (H eron), 367 44Old A rt R e tu rn s to M edicine, A n " (H eron-H ershm an), 222, 225 orientation , 54

pains, 284-286 P aradiès, M arie T h érèse, 241 p atien t protection, 329-332 Pavlov, I. P., 14 p hobias, 286 Pierce m ethod, 11 polio, 310-311 positive hallucin ation , 93 posthypnotic hallucin ation , 119-120 posthypnotic suggestion, 347-348, 411412 Priestley, Josep h , 207 progressive relaxation , 130-133; see also relaxation tests pseudo-orientation in to th e future, 343-345 psychiatry; see hypnosis psychoanalysis, 9 psychology; see hypnosis Puységur, M arqu is de, 241 Race, Victor, 241 rap port, 66-67, 89-90 R e a d 's N atu ral C h ild b irth , 11 recall, 349*3 5 1• 4 l6 *4 »8 regression, 14, 15, 97, 101-102, 113-116,

335 336. 338-341 rehearsal, 332 333 relaxation tests, 32-41: see a lso p ro­ gressive relaxation reorien tation , 348-349 repetition, 20 repression, 75 reversed effect, law o f, 25 revivification, 341-342 R osen, H arold , 306 R u ssian Psychoprophylactic R e la x a ­ tion, 11 Schilder, T ., 273, 274 selective am nesia, 72-73; see a lso am ­ nesia sensory alterations, 70-71 sensory experience, 69-70 Sim m el, Ernst, 9

463

Index sm oking, 291*292 som n am bulism , 78 stuttering, 249-252, 297-298 subjectivity, 78-79 suggestibility, 26, 242-243 suggestion, 19-41 indirect, 59-60, 104-105, 352-355: see also direct hypnotic suggestion; indirect perm issive suggestion Suggestive T h erap eu tics (Bernheim ), 8 su ppression , 75 sym ptom alleviation, 276-277 sym ptom m an ip ulation , 278 sym ptom rem oval, 276 sym ptom su bstitution, 277 sym ptom s, recurrence of, 279-281 thum b sucking, 253-256 tics, 256, 288-289 tim e distortion, 79-81, 111-113, 336-338 tim e lag, 57 tinnitus, 306-308 tongue thrust, 259

464

trance, defined. 52 trance deepening, 185-190, 403-404 trance induction, 53, 88-89, l 34*, 39» *n dentistry, 368-371; see also in ­ duction techniques trance m aintenance, 60 63, in dentistry, 37 >' 37 »

trance state, 53 . trance term ination, in dentistry, 373378 ulcers, 302-304 unconscious m in d, 65 u p p er respiratory infections, 286-287 u rticaria, generalized, 299-301 visualization, 342-343 W ells, W. R ., 208 W etterstrand, O. G ., 243 W hite, R obert, 15 W olberg, Lew is R ., 268