Dr. S. Krishnan
Associate Professor of
Psychiatry
Medical College
Thiruvananthapuram
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This part of the presentation is
brought to you by
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Krishnan’s
Hypnosis – The Facts

A therapeutic technique, historically
investigated, and debated since many
years
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Introduction
 Imagination, - facilitates cognitive
restructuring, planning, initiation, and
implementation of behavior change.
 Hypnosis can be understood as a form of
controlled imagination.
 Hypnosis is a useful instrument for the
psychotherapist, like the scalpel is for the
surgeon.
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Introduction
 Trance states and hypnotic phenomena
can occur spontaneously
 Learning to recognize trance - helpful even
if hypnosis is not used in the formal sense.
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Introduction
 Hypnos (G) = sleep
 A misleading term  complex process of
attentive, receptive concentration.
 Focal attention, is heightened during
the hypnotic trance.
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History
 First formally described as therapeutic
instruments in the 18th century by Franz
Anton Mesmer – Animal Magnetism
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Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815)
Negative
Attention from
Scientists and
French
Government
Unorthodox
methods and
explanations
of
Magnetic force
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Hypnosis declared “heated
imagination” (Paris - 1784)
Banjamin
Franklin
Anton Laurent
Lavoisier
Joseph Ignace
Guillotin
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James Braid - Hypnosis
 James Braid, (physician
and surgeon – 1840s) in
England during the
1840s,independently
observed similar
phenomena similar to
what Mesmer had
reported.
 Trance states using eye
fixation and eye closure.
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James Braid - Monoideism
1847  created a psychological concept
called "monoideism"—(mental
concentration on a single dominant idea).

Subjects are highly suggestible and could
focus their attention on specific ideas that
would influence behavior.
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Charcot - Janet
Hypnosis is a
Neurphysiological phenomenon
And a sign of mental illness
Supported
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Bernheim – Freud
Hypnosis was a function of
Normal Brain
Central to his
Classical work on Hysteria
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Freud gives up formal
Hypnosis
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World wars I & II
 High incidence of shell-shock
during World War I,
 Ernst Simmel, a German
psychoanalyst,  hypnosis
for the treatment of war
neurosis.
 He developed a technique for
accessing repressed material,
 Hypnoanalysis.
 Treatment of pain, combat
fatigue, and neurosis.
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From History…
Hull’s research on suggestibility (1933)
Development of standardized scales (1960s)
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1950s - Acceptance begins
1955 the British Medical Society
formally recognized hypnosis and
recommended that it be taught in medical
schools.
1958, the American Medical Association
and American Psychiatric Association
followed this example.
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DEFINITION AND THEORY
Hypnosis – attentive, receptive focal
concentration with diminished
peripheral awareness.
All hypnosis is, in essence, self-hypnosis
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DEFINITION AND THEORY
Hypnotic experience - characterized
by an intense and sensitive
interpersonal relatedness between
the two
With a relative suspension of critical
judgment.
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DEFINITION AND THEORY
Currently understood as a normal activity of
a normal mind.
Persons who report having intense
absorbing experiences while reading a
novel, watching a movie, or listening to
music  relatively highly hypnotizable.
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DEFINITION AND THEORY
Laboratory and clinical researches 
hypnotizability is a stable and
measurable trait.
Hypnotizability varies somewhat
throughout the life cycle
– Peaking during the late childhood
– Declines during adolescence
– Declines further during senescence.
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Theories of Hypnosis
A form of deep relaxation (Edmonston
1981)
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Theories of Hypnosis
Sociocognitive Theory (Spanos, 1991)
Epiphenomenon – exists as outcome of
other process – Social psychology explains
it as role playing.
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Theories of Hypnosis
 Neo-Dissociative
Theory (Hilgard 1991)
– (Most popular view
of those that believe in
Hypnosis)
 Most people can
separate one part of
the mind from another
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Theories of Hypnosis
 Social-Psychobiological
(Eva Banya 1991)
 Subjective experience of
altered consciousness
with somatic and
behavioral changes
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SPECTRUM THEORY OF
HYPNOSIS
 Hypnotizability has
implications beyond
the choice of hypnosis
to facilitate treatment.
 Hypnotizability
represents a
convergence of
biopsychosocial
phenomena.
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SPECTRUM THEORY OF
HYPNOSIS
 A process that transforms
a trait into a state.
 The degree of
hypnotizability 
information about the
way in which an
individual relates to the
self and the social
environment.
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Components of
Hypnotizability
Experiencing hypnotic concentration
requires a convergence of three essential
components—all of which are necessary to
some degree—
– Absorption
– Dissociation
– and suggestibility
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1. Absorption
An ability to
reduce
peripheral
awareness to
facilitate greater
focal attention.
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2. Dissociation
A functional
separation of
elements of identity,
memory, perception,
consciousness, or
motor response
from the
mainstream of
conscious
awareness.
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3. Suggestibility
A tendency to
perceive and accept
signals and
information with a
relative suspension
of customary
critical judgment.
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MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT
HYPNOSIS
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Myth 1: Hypnosis Is Sleep
 Hypnosis is aroused, attentive concentration.
 EEG studies demonstrate that the hypnotic trance
state is consistent with a state of resting alertness
and inconsistent with sleep by EEG criteria.
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Myth 2: Hypnosis Is Projected
Onto the Patient
 The role of the therapist is to
provide an occasion during
which persons may identify,
explore, and mobilize their
own trance capacity.
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Myth 3: Only Weak or Sick
People Are Hypnotizable
 The vast majority of highly hypnotizable persons
do not have mental disorders.
 Highly hypnotizable persons are absent among
schizophrenic patients.
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Myth 4: Everybody is
Hypnotizable
About 5 percent of mentally healthy
persons are not hypnotizable (?).
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Myth 5: Females are more
hypnotizable
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Myth 6: Hypnosis Is Therapy
There is no
hypnotherapy.
Hypnosis is best used
to facilitate a
primary treatment
strategy.
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Myth 7: Hypnosis Is
Dangerous
 No one has ever been
lost in a trance state or
been psychologically
damaged merely from
entering a trance state.
 Compared with other
psychiatric
interventions, hypnosis
is a benign and safe
facilitator of
treatment.
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Myth 8: Symptom Removal Is
Dangerous
 Some psychiatrists believe
that the removal of a
symptom before the
development of insight
regarding the meaning of
the symptom leaves the
original conflict unresolved

 Predisposes to development
of a new and possibly more
serious symptom.
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Myth 9: hypnosis is a “truth
serum, it can retrieve memories”
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Myth 10: Hypnosis is just
relaxation
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Myth 11:Hypnosis causes
dependency
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Myth 12: Hypnosis overrules
will
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Myth 14: Only some people
can be hypnotized
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Myth 15: Hypnosis is caused
by the hypnotist’s power
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Myth 16: Hypnosis =
Gullibility
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Myth 17: Hypnotic Trance is
Therapeutic
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Fields of Application
Stage hypnosis
Psychotherapy
Medical hypnosis
Dental hypnosis
Education
Forensic hypnosis
Sports
Business
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INDICATIONS - 1
Smoking Cessation
Management of alcohol use
Weight Control
Enhancing Medical Care
Surgical Preparation
Side effects of Chemotherapy
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INDICATIONS -2
Anesthesia
Anxiety Disorders
PTSD
Dissociative Disorders
Psychosomatic Disorders
Removal of wart
To aid psychotherapy
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CONTRAINDICATIONS
Paranoid persons
Certain personality disorders
Intoxicated states
Threatening atmosphere
Severe depression
Acute dissociative events
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The clinician should
– Explain briefly and directly the nature of
hypnosis
– Emphasize the importance of hypnotizability as
a trait to reduce anxiety about performance or
coercion
– State that the patient may discontinue the trance
experience at any time, and
– Clarify the goals of the hypnotic intervention.
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SEE YOU
IN
PART II
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