HYPNOTERAPl - Dansk Selskab for Klinisk Hypnose

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the reliving of the trauma. Sometimes it is useful to administer a Rorschach or other tests to
see if responses might be indicative of a borderline psychosis.
2. A brief, self-reflection to ascertain whether we, the therapists, are prepared to "take it" in
co-experiencing with the patient the horror of battle, the explosions, blood, bayoneting of
enemy soldiers, the violent beating or rape of a small child, torture, the confrontation and
"murdering" of an abuser, etc.
3. Induction and deepening of a hypnotic state.
4. Regressing the patient back to the trauma scene through vivifi-cation, such as pounding
the desk and shouting," Look out! That truck's going to hit us". The voice, manner, posture
and gestures are used in every way to induce a re-living of it in the patient and, through
resonance and simultaneous coexperiencing, within one's own self.
5. This co-experience should be continued at the highest intensity until, through physical and
emotional exhaustion, the patient indicates completion and closure. But it is not simply the
affective release that is the treatment. The therapeutic leverage occurs because, following
release of the bound affect, the trauma is manned with much less energy. Since the power and
fear of the trauma is reduced, less resistive energy is necessary. The ego has been strengthened
in relation to that which it must confront. This emotional re-living exhausts the power of
the traumatic experience, so that it makes possible the interpretation and new reframing of the
understanding. Finally, if this next step is not carried through, the therapeutic advantage may
be lost.
6. Through reassurance, interpretation and re-integration the patient, cognitively,
perceptually and affectively, must regain mastery of the trauma, an experience which initially
had overwhelmed him and caused his breakdown. In psychoanalysis this step is called
"working-through," and it is absolutely necessary for genuine insight to be achieved.
THE NATURE OF INSIGHT
Too often, insight is equated with intellectual understanding. One finds this misapplication of
equivalence in many experimental studies which have concluded that "insight is not
therapeutic" (see Chrits-Christoph, Barher, Miller & Beibe, 1993). The therapist (or experimenter)
explains the issue in question and the patient agrees. However, cognitive
understanding is but one component in a thorough-going and truly therapeutic insight, even
though it may be a forerunner of true insight later.
I (JGW) once interpreted to a depressed patient how much he hated his father, the data
from his dreams, psychological tests and associ-ations being overwhelming on this point.
He replied, "You're absolutely right, Doc. I'm depressed because I unconsciously hate my
father." His reaction was not followed by any diminution of his depression until several
weeks later when he burst into my office, holding his head in his hands, and shrieking, "My
God! I do hate my father." Through self "working-through" the patient had consciously
contacted his repressed hatred and reached a more complete, experiential insight.
To achieve maximum therapeutic benefit the "insight" must be perceptual, affective,
visceral and motor as well as cognitive. It is a gut understanding which permeates every tissue
of the patient. It involves a true, significant and deep-lying personality reorganization.
7. Sometimes it is necessary to repeat the abreactive experience a few minutes later, a few
hours later, or a few days later. However, it should be continued until it can no longer evoke
the affect and symptoms associated with the revivification. Experimental psycho-logists doing