question about hypnosis

[inhumandecency]

One of the forms of CAM (complementary and alternative medicine) that's practiced and researched here at Osher is hypnosis. It's supposedly had a fair bit of success as a treatment for pain, both chronic and acute, and for some behavior change therapies. Last week a candidate for the Director position gave a talk about how he uses hypnosis in his

Comments

nothing to add

[greenfountain]

But I really love this part:

"...but you restrain yourself in exactly the same way you restrain homicidal impulses you might develop while driving on the freeway or reading poorly-conceived journal articles."

Re: nothing to add

[tanac]

Yeah, I loved that too :)

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[corivax]

I was going to post this comment, nearly word for word. Thanks for saving me the typing. :)

[inhumandecency]

I thought about this, but it hardly even seemed like a hypnosis issue. Laying down false memories is easy, once you get the person to start envisioning the situation you want them to remember (although hypnosis probably helps overcome people's objections to envisioning themselves being sexually abused by their parents).

However, you're right that the testimony and research surrounding this issue probably did delve into whatever was scientifically known at the time about what hypnosis involved. I'm less optimistic about the reverse-citation search, since it seems like false memories rapidly spun off into their own area of research, but I'll check that too. Thanks!

[inhumandecency]

Yeah, the speaker at UCSF said that hypnosis during surgery not only reduces subjective suffering and distress, it also shortens treatment time and subsequent complications, saving around $200 per patient! (he had an exact figure, but I don't remember what it was