Altered States Of Hypnosis By Irving Kirsch

202 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: Altered state of consciousness

In the article “The Altered States of Hypnosis” the author, Irving Kirsch, takes one on a journey through where hypnosis comes from, what it used to be, what it is now, and what it can become. She also talks about what hypnosis is in the eyes of scholars who have researched hypnotic states of mind and concluded that the effects of hypnosis are not due to an altered state of consciousness, but are instead a product of normal psychological processes. Furthermore, Irving Kirsch makes compelling observations about the reality of hypnotic experiences. For example, there was a hypnotic test can at an university with volunteers participants where they were hypnotized by someone in the same room as them, but then hypnotized by a video recording. Also

Show More
Related

  • Trouble In Mind by Leon F. Litwack

    1509 Words  | 4 Pages

    Leon F. Litwack is the author of Trouble in Mind. Litwack is an American historian and professor of history at the University of California at Berkeley. He was born in 1929 in Santa Barbara, California. In 1951, Litwack received is Bachelor Degree and then continued to further his education. In 1958, he received his Ph. D. from the University of California at Berkeley. Samuel Eliot Morison and Henry Steele Commager wrote the book that sparked Litwack's curiosity in history. The book was The Growth of the American Republic. Litwack was in the eleventh grade when he first discovered his interest in history. In 1964, Litwack began teaching at the University of California, where he taught an excess of 30,000 students. Litwack has written other books besides Trouble in Mind. One of the books he wrote was Been in the Storm So Long: The Aftermath of Slavery in 1979. In 1980, Litwack was the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for history of this book and in 1981 he was the winner of the National Book Award. He also wrote North of Slavery: The Negro in the Free State, 1790-1860, Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America, and The Harvard Guide to African-American History. Litwack has also won many including, the Francis Parkman Prize, the American Book Award, and he was elected to the presidency of the Organization of American Historians. In addition to this, Litwack has been an outstanding teacher and received two notable teaching awards. Litwack's first teaching position was at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, where he taught from 1958 to 1964. He also taught at the University of South Carolina, Louisiana State University, and the University of Mississippi. As one can see, not only has Litwack been an exceptionally outstanding author, he has also been a very popular and influential teacher.

    Read More

  • Hypnotism’s Influence on Bram Stoker and Dracula

    2905 Words  | 6 Pages

    Starting in chapter twenty-three until the final chapter, twenty- seven, Stoker mentions small, yet significant details that have a great influence on the outcome of the hypnosis. These small details illustrate how Stoker researched and understood how hypnosis worked and its final outcome. Analyzing these small details can hel...

    Read More

  • Ross Chambers's 'The Unexamined '' By Ross Chambers

    1562 Words  | 4 Pages

    Getting one good grade in school is easy, the difficult part is to keep getting good grades. This concept applies to other things also. For example when a group is given a certain privilege they have to maintain it. In the essay “The Unexamined” by Ross Chambers, the author discusses that different races are perceived differently depending on where they are. He says that white people are the superior ones, and they bare the privilege of not being marked by others. While other races are discriminated, the whites are excluded from discrimination. Together with the color category there are other ones which also are the privileged ones, like for example: men and straight people. In the other essay “Man Royals And Sodomites” by Makeda Silvera,

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Molly Treadway Johnson's Memory Phenomena In The Law

    1006 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Laurence Armand French Ph.D. and Thomas J. Young Ph.D.’s article The False Memory Syndrome: Clinical/Legal Issues for the Prosecution talks about memory recall being an unreliable form of evidence in the Criminal Justice System. French and Young state that hypnosis and lie detector tests are a misconception because “the cognitive interpretations of the emotional/autonomic aspects of the central nervous (CNS) and peripheral nervous systems are not true indicators of reality,” (p. 38).

    Read More

  • Pseudoscience Paper: “Hypnosis”

    1944 Words  | 4 Pages

    Hypnosis has been used for a wide range of problems from, opting to remove some symptoms of certain mental diseases, reducing stress and psychological traumas, and treating phobias, to aiming to cause weight loss and cure one from illness and diseases (Keller, 2008). Although hypnosis in general, is considered to be safe and totally harmless when controlled by a physician, the present era has attached danger to it, in that it creates delusions through other people’s lives. According to MacKenzie (2011), “Hypnosis has been perceived as clouding people’s imaginations while they undergo relaxation, both internally and externally. While under hypnosis we experience a heightened sense of imagination and are open to suggestions and changes.” Coker (2010) found Pseudoscience to encourage people to believe anything they want. “It supplies specious "arguments" for fooling yourself into thinking that any and all beliefs are equally valid...

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of Hypnosis

    1495 Words  | 3 Pages

    For centuries hypnosis has been around, however many people till this day do not know much about it. Most still believe hypnotist carry around big clocks using them to swing back and forth in someone’s face, controlling their every action. As the one being hypnotized remains unaware as they proceed to act like a chicken with their head cut off. But for the most part, the truth is most hypnotists can be your average doctor, therapist, dentist, psychiatrists, and friend. It doesn’t take much to hypnosis someone as long as a deep state of relaxation is created, where the unconscious mind is “listening” and the conscious mind is “resting”. The meaning of “conscious and unconscious are really just shorthand terms to describe the general characteristics of the human mind. The “conscious mind” is the bit where we tend to “live” – the bit you might think as “you”. If there’s a little voice reading these words out loud in your head, that’s the conscious mind talking. The unconscious mind is everything else” ("About hypnosis"). In fact some doctors don’t use the word trance when describing the relaxed state because the person is very aware in their so-called unconscious mind. They feel that the word trance implies a different mind level or mental lapse and sends out the wrong idea to people who don’t know the subject.

    Read More

  • Hypnotherapy for Depression

    1277 Words  | 3 Pages

    Danielle wakes up in the morning and doesn’t want to get out of bed. She is wide awake but didn’t get much sleep; and has no motivation to start her day. Reluctantly she gets up, showers, and gets ready for work. She skips breakfast as she has no appetite and heads into work. On the way to her job she has trouble concentrating on her driving; instead she contemplates how useless she feels at work and how helpless she is to change the situation. Once at work she can’t remember what meetings she needed to attend, and forgets about an important appointment with the general manager. To most, this sounds like a bad day. But to her this is just the norm of her everyday life. Danielle is displaying many of the symptoms associated with clinical depression. She is diagnosed with the mental illness and prescribed pharmaceuticals, but when she does remember to take her medicine it seems to cause more problems than it fixes with the multitude of side effects. She wants a different solution or approach to manage her problem. Here is where hypnosis may come into play as a viable option.

    Read More

  • Essay On Hypnosis

    2636 Words  | 6 Pages

    Hypnosis has many practical uses, and these days it is becoming increasingly popular as a method of behavior modification. The Internet contains many advertisements for self-help programs that use hypnosis to reduce stress, quit smoking, or lose weight. In the area of hypnosis and weight loss, there are many web sites for both products and services for sale that promise to help anyone lose weight. Hypnosis uses suggestions to change a person's behavior and eating habits in order to facilitate weight loss. What are the expected outcomes? There are many different outcomes expected from this type of hypnotic treatment. Most vendors of hypnosis specify that it's purpose is not only lose weight but to also maintain that ideal weight. Some companies also promise that hypnosis will stop cravings for unhealthy foods, such as foods high in salt or fat and also fried foods. http://www.clauser.com/announce3.html Through hypnotic suggestion, the person will learn how to eat healthy and may also become physically fit. Basically, the person becomes subconsciously motivated to eat better food and to become physically active. http://www.biocentrix.com/hypnosis/wghtplan.htm How Does Hypnosis work? There are many different forms of hypnosis used to control weight. A very popular method is the use of hypnotizing tapes. DreamLab, a web site selling these tapes, describes the procedure, and advises customers to start the tape when they go to bed. They claim that the tape contains both music and instructions that "lull you into the right mood." http://www.dream-lab.com/noweight.html While a person is in this mood, they are open to changes in their attitudes about eating habits and exercise through the suggestion of dream i...

    Read More

  • Hypnosis, As A Therapeutic Approach

    994 Words  | 2 Pages

    Montgomery, G. H., Boybierg, D. H., Schnur, J. B., David, D., Weltz, A., & Schechter, C. R. (2007). A Randomized Clinical Trial of a Brief Hypnosis Intervention Control Side Effects in Breast Surgery Patients. Natl Cancer Inst, 99, 1304-1312.

    Read More

  • Hypnosis

    1079 Words  | 3 Pages

    Hypnosis as a therapeutic technique has evolved. Countless of studies have verified the potential of hypnosis as a treatment for subjective symptoms of a variety of conditions. Hypnotherapy has been largely investigated in a scientific manner in the centuries following Mesmer’s hypnotic techniques- and yet no common accepted classification of the phenomenon exists. Fortunately, there is an accepted idea among professionals and analysts about what occurs during the hy...

    Read More

  • Psychodynamic Therapy Essay

    1588 Words  | 4 Pages

    Psychodynamic therapy, focuses on unconscious mind and how past experiences, inner thoughts, fears, and emotions The main goal of psychodynamic therapy is for clients to be self-aware of the past and how it effects who they are in the present. This type of therapy focuses on the underlying problems and emotions that influenced the client’s behavior. (Psych Central, 2016)

    Read More

  • Freud's Views on Forgetting a Proper Name and Dream Analysis

    856 Words  | 2 Pages

    The significant tie between these two realms of thought can be found in hypnosis. In a hypnotic state induced by suggestion, and individual is made able to access both preconscious and unconscious thoughts, and to express them while not asleep. This is a valuable tool both for the psychoanalyst and for the patient; in a hypnotic state the patient has access to unconscious material that otherwise would be difficult to uncover and interpret.

    Read More

  • Marshall Mcluhan's Theory Of Netflix: The Medium Is The Message?

    1101 Words  | 3 Pages

    This effect of "hypnosis" has already depicted itself through Netflix subscribers in the form of binge watching. Binge watching is "the practice of watching multiple episodes of a television program in rapid succession" (Wikipedia 2015). Sixty-one percent of the sixty million Netflix subscribers binge watch television shows every few weeks (Smith 2015). The hypnosis that comes with certain hot media could play a role in these statistics. While under a hypnotic trance, one is "highly responsive to suggestion or direction" (Wikipedia 2015). On Netflix, after finishing one episode of a program, it has a direct link that starts the next one, and even if one is does not click it, it automatically starts after thirty seconds (Netflix 2013). Being under hypnosis while watching a television show makes it harder to resist the link for the next episode, making it easy to binge watch. Binge watching takes up a lot of time, as an average season for a television show nowadays is 10 hours (Ryan 2011). This lengthens the time spent in isolation, which can worsen self-centred perceptions (Johnson

    Read More

  • What is Neuro-Linguistic programming?

    2371 Words  | 5 Pages

    Baddeley, M. (1989). NLP the academic verdict so far. The Australian Journal of clinical hypnotherapy and hypnosis, Volume 10 issue 2 P. 73-81

    Read More

  • Hypnosis Essay

    780 Words  | 2 Pages

    The history of hypnosis is full of contradiction. One can compare it to that of breathing; as hypnosis, breathing is an intrinsic and universal trait, shared and experienced by all human beings since the dawn of time, but it has been only decades that man has come to study and appreciate its immense importance (Kihlstorm 1). Hence, continuingly preserving its relevance to breathing, "[h]ypnosis itself hasn't changed for millennia, but our understanding of it and our ability to control it has changed quite profoundly. The history of hypnosis, then, is really the history of this change in perception"(Kihlstorm 1). It has always been present, while it is a naturally occurring state of your body, yet it is has just recently been dissected and experimented upon to truly comprehend its proper purpose and power. "Ancient Chinese, Hindu, and Egyptian texts all mention healing procedures that are hypnotic inductions by any other name"(Walkin 4), therefore the roots of hypnosis have come a long ways. During these times, the practice was preformed, yet with no scientific explanation, consequently resulting in the rumor of demonic, or spiritual work. After modernization and industrialization began to replace and extinguish all non- proven techniques, including hypnosis, hypnosis took several decades until its next prosperous upspring. The first application of hypnosis on the medical field can be credited to the famous Franz Mesmer as his work "can be seen as both the last flourish of 'occult' hypnosis and the first flourish of the 'scientific' view point. Mesmer was the first to propose a rational basis for the effects of hypnosis" (Walkin 16). Mesmer allowed hypnosis to flourish once again, but in order to be accepted amongst the new 'enlig...

    Read More

More about Altered States Of Hypnosis By Irving Kirsch

Open Document