HYPNOSIS 2
Introduction
Understanding the actual problem being treated enables the psychologist to come up with the most effective approach of tackling the problem to the benefit of the patient. Signs and symptoms however sometimes may be confusing making the psychologist treat the wrong condition and thus making the treatment ineffective. Different conditions may depict similar symptoms, and therefore when the psychologists are not keen, they may offer therapy for a completely different condition from which their patient is undergoing. Understanding human behavior is also a challenge which contributes to hardships within the profession. Increased cases of therapy offered for the wrong condition has forced the scholars, and other practitioners advocate for the need for the treatment of the actual conditions rather than treating the symptoms. Stress as a medical condition, for instance, has various signs and symptoms which can be mistaken for other medical conditions. These symptoms include; headaches, low energy, insomnia, muscle pains, diarrhea among others which can be easily confused to indicate other conditions.
The psychologists, therefore, have realized the need to first identify the actual treatment before commencing the therapy sessions. A psychologist is faced with a challenge due to the nature of their practice given the fact that they focus on analyzing human behavior which is a complex undertaking. Due to this, therefore, the psychologist has adopted the use of hypnosis in tackling psychological issues. Hypnosis, as used by psychologists, is aimed at giving the patient a chance to focus and concentrate on the possible solution rather than the problem. A psychologist at this instance uses hypnotherapy on their clients to enable them to identify the real issue and deal with it effectively and promptly.
Nature of the problem
Symptoms treatment highly facilitated to deviation from finding the actual cure but rather the practitioners were focusing on ways through which they could suppress the symptoms. There rose a need, therefore, to shift the focus from mainly treating the symptoms and thus focus on finding and treating the source of the symptoms. Hypnosis was identified to be an approach through which the psychologists could treat and train patient on how to tackle bad behavior as well as stress. Scholars, however, have not shown how effective the approach is thus leading to much debate about its efficacy and its applicability. Based on the Emmanuel movement, however, there was a need to employ psychology in tackling issues of mental distress among the victims. Previously religious approaches were used to cure issues of stress and other mental disorders, this being a metaphysical approach there was a need to use a more coherent approach. Due to this, the church introduced a psychological approach into the tackling of the matter to make the practice easily comprehensible and acceptable. Early intervention directed towards tackling mental distress was focused on major conditions such as mania and schizophrenia, which led neglect of the minor condition. The conditions which were considered minor were later noted to develop into major serious conditions. Due to this, therefore, hypnosis as a treatment approach was introduced to offer a solution to the treatment of mental disorders in an attempt towards controlling mental distress issues at their initial stages. Hypnosis, when undertaken by a trained psychologist, enables the hypnotist to take control of the conversation and thus to enable the hyponist to take control of the therapy session. Through this, therefore, the psychologist can identify the actual cause of stress.
The efficacy of the overall process, however, has not been affirmed and therefore it’s debatable how effective the approach is in the treatment of mental distress conditions.
Application techniques
Hypnosis has been applied in different fields for different purposes. Among the main fields where the approach is utilized include; the psychology, military, individual skills improvement and also for entertainment purposes (Varga, 2013). When hypnosis is used in the field of medicine, it referred to as hypnotherapy. During hypnotherapy, an individual undergoing is made mentally isolate with their immediate environment which increases their concentration and facilitates the therapy process. The physicians use the approach to treat some issues which include; depression, anxiety, sleeping disorders, improper eating behavior, behavioral addiction such as gambling and also posttraumatic stress. Hypnosis is also used alongside other scientifically proven cognitive therapies to boost its effectiveness in treatment. The concept of using hypnotherapy is to harden the memory and enable the patient to tackle their current situation, for this reason, therefore, hypnosis is not effective when treating issues about memory repairing.
Hypnotherapy technique has also proven effective when treating psychological pain induced by different issues undergone by the patient. When treating stress, the hypnotist tries to create an enabling environment for the patient to lay out what is hidden inside. The approach then goes a notch higher to improve self-hypnosis which makes the patient more resilient to their current stressful situation. Hypnosis can also be employed in the military, under this the approach is used to access information from a resilient source. The psychological approach is aimed at exposing the source into a different harsh environment to induce them into realizing the required information. Through this, the military personally involved in the practice can gather the required intel despite the source being incorporative to provide. Hypnosis, therefore, can be said to be applied through the technique of changing the mental environment of the person to which the practice is performed. The mental, environmental manipulation level dictates the implications of the overall practice the more the physician can manipulate the patient thinking the more effective the overall hypnotic session.
Empirical evidence
Research has been undertaken with an objective of identifying the effectiveness of hypnosis as a psychological solution to different issues facing humanity in real life. Different studies ascertain that hypnosis is highly effective when applied to various cases. In pain management, for instance, a study showed that hypnosis helped reduce the pain of the patient undergoing bone marrow aspirations and also the practice reduced the pain experienced during childbirth (Alladin, 2012). These studies affirm that hypnosis is effective when used in pain management. Hypnosis was also proven to be effective in reduction of fear in individual undergoing through cancer treatment through psychologically preparing of the patient before undertaking the treatment. Through the therapy, misleading information, as well as the stereotyping about a disease, is eliminated thus preparing the patient for the actual procedure. Some studies also argue that hypnosis boosts how the patient copes with cancer and other chronic disorders. The aspect of pain reduction through the use of hypnosis has been explained through the concept of dual-processing functionality of the brain (Nash & Barnier, 2012). The aspect of pain reduction, however, can be criticized, this is because it’s difficult to measure the pain suffered and ascertain that it has been reduced drastically. There is also no standardization aspect of the pain undergone during any medical procedure. The pain suffered is determined by various factors and therefore cannot be attributed to just the therapy done to the patient.
The approach has been adopted in the military with the aim of getting information from non-cooperative sources. Through this approach, many successful interrogations have been undertaken by the enabling military gathering of vital intel. The approach of using hypnosis in the military is a matter of continued debate. The practice doesn’t entirely involve mental manipulation but it may involve torture and physical pain, this then ensures that the credit cannot entirely be given to hypnosis practice (Mendoza, & Capafons, 2009). The influence to relay the information can be highly triggered by the pain inflicted to the source more than through the hypnosis approach. Another ground for the critic of this approach applied in the military sector is that these sources are highly hardened mentally which makes it hard for the hypnosis approach to be effective. There is also a lack of empirical support through intense research on the efficacy of the use of this approach in gathering in intelligent information.
The approach has also been applied in the treatment of skin disorders. Under this, the patient undergoing this treatment is trained on how to control their scratching habit so as not to hinder the functioning of the medicine. Studies show that the approach has proofed effective when used for this purpose with the patient who undergoes through this problem being able to recover faster when compared to their colleagues who don’t undertake the process. The argument can be doubted and challenged this is because the recovery process is not entirely based on hypnosis practice. The medications used in conjunction with hypnosis also influence the outcome. The body of the patient reaction to certain drugs is also a driver of the recovery process. Due to these factors, therefore, it’s clear that the healing process can be affected by various issues rather than hypnosis. The body of the patient also may undergo certain changes during the treatment process and thus necessary to attribute these changes to the overall healing process rather than the hypnosis practice undergone by the patient.
Ethical issues concerning the use of hypnosis
There have been ethical concerns arising from different stakeholders for the process of hypnosis which requires to be addressed to ensure that the society will embrace the treatment. Among the concerns raised are towards the children patient undergoing through the hypnotherapy. These concerns include; confidentiality issues, informed consent of the patient, competence, supervision, and boundaries (Scheflin, 2013). The children appear on the receiving end in this case due to their low decision-making capacities making them vulnerable for unethical practice from hypnotists. Confidentiality aspect, for instance, is guided by the nature of information relayed by the patient. Some information is very confidential to the patient and relaying them may change the life of the individual completely. The physicians, therefore, ought to understand the boundaries on where they should not surpass during therapy. Being in the control of the therapy process and also the urge t become heroes on the situation may make the hypnotist to become unethical and surpass the set boundaries. The physicians, therefore, ought to be trained on ethical issues and asked to maintain professional ethics when dealing with their patient.
Another issue which gives rise to unethical practices is the lack of supervision. The interaction occurs between the patient and the hypnotist. Due to this, there is limited room for supervision of what the therapist is doing and whether the ethical practices are being met. Exposing children to such environment especially with incompetent hypnotist may have far-reaching negative implications than the positive results. There is a need for the creation of a platform through which the activities can be monitored and supervised to avoid deviation and also to remain within the standards.
There is also a concern about the issue of informed consent on the part of the patient. At this level, the patient ought to be informed of the intended results of the overall practice. When this is the case, the patient can withdraw from the treatment when they note any deviation from the intended results. Under this, the ethical issues arise when the physician fails to provide the necessary information to the client and to be in control over the conversation goes on to acquire confidential information. When the treatment is being administered to a grown up, they can withdraw from the treatment whenever they feel that maybe they are giving too much information. Unfortunately, when this happens to the kids, they are completely exposed to a very capacity to make the withdrawal decision. Due to this, they end up suffering on the hands of unethical practitioners.
The issue of competency also raises matters of ethics in practice. Under this, some physicians are not qualified to offer the treatment and are still offering the service. Due to this, the patient who falls into their hands may end up more destroyed than during when they undertook the therapy session. These physicians offer service which just like any other service cannot be tested before purchase. The patient, therefore, is exposed to falling into the hands of unqualified personnel without noticing. Patient suffering from intense conditions such as depression or trauma may not be in a position to notice when in the hands of the wrong practitioners due to poor judging capabilities. The aspect of confidentiality between the physician and the patient also hinder the relay of information from either the parties. The confidentiality aspects, therefore, leaves potential clients in a position where they can only validate the effectiveness of the practice only after the initial purchase of the services.
Social and historical issues of hypnosis
Hypnosis was being applied as early as the 18th century in the field of medicine. The concept of hypnotism was introduced by James Braid in the 1880s and has been used since then though with highly noticeable advancement to the initial idea (Hammond, 2013). The concept of hypnosis is an ancient phenomenon which just like other forms an ascertained practice such as magic, sorcery among other ancient beliefs and practices. Some cultures had adopted the approach as form meditation and attributed to having some religious values. The practice, however, was adopted to the field of medicine after some studies were conducted to ascertain its effectiveness in the treatment of certain psychological as well as nervous disorders. Researches had to be conducted by different scientist and psychologist to identify the benefits of using hypnotism in the field of medicine in the treatment of various conditions.
Jean-Martin Charcot was one of the main contributors to modern hypnotism, through his research he found out that hypnosis was a good cure for hysteria. Charcot experimented on hysteria patients and eventually concluded that hysteria was a psychological condition and thus ought to have been treated through psychological approaches such as hypnosis. The nervous disorders considered by Charcot included conditions leading psychological disturbances such as; amnesias, deafness, anesthesia’s, and paralyzes. Traditionally, hysteria was perceived as a gender condition affecting just the ladies, but through Charcot contributions, the stereotype was eliminated. The scholar studied psychological behavior based on the individual nervous system which asserted that hypnosis would be effective in tackling psychological disorders.
Benjamin Rush also highly contributed highly to the concept of hypnosis. From his perspective mental conditions were caused by the disruption in blood circulation and also sensory overload. Benjamin’s perception, however, was not proven to be true. However, Benjamin made a crucial discovery about possible cures of the mental disorders; he noted that psychological disorders could be treated by creating humane conditions to facilitate their healing. His argument was justified by a successful campaign which advocated for the establishment of a separate ward by the state aimed at creating a more humane environment for the patients.
Before its adoption in modern medicine, there were some metaphysical aspects attributed to hypnotism which made it difficult to comprehend and denied the people the right to perceive it from another perspective. Hypnosis was perceived to have a unique approach in tackling issues affecting the human race. Different scholars and scientist continued to develop the concept of hypnotism introducing new phenomenon’s which are adopted to date. The previous adoption may have been limited to the resources available to ascertain the facts about its applicability in real life situations. Another factor which may have attributed to the concept not being fully exploited may have been its association with metaphysics thus denying people the capacity to exploit it fully. The knowledge about its existence, however, triggered the adoption of the concept and its advancement to date.
Hypnosis concept had some place in the social world since it affected how individual behaved within the societal setup. Traditionally many cultures had adopted the concept to use it for meditation purposes. After the realization of the physical and health benefits accrued to the concept, it has earned more social utility than it had done previously. Through the adoption of the concept in the medical field, the practice has enabled the understanding of different behavior within the society through an understanding of cognitive behavioral theories. The concept has also facilitated the reinstatement of the common setup within society. Treatment of issues suffered by members of the society such as stress, depression among other social issue has strengthened the society as a complete whole. The family is the back born of society and thus ought to be protected if the society is to remain stable. When a family member is lost to addictions, mental disorders, depression or even stress society as the whole is shaken. Through treatment of such conditions with hypnosis, therefore, society is revived. Development of hypnosis, therefore, had positive social implications to the society. Analyses of behavioral theories also boost the interaction within society.
References
Alladin, A. (2012). Cognitive hypnotherapy: A new vision and strategy for research and practice. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 54(4), 249-262.
Hammond, D. C. (2013). A review of the history of hypnosis through the late 19th century. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 56(2), 174-191.
Mendoza, M. E., & Capafons, A. (2009). Efficacy of clinical hypnosis: A summary of its empirical evidence. Papeles del Psicólogo.
Nash, M. R., & Barnier, A. J. (Eds.). (2012). The Oxford handbook of hypnosis: Theory, research, and practice. Oxford University Press.
Scheflin, A. W. (2013). Ethics and hypnosis: Unorthodox or innovative therapies and the legal standard of care. Current Thinking and Research in Brief Therapy, 1, 41.
Varga, K. (2013). Suggestive techniques connected to medical interventions. Interventional Medicine and Applied Science, 5(3), 95-100.