{"title":"Unraveling depression: Principles and practices of clinical hypnosis.","authors":"Douglas Flemons","doi":"10.1080/00029157.2023.2208622","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>People struggling with depression are burdened by losses they can't and won't accept. They find themselves at odds not only with their circumstances, but also with symptomatic expressions of their exhausting efforts to shelter from, gird against, and contend with their pain and desolation. Their embattled sense of self gets no respite: Everything, including the depression itself, feels threatening, a violation, <i>other</i>. This article investigates why, and demonstrates how, hypnosis is particularly well suited for treating such self-referential, adversarial entanglements. Fundamentally associational in both structure and function, hypnosis resonates with other long-established, connection-based traditions for altering suffering. In keeping with Taoist, Sufi, and Buddhist ideas and practices, hypnosis introduces a quality of <i>acceptance</i> into the relationship between self and other, between self and pain. Clinical hypnosis establishes and maintains a context of interpersonal and intrapersonal security, a protective space and a relationship in which avolitional experience is not felt to be out-of-control or uncontrollable, but rather not-in-need-of-being-controlled. It thus becomes safe for clients to become curious about, approach, and engage with what in other settings would have the potential of producing a fearful, even panicky, reaction. By altering the boundary between clients and their suffering, clinicians facilitate an effortless rapprochement, making possible the shifting, repurposing, and unraveling of symptoms.</p>","PeriodicalId":46304,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis","volume":" ","pages":"6-19"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2000,"publicationDate":"2024-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00029157.2023.2208622","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2023/7/12 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, CLINICAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
People struggling with depression are burdened by losses they can't and won't accept. They find themselves at odds not only with their circumstances, but also with symptomatic expressions of their exhausting efforts to shelter from, gird against, and contend with their pain and desolation. Their embattled sense of self gets no respite: Everything, including the depression itself, feels threatening, a violation, other. This article investigates why, and demonstrates how, hypnosis is particularly well suited for treating such self-referential, adversarial entanglements. Fundamentally associational in both structure and function, hypnosis resonates with other long-established, connection-based traditions for altering suffering. In keeping with Taoist, Sufi, and Buddhist ideas and practices, hypnosis introduces a quality of acceptance into the relationship between self and other, between self and pain. Clinical hypnosis establishes and maintains a context of interpersonal and intrapersonal security, a protective space and a relationship in which avolitional experience is not felt to be out-of-control or uncontrollable, but rather not-in-need-of-being-controlled. It thus becomes safe for clients to become curious about, approach, and engage with what in other settings would have the potential of producing a fearful, even panicky, reaction. By altering the boundary between clients and their suffering, clinicians facilitate an effortless rapprochement, making possible the shifting, repurposing, and unraveling of symptoms.
期刊介绍:
The American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis ( AJCH) is the official publication of the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis (ASCH). The Journal publishes original scientific articles and clinical case reports on hypnosis, as well as books reviews and abstracts of the current hypnosis literature. The purview of AJCH articles includes multiple and single case studies, empirical research studies, models of treatment, theories of hypnosis, and occasional special articles pertaining to hypnosis. The membership of ASCH and readership of AJCH includes licensed health care professionals and university faculty in the fields of medicine, psychiatry, clinical social work, clinical psychology, dentistry, counseling, and graduate students in these disciplines. AJCH is unique among other hypnosis journals because its primary emphasis on professional applications of hypnosis.