Monday, June 20, 2011
Hypnosis (Part 1/20)
Hypnosis currently enjoys widespread acceptance among the public and the scientific community. Hypnotherapy is generally believed to provide significant relief of both physical and psychological symptoms, and its use is on the rise. Of 1,000 psychotherapists surveyed in 1994, 97 percent considered hypnosis a worthwhile therapeutic tool.[1]
There is no question that hypnosis can be useful, particularly in the area of pain control. It is also widely used in treating the symptoms of neurosis including anxiety disorders, insomnia, and addictions, but with little permanent success. This might be explained because the state of hypnosis is similar to an extended but temporary case of neurosis. What I shall try to demonstrate in the following pages is that most of us who are neurotic are simply in a long-term hypnotic trance.
A permanent state of post-hypnotic suggestion can begin early in our lives when authority figures (parents) "suggest" certain behaviors based on the possibility or withdrawal of love. The suggestion is usually not consciously undertaken by the parent; it is simply the parent's unconscious needs translated into expectations and imposed on the child. The child, unaware of what’s happening, slips into the behavior without a scintilla of reflection. Part of him then is asleep or unconscious without his being aware of it.
In fact, you can use the concentrated and condensed neurotic state known as hypnosis to demonstrate the process of neurosis – that is, how neurosis comes into being. Hypnosis does not eliminate the sources of neurosis, nor does it integrate consciousness. Rather, it disintegrates consciousness, thereby achieving dissociation, in which two or three levels of consciousness act independently of one another. Hypnosis demonstrates the interactions of different levels of consciousness in both initiating and maintaining neurosis. Hypnosis and neurosis in fact utilize the same neurophysiological mechanisms. Hypnotic suggestibility is itself contingent upon a pre-existent neurotic state. So when psychotherapies use some form of hypnosis, they misapply the principles of consciousness and, as a result, actually reinforce the neurosis.
The use of hypnosis dates back to man's earliest history. Until recently, it has been shrouded in mystery, magic, and the supernatural, associated with everything from Druidic healers and high priests in ancient Greece to shamans, gods, witches, devils, and quacks. As a therapeutic technique, it predates psychoanalysis by at least a century. Freud used hypnosis therapeutically before discarding it in favor of psychoanalysis. Over time it has gained popular and scientific acceptance, been assimilated into a wide range of therapies, and been applied to most types of medical and psychological problems.
Today hypnosis is used to treat psychosomatic symptoms such as ulcers, migraines, and colitis. It is used to manage pain and in rehabilitation cases where organic damage has occurred. It is used to alter physiological functioning, such as to reduce blood pressure, relieve asthmatic symptoms, and alleviate gastrointestinal distress. It is also used in dentistry and obstetrics. It is used to treat addictions such as overeating, alcoholism, smoking, and drug abuse; to treat phobias and sexual problems; to enhance memory and studying abilities; and even to make warts disappear. It is also used to deal with varying emotional and psychological problems.
While hypnotherapy is now considered a treatment category of its own, it is almost always incorporated into the particular therapeutic orientation of each therapist. Thus it may be used by therapists from such diverse areas as psychoanalysis, behaviorism, ego psychology, gestalt, and even holistic transpersonal groups.
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AJ said >>> What I shall try to demonstrate in the following pages is that most of us who are neurotic are simply in a long-term hypnotic trance.<<
ReplyDeleteSo zombies are real, aren’t they? And with constant distraction, they are even more hypnotic, due to lack of concentration. I have always said they run on autopilot. Programming and conditioning are the tools of many authorities. That is what water-boarding is about. Conditioned Primal Pain. It can be cultivated if one was sadistic. Of course, that wouldn’t happen with authorities, right? ;-) I won’t mention the other tortures. Schools also condition kids. We might wonder about that as well. I won’t mention the media and their power to condition and program.
AJ said >>> A permanent state of post-hypnotic suggestion can begin early in our lives when authority figures (parents) "suggest" certain behaviors based on the possibility or withdrawal of love. The suggestion is usually not consciously undertaken by the parent; it is simply the parent's unconscious needs translated into expectations and imposed on the child. The child, unaware of what’s happening, slips into the behavior without a scintilla of reflection. Part of him then is asleep or unconscious without his being aware of it.
Now this sounds like what Orwell suggested, in that the policy or programming of the “orthodoxy “ is so subtle as to not be seen or known about . . . . unless you happen to step out of line. Is there an orthodoxy around? Are any of us in doubt? Believers? Could this orthodoxy, if it exists (and yes’em, I believes in orthodoxies, massah) be subtly promoting some conditioning and programming that is so subtle that even we do not detect it. Can people who are all primalled out still be hypnotized or unwittingly programmed? I would think it at least possible.
Maybe a lot of that programming is not traumatic enough to register deep with trauma. Or maybe it just spolits after enough is accumulated. But maybe we might do well to explore just how much programming and conditioning has been carried on without our notice.
To All: Of course, if we probe, we risk irritating those who make the programming. Ouch. But some have said in the past that: “no pain, no gain.” There are necessary casualties in any war, even propaganda and information wars. Who wants to be the first to throw themselves on the stakes fronting the enemies lines? Any volunteers? Listen, you might be surprised at what I have experienced just in one law suit. Got followed home twice, from different places. Attempted car run-over, which my hyper-vigilance helped me easily avoid. I could brag some more but only courage will be enough to help PT over the hump and reach into more acceptance. You got what it takes?
We all gotta go sooner or later. But if I gotta go, I want it to be for something worth while. I’ll go down but it will be swinging not crying!
Art,
ReplyDeleteWhen you talk about ”The child, unaware of what’s happening, slips into the behavior without a scintilla of reflection. Part of him then is asleep or unconscious without his being aware of it." I think the moment the child's hypnotic state occurs is because the pain is so intense that there are no other possibilities. We may find it hard to imagine the sensitivity of a fetus… but the ration on a scale of what is painful may speak a different language?
Frank
Art, I use hypnotherapy and I think there is a difference between regression and direct suggestion techniques. We have the answers inside us, hypnosis is one way of accessing what we know. If we can "chase" the first time someone felt a feeling, like for example, feeling unwanted, they can then feel that feeling and process it, and other significant events that have the same feeling might also need to be processed, but going back to the first time is essential. Creating a safe space where they can do that is crucial. Like all tools/techniques, it really depends on who is using them and how.
ReplyDeleteNoreen.
Noreen, love, you cannot get well unconscicously. Well means consciousness, and nothing less. Why make the patient less conscious? We want frontal cortex connection and left brain connection. Before we decide on "who's doing them" we need to decide on the science of it. We can no longer do therapy "a la derive", "en vrac", in a touchy feely way. There is science now and in the 21st century we must strictly adhere to it. AJ
ReplyDeleteArt, I agree that we need to be conscious and consciousness means being well, and having been hypnotised, I was conscious of all that was going on. I think hypnotherapy *accesses* the unconscious when regression is used, it doesn't make us unconscious, therein lies the opportunity. What I find interesting in science at the moment is the research into how important mindfulness, empathy and compassion are, like Daniel Siegel for eg. I agree touchy feely is out but there are not enough therapists who are compassionate and empathetic they're not willing "to go there" in my opinion, or put themselves into someone else's shoes. Many talk about safety but they don't create it. Many things are reframed in a completely polyannaish way and there is a temporary change in behaviour for a while until the effect wears off. As you said in a different post, many haven't felt their pain and they're petrified of others feeling theirs because it reminds them of their own pain which they want to avoid just because it's so painful. I also find how Antonio Damasio differentiates between emotions and feelings is fascinating. He says "A feeling is a conscious experience of having an emotion", so when we're feeling something we're healing it, we're experiencing it, instead of leaving it unprocessed causing havoc in our system. I think it's quite simple, we just need to *feel*. But it doesn't just take one or two sessions, it takes as long as it takes, it might be simple but it's not easy. Noreen
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteWithin weeks of fully feeling the traumatic loss and abandonment by my mum at boarding school and earlier (still getting there) and then consciously disolving in the expression of that grief I began to notice how certain dissociative states I could get into no longer had quite the hold over me that they did before.
Nor did I feel so urgently the need to act out or project onto others. I could OWN MY OWN FEELINGS!
I used to do Transcendental Meditation and noticed an amazing bliss state developing during and afterwards. This would not last, nor could it because the temprary bliss state had not even touched the original trauma. Now, after catharting (in short doses) I get so blissed out that the previous 'meditational' state of bliss pales by comparison.
TM is a short cut and does not deal with the original traumas and Maharishi has got a lot to answer for, he should have known better than to advertise TM as a cure all.
I would say the same thing is true of Hypnotism.
OK, it is good to learn these techniques, when under stress it is important to know something that can help one deal with ones' unruly emotions in times of great need.
BUT THEY ARE NOT CURES!!!!
Paul G.
Noreen, do me a favor. Read all 21 articles on hypnosis that I wrote which will appear in the next many weeks and then write me and see if you still feel the same way. OK ? We are after full consciousness, not dampened csns. To say noting of trying to run the show with a patient when she is the seat of all knowledge. Patients are too used to being "done to." Don't participate in that. AJ
ReplyDeleteI think it may pay to differentiate between "conscious of" and "consciousness". When we are hypnotised we are half asleep so we can never be fully 'awake' to a feeling. You might feel (be part conscious-of) part of a feeling, but you will only be so in an anaesthetised state. You need to be fully awake to the feeling to process it(?). If so, then a hypnotised state could never do it.
ReplyDelete------------------------------------
To say:
I think the 'great' hallmark of PT is the discovery that the brain actually heals itself.
So, the primal is truly natural - 4 billion years of evolutions way, not some institutions in-vogue ideological way. Primal does not "do to" it only facilitates. The human brain "does to" itself, when only given the opportunity.
From here we can know to be suspicious of any new method that, again, tries to believe it knows better than the authority of natures way, which is the authority of 4 billion years of evolutionary development.
Noreen, I know, but you should listen carefully to what AJ says. You cannot feel again and incorporate that awareness of at last-feeling-again if you access the pain unconsciously (hypnotised).
ReplyDeleteAndrew: Well said. art
ReplyDeletei often feel like i am holding on, and it would be quite easy to let go and start feeling whatever it is. the only thing stopping me from doing that is the knowledge that it could go wrong.
ReplyDeletewhat could be more natural than surrendering to your brain's natural flow? but if there's too much pain, we must opt for a less natural primal using tranquillisers to stop the feelings from breaking the dam so to speak.
i guess primalling would be natural if we did it as soon as we were ready, instead of letting the pain accumulate over many years until it can't be released safely.
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI've been thinking about what value the psycho-analytical aspect of understanding really has to a patient. . . Or the value of certain palliatives. . . Like Shiatsu acupressure and so on.
In the absences of really well trained therapists where we live (or enough money to get us to the clinic yet) future patients are compelled to "cope".
How?
AJ forbid we get stuck in a queue for something we can not afford nor find the will to commit to.
Each person has to find a way through their difficulties and we have tried many things. Even after Primal Therapy there is a long road to tread. We can't say all paths are wrong paths till PT, or maybe we should? Nevertheless how ever to back track to get to the right entrance to the right way?
There is an old saying:
"Keep tight hold of nurse, for fear of something worse".
Perhaps the first thing to do once realising we need to go to California for at least 3 weeks, preferably 3 to 6 months, is to accept the circumstances we're in and the coping strategies we have already developed.
Then we might get a glimpse of living in two worlds simultaneously; the first: the hell we suffer with our repressions & neurosis, the second the freedom to feel every moment as it happens, free from the past.
We have to live in two worlds. The unconsciously repressed live in only 1 world and it is flat. Flat-land. The other world is 3 dimensional and one can move around unrestricted by the rules of repression. In this world of three dimensions the flat-landers can not hurt us or distort our truth.
So I think there is a value in really pondering our individual circumstances in the light of Primal and accepting the 'analysis' as part of the journey. Along the way we aught to receive the temporary relief of palliatives, even if that is all they are. Find the right ones for you but don't fall into a comfortable sleep believing the journey is the destination.
With PT there is a destination and it is a cure, not a palliative.
PG.
Hi Apollo,
ReplyDeleteI agree with your observation about how subtle repressions can be put onto children by the unconscious withdrawal of 'love' as retribution for 'unacceptable behaviour'.
It looks a lot like emotional distancing and is part of the way scape-goating begins in groups; family groups also. . . Parents often do not know how to cope with rivalry amongst siblings or ignore it because they them selves are defended against the pain, distanced from the potential divided loyalties, where the beginning of painful rebuffs start. So often one of the children begins to repress the family pattern as a model of 'dissociation' in themselves. . . They become what Yung called the shadow bearer for the group. This person necessarily has to become exiled as they can not bear to see in the people they love the things these family members cannot see in themselves. Often they are excellent performers and bright artists and academics.
To an extent, where parents are not willing to explore their own "motives & fixations" the emotional distancing technique becomes automatic and inevitably (amongst the siblings) an authoritarian pecking order emerges in the place of a "community of interest".
The course of family history can change if the parents open up and admit their faults. This so rarely happens though. As we siblings grow up we carry with us retarded development from parental emotional distancing, usually stuck at the co or counter-dependent stage eternally secumbing to the will of the more powerful (read fixated) or arguing and fighting and discarding for our rights, indignantly trying to find the real us. Repulsion, expulsion, dismissal,trashing out and scapegoating are all inevitable programmed re-actions. Look at the so called adult world around us. . .
Sometimes parents can be an infuriating mixture of real love and attention followed by emotional distancing and punishment. . . A perfect re-enforcement of the manic depressive condition brought on by a tricky birth.
Since I started really feeling the dreadful injustices of my childhood I have become acutely sensitive to the way "Authoritarianism" masquerades as "Clear Parental Care". . . Bullshit! That sort of thing is emotional blackmail but so few parents can see it. After all, some-one must control the children.
Paul G.
Richard: Primalling is natural but you need help. I have seen so many self-primallers go so wrong. art janov
ReplyDeletePaul: Don't make the mistake of thinking I am going on forever. This is my sixtieth year of practice. art janov
ReplyDeleteHi Art,
ReplyDeleteIf I had the money I'd be on the next flight.
I nearly went bankrupt last year. To get to California in the next 6 months I will either have to rob a bank or apply for charitable funding from your wealthy donors. How do I do that?
Sorry, either /or. No, I won't rob a bank.
If you die before I get to California I'll stab myself in the face with a vanilla ice cream.
Ted's looking after me in the meantime (remember? The soft furry one who doesn't argue, listens well and has no weird belief systems).
I could ask some very wealthy people I know but they'll need too many answers to too many questions about the carpentry business they funded and bailed out, their daughter (the other director, my ex) and the losses the business made, she hasn't told her folks yet.
So that's not gonna work is it?
My bank are coaching me into the position of a very good credit rating by lending me money at a very high interest rate, this time next year they will lend me enough money to do all sorts of things but at the moment I should be on site snagging the mess the glazers left behind them, doing the drawings for the next carpentry project and also cutting 6 joints in the workshop twenty miles away, all before lunch, it's 10:20am.
Is this what my birth was like?
Paul G.
Paul G.
A facebook comment: "Hypnosis and neurosis in fact utilize the same neurophysiological mechanisms. *Hypnotic suggestibility is itself contingent upon a pre-existent neurotic state* (italics). So when psychotherapies use some form of hypnosis, they misapply the principles of consciousness and, as a result, actually reinforce the neurosis. --This is the guts of this piece. Why do practitioners not consider the effects (other than perceived or actual "benefit") of what they are doing???"
ReplyDelete