dr. krishnan's introduction to hypnosis

Sunday, October 5, 2014 Dr. S. Krishnan 1

Dr. S. KrishnanAssociate Professor of

PsychiatryMedical College

Thiruvananthapuram


This part of the presentation is brought to you by

Hypnosis – The Facts

Krishnan’s


A therapeutic technique, historically investigated, and debated since many years


Introduction

Imagination, - facilitates cognitive restructuring, planning, initiation, and implementation of behavior change.

Hypnosis can be understood as a form of controlled imagination.

Hypnosis is a useful instrument for the psychotherapist, like the scalpel is for the surgeon.


Introduction

Trance states and hypnotic phenomena can occur spontaneously

Learning to recognize trance - helpful even if hypnosis is not used in the formal sense.


Introduction Hypnos (G) = sleep A misleading term complex process of

attentive, receptive concentration.

Focal attention, is heightened during the hypnotic trance.


History

First formally described as therapeutic instruments in the 18th century by Franz Anton Mesmer – Animal Magnetism


NegativeAttention fromScientists and

French Government

Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815)

Unorthodox methods and explanations

of Magnetic force


Hypnosis declared “heated imagination” (Paris - 1784)

Banjamin Franklin

Anton Laurent Lavoisier

Joseph Ignace Guillotin


James Braid - Hypnosis

James Braid, (physician and surgeon – 1840s) in England during the 1840s,independently observed similar phenomena similar to what Mesmer had reported.

Trance states using eye fixation and eye closure.


James Braid - Monoideism

1847 created a psychological concept called "monoideism"—(mental concentration on a single dominant idea).

Subjects are highly suggestible and could

focus their attention on specific ideas that would influence behavior.


Charcot - Janet

Hypnosis is a Neurphysiological phenomenon

And a sign of mental illness

Supported


Bernheim – Freud

Hypnosis was a function of Normal Brain

Central to his Classical work on Hysteria


Freud gives up formal Hypnosis


World wars I & II High incidence of shell-

shock during World War I, Ernst Simmel, a German

psychoanalyst, hypnosis for the treatment of war neurosis.

He developed a technique for accessing repressed material, Hypnoanalysis.

Treatment of pain, combat fatigue, and neurosis.


From History…

Hull’s research on suggestibility (1933)

Development of standardized scales (1960s)


1950s - Acceptance begins

1955 the British Medical Society formally recognized hypnosis and recommended that it be taught in medical schools.

1958, the American Medical Association and American Psychiatric Association followed this example.


DEFINITION AND THEORY

Hypnosis – attentive, receptive focal concentration with diminished peripheral awareness.

All hypnosis is, in essence, self-hypnosis



Hypnotic experience - characterized by an intense and sensitive interpersonal relatedness between the two

With a relative suspension of critical judgment.



Currently understood as a normal activity of a normal mind.

Persons who report having intense absorbing experiences while reading a novel, watching a movie, or listening to music relatively highly hypnotizable.



Laboratory and clinical researches hypnotizability is a stable and measurable trait.

Hypnotizability varies somewhat throughout the life cycle– Peaking during the late childhood– Declines during adolescence– Declines further during senescence.


Theories of Hypnosis

A form of deep relaxation (Edmonston 1981)



Sociocognitive Theory (Spanos, 1991)Epiphenomenon – exists as outcome of

other process – Social psychology explains it as role playing.



Neo-Dissociative Theory (Hilgard 1991) – (Most popular view of those that believe in Hypnosis)

Most people can separate one part of the mind from another



Social-Psychobiological (Eva Banya 1991)

Subjective experience of altered consciousness with somatic and behavioral changes


SPECTRUM THEORY OF HYPNOSIS

Hypnotizability has implications beyond the choice of hypnosis to facilitate treatment.

Hypnotizability represents a convergence of biopsychosocial phenomena.


SPECTRUM THEORY OF HYPNOSIS

A process that transforms a trait into a state.

The degree of hypnotizability information about the way in which an individual relates to the self and the social environment.


Components of Hypnotizability

Experiencing hypnotic concentration requires a convergence of three essential components—all of which are necessary to some degree—– Absorption

– Dissociation– and suggestibility


1. Absorption

An ability to reduce peripheral awareness to facilitate greater focal attention.


2. Dissociation

A functional separation of elements of identity, memory, perception, consciousness, or motor response from the mainstream of conscious awareness.


3. Suggestibility

A tendency to perceive and accept signals and information with a relative suspension of customary critical judgment.


MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT HYPNOSIS


Myth 1: Hypnosis Is Sleep

Hypnosis is aroused, attentive concentration.

EEG studies demonstrate that the hypnotic trance state is consistent with a state of resting alertness and inconsistent with sleep by EEG criteria.


Myth 2: Hypnosis Is Projected Onto the Patient

The role of the therapist is to provide an occasion during which persons may identify, explore, and mobilize their own trance capacity.


Myth 3: Only Weak or Sick People Are Hypnotizable

The vast majority of highly hypnotizable persons do not have mental disorders.

Highly hypnotizable persons are absent among schizophrenic patients.


Myth 4: Everybody is Hypnotizable

About 5 percent of mentally healthy

persons are not hypnotizable (?).


Myth 5: Females are more hypnotizable


Myth 6: Hypnosis Is Therapy

There is no hypnotherapy.

Hypnosis is best used to facilitate a primary treatment strategy.


Myth 7: Hypnosis Is Dangerous

No one has ever been lost in a trance state or been psychologically damaged merely from entering a trance state.

Compared with other psychiatric interventions, hypnosis is a benign and safe facilitator of treatment.


Myth 8: Symptom Removal Is Dangerous

Some psychiatrists believe that the removal of a symptom before the development of insight regarding the meaning of the symptom leaves the original conflict unresolved

Predisposes to development

of a new and possibly more serious symptom.


Myth 9: hypnosis is a “truth serum, it can retrieve memories”


Myth 10: Hypnosis is just relaxation


Myth 11:Hypnosis causes dependency


Myth 12: Hypnosis overrules will


Myth 14: Only some people can be hypnotized


Myth 15: Hypnosis is caused by the hypnotist’s power


Myth 16: Hypnosis = Gullibility


Myth 17: Hypnotic Trance is Therapeutic


Fields of Application

Stage hypnosisPsychotherapyMedical hypnosisDental hypnosisEducationForensic hypnosisSportsBusiness


INDICATIONS - 1

Smoking CessationManagement of alcohol use Weight ControlEnhancing Medical CareSurgical PreparationSide effects of Chemotherapy


INDICATIONS -2

Anesthesia Anxiety DisordersPTSD Dissociative DisordersPsychosomatic DisordersRemoval of wartTo aid psychotherapy


CONTRAINDICATIONS

Paranoid personsCertain personality disorders Intoxicated statesThreatening atmosphereSevere depressionAcute dissociative events


The clinician should

– Explain briefly and directly the nature of hypnosis

– Emphasize the importance of hypnotizability as a trait to reduce anxiety about performance or coercion

– State that the patient may discontinue the trance experience at any time, and

– Clarify the goals of the hypnotic intervention.


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dr. krishnan's introduction to hypnosis

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