Written by : BUCAS Gwénaëlle, TAVARES SANCHEZ Paola, HOLLAND Lou
Hypnosis is a term associated by everyone with many representations, often false. We have chosen to write an article on hypnosis because it is necessary to know this subject in psychology. Indeed, even if as a specialist we do not use this therapeutic technique, it is necessary to know a minimum of it to be able to guide patients who would need it. It is also important to be able to think critically about different hypnoses because in France, the practice of hypnosis is not regulated by a legal framework. Moreover, many people have a limited vision of hypnosis. For them, hypnosis is associated with a person dressed as a magician who waves a pendulum in front of their eyes and makes them do all sorts of strange behavior. But, as you can probably imagine, hypnosis can take many other forms.
What is hypnosis? There is no consensus on the definition of hypnosis. It differs according to the authors but all agree on the fact that hypnosis is a state of consciousness modification. Under hypnosis, you are neither in a state of consciousness nor in a state of sleep.
The American Psychological Association (APA) defines hypnosis as “A state of consciousness involving focused attention and reduced peripheral awareness characterized by an enhanced capacity for response to suggestion.” There are different types of hypnosis. In the medical field, hypnosedation is hypnosis used for sedation in anesthesia. Another technique is hypnoanalgesia which is used to help patients feel less pain.What interests us in psychology is hypnotherapy for psychotherapy. Hypnosis has been used by psychologists in their therapies for a very long time. Even the precursor of psychology, Freud, tried it (even if it wasn’t his thing). Initially the hypnotherapy method was characterized by its directive aspect. The hypnotist directly induced the patient to make changes in his thoughts or behaviors. Today, this approach is less used in favor of Ericksonian hypnosis (named after Milton Erickson)…
How Ericksonian hypnosis works ? The patient who reports a problem (give examples): part of which problems, will be placed by the therapist in a hypnotic trance state. This will allow the patient to actively access his or her inner resources and bring about change. The inner resources correspond to the conception of an individual with a great capacity of adaptation and change: modification of the perception of his pain, power of action on his depressive state…
Example of a real situation : Example of a session conducted by Erickson with a patient who had difficulties at work. Instead of putting her in a position of relaxation and concentration, he will direct her attention to an imaginary past, which is emotionally charged. In this past, she had been able to learn.The induction implies that she still has within her this resource of adaptation and progress that will allow her to learn new behaviors necessary for her therapy. Erickson said : “Can you remember that blackboard in the middle of the wall in your classroom? And you were wondering how to distinguish the letters on the bottom and it seemed very difficult to distinguish the ‘i’ and the ‘j’, and even more difficult to distinguish the ‘o’ and the ‘q’… it all seemed very difficult… and yet you were able to learn, to learn how to use these letters and then the words, and so year after year you came across different difficult things that you were able to learn and so you progressed, and you can let your mind go where it would like to go today.
Words we have learned :
implies : sous-entend
it wasn’t his thing : ce n’était pas son truc
hypnotic trance state : état de transe hypnotique
framework : cadre de travail
let your mind : laissez votre esprit
wave : agiter