Psychotherapy Book Review
Scattered:
How Attention Deficit Disorder Originates and What you can do about it
By: Gabor Mate, MD A Plume book
http://www.pmeguinputnam.com
This book, as the Publishers Weekly states is "one of the most comprehensive and accessible books about Attention deficit Disorder." His theories of inherited emotional sensitivity dovetail perfectly with my understanding of the true nature of AD/HD and imply naturally the treatment by Medical Hypnoanalysis.
This book is a great find and I highly recommend it to any client who seeks my counsel for these problems.
Transforming the Difficult Child, The Nurtured Heart Approach
Shifting the intense child to new patterns of success and strengthening all children on the inside
By: Howard Glasser, MA and Jennifer Easley, MA
Published by Howard Glasser
Email: adhddoc@theriver.com
Web Site www.difficultchild.com
I find this book to be a highly enlightened and useful book for all who would be a parent of a child either labeled ADHD or about to labeled as so. Instead of advocating drugs to merely mask the symptoms they emphasized understanding and acceptance of the "Intense Child." They give good clear examples of how to favorably influence all children especially those who would be considered ADHD.
This work allows me to be a better therapist in my own dealings with anyone who has ADHD as well as being able to recommend it to parents and spouses of ADHD people. I highly recommend this book to all of my clients involved in this area of concern.
Conditioned Reflexes: An Investigation of the Physiological Activity of the Cerebral Cortex
By: IP Pavlov
Translated and edited
By: VG Anrep
Dover Publications, Inc in NY, NY
To my surprise I found that Pavlov summarized his life's work as largely an explanation of hypnosis. His work as a major contribution to scientific psychology goes unchallenged. Indeed, if Pavlov were to fall, what little scientific justification the field of psychology has would be immeasurably damaged.
Hypnotic suggestion, via Pavlov, is firmly rooted in the scientific discipline of psychology. He states:
"Among the various aspects of the hypnotic state in man attention may be drawn to "suggestion" so called and its physiological interpretation . . . speech provides conditioned stimuli which are just as real as any other stimuli. At the same time speech provides stimuli, which exceed in richness and many sidedness any of the others. Speech, on account of the preceding life . . . can call forth all of those reactions . . . that are normally determined by the actual stimuli themselves. "Suggestion". . is the simplest form of a conditioned reflex in man. This accounts for the large and practically insurmountable influence of suggestion as a stimulus during hypnosis and shortly after it." P 407
Although cumbersome to read, because of scientific translations, his conclusions, I believe, are well worth the effort for those who seek a rational understanding of hypnotic communication.
Hypnosis & Counseling in the Treatment of Chronic Illness
Crown House Publishing Limited, www.crownhouse.co.uk,
By: David Frank & Bernard Mooney
This is an extremely useful book to help convey to the public and other medical professionals how and why hypnosis can be of much value in the treatment of many common medical problems. It is my opinion that this book should end up in many libraries across the nation so that the public can educate themselves. It is a shame that this is so little utilized here in America when a country such as England has made such valuable use of it. The authors are to be commended. They have made a very valuable contribution to the literature on this subject.
Scripts and Strategies in Medical Hypnoanalysis Volumes I & II
Crown House Publishing Limited,
Email: info@CHPUS.com,
www.crownhouse.co.uk
By: Roger P. Allen
These are excellent books that will serve a useful purpose for many years to come. It is refreshing and original. I believe these scripts can easily fit into anybody's hypnotherapeutic style. Roger is to be commended. I will keep them on my primary reference book shelf.
Hypnotism: A History
By: Derek Forrest
Penguin Books
1999
Popular Science: History of Medicine
This is without doubt the most thorough and engaging history of hypnosis I have encountered. I highly recommend it for any one who cares about history. Anyone involved with Medical Hypnoanalysis knows how valuable a good thorough history is. The history of where we came from is just as enlightening. There are those who when encountering a new system will feel that if something in principle appears true that everything associated with it is equally true, while others who see that some aspect of a field of study is false then it must all be false which justifies the rejection of the whole.
The study of hypnosis is the battle between these two groups. It not only serves as a historical recount of the discipline but it also serves to help enlighten us to the methods we use today. As the review in the British Medical Journal states: "Intensely readable; it combines the merits of historical scholarship with a plot that could come from a good Victorian novel" I totally agree.
Secret, Don't Tell The Encyclopedia of Hypnotism
By: Carla Emery
Acorn Publishing Co
Copyright 1998
Phone/Fax 517-386-6421,
E-mail: orders@hypnotism.org,
www.hypnotism.org
This is truly a massive work and worthy of the attention of anyone in the field of hypnosis who wishes to be fully informed about its history, uses and misuses. Although I do not agree with parts of what she says she has done her homework and presents issues everyone concerned with hypnosis should be aware of. She looks at the nasty side of hypnosis. She presents herself as being a victim of some unethical hypnotherapist. Just what the victimization is not very clear. Whatever the victimization, it motivated her to write this book as an expose of the hypnotic field.
From corrupt therapist to unethical researchers to secretive government agencies, she writes about the real Svengalis that have victimized the unsuspecting and the imprudent. M It is a true encyclopedia in the field of hypnosis for anyone interested in trance phenomena, psychotherapy, psychoanalysis, counseling or related fields of law, yet far from academic or stuffy. This book is intensely readable, with the pace of an excellent suspense novel. It is both compelling and terrifying - with every word documented.
It covers many of the most significant Case Histories of Criminal Hypnosis, A partial History of US Government Mind-Control Research, Trance Phenomena, Induction Methods, Legal and Therapy Issues in Criminal Hypnosis.
After over 25 years in the field I have never encountered such a thoroughly researched book about hypnosis revealing so little known facts to me. I feel is some way I should be ashamed, but I do not feel I am alone. I highly recommend this book to anyone seriously interested in understanding hypnosis and its implications.
Christian Science
By: Mark Twain
Nearly 100 years ago Mark Twain wrote a very interesting book on Christian Science. Twain was among those few intellectuals who could see the power of the mind while discounting the need to have religion attached to suggestive healing. Here he gives an interesting accounting of an "imaginary/real" experience with a Christian Science healer. "The Christian Scientist was not able to cure my stomachache . . .but the horse doctor did. . . Christian Science claims too much.
"Nothing exists but Mind?"
"Nothing," she answered. All else is substance less all else is imaginary."
I gave her an imaginary check, and now she is suing me for substantial dollars. It looks inconsistent."
Another insight concerns human judgment regarding religion. Here he criticizes the intellectuals who said Christian Science was merely a passing fad.
" There is nothing to Christian Science; there is nothing about it that appeals to the intellect; its market will be restricted to the unintelligent, the mentally inferior, the people who do not think. . . It is like bringing forward the best reason in the world why Christian Science should flourish and live, and then blandly offering it as a reason why it should sicken and die.
If conversions to. . religions. . . were in any considerable degree achieved through the intellect, the aforesaid reason would be sound and sufficient, no doubt; the inquirer into Christian Science might go away unconvinced and unconverted. . . conversions are seldom made in that way; that such a thing as a serious and pains- taking and fairly competent inquiry into the claims of a religion or of a political dogma is a rare occurrence. . .the vast mass of men and women are far from being capable of making such an examination. . . their minds, howsoever good. . . are not trained for such examinations. (and therefore) no more competent to do it than are lawyers and farmers competent to make successful clothes. . . .they would not think of trying; yet they all think they can competently think out a political or religious scheme without any apprenticeship. . . Many of them believe they have actually worked that miracle.
Twain, although a skeptic of paranormal beliefs, summarized the use of imagination or the power of suggestion in dealing with human ills in a way that I consider to be quite good and to the point:
"The power, which a man's imagination over his body to heal it or make it sick is a force which none of us is born without. The first man had it; the last one will possess it. If left to him, a man is most likely to use only the mischievous half of the force-the half that invents imaginary ailments for him and cultivates them; and if he is one of these very wise people, he is quite likely to scoff at the beneficent half of the force and deny its existence. And so, to heal or help that man, two imaginations are required: his own and some outsider's. The outsider, B, must imagine that his incantations are the healing-power that is curing A, and A must imagine that this is so. I think it is not so, at all; but no matter, the cure is effected and that is the main thing. The outsider's work is unquestionably valuable; so valuable that it may fairly be likened to the essential work performed by the engineer when he handles the throttle and turns on the steam; the actual power is lodged exclusively in the e ngine, but if the engine were left alone it would never start of itself . . .Whether he be named Christian Scientist, . . . or Hypnotist, it is all one; he is merely the (Imagination) Engineer; he simply turns on the same old steam (the imagination) and the engine does the whole work.
Readers who want to clarify their thinking about hypnosis, religion or imagination-caused ills or healing will benefit from Twain's classic work. Unfortunately, his irritation about Ms. Eddy understandably can become repetitive, humorless and dull. Aside from that there, as always with Twain, are some real gems in this book.
Animal Hypnosis
What is animal hypnosis? Does it exist? Animal hypnosis has long been a controversial subject. But like hypnosis as we traditionally see it can have its skeptics, but when you see a hernia operation performed with hypnosis as the only anesthetic belief is increased. Animal hypnosis has been around for a very long time.
Jesuit Father Kircher (1646-1766) demonstrated the hypnosis of fowl. The fowl is presses gently to the ground and a straight or zigzag chalk line drawn rapidly forward from the immobilized head, or rather from the beak; the bird will then remain fixed in this uncomfortable position. If we release our hold, it will remain immobile until we again set it in motion by a definite stimulus (a noise, hitting it gently, etc.)
There is also the "hypnosis " of animals including dogs and cats as well as snakes, rabbits, insects, frogs, water crabs, mongoose, toads, lobsters, swans. Here are a few pictures into experiments by researchers years ago in Europe.
Locally, Bill Ronan has found that his dog Sam is a great candidate for hypnosis. The dog assists in the therapy process assisting others to relax, in part by demonstration. Here we see him having fallen into a state of catalepsy, often a state used by stage hypnotists having an individual's feet on one chair and his head and shoulders on another. Relaxed or "hypnotized" individual can do this easily.