what is the relationship between hynopsis and consciousness?

-- ken yue (kenykw@hotmail.com), October 02, 2003

Answers

A complex question. You can think of the hypnotic state as one type of consciousness or as an altered state of consciousness. I recommend that you read some history of psychology texts on this topic. E. G. Boring's classic history text has an excellent overview of the nineteenth century debates. Henri Ellenberger's history of the unconscious has superb material on the clinical tradition. In the twentieth century some of the most interesting work was done by Milton Erickson, whose work sparked an entire tradition. There is also material on auto-hypnosis. So in the end your question becomes one of "what kind of consciousness is evident in the hypnotic state?" and about whether there are different types of hypnotic states and different ways to induce them.

-- Hendrika Vande Kemp (hendrika@earthlink.net), October 02, 2003.