Hypnosis vs. Hypnotherapy

While there is renewed interest in holistic care at a time when the advancements in brain scanning techniques are proving beneficial in observing physically altered brain functions during what is commonly call hypnosis. There still continues to be much confusion, half-truths, and misconceptions concerning exactly what constitutes hypnosis and hypnotherapy. In order to dispel the negative and understand the many benefits let us take a more scientific approach to the history and clarification of hypnosis and Hypnotherapy.

To start we must differentiate hypnosis from hypnotherapy. Ask most scholars about the origin and history of hypnosis and they will tell you it can be traced back to ancient shamans, Egyptian sleep temples, and even Greek oracles and soothsayers were said to reach a place of clarity through the trance state. There are even biblical stories that refer to a word, visual stare, or chant that changed people instantaneously. Reality however, dictates that hypnosis is a naturally occurring phenomenon inherent in all higher forms of mammals and humans. What these scholars are actually defining is the origin of hypnotherapy. Hypnosis therefore is the mechanism used to access while hypnotherapy is the process for treatment. As (William Kroger PhD 1906-1995) noted; “One is not treated with hypnosis but rather through hypnosis”

More scientific turmoil began with Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815) and his treatments using magnets and ice water to induce what he termed animal magnetism. (We still use the word mesmerize even today to explain; a focused state). Mesmer's work caused an adversarial relationship with the medical establishment (who’s treatment of the day consisted of herbs and blood letting) to climax when a committee was sanctioned by Louis XVI to examine the theory of animal magnetism. They found that the patient's cures were due to imagination therapy rather than animal magnetism and since imagination could not be verified through scientific theory Mesmer was denounced.
What the commission’s great scientific minds overlooked; imagination therapy itself cured disease, changed habits, phobias, perceptions and decreased the sensation of pain. This led Dr. Charles D'Elson, one of Mesmer's protégées, to pronounce, “If treatment by the use of the imagination is the best treatment, why do we not make use of it.”

Taking Mesmer’s work into the linguistic arena Dr. James Braid (1795-1860) coined the word Hypnosis after Hypnos, the Greek word for sleep. This seemed appropriate, at the time, as those in hypnosis often in a deep state of relaxation, have there eyes closed, and look as if they are sleeping.

Sigmund Freud 1885 used hypnosis on neurotics to recall disturbing events that they had apparently forgotten. Unfortunately, his manner was not conducive to hypnotherapy technique and he therefore had difficulty hypnotizing patients. Freud discarded hypnosis and altered his practiced to begin developing a more cognitive approach; his system of psychoanalysis and ‘free association’.

The abandonment of hypnotherapy by Freud (even though in his later years he would praise its effectiveness), a false statement by Pavlov (a Russian psychologist) stating “hypnosis was just a stage of sleep,” and the suggestibility factor associated with Hypnosis, allowed the theatrical hypnotist to take center stage. The misconceptions were heightened with the 1894 George du Maurier's book Trilby. A character "Svengali" was introduced to the world that controlled Trilby with hypnotism. Soon after, in the 1900's films began to be made with this same Svengali character in the guise of an evil hypnotist. Though quite absurd, the concept that a hypnotized person is under complete control of the hypnotist and that evil spirits could enter your body persist and remain prevalent even today.

Hypnotherapy would not regain status, within the medical community, until World War II when, as morphine became scare and even unavailable, it was used as anesthesia and pain relief on the battlefield. Hypnotherapy was finally recognized by the American Medical Association AMA in 1958.

Today, with the advent of positron emission tomography (PET), single-photon emission-computed tomography (SPECT), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), studies conducted on the more primitive inner brain, often referred to as the limbic system, has confirmed that hypnosis is actually a phenomenon or reactive focused state inherent in all humans and higher forms of animals. Just as stress is a phenomenon that controls our protection/defense mechanism through the release of adrenaline and cortisol (the flight or fight hormones) hypnosis can be said to control our relaxation mechanism through the release of endorphins. An increase in regional cerebral blood flow, when mental images are induced by multi-layered language through the imagination pathway by a qualified hypnotherapist, was observed in the thalamic nuclei, anterior cingulate, and insular cortices. Hypnotherapy decreased both pain sensations and the unpleasantness of conditioned habitual response stimuli.

With continued evaluation of the hypnosis phenomenon, its continued success rate with no adverse side-effects, and more stringent licensure and procedural standards for hypnotherapists, imagination medicine may one-day regain prominence with-in main stream medicine?
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