HYPNO-REGRESSION PROTOCOLS

Traditionally Hypno-Regressive techniques have involved the use of Altered States for the purpose of accessing repressed memories to understand the etiological factors involved in psychological problems being experienced in the present. Noyes & Lawrence stated: "Under Hypnosis, forgotten experiences may be revived, and the patient can discuss material about which he cannot or does not want to talk about in the waking state. Most hypno-regression therapy utilize the Deep Alpha State whereby the patient is directed to a past event while the therapist observes both the physical and psychological reactions of said event. Once access has been achieved the therapist usually has the patient forget the information upon exiting the Altered State and then he or she feeds the information back to the patient in the Beta state at a rate which the therapist determines is most effective. This traditional approach is fraught with multiple dangers as the therapist believes that the information gathered is primarily accurate and is of great insight into the patient's problems.

To understand the problems of Hypno-Regressive techniques we must return to basics. The Freudian concept of Id, Ego and Super-Ego must be examined in great detail to understand what occurs in Hypno-Regression. One interpretation of Freud's concept has been that only Ego is a reality and Id and Super-Ego are manufactured by the mind to deal with "reality". Per Roy Udolf on Freud's theory of personality: "an Id, or biological component, which contains all the person's innate biological drives (Id instincts) an ego or psychological component, concerned with observing the external real world: and a Super-Ego, or social aspect. Both the Id and Superego are irrational systems in the sense that they are completely out of contact with external reality." A second interpretation has been that Id and Super-Ego are the reality and Ego is but a moment to moment representation of the balance between the two. Per Arthur Noyes & Lawrence Kolb, "Freud as referring to the generalized systems of drives and to the structural elements of the personality (the Id, the Ego and the Super-Ego) as if they were seperate entities..."

In the second interpretation we must accept the reality that the Id represents the "physical consciousness" which can be best defined as the genetic memory passed to the offspring by RNA/DNA. Just as the Salmon return to their origin and birds fly particular routes in their migrations so does the "physical consciousness" determine particular behavior patterns and physical attributes. The Id must be viewed as a primitive form of consciousness which when confronted by an unknown will respond with the traditional concept of Fight or Flight.

Upon acceptance of this description of the Id then we must view the Super-Ego in a different manner to begin to understand the relationship between the two. Does the Super-Ego represent the immortal, ethereal one as described by Plato, Huxley, Jaynes and a host of other renowned philosophers and psychologists throughout the ages? Huxley in the "Doors of Perception":"...Each one of us is potentially 'Mind at Large'. To make biological survival possible, Mind at Large has to be funneled through the reducing valve of the brain and nervous system. What comes out at the other end is a measly trickle of the kind of consciousness which will help us to stay alive on the surface of this particular planet." Should this truly be the case then we must accept that any given event experienced by a patient is viewed through two totally different perceptions. Acceptance of said concept would lead to a fundamental change in the way we view data derived through Hypno-regressive techniques. Noyes and Lawrence on Jung, "Jung presented the belief that the unconscous is made up of material derived from two sources. He called one of these sources the 'personal unconscious' and the other the 'collective or racial unconscious'".

Present Hypno-Regressive technique transports an individual to a prior event and allows them to re-experience same with all of the emotionalism of the moment brutally brought to the forefront. As Anslie Meares, relates; Re-living past incidents with all emotion is identified as revivification." Where does the emotionalism arise...but within the Id's perception of the moment. As a primitive the reaction is predictable...Flee or Fight. To the Super-Ego, however, the perception of the moment is totally non-emotional. This would indicate that to utilize Hypno-Regression to view an event of the past we would gain two entirely different perceptions of an event depending upon which part of mind we are accessing.

Should we allow the individual to re-experience a past event through the perceptions of the Id the event would be highly emotional and perceptions would be severly clouded by said emotions. Clark Hull relating works of Breuer and Freud, "...we had to emphasize the fact that the recollection of the effective psychic trauma is not to be found in the normal memory of the patient but in the hypnotized memory. The more we occupied ourselves with these phenomena the more certain became our convictions that the splitting of consciousness so striking in the familiar classical cases of double consciousness exists rudimentarily in every hysteria. Careful study of other hysterical phenomena brought to light evidence which seemingly pointed not only to the existence of isolated, self-integrated groups of memories or ideas, but suggested that these dissociated aggregate could, and frequently did, live a life of their own." The same event viewed through the perception of the same event which would be extremely useful in therapy to the patient. As an example the case of Mrs. A.J.:

Mrs. A.J., 35 years old, presented herself with fears that at approximately six years old she suffered a psychological trauma that has kept her from having a normal relationship with her father. Upon further questioning she believed that her father had sexually assaulted her on that particula night. By utilizing a Hypno-Regressive technique in which she became the oberver (Super-Ego) to said event the following details were extracted:

Her parents were having a party at their home and she fell asleep on the sofa. Loud noises of tha party partially awakened her and she saw the huge figure of a man approaching her quite unsteadily as he had been drinking heavily. As he drew nearer he stumbled and fell upon her. Being inebriated it was a struggle for him to regain an upright position and he placed hands upon her in his stupor to help him regain this position. After regaining some sensibility he picked her up and took her to her room and placed her in bed. He then kissed her on the cheek and left the room.

Obviously no sexual assault had taken place, however, let us examine this event as viewed by the Id.

A small child laying on a couch in a dark room, through sleepy eyes, sees a huge male figure outlined in light from behind him and he approaches her on unsteady legs. As he draws near he appears to leap at her and then his hands paw over her body as he regains his balance.

To this child the event is viewed through eyes of fear. At first she doesn't know it is her father and then the inadvertant pawing of her body to regain his composure is perceived as an assault upon her body. This perception of the Id has remained with this woman to this day and because of the uncertainty and the fear associated with the event she believes that she was sexually assaulted by her father.

The fact that we utilized Hypno-Regression protocol, Anslie Meares states:"...the Y-state, the patient is guided to use his will to actively achieve abstraction and inner calm. This involves intense cerebration of the part of the patient...," which placed the Super-Ego in an Observer role she was able to view the actual events in such a way as to alleviate her childhood perception of the event which was fraught with great fear and apprehension. As a result she has now established a nurturing relationship with her fater which she denied self based on the Id's perception of that fateful night.

A second danger of Hypno-Regressive techniques with patients is that the therapist is frequently guilty of asking leading questions which not only distort the reality of the situation but can in fact make those distorions part of the patients clouded memory of the event. The object of the therapist is to gather information and not to 'flesh out' the data shared by the patient. To help facilitate information gathering questions must be asked by the therapist but they should be questions which offer two opposite alternatives. ie: Good or Bad...Light or Dark...Warm or Cool...Happy or Unhappy..., etc. To ask questions with only one possible solution is to re-write what the patient is experiencing and thereby clouds the reality of the situation. Our position is to gather the facts of a situation and thereby utilize them in an attempt to delineate the present day psychological problems which may have resulted as a result of prior traumatic events.

In conclusion let us be aware that the perception of any event is viewed by multiple seperate and distinct entities: Id and Super-Ego. The Id will always view an event through the fear and ignorance of the primitive while the Super-Ego views them through the perception of reason. With the utilization of Observer 'viewing' of past events there will be no re-creation of emotional or distorted responses, which is what has drivern this patient to be in your office in the first place.

For further information feel free to to E-mail me at rgierak@inreach.com