Three schools of hypnosis

Hypnosis has traditionally been viewed as a social interaction between the hypnotist and the visitor, with the aim of creating a specific "hypnotic" state in the visitor. In this state, it is often assumed that the visitor's behavior and experiences are different from those in their waking state.

While most hypnotherapist practitioners agree with this assumption, they differ in their understanding of the specific nature of the hypnotic relationship. In order to clarify these differences in understanding, it is important to first distinguish between the following three schools of hypnosis: Authoritarian, Standardized, and Collaborative.

Authoritarianism: The most extreme description of this school is that a person with "special" mental abilities (e.g., "hypnotist", "strong will") is a "powerful force". A "powerful" individual (the hypnotist) with "special" mental abilities (e.g., "hypnotist", "strong will"), prompts another person (the hypnotized) to enter a relatively passive state, i.e., a state of being very susceptible to the hypnotist's "suggestions". These cues can "force" the subject to perform a variety of behaviors (from barking at a dog to quitting smoking) that the patient is unwilling or unable to perform in the waking state. This school of thought is replete with concepts such as "consciousness over matter," "loss of control," "implanted suggestion," and "susceptibility," all of which are notions of "consciousness over matter," "loss of control," "implanted suggestion," and "susceptibility. "These concepts are themselves partly "indoctrinated" by books, movies and folklore, and are widely accepted by laymen, and many therapists who use hypnosis techniques imply that they believe in these concepts.

The authoritarian theory is particularly favored by stage hypnotists.

The authoritarian school emphasizes the role of the hypnotist without regard to the characteristics of each subject's knowledge, beliefs, and abilities, and regardless of the subject's ability to choose how to participate in the hypnotic event. Standardist: This school is especially promoted by experimental psychologists. It does not emphasize the power of the hypnotist, but rather the subject as the primary object of study. The standard school usually assumes that hypnotic responsiveness is a stable trait of the individual. Similarly, the hypnotist can apply a standardized set of communication methods that remain constant regardless of the type of subject encountered. In other words, subjects are either hypnotizable or not. The behavior of the hypnotist doesn't actually matter.

Standardists attribute both success and failure of hypnosis to the subject under hypnosis, and hypnotist compulsions are less important.

The Collaborative School: Many modern hypnotherapists believe that hypnotic responses can reflect the interplay between motivation and interest within the visitor, the flexibility and sensitivity of the therapist, and the degree of harmony between the therapist and the visitor. The hypnotist, the subject, and the hypnotist-subject relationship, any one of which is an autopoietic system, work together in a "****-system".

The main founder of the Collaboration School was Milton Erickson, MD, who collaborated according to the principle of utilization, in which the visitor's self-expressive model is seen as the basis for constructing a therapeutic hypnotic state. Collaboration, utilization and flexibility are the foundations of Erickson's theory.