The symptom path to enlightenment the psychobiology of Jung's constructive method

Applying hypnotic associative - dissociative techniques in psychotherapy for psychosomatic symptoms

Patients experiencing psychosomatic symptoms frequently have difficulty obtaining correct treatment. They are often reluctant to partially attribute their symptoms to psychological factors and, as a result, delay referrals to mental health professionals. Furthermore, the dropout rate from therapy is high and relapses are common. Hypnosis is a complex psycho-physiological phenomenon. Hence, hypnotic psychotherapy may play an important role in managing and treating psychosomatic symptoms and disorders that involve both the mind and body. In the current study, we propose a clinically oriented, four-phase, hypnotic approach, the hypnotic associative-dissociative approach (HADA), which may be useful in encouraging more patients with psychosomatic problems to engage in psychotherapy, thereby achieving effective long-term effects.

In search of a deep psychobiology of hypnosis: visionary hypotheses for a new millennium

This search for the deep psychobiological foundations of hypnosis begins with a review of some of the paradoxes of historical hypnosis and the impasse of current theory. It is proposed that further progress requires a deeper investigation of how psychosocial cues can modulate the mechanisms of healing at the CNS, autonomic, neuroendocrine and cellular-genetic levels. The dynamics of hypnotic communication and healing from the cognitive-behavior level to the cellular-genetic are outlined in four stages: (1) Information transduction between the experiences of consciousness and the limbic-hypothalamic-pituitary system; (2) The psychosomatic network of messenger molecules and their receptors; (3) The immediate early gene protein cascade; and (4) State dependent memory, learning and behavior. Neuroscience research is outlined for its contributions to a mathematical model of how a psychobiological approach to the therapeutic applications of hypnosis and the placebo response could facilitate neurogenesis in the human hippocampus and healing at the cellular-genetic-protein level throughout the body. A series of ten hypotheses is proposed as a guide for theory and research in therapeutic hypnosis utilizing DNA chip technology in the new millennium.