Hypnotic Behaviour: Mutual Qualification

Abstract

In traditional conceptualizations hypnosis often has been regarded as an entity with certain inherent characteristics. Subject behaviours such as limb catalepsy, analgesia, and amnesia are thought to be properties of this entity (‘state’). This reified view of hypnosis is limiting both conceptually and pragmatically because it disregards the relationship matrix in which hypnosis is embedded. A more tenable perspective is one which regards hypnosis as a concept describing a situation in which participants recursively influence the behaviour of each other in particular ways. Hypnotic behaviour is but one of the aspects that contribute to the development of the situation. This view recognizes that subject behaviours are not intrinsically hypnotic but that they are qualified as hypnotic by the participants present in the situation. This qualification is part of the recursive processes occurring between all participating parties. A clinical case-study concerned with the cessation of smoking was carried out to illustrate a way in which a dyadic hypnotherapeutic team can be used to organize a situation in such a way that certain client behaviours can be mutually qualified as hypnotic in order to influence a particular target behaviour.