Definition Essay: What Is Hypnosis?
What is Hypnosis? The word "hypnosis" originated from the Greek "hypnos" , meaning sleep, and according to Webster 's New International Dictionary, is "The induction of a state resembling sleep or somnambulism". This statement is true to the large extent because to the untrained eye someone in a deep hypnotic state could easily be mistaken for someone sleeping. However, it has been a proven scientific fact that for more than 100 years hypnosis can be induced without sleep (because sleep is a symptom and not the basic character trait of hypnotism) so, the word itself is a misnomer.
The Encarta encyclopaedia defines sleep as "An unconscious state where the subject shows little responsiveness to the external world". By this definition, hypnosis is indeed very …show more content…
Breuer found that in hypnosis, patients would often recall past events and in talking about them would experience an emotional outpouring, subsequently losing their symptoms.
Between the years of 1914 and 1918 during the Great War, the Germans realised that hypnosis was valuable in the immediate treatment of shell shock, allowing soldiers to be returned rapidly to the trenches. A formularised version of hypnosis, autogenic training was devised by a German, Dr. Schultz.
After the Second World War the work of Milton Erickson in the U.S.A. was to have an enormous influence on the practice and understanding of hypnosis and mental processing. He recognised that hypnosis is a state of mind that all of us are entering spontaneously and frequently as part of our normal behaviour pattern.
3) Methods of Inducing Hypnosis From the viewpoint of induction, hypnotism can be divided into two categories: 1. Hetero-hypnosis, the state of sustained suggestibility is induced by a
The Encarta encyclopaedia defines sleep as "An unconscious state where the subject shows little responsiveness to the external world". By this definition, hypnosis is indeed very …show more content…
Breuer found that in hypnosis, patients would often recall past events and in talking about them would experience an emotional outpouring, subsequently losing their symptoms.
Between the years of 1914 and 1918 during the Great War, the Germans realised that hypnosis was valuable in the immediate treatment of shell shock, allowing soldiers to be returned rapidly to the trenches. A formularised version of hypnosis, autogenic training was devised by a German, Dr. Schultz.
After the Second World War the work of Milton Erickson in the U.S.A. was to have an enormous influence on the practice and understanding of hypnosis and mental processing. He recognised that hypnosis is a state of mind that all of us are entering spontaneously and frequently as part of our normal behaviour pattern.
3) Methods of Inducing Hypnosis From the viewpoint of induction, hypnotism can be divided into two categories: 1. Hetero-hypnosis, the state of sustained suggestibility is induced by a