The American journal of clinical hypnosis最新文献

This study compares the effects of two trance texts using different language patterns, i.e., modern trance language (MTL) characterized by indirect suggestions as well as narrative style and traditional trance language (TTL) found in traditional societies (e.g., Navajo, San, Aranda aborigines, etc.) that uses multiple repetitions along with narrative sequences. The Phenomenology of Consciousness Inventory (PCI) was used to evaluate the effects of both texts regarding cognition, emotion, physical experience, and trance depth. In this randomized controlled online study, 178 participants were assigned either to the MTL group or to the TTL group. The PCI and other tests (e.g. Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, State-Trait-Anxiety Inventory) were presented to the participants before and after listening to the hypnosis audio of the respective trance text. There were no significant differences between groups concerning trance depth, emotional, and physical experience. However, on the cognitive-imaginative level it was shown that the TTL group experienced more imaginations (PCI-subdimension "visual imagery," p = .009, d = 0.38) and less cognitive activity (PCI-subdimension "inner dialogue," p = .002, d = 0.40) than the MTL group. The results indicate that TTL increases imagery and decreases cognitive activity to a larger extent than MTL. This further indicates the potential of TTL to facilitate more vivid and intensive trance experiences.

Assessment of hypnotizability is useful in research and predicting the effects of hypnosis in clinical practice. There are few contemporary scientific reports examining the relationship between hypnotizability and psychopathological personality dimensions. The current study explores the connections between abnormal personality in psychiatric patients and the hypnotizability level. Fifty-five patients with anxiety and personality disorders who previously completed the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) were invited to undergo the Elkins Hypnotizability Scale - Clinical Form (EHS-CF). The hypnotizability scores comprise a normal distribution but shifted toward low scores. Twenty-seven patients were included in the low hypnotizability (LOW) group, and 28 patients in the medium to high (MID-HIGH) group. The number of participants with high scores on the Psychopathic Deviate and Paranoia MMPI-2 clinical scales was significantly higher in the LOW than in the MID-HIGH group. Patterns of associations between hypnotizability and psychopathology differed in the two groups. The results indicate that moderate hypnotizability should be considered a normal trait that has no meaningful relationship with psychopathology, but certain dysfunctional symptoms of personality disorders may entail resistance and a defensive attitude toward the hypnotherapy, resulting in a tendency to obtain lower hypnotizability.

As noted by some recent authors, psychotherapy has traditionally focused primarily on how the past affects present functioning. For example, in the hypnosis literature, there is much written about age regression and more recently there has been a focus on the future. In the 1950's there was discussions about embodying expectancy and pseudo-orientation-in-time, but there was not much in the literature again until the 1980's and thereafter about the importance of future focus. Some authors refer to future work as age progression. This article summarizes a "future projection" approach including why this terminology appears more suited for the approach. Techniques and strategies are described. Six case examples are presented covering varied clinical issues in which there was evidence of positive change.

It is common for psychotherapy interventions used in the context of hypnosis to address events in the client's past or present including decisions, traumas, parataxic distortions (Sullivan, 1970), suppressed emotions and so on. Unlike conventional psychotherapy, hypnosis has a well-known and commonly referred to perceptual phenomenon called "future-orientation in time." While this feature has been used by various therapists, it does not appear to be routinely used as the foundation for crafted interventions. This paper briefly discusses the historical emergence and the progressive logic of using imagery in various hypnotic and non-hypnotic therapeutic approaches, how this progression from using past imagery to present imagery has currently culminated with future-to-past oriented imagery interventions and outlines the minimum necessary steps for conducting an intervention within hypnosis called Emanated Imagery. The rationale and step-by-step procedure for constructing Emanated Imagery, as well as a case example, is presented.