Hypnosis

         Hypnosis can create positive thinking as it deals with the human behavior and the general field of thought.(Rossi E.L.,Ryan M.O.,Sharp F.A.,1992) Hypnosis can help a patient understand his difficulties and find his inner strength and power in order to face his impairments and problems. So, hypnosis can cause a state of alteration in the patient’s way of thinking. Many hypnotherapists, such as Erickson (Rossi E.L.,Ryan M.O.,1992), revealed that many patients with aphasia managed to handle their impairments and face their difficulties through hypnosis, as the case of Karl.(Rossi E.L.,Ryan M.O.,1992) The purpose of hypnosis is “to communicate ideas and understandings and to get the patient to utilize the competencies that exist within him at both a psychological level and a physiological level”.(Rossi E.L.,Ryan M.O., Sharp F.A.,1992, p 76)  Apart from this, hypnosis can make the patient realize that there are still many things in life to enjoy. It can make him “aware of other potentialities and understand that illness and disabilities are parts of their total life experience”.(Rossi E.L.,Ryan M.O.,1992, p 33) Moreover, a hypnotherapist encourages one “to be interested in knowing that even though he may has a painful or disabled area of the body it’s so nice that all the rest of the body is all right”.(Rossi E.L., Ryan M.O.,1992, p 212) Thus, hypnosis can reinforce the good mood of positive expectations and rapid recovery, through the patient’s unconscious mind, as he is unaware of it.

IOANNA PATIOU

UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX

DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS

Colchester 2004