Hypnosis in Academia: Contemporary Challenges in Research, Healthcare and Education

202 Pages·2023·4.373 MB·English

by  Maurício S. Neubern, Antoine Bioy

Maurício S. Neubern
Antoine Bioy   Editors
Hypnosis in
Academia
Contemporary Challenges in Research,
Healthcare and Education
Preface by
Dr. Roxanna Erickson-Klein
Hypnosis in Academia
Maurício S. Neubern • Antoine Bioy
Editors
Hypnosis in Academia
Contemporary Challenges in Research,
Healthcare and Education
Editors
Maurício S. Neubern Antoine Bioy
Institute of Psychology Laboratory of Psychopathology
University of Brasília and Process of Change
Brasília, Brazil University Paris 8
Paris, France
ISBN 978-3-031-22874-2 ISBN 978-3-031-22875-9 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-22875-9
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Preface
I am honored to offer opening words for this timely work: Hypnosis in Academia.
The theme that unites this volume is appreciation for the centrality of academia in
the investigations of hypnosis. Drawn from university programs in ten countries on
three continents, this collection illustrates that individual paths of academic devel-
opment are as varied as individual subjects who present in clinicians’ offices—each
having a unique history and particular perspective. It is through our own efforts to
learn more about the endeavors of these differing programs that we receive the gifts
of wisdom that come through experiences.
This collection embraces narratives that entice readers with cultural flavors: his-
tory, climate, politics, and key players who have been profoundly impactful. The
chapters represent a diverse group of approaches brought together by a common
intent to provide a resource to explain and extend uses of therapeutic hypnosis. We
encounter the growth edge of learning more about hypnosis—how to study it, how
to apply, and how to teach it. Academia—the stewards of higher learning, provides
a felt sense commitment to students of today, the leaders of tomorrow.
With advancements in technology, we find ourselves on a new platform of study.
This work actualizes an opportunity for communication that has evolved in past
decades. Geographical distances and language differences now represent much
more manageable barriers than they once did. Now we begin the integration of
knowledge with the benefit of many voices, a cooperative expression unavailable
just a lifetime ago. This international compilation of current academic perspectives
was beyond reach even in my own academic studies but offers now a multitude of
new ways to bring what is known to the forefront. Milton Erickson, a key individual
who impacted the trajectory of modern studies, is a name that serious students of
hypnosis will readily recognize. What a momentous opportunity to study with oth-
ers we now enjoy that was not available during Erickson’s lifetime (1901–1980)
possibly even beyond the imagination of those in earlier times.
As a daughter of Milton Erickson, I was raised in an exceptional learning envi-
ronment. My siblings and I were brought up with a clear understanding that higher
education was to be a definitive element of each of our futures. While we were given
vast freedom to study any field that interested us, investigations and practice of
v
vi Preface
hypnosis was the focus of our parents’ professional undertakings. Their passionate
interests were part of our daily lives. Each one of the eight children in our family
appreciated, studied, and practiced hypnosis as we chose. Four of us focused our
careers in health care within which hypnotic suggestion can and does make its great
impact on quality of life.
Fascination with trance states occurs in virtually every culture. Paradoxically we
know little about the nature of the hypnotic state. While few question that ceremo-
nial elements of hypnotic trancework engender powerful responses, the fundamen-
tal definition and process of documentation of trance remains open to debate and
speculation. Individually, professionally, and in our communities, we are affected
by expectations and biases that we may not even fully recognize. It is now possible
to explore ideas with a much broader reach than ever in history.
The context of Erickson’s first exposure to hypnosis was stage entertainment; he
was so impressed with the power of what he saw that he committed himself to car-
rying forward this methodology into the hands of healing professionals where it
could be further developed to promote health and rehabilitation. Health profession-
als who integrate hypnosis into their arts typically have learned through experiences
with other clinicians. As their skills grow, they learn from the patients they seek to
help. Like each one of us, Erickson had strengths and vulnerabilities. Perhaps the
most salient of all his attributes was an insatiable curiosity, a deep burning desire to
learn. No matter what circumstance, stroke of misfortune or paucity of resources, he
consistently turned inward and let the fire of curiosity light the way to healthy adap-
tation and growth. His own life began in humble circumstances without access to
the tremendous reservoir of resources available today. He was born at the start of the
twentieth century in a two-room dirt-floor log cabin high on a mountainside that
overlooked an arid valley. The remote circumstances was home to a community of
miners who used burlap sacks to lug silver ore out of candle-lit tunnels where they
chipped away at rock with pick axes. Labor was hard, and day-to-day resources
were incredibly sparce; working together was an essential element of survival. His
parents, Albert and Clara, were united in their core values of a commitment to hard
work and cooperative community bonds.
Erickson’s own journey from a remote mountain camp to the University of
Wisconsin is fascinating and inspiring. In many ways Erickson found himself chal-
lenged, isolated, poorly understood, and unappreciated—so is the journey of many
who are driven in their commitment to discover what is not yet known. Individual
contributions are influenced by our own experiences and the elements of our own
personalities, physical attributes, and circumstances of life. Erickson’s dedication to
education and his ambition to contribute to elevate hypnosis from its status as poorly
understood entertainment theatrics to a legitimate scientific medical tool reflects his
family core values of hard work and participation within the larger community.
On an individual level, as well as within society, we all must accept our own
limits of knowledge, and the collective limitations. As healing professionals we
seek a community from which to continue expansion of our practice skills: col-
leagues, peers, and other who successfully apply techniques that seem useful. Other
professionals provide an identity group from whom one can seek role models or
Preface vii
trial subjects for learning elusive techniques. Organizations have evolved to link
professionals who are committed to advancing their own abilities to tap into hyp-
notic resources. Local, national, and international organizations seek to share what
is known and what is being studied. Even now, at this time, the International Society
of Hypnosis is in the process of creating a substantial publication that will serve as
a resource for professionals worldwide. That compilation, still in development, like
this one, will bring diverse perspectives for readers to read, ponder, and learn from
the experiences of others.
In his years of study at the university, Erickson became strongly committed to the
concept of the central role that academia—higher education and scientific research—
must play in the advancement of knowledge. Academia, the network of institutes of
higher learning, provides a forum that can now reach around the world to integrate
energy, ideas, and efforts from an ever-broadening arena. Science provides a com-
mon language and methodology to advance what is known. Among the commit-
ments of which Erickson expressed certainty is a commitment to transparency—to
share findings, whether expected or unexpected, whether desired or problematic.
The information gleaned from experiential wisdom becomes part of the literature to
advance science. Step by step, case by case, information comes together. Each story,
each unique experience, ushers along a growing awareness of professional wealth.
Learning from individual experiences, from organizational experiences, from cul-
tural experiences all contribute to the foundation for all students.
Bolstered by the balance of fascination for human behavior and his own experi-
ences in the application of the unconscious mind to enhance healing, Erickson
found his own position in the history of hypnosis. How many more bright, moti-
vated individuals are working to bring forward their own ideas, perspectives, and
discoveries? One of my father’s favorite teaching mantras was “Practice, Practice,
Practice.” Here, now, and in response to this great contribution to current literature,
I propose a related bit of advice: “Communicate, Communicate, Communicate.”
As we advance professional knowledge to specialized fields of study, we learn
how much more remains to integrated into the sea of knowledge. Amassing of wis-
dom is not a linear continuum, but rather an infinitely complex constellation of
experiences that involve exceptional strengths and troublesome limitations. This
exploration of a diversity of approaches and the foundations of research to support
what is now known about the topic of hypnosis will help all who seek both basic and
advanced written information. This volume expresses strong messages. With the
telecommunication resources we now have—reach beyond what is familiar.
Appreciate and learn from those in similar and dissimilar circumstances—broaden
the understanding of possibilities, to teach, to study, to discover. As we extend our
efforts, far and wide, to unite what is known—we do inspire our future directions.
Dallas, TX, USA Roxanna Erickson-Klein
2022 https://www.erickson-rossi.com/
Contents
1 Hypnosis, Science, and Contemporary Universities:
An Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Maurício S. Neubern and Antoine Bioy
2 When Hypnosis Becomes a “First-Line” Teaching,
the University Wins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Antoine Bioy, Pierre Castelnau, and Julien Nizard
3 Hypnosis, University, and Democracy: An Emancipatory
Proposal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Maurício S. Neubern
4 Liège School of Hypnosis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Marie-Elisabeth Faymonville and Anne-Sophie Nyssen
5 Hypnosis at the Medical Sciences Universities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Alberto Erconvaldo Cobián Mena, Adolfo Rafael Lambert Delgado,
and Frank David Alcalá Ciria
6 University and Hypnosis: Some Aspects of a “Win-Win”
Situation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Katalin Varga, Éva Bányai, Zoltan Kekecs, and Eniko Kasos
7 Hypnosis: A Boundary Object on the Edges of Science
in Swiss Universities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Eric Bonvin
8 Hypnosis and Academia from an Iberian Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Pedro Rodrigues Ribeiro
9 Clinical Hypnosis in Russia: From Historical Tradition
to Modern Education, Research, and Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Rashit Tukaev
ix
x Contents
10 A Roadmap to Evidence-Based Medical Hypnosis Training
in Academia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
David Ogez and Pierre Rainville
11 Professional Practices, University Education, and Research
in Hypnosis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Wellington Zangari, Guilherme Rodrigues Raggi Pereira,
and Fatima Regina Machado
12 A Law Regularizing Hypnosis and the Role of Academia
in Teaching and Promoting Hypnosis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Nir Uziel and Ilana Eli
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Chapter 1
Hypnosis, Science, and Contemporary
Universities: An Introduction
Maurício S. Neubern and Antoine Bioy
Hypnosis, at present, seems to live a moment of great relevance in the international
scientific scene. There is a constant interest in research, as can be easily seen in
important scientific journals (BMC Anesthesiology, Frontiers, PLOS One, Brain
Science, Pain, etc.), in which it is studied on topics such as different types of pain,
anxiety, trauma, and depression, not to mention the reflections it promotes in terms
of its explanatory models. Medicine, psychology, dentistry, and nursing are the dis-
ciplines most directly linked to this, especially in Universities and research centers.
The interest about hypnosis in the therapeutic field has also been growing, both in
terms of providing more punctual services, such as in university hospitals and health
centers, and in the contexts of private practices, such as psychotherapy. Although it
is possible to highlight that there are still considerable resistances on the part of
professionals and institutions, hypnosis is gaining more and more recognition in
scientific and professional communities of different countries, which qualify it as a
possible technical resource of its members.
This moment of growth seems to have a special character, mainly because of its
historical course. After a long period of ostracism, between the beginning and the
middle of the twentieth century, in Europe, as well as in North America, important
reflections on its historical, clinical, and epistemological levels occurred. Part of
these authors (Chertok & Stengers, 1989; Laurence & Perry, 1988; Stengers, 2001)
highlighted the difficult path of hypnosis in the face of scientific institutions, recog-
nizing its value as a fundamental theme of reflection on the ways of modern sci-
ences, especially in elusive fields, and difficult to conceptualize, such as human
subjectivity. Another group of authors (Erickson & Rossi, 1979; Roustang, 2015;
Zeig, 1994) emphasized its applicability in methodological and clinical terms,
M. S. Neubern (*)
Institute of Psychology, University of Brasília, Brasília, Brazil
A. Bioy
Laboratory of Psychopathology and Process of Change, University Paris 8, Paris, France
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 1
M. S. Neubern, A. Bioy (eds.), Hypnosis in Academia,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-22875-9_1