18 - Hypnosis and the Psychological Unconscious

Abstract

Hypnosis is a social interaction in which one person (the subject) responds to suggestions given by another person (the hypnotist) for imaginative experiences involving alterations in perception, memory, and the voluntary control of action. In the classic case, these responses are associated with a degree of subjective conviction bordering on delusion and an experience of involuntariness bordering on compulsion. The psychological unconscious refers to the proposition that mental states—cognitions, emotions, and motives—can influence ongoing experience, thought, and action outside of phenomenal awareness and voluntary control. Hypnosis has been used in clinics for both medical and psychotherapeutic purposes. By far the most successful and best documented of these has been hypnotic analgesia for the relief of pain. Clinical studies indicate that hypnosis can effectively relieve pain in patients suffering pain from burns, cancer and leukemia, childbirth, and dental procedures. Hypnosis is used to promote relaxation, enhance imagery, and generally loosen the flow of free associations. It is also used therapeutically to recover forgotten incidents. It is relevant to the psychological unconscious as it appears to expand the boundaries of unconscious processing beyond the automatic and the preconscious.