In a message dated 15/12/2008 11:28:23A.M. GMT Standard Time,
keithbacon7@... writes:

I think these 2 'flaws' are what allows much of the 'alternative
health' industry to flourish. Another common 'flaw' is that people
will spend money on all sorts of things and dont seem able to
rationally study their own self well enough to notice that they get no
real benefit from so much of what they spend their money on!


Although he does equivocate slightly at times, Braid emphasised, against the
Mesmerists, that it was really the client who brought about the cure or
effect and not the hypnotist or Mesmerist. In support of this, surprisingly,
Braid enthusiastically quoted reports of yogic meditation brought back by the
East India Company soldiers, etc. Braid reasoned that if yogins could
experience similar effects, in solitary meditation, then that indirectly
supported
his argument that the effects of Mesmerism did not require a Mesmerist but
originated within the subject's own mind and body. Braid had initially used
focused attention and shallow breathing to induce hypnotism, and he noted that
certain reports of pranayama alluded to similar sorts of means. Braid also
hypnotised himself to help with his rheumatic pain, and he saw this as further
evidence that the effects did not require another person to channel any
invisible energy, etc., into the subject.

However, people have a well-known tendency to "misattribute" unusual effects
to unusual causes. Stage hypnosis exploits this for dramatic effect,
implying that the effects have more to do with the "hypnotic gaze", etc., of
the
showman than the heightened state of imagination and extraversion in the
subjects. Likewise, as you say, New Age therapies exploit the same confusion
and
lead clients to assume that the improvements they experience have more to do
with some special power of the healer, etc., than with their own attitude and
imagination. CBT places considerable emphasis, in contrast with Freudian
psychoanalysis, upon the idea that the client is helping themselves with the
support of the therapist, not being passively "cured" by a healer or guru
figure. It seems clear that when clients think their improvement is mainly due
to
the therapist, they're wrong, and that makes them more dependant upon the
financial arrangement -if they relapse they need to go back and pay for more
therapy. On the other hand, if the client finds their own power to help
themselves they are more likely to maintain their improvement in the future
without
further help.

Braid actually said the role of the hypnotist was like a train driver, as I
recall. I think he meant that the hypnotist merely pulls the right levers,
etc., but it is the engine (the client's mind) that does all the work.


Yours Sincerely,

Donald Robertson
College Principal & Executive Director

Senior Clinician Hypnotherapist (NCH)
Registered Psychotherapist (UKCP)
Member of the European Register of Psychotherapists (ERP)
Fellow of the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health (RSPH)


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