The "Mysteries of Hypnosis:" Helping Us Better Understand Hypnosis and Empathic Involvement Theory (EIT).
The American journal of clinical hypnosis January 1, 2016 Peer reviewed DOI: 10.1080/00029157.2015.1101679 via PubMed
Summary
Empathy plays a crucial role in understanding the psychology and neurophysiology of hypnosis and the self. The article emphasizes the need for more precise phenomenological descriptors of the mind during hypnosis to better assess client experiences. It suggests that noetic analysis could enhance our understanding of hypnosis and its connections with empathic involvement, brain function, and behavior, similar to how brain activity is measured using technologies like fMRI and qEEG.
Study at a glance
| Key finding | Noetic analysis can improve our understanding of hypnosis, empathy, and their relationship with brain function and behavior. |
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Abstract
Wickramasekera II (2015) has penned a comprehensive and thoughtful review article demonstrating how empathy is intimately involved in the psychology and neurophysiology of hypnosis and the self. Hypnosis is a very "mental" or subjective phenomenon for both the client and the research participant. To better assess the mind of the client/participant during hypnosis, it is my belief that we need to generate more "precise" phenomenological descriptors of the mind during hypnosis and related empathic conditions, as Wickramasekera II (2015) has suggested in his article. Although any phenomenological methodology will have its limits and disadvantages, noetics (as defined in the article below) can help us better understand hypnosis, empathic involvement theory, and the brain/mind/behavior interface. By quantifying the mind in a comprehensive manner, just as the brain is comprehensively quantified via fMRI and qEEG technologies, noetic analysis can help us more precisely assess the mind and relate it to the brain and human behavior and experience.