In a message dated 11/01/2009 1:46:06P.M. GMT Standard Time,
melgrant@... writes:

>> Forgive me for interjecting on this matter but what use is it to have
fading numbers, or amnesia, or a person unable to open their eyes? Who are the
therapists trying to convince, themselves, the client, the fraternity, the
audience or the medical profession? Do they actually sit there with a clipboard
and a checklist – like some airline pilot – ticking off the list prior to
takeoff? Why do therapists need to prove they can hypnotise a person.
Which therapists are you actually talking about? I didn't say those things
myself and never have. These tests are pointless except for skills training,
perhaps as a convincer with some clients, for experiments, for adaptation as
therapy interventions, etc. They're far from essential to hypnosis, though,
and can all be replicated without a hypnotic induction.
>> Whatever effect therapists can achieve when a person is “hypnotised” can
be achieved on another fully conscious person. So why waste time, and
effort, on producing signs of “being in a state of hypnosis”? As long as
client
believes in the therapist the rest is just a ritual and therapy. I hope I am
not committing hypnotic heresy here but I sometimes get bored with therapist
who claim they have great powers or know everything there is to know about the
human mind.
I think you're massively over-simplifying things, although your basic point
is correct. Who are the therapists you're talking about who claim to have
great powers or know everything there is to know about the human mind? I don't
think anyone said anything like that in the discussion you're responding
to.
>> Can the great and the good please supply me with a definitive answer to
what hypnosis is? I would really like to know?

Who are the "great and the good"??? That's a bit of a strange thing to say,
IMHO. I assume you're not referring to me, although you were replying to my
email, so I will answer your question anyway...

The original definition of hypnotism proposed by Braid was that it was a
state of nervous sleep, unlike normal sleep, induced by mental concentration on
a single idea. He later changed that to say that it was itself essentially a
state of mental concentration on a single idea, and that it would be better
to call it something other than "hypnotism" because the name caused people to
think it normally had something to do with sleep or unconsciousness.

Since then, people have offered different definitions, but I would stay
relatively close to Braid's and say that hypnosis is a label for a number of
different states in which suggestibility is enhanced in quality or degree as the
result of procedures which increase mediating factors such as mental focus,
dissociation, relaxation, expectation, favourable attitudes and
role-perception, and client motivation. As a nonstate-oriented clinician, I
would agree
with the researchers who conclude that hypnosis is not identifiable with a
single uniform neurological state but that its effects are due to multiple
inter-acting causes. Or if you want a simplified version: Hypnosis is a state
of
heightened suggestibility which usually consists of relaxed concentration on
the ideas suggested, to the exclusion of competing thoughts, and accompanied
by expectation. That's just a kind of neo-Braidism, though.

Your remark that the client needs to believe in the therapist is similar to
what Braid said, and what I've said, except that both Braid and myself would
emphasise that the client's attitudes, frame of mind, focus of attention,
etc., also have an effect on the way they respond. Obviously, even if the
client
trusts the therapist but is distracted by irrelevant or negative thoughts,
or they feel unmotivated or conflicted about the specific suggestions in
question, then they're not in the ideal state of mind to accept suggestions.
Moreover, the client can trust the therapist but the therapist may phrase
suggestions badly, so that they do not evoke the right kind of response.
Hence,
effective hypnotherapy also requires that the therapist understands something
about the theory and practice of suggestion.

I think that's all pretty uncontroversial / common sense stuff, though, and
I imagine most (though probably not all) hypnotists would share similar views.


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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