It might sound a bit strange, but if you do it right, self-hypnosis is a quick and effective way to deal with negative emotions or strengthen confidence in yourself. The key here is to use the techniques of traditional hypnosis so that you can achieve positive change in your life. To start, find a quiet place where you won't be disturbed by external distractions. Next, close your eyes and take a deep breath; relax your body and focus on what you want to feel—for example writing or speaking confidently about an issue that has been bothering you for some time now. Then, look at your hands and visualize them glowing a bright yellow light. When you do that, the negativity in your mind should start to fade away, leaving you with a positive feeling. To finish, open your eyes and observe what has changed. Repeat the steps if needed.
What this hypnosis guide does not say is that self-hypnotists can be dangerous to others as well as themselves if they attempt to place another party under hypnotic control without their knowledge or consent. So-called "voodoo" death is one example of what can happen when an individual is placed under such control (Suppes et al., 2003). Self-hypnotist could place another individual in a trance and direct that individual to perform actions that are harmful or to refrain from acting on an issue.
In Hypnosis: A Review of its Basic Principles, Issac Marks observes that "In the process of self-hypnosis the subject begins to speak for himself, for the first time in his life. In this state he floats gently forward into his internal world, and as he sinks deeper he becomes more and more engrossed. The voice which calls him back may be a voice of warning which awakens him from his state of self-hypnosis to tell him what one should know before entering upon it."
The scientific study of hypnosis was introduced by Milton H. Erickson in the 1950s. The field was initially dominated by a German academic named Erich Fromm, who had received his Ph.D. from the University of Frankfurt, Germany in 1931 and had taught at a number of universities across Europe after achieving his Ph.D. He was trained as an endocrinologist for World War I and gained a reputation for being one of the few individuals who correctly interpreted the results of autopsies on soldiers killed in battle (Greenberg et al., 2010). In addition to his academic career, he was known as "a charismatic clinical hypnotherapist" (Greenberg et al. 2010).
Fromm's first book, "The Development of Personality", appeared in 1952, and he also wrote a number of journal articles that same year. In 1953 Fromm was invited to the United States by the psychologist David Rapaport (1897–1960) and began delivering a series of lectures on the history and theory of hypnosis at Yale University. The response to his lectures was so enthusiastic that he decided to remain in the United States and establish himself professionally as a hypnotherapist in addition to continuing his academic career (Greenberg et al., 2010). His most influential work "The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness" appeared in 1973. Other interests included social psychology, the history of psychoanalysis, political theory and the sociology of literature and art.
André Weitzenhoffer (1901–1959) was another important figure in the development of hypnosis as a psychological concept. He was a "distinguished psychologist" (Weitzenhoffer et al., 1952) at Stanford University and served as editor of The American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis until his death in 1959. He is better known for his first book published in 1951: "Hypnotism: A Practical Guide", which has been described as "a classic. The book is a historical and clinical treatise on hypnotherapy, with a heavy emphasis on ego psychology" (Greenberg et al., 2010).
Weitzenhoffer was the first to introduce the concept of "closed eyes hypnosis", in which the subject claimed to be hypnotized when he actually wasn't. He also went out of his way to gather data related to the claim that only certain types of individuals were susceptible to hypnosis and unequivocally stated that it was an unnecessary skill for therapists. This set up a number of problems for this new field, as very quickly there were those who argued that it wasn't necessary for therapists to know about hypnosis. This is essentially what happened with Erickson.
His first patient was an army officer named Charles B. Hart who claimed that he had been hypnotized by a physician and subsequently had a series of personal problems including marital difficulties, alcoholism and work-related problems. Despite this, Hart underwent hypnosis eight more times with Weitzenhoffer under the guidance of his wife, who coached him in how to behave during the sessions. In fact, she "was such a good hypnotherapist that Mr Hart's wife could hypnotize him out of her presence" (Greenberg et al., 2010).
Another influence on the development of hypnosis was Milton Erickson. Erickson was an influential psychologist and hypnotherapist who is said to have been "the single most important figure in the history of hypnosis" (Greenberg et al., 2010). He had a number of patients who suffered from a variety of ailments, including laryngeal cancer, stuttering and tuberculosis. Even with this latter patient, he was able to witness significant motor improvements for two years following the initial visit. Contrary to popular belief, Erickson's goal was not necessarily to make people look younger but rather improve their health as they aged naturally by optimizing their functioning during that period.
Erickson was born in Canada on August 7, 1901, but spent most of his life in the United States. He may have been influenced by witnessing the miraculous "healing" of his sister who had a blood clot on her brain removed by surgery. He was also under a major influence from the early 20th century British social psychologist Havelock Ellis, who claimed that human sexuality could be studied in ways similar to an animal ethology and that sexual response could be influenced by social psychology as well as psychodynamics (Greenberg et al., 2010).
He received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Columbia University in 1931, after which he held a number of positions at hospitals throughout the United States. He held the position of Research Director at the Menninger Foundation from 1940 until 1974. During his lifetime he wrote over 3000 works on hypnosis and related subjects, including "Ericksonian Hypnotherapy" (1974) and "The Art of Hypnosis" (1984).
The concepts introduced by Charles Tart were also important to the development of hypnosis. During WWII Tart worked as a volunteer for Project Pigeon, which was an attempt to train pigeons to guide bombs dropped from planes.
Conclusion
Charles Tart was one of the first psychologists to give a hypnosis research presentation at an American psychological conference in 1966. He also became an important figure in the development of hypnosis by studying different aspects of the phenomenon through a more scientific lens. He had been trained as a classical hypnotist, but felt that he could better study and explore hypnotism by looking at it from a different angle, which inevitably led him to go against what was known at the time. Tart later started giving hypnosis seminars, some of which were attended by Milton Erickson, with whom he founded the "Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology" (A-CEP) in 1996 (Tart & Laborde 2006).
References
Tart C.