Dr. Dylan MorganM.A.(Oxon.), D.Phil.(Oxon.), MNCP, MNCH	Leeds Hypnotherapist
Tel. (0113) 2306333. Leeds Complementary Therapy Centre, 249a Otley Rd. LS16 5LQ. Multimap

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Dylan Morgan

Articles on Hypnotherapy, Psychotherapy, Smoking, Love, Memory, James Braid, Anton Mesmer, Panic Attacks, Sexual Problems, Circumcision, Humour, etc.

The following is a list of the article titles with a brief description:

James Braid An account of his favourite induction method.

The Defensive Persona The Defensive Persona The Defensive Persona is a system of behaviour, emotions and thoughts that a person activates when feeling threatened. It is very valuable to recognise when people are evoking such a persona, and the process can be illuminated by animal analogies.

When the problem is smoking: And how to use hypnotherapy to stop it.

Hypnotherapy as De-Hypnosis: The view that in some senses where stage hypnosis is aimed at putting in suggestions to limit conscious self-control, hypnotherapy aims to do just the reverse

Practical Psychotherapy: Interview and Diagnosis A short piece on useful questions to ask at the diagnostic stage of a session,

Iatrophobia Induced by Circumcision: A case of a man's fear of doctors rooted in childhood circumcision. Also deals with the process of foreskin re-growth.

All You Need Is ... ? : Love is a four letter word often neglected by psychotherapy. Here we emphasise the value of the many forms of love.

Lover or Hypnotherapist?: A case of a woman who left her boyfriend because he treated her too much like a client!

Memory: Dealing with what happens if a memory becomes full! and other reflections.

The Technique of Editing Mental videos: How one can dramatically change symptoms by treating traumatic memories as videos that can be edited and thereby improved.

What Mesmer Believed It is often thought that Mesmerism was an early form of hypnotism. In some practical ways it was. But its theoretical background is totally different.

Mr. Bean the Therapist an account of how humour can be used to great effect in therapy.

Humour: A collection of jokes funny and not so funny about hypnotherapy and psychotherapy

A novel hypnotic induction: In which we supposedly invoke a primitive reflex whereby touch at the back of the neck produces deep relaxation and responsiveness.

Only adults have panic attacks A particular view of panics.

Dealing with Sexual Problems in the Male: And ways of treating them.

Anecdotes of use in therapy Stories that have a therapeutic point for certain cases.

A variety of little tips on specific cases: A variety of small tips on particular problems.

A couple of poems:

Rebirth - a Sonnet: A sonnet.

Good Advice: A poem on the theme of the great harm that can be done if advice is not tailored to the life.

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What is abuse?

Written in response to a client who asked the above question.

Abuse is the wrong or inappropriate use of something, which will lead to damage or harm.

We may consider the various ways in which a person may be harmed and associated abuses.

Physical abuse is the inflicting of physical damage and hence severe pain on a person.

Emotional abuse is the exerting of emotional pressures on a person in such a way as to harm them.

Sexual abuse is the inflicting of sexual actions or influences on a person contrary to their inclinations.

These three are perhaps the areas of abuse which are most commonly mentioned. But it is quite easy to list other forms. For example:

Mental abuse: (brainwashing is a form of this) the imposing of ideas or thought on a person with no regard for his or her own existing thoughts.

Functional or behavioural abuse: (slavery is a form of this) forcing a person into patterns of behaviour with no reference to the individual's own needs or desires.

Dietary abuse: (the common "You'll eat what I give you!" but often self-inflicted, as in anorexia) the forcing of a person into an eating pattern which has no regard for the needs of the body.

The theme which runs through all of these abuses is a total disregard for the inner needs of the person. The individuals who perpetrate such abuses are typically concerned only with themselves, their own needs, own feeling or own ideas.

The sexual abuser is concerned only with his own sexual needs, and not those of his victim; the physical abuser is only concerned with his own anger or need for domination and is oblivious of the feelings of his victim; the emotional abuser is concerned only to feel better, and if this is at the expense of making another feel guilt, fear, misery or inadequacy so be it, the mental abuser is concerned only to promulgate his own ideas, with no doubt about his correctness: the thought that they may damage another does not cross his mind, and so on.

Reprinted from The Journal of the National Council for Psychotherapists and Hypnotherapy Register, Summer 94.

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Anecdotes of use in therapy

IN YORKSHIRE there was once, in days gone by, a strong man, well over two yards high and weighing nearly three hundredweight, who went around the county Fairs challenging all comers to a trial of strength. "Ah'm t'strongest man in t'country. Ah'll lift ony man off his feet" was the challenge. And once he had got his bear-like arms firmly planted around the ribs of the challenger, there was no doubt about it: no-one had a chance.

His fame spread and soon everyone in Yorkshire knew him. Some said, though not to his face, "Aye. Strong in't arm, but thick in t'head," and it was true that he was not noted for brains. But soon it became rare for anyone to face the certain disgrace of facing him in his lifting contest.

Then one Fair day a young man came up to him and said lightly,

"So, you think you can lift any man in t'county?"

"Aye," he replied, looking down in surprise, "Aye, Ah can!"

"I don't think so."

"Ah CAN!"

"No you can't. I know a man, and a Yorkshire man, too, that you can't lift off his feet."

"Just show him to me. Ah'll soon have him off t'ground."

The young man pointed straight at the heaving chest in front of him, "Go on then. Show us. You will never lift THAT man off his feet."

The giant paused for a moment, then deliberately wrapped his arms around his own chest. He flexed his muscles and made his famous upward jerk that had had hundreds flying up into the air. But nothing happened. He tried again.... and again. He heaved and he strained for hours, as the crowd grew and jeered and mocked.

When night came he had still not succeeded and crept of the field in a state of total humiliation. He broke down completely, and could never again face the world.

An anecdote does not have to be true to be truthful. I often tell the above to men whose problems are a result of two internal systems fighting against each other. It might be, for example, as simple a thing as one part fighting desperately to give up smoking and another to carry on. It is also a common pattern in a lot of stress, which can be seen at times as a person struggling with himself, or with an impossible task. The above little story can be very successful in raising a smile and lowering the tension.

For how can a man be stronger than himself?

Another little picture which is useful in describing a similar problem runs as follows.

Imagine a public speaker. He has a microphone in front of him. A few yards further forward are the loudspeakers. A powerful amplifier is tucked away out of sight.

Now picture what happens when a small boy in the audience, bored by the address, inches the loudspeaker around so that it is facing more and more towards the speaker. At first little seems to happen, except that the talker seems to himself to be getting louder. Then, quite suddenly, a critical stage is reached, and the microphone starts to pick up and amplify the sound from the loudspeaker. The speaker is deafened by the resulting ear-shattering shriek.

Tell a client that his mind is the microphone, and his symptom is the loudspeaker and he will get a good idea of the positive feedback loop that so often keeps a problem in existence long after it should have died away.

I have told the following story to a truck driver who has spent half his life tense with anxiety that he might have another breakdown. His first was at eighteen years old, and no-one told him what had caused it.

There was once this cocky young truck driver, as happy as Harry, until the day his engine suddenly blew up on a busy motorway and it resulted in a nasty crash.

After he recovered he went back to driving, but gone were his carefree ways. He was now in a constant state of anxiety in case he made the same mistake again.

The trouble was that he did not know what the mistake had been.

"Perhaps I am travelling too fast?"

"I feel unhappy on motorways, maybe I would be safer on secondary roads?"

"It never happens to anyone else. There must be something very wrong with my driving."

And all the while his body was getting more and more tense with anxiety; he was worrying so hard that had little time to think about road conditions and started having small accidents, which only reinforced his feeling that he was a terrible driver. He stopped going to transport cafés because he thought that the others would be talking about him behind his back. His sleep suffered, because even at night his brain kept on trying to find a way out of his problems. His marriage suffered. His health suffered.

He thought he was going mad.

Then by chance he happened to meet the mechanic who had dealt with his truck after the accident.

"Hmm. Nasty one that. You were lucky to get out of it alive. Funny you didn't spot the overheating in time."

"What?"

"The overheating. A water hose had perished. You lost all your water. The engine overheated and blew."

It took some time for this to sink in.

"Do you mean that if I just keep an eye on the temperature gauge it'll never blow again?"

"Yep."

The driver walked away a new man. His mind could at last rest. An occasional glance at the dash was all that he had needed during all those years of needless worry. In a matter of weeks he was whistling again, joining in with the other truckers, and all his old cockiness returned.

My client saw the moral of this story easily, as a trucker himself, and left the session lighter in heart - I had also explained to him in simple terms what had gone wrong with HIM the first time, of course.

Where do these anecdotes come from? I analyse the problem in terms of abstract functional systems, as described elsewhere, and then think of another embodiment of the same abstract pattern that the client can relate to vividly, understand easily and remember well.

Reprinted from The Journal of the National Council for Psychotherapists and Hypnotherapy Register, Winter 93.

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James Braid

This year we celebrate the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the publication of James Braid's seminal work, "Neurypnology: Or the rationale of nervous sleep considered in relation with animal magnetism." (London: Churchill, 1843.Bib) In this book he gave the world the word Hypnotism and its derivatives, and dismissed, by means of acute experiments, the claims of the Mesmerists that some "magnetic" force passes from the operator to the subject.

This book is well worth reading, but here we will just look at his induction method.

TAKE ANY bright object (I generally use my lancet case) between the thumb and fore and middle finger of the left hand; hold it from about eight to fifteen inches from the eyes, at such a position above the forehead as may be necessary to produce the greatest possible strain upon the eyes and eyelids, and enable the patient to maintain a steady fixed stare at the object. The patient must be made to understand that he is to keep the eyes steadily fixed on the object, and the mind riveted on the idea of the object. It will be observed, that owing to the consensual adjustment of the eyes, the pupils will be at first contracted: they will shortly begin to dilate, and after they have done so to a considerable extent, and have assumed a wavy motion, if the fore and middle fingers of the right hand, extended a little separated, are carried from the object towards the eyes, most probably the eyes will close involuntarily, with a vibratory motion. If this is not the case, or the patient allows the eyeballs to move, desire him to begin anew, giving him to understand that he is to allow the eyelids to close when the fingers are again carried towards the eyes, but that the eyeballs must be kept fixed in the same position, and the mind riveted to the one idea of the object held above the eyes. It will generally be found, that the eyelids close with a vibratory motion, or become spasmodically closed. After ten or fifteen seconds have elapsed, by gently elevating the arms and legs, it will be found that the patient has a disposition to retain them in the situation in which they have been placed, if he is intensely affected. If this is not the case, in a soft tone of voice desire him to retain the limbs in the extended position, and thus the pulse will speedily become greatly accelerated, and the limbs, in process of time, will become quite rigid and involuntarily fixed. It will also be found, that all the organs of special sense, excepting sight, including heat and cold, and muscular motion, or resistance, and certain mental faculties, are at first prodigiously exalted, such as happens with regard to the primary effects of opium, wine, and spirits. After a certain point, however, this exaltation of function is followed by a state of depression, far greater than the torpor of natural sleep.

Reprinted from the Journal of the National Council of Psychotherapists and Hypnotherapy Register, Summer 1993.

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The Defensive Persona

This article is based on a chapter of an unpublished book - "Your Path in Life" - which I wrote many years ago.

THE LARGE THEME of this article is defensive behaviour. This is an extensive topic, and a very important one. In this article I propose only to touch on various aspects of defensiveness with an eye on how it impacts on so many of clients' problems. I hope in this way to illuminate such problems by looking at them from a particular perspective.

What do I mean by the phrase Defensive Persona?

In the Middle Ages there were in Europe men who, when in their own homes, surrounded by family and servants, were genial and courteous. But in time of war they would put on heavy suits of metal, concealing even their faces. To the outward eye there would be no similarity between this hard, shining, sword-wielding thing, and the laughing man in his bright soft clothes. He put on the armour to defend himself, of course.

Can you picture a cat sitting by the fireside? She is all soft contentment. She is totally relaxed and approachable, ready to be stroked or to purr. But see what happens if a strange dog enters the room. Instantly that soft creature becomes a taut bundle of muscles, with claws extended, teeth snarling, hair on end, eyes glaring, nerves on a hair-trigger, snarling and hissing. It is almost impossible to recognise the same creature. She acts in this way to defend herself, of course.

These two pictures will have given you some idea of what I mean by a Defensive Persona. When any person or animal feels threatened then he, she or it will start behaving in quite a new way. And this behaviour will often seem to have nothing in common with the behaviour at other times. The whole pattern of thoughts, feelings, behaviour and appearance which a person follows when they are feeling threatened is what I mean by a Defensive Persona. Normally this behaviour is dropped when the danger has gone.

Animal Stereotypes

There are many different kinds of Defensive Personae. One useful way to classify them is in terms of animal stereotypes. For example, consider the tortoise. When threatened it withdraws into its shell. And there are people like that. When they feel attacked they withdraw inside, and refuse to say anything or do anything. Like the tortoise they will only open up again when the danger has disappeared. You can sometimes find this Persona in a hen-pecked husband. A typical scene might run as follows.

His wife would like some contact. She nags at him, "Stop reading that paper. Talk to me for once." He puts down the paper; he feels more exposed and therefore threatened; he withdraws deeper into himself and says nothing. She is even more annoyed by his silence; she needles him, hoping to stir him into response. He feels more attacked: the tortoise withdraws still further into his shell. Only later, when he goes out for a drink with friends, and the threat disappears, does he come out of his shell again and becomes quite a different person. If his wife finds out, this only makes her more annoyed, and she takes it as a personal insult. Such a Defensive Persona could also be likened to a clam.

The hedgehog or porcupine also withdraws into itself, but in a much more prickly way. You do not get hurt by a tortoise's smooth shell. But if you start to prod a hedgehog you get some nasty pricks. "(S)he is prickly," we say of people like that. If you get too close to them you will often find unexpectedly sharp and pointed remarks coming your way. It is surprising because most of the time this person can seem quite inoffensive. And the clue to the change is that you must have just said or done something which has made them feel threatened. The Defensive Persona emerges, all prickly and unapproachable. There is little that you can do except go away until (s)he unrolls again. If you try to unroll such a person forcibly, then you will suffer for it, as many a young fox, with spines in its nose, will testify. The bear's Defensive Persona is violent rage. (We will say of somebody, "He is like a bear with a sore head.") Notice again that a bear can be a gentle and inoffensive creature when it feels safe and able to get on with life without interference. It is only when it feels threatened in some way that the rage comes out.

A similar Persona is the tigress, particularly when defending her cubs. Her power is formidable and she knows no personal fear. Like the bear she acts on the principle that the best form of defence is attack. If you should be unfortunate enough to know anybody like this and incur her wrath, then you are unlikely to know what hit you. Although in civilised society she may not attack you physically, she will attack with all means in her power.

I believe that it is the case that the tigress will normally simply retreat into the jungle if there is a threat to herself, provided she is free to do so. But if her cubs are in danger then she is ferocity personified. And many mothers are like that; and women who feel that they are defending someone or something that they may subconsciously equate to a child. If you attack such a person you would be foolish to expect her to back down quietly. Notice again, though, that if she does not feel a threat then she may well be as pleasant and amiable a person as you would care to meet. You may well have met a tigress in your time, or seen one on the screen.

At another extreme we have the rabbits. Their defence is to run to earth. And there are people like that. If they feel threatened they will make no defence - they just try to run away. Once they are back at home they feel fine again. Note the difference between the tortoise and the rabbit, both of whom are quite unaggressive: the latter has a strong need to remove itself physically from the danger.

Here are some other brief pictures to add to the collection. The snake, if it feels under attack, will pour poison into you. And you may know someone who has the power to say really poisonous things, which hurt for a long time afterwards.

And what about the skunk? The human equivalent might be someone who will slander you so effectively that people will stay well away from you as if you stank to high heaven.

The common phrase, "His bark is worse than his bite," reminds us of the way in which a certain kind of dog behaves. Usually you will find such a dog making a great deal of noise, barking and growling, to give plenty of warning that it is feeling threatened. Only if you continue to approach in an aggressive way will it finally bite. In this way a dog is more civilised than the bear or tigress, who are not concerned to give any warning. Does this remind you of anyone?

I am not saying that this is an exhaustive list. Neither do you have to agree with the way I have described the animal stereotypes. What I have found that is that the use of these animal labels for Defensive Personae can help people to see what is happening in their relationships enormously. I usually ask them to choose the kind of animals themselves, according to their own ideas of their natures.

Problems often arise in marriages in which the partners have different, and clashing, defensive personalities. As an example suppose that a hedgehog is married to a sheep. (Sheep always like to come together in a close flock if attacked.) If they are under stress then the sheep wants the comfort of physical closeness, but the hedgehog is determinedly turning into a prickly ball. The sheep then feels rejected, because whenever she gets close she is needled, while the hedgehog is threatened by her approach. You may wonder how they got together in the first place if they are so different. But remember that their non-defensive personalities were probably very pleasant and compatible. But married life is much easier if a sheep is married to a sheep, and both like to get close together when they feel attacked.

Marital Therapy

It is well worth looking at Defensive Personae in marital therapy. Marital problems can be about a multitude of things. But always, at some point, one partner is putting pressure on the other to change; the pressure is felt as a threat; a Defensive Persona is adopted; this is in turn seen as threatening; a reciprocating Defensive Persona is adopted; the problem escalates. If you ever get involved in helping someone with a marital problem it is important to be aware of this. Each partner alone can seem totally reasonable, pleasant and justified. It is only when you see them, if possible, in the middle of a quarrel that you get the whole picture. That infuriating whining voice, that arrogant pointing finger, that sneer, that closed look. Little things that are not seen by their owner. But they are whip lashes to the partner. These Defensive Personae may not be the root of the problem, but they certainly get in the way of solving it.

The primary point of all the above is to emphasise one of the important Facts of Life, which is:

A person behaves in quite a different way when feeling threatened.

Or to put it another way:

A Defensive Personality is quite different from the ordinary one.

Like many important truths this might seem obvious once it is written down. But if we meet someone who is being nasty, bad-tempered, irascible or sarcastic, how often do we bother to ask the question: "Is this behaviour only the result of feeling attacked?" We are all too likely to put it down to simple, unprovoked aggression or nastiness. We, on the other hand, are never guilty of this, are we? We, if we are being unpleasant and aggressive, are always acting in pure defence! With us it is totally justifiable!

Do you imagine that Al Capone, seen by others as an arch-gangster, saw himself as a villain? Towards the end of his life he is reported to have been very hurt at being attacked for what he saw as a life of "giving people the lighter pleasures". As far as he was concerned he had only ever defended himself.

The Colours of Defence

There is another way which can be used to classify defensive responses. It has less richness and vitality than the animal analogies but it is a nice way of plotting personalities on one sheet of paper, and appeals to some people a lot. It is also better as a subjective measure of the feeling of defensiveness, rather than a way of classifying the response which is visible externally.

Central to all Defensive Personae is the feeling "I AM UNDER ATTACK". Any behaviour which is not accompanied by this feeling, coloured in some way, is not, I maintain, to be classified as defensive. The basic feeling "I AM UNDER ATTACK" is surrounded by a cloud of feelings which are generally combinations of a fairly simple number of components.

If feelings were colours then we might picture anger as being red (red with rage), fear as being yellow (we call a coward yellow), and blue as frozen numbness (blue with cold). The red feeling of anger leads to aggressive behaviour - the bear or tigress; the yellow feeling of fear leads to flight - the rabbit; while the blue frozen feeling leads to immobility - the clam or tortoise. And these correspond to the three main courses of action relative to any danger: go forward, backwards or stay where you are.

Then just as we can make up any of thousands of colours by mixing red, blue and yellow paints, so you can find thousands of different emotional states which are a mixture of the above. For example if you mix red and blue you get purple, and so you could see a state of frozen or bottled up anger as purple. If there is a mixture of red - a desire to fight, and yellow - a desire to run away, you get a state with a lot of tension and often a lot of displacement activity. It would correspond to a shade of orange. Mix yellow and blue and you get green: mix fear with a frozen feeling and you can get a horrible sick fear. Finally if you mix the whole lot together then you get a dark brown or black. Such a confused state where there is no clear defensive path to follow will often lead to what would be called a black state of mind - hopelessness or depression.

This classification by colours is a convenient shorthand way of describing the emotional colouring of the basic defensive emotion - I AM UNDER ATTACK. Colours are soft-edged and flow into each other just like feelings, so there is nothing hard and fast about it. So you can say of somebody, "He will usually go yellow, but if he is pressed too hard he can move towards the red", or, "When she goes red, she calms down quickly, but sometimes she will go into a blue state which lasts for a long time."

Clients will often enjoy looking at their own emotional response to defence, as well as that of those they are involved with, in these ways. And by doing so they clarify for themselves what is happening in a very important part of their lives.

Predatory versus Defensive

The next distinction I want to make is between two broad classes of behaviour in others that can provoke a defensive response. The confusion between these two classes leads to much unnecessary conflict. It can again be approached via an animal analogy. There are predatory animals. They enjoy hunting. A cat which is after a mouse is visibly a happy creature, and the behaviour is quite different from its Defensive Persona. It is because there are predatory animals that their prey have developed various defensive strategies.

Now there are also predatory people. They will attack you because they want something from you. And you would be wise to defend yourself against them if possible. But if you think about it you should realise that nowadays most of the out-and-out predators one meets will be quite smooth operators, con-men or gold-diggers of one kind or another. They usually know better than to put others on the defensive. (There are a few muggers and the like, of course, but they form an very, very small proportion of the people we meet.)

It follows then that if someone is unpleasant it is very unlikely that they are predatory and so we are mainly defending ourselves against people who are unpleasant purely as a means of defending themselves. This kind of thing happens frequently in life and causes a lot of unnecessary distress. It can happen in society at large, more often in groups and organisations such as at work, and most often of all within families and couples.

As an example, let us follow the path of a honeymoon couple. It is their first breakfast together as man and wife. He remarks lightly, "This is the best morning-after feeling yet!" She, feeling compared with other women, is inwardly threatened, and with an edge to her voice replies, "Oh? And who was second best then?" He, reacting to the tone, and taken aback by the line the conversation is taking, snaps, "Well? And what about you and Jim then?" This remark arouses her full defensive personality. From that point the path of the quarrel will depend on their respective Defensive Personae. She may run out, or weep, or become coldly sarcastic, or verbally angry or throw the coffee at him. He, in turn, may grow sullen or morose or violent or sarcastic and so on in reply.

You will notice that they both feel fully justified in defending themselves against what they regard as the other's unjustified attacks. Notice also that there is no need to assume any deep Freudian, psychoanalytical or Transactional Analysis type basis for the problem. It is enough to see that neither recognised the defensive nature of the other's response, and saw it as totally offensive.

Doubtless readers who have done any marital counselling will recognise the pattern, even if they have never got trapped, as I have, within the pattern themselves.

Vicious Circle

In terms of the systems analysis that I have described in earlier articles in the Journal, and now more completely in the book The Principles of Hypnotherapy, we get a real problem when the pattern of behaviour of any two organic systems A and B (people, animals, groups or nations) has the following structure:

ä{Defensive response by A} à ä{Defensive response by B} à ä{Defensive response by A}.

Meaning of arrows

This has the form of an increasing positive feedback loop, or vicious circle. Once the loop is started by some chance event it will continue to spiral into dangerous regions which may lead to great damage. We have seen an example between a couple. I suggest that the arms race between the two great powers in our lifetime, now mercifully on the wane, was a further example in which both sides saw the situation primarily in terms of defence against a perceived threat.

Many conflicts between neighbouring countries have the same dynamics. Each sees the other as a threat to their interests and safety. There are times when factions will arise in political parties which start to defend themselves each against the attacks of the other by counterattacking and mud-slinging: a common result is a split.

Complementary Defensive Personae

Of course not all pairs of Defensive Personae lead to the above vicious circle. At times they can be complementary and can lead to a rapid resolution of the situation. Let us look at some examples.

I will take the first from the animal kingdom. In a pack of wolves we can recognise several clearly separate Defensive Personae. One is an attacking one - teeth bared, muscles tense etc. Another is simply to run away. A third is puppy-like - a rolling over on the back to expose the vulnerable abdomen. Now the adult wolf is provided with instincts which will fairly quickly switch off an aggressive persona if the response is one of the other two, more submissive ones. Consequently quarrels will usually end without bloodshed, the moment the wolf who is getting the worse of an aggression-aggression conflict turns it into an aggression-submission one, something that happens quite suddenly.

Sometimes human quarrels follow the same pattern. In some cases aggression in the male is turned off by tears in the female, for example. In that case a quarrel may start with mutual criticisms in which both feel more and more defensive, until the woman reaches the point of tears: the switch of Defensive Persona from an aggressive adult to what looks a little like a helpless child is again typically quite abrupt. This then inactivates the man's aggressive defences and, with luck, switches on a more compassionate and mature persona, and harmony can be restored.

Symbolically we have in such cases:

ä{Anger in male} à ä{Defensive crying} à æ{Anger in male}.

and so there is no longer a vicious circle. However, just to make life difficult, some men respond to tears with yet more anger, in which case tears will lead to a worse problem.

In a nutshell, the problem is that there is no guarantee that a couple will have complementary defensive patterns - and it is when they do not that we are most likely to find problems, in our own lives or that of our clients.

Territorial Defensiveness

Another very useful consideration in the analysis of defensive behaviour is that of territory. A very large number of animals need territory for various reasons and will defend it against other members of the same species. Robins, for example, are territorial creatures at nesting time. The commitment to a nesting site leads to the need for sufficient space around it to be able to collect food for the brood that is to come. If there was another robin nesting very near, then the chance of there being enough food within easy reach would be diminished considerably. It consequently pays the robin to fight off any intruder who looks likely to enter the same territory. From the point of view of the incumbent it presumably looks like a justified defence of his territory; to the intruder it looks like pure aggression. Interestingly it is the intruder who, although usually acting in a more low-key way, is actually the more predatory creature: he has a need which he is happy to fulfil at the cost of another.

But the concept of territory can be, and has been, generalised to more than simply land. Deer graze so extensively that they have no defined physical territory, but on the other hand the stag acts towards his females as if they are his territory: he will defend them against another male. The sight of another male arouses in him a Defensive Persona.

Let us look at some related phenomena in mankind. When jobs are not easy to come by, then anyone who has one is likely to feel a strong need to defend that job against others. We may thus find in a company which is "downsizing" that a great deal of internal nastiness arises, as each employee starts to think of the others as potential competitors and, therefore, starts to switch on a Defensive Persona more and more often. This can lead to a great deal of stress.

If a family lives in a small house then there can often arise a lot of conflict because there is not enough room for each individual to have free space to do what they want to. In this case there can be a lot of conflict over real territory; each defending desperately the space that they perceive as their own.

But there can be fights over more abstract territory also. One person may regard the playing of music as a part of their "territory", while another regards "peace and quiet" as a part of theirs. No matter how hostile the quarrels become, each acts from a righteous attitude of justifiable self-defence.

Intellectuals can fight with equal bitterness over intellectual territory: "That was my idea: I deserve the credit for that."

There can be conflicts of interest over land, possessions, power, money, reputation, lovers, friends and so on endlessly.

Our perspective

What I would add is that even when we are, in truth, moving in on someone else's territory we very seldom manage to recognise the fact! From our point of view we are in our territory and that other person seems to be either already, or potentially, trespassing on it. This tendency is aggravated by the fact that we tend to judge our own territory by our needs, hopes and expectations, as much as by objective current fact. The junior who had his eye on that promotion for years already feels that in some sense it "belongs" to him, and will feel that another candidate is trying to take away what is already his.

Or we may have a situation in which one group in a company is building it up rapidly, and soon comes to take that growth for granted. If there are members of the company who feel more comfortable with things as they were, they will naturally interpret this behaviour as a threat, and will act in a spirit of defence. But equally the first group will not see their own behaviour as a trespass at all, and will feel most offended by the reaction, and in turn react as if attacked for no reason.

Our blindness to the other person's perspective and our overwhelming need, as we see it, to defend ourselves, contributes enormously to conflict and tension.

In helping clients who are caught up in that sort of situation my usual practice is as follows. I first of all listen with an encouraging and supportive silence while they get the whole thing off their chest first. During this period they are probably unable to listen to anything new in any case.

The second step is for me to summarise the key aspects of the situation from their own point of view, with an emphasis on all the wrongs that have been done to them. There may well be some further points which arise out of this, and so the process of talk and summary is repeated a few times.

By that stage hurt feelings have been assuaged to a considerable extent, and I am seen to be able to take their side fully.

I will then say something on the following lines.

"Clearly this is a terrible situation, and something will have to be done about it. I am not sure what is the best thing to do, as it depends so much on knowing what he/she/they are like. The more we know about things from their perspective the easier it will be to decide how to handle the situation. I wonder if you can help me now to get an idea of what things must be looking like to him/her/them?"

I then gradually enable the client to piece together an idea of how things look from the other person's point of view. This can only be done slowly, though it is easier in some than in others. It will usually end with at least some insight into the ways in which the other person most feels threatened by the situation, and therefore induces in the client a reduced sense of being viciously attacked for no reason, and also increases their sense of power: "Well, if they have to react that strongly to little me, I must have affected them more than I thought!" The advantage of these changes is that they very much decrease the sense of defensiveness, and enhance confidence a lot. And the more confident a person is, the more they are able to alter their own behaviour in the situation to a more constructive one.

On the basis of this increased understanding of the other viewpoint, and the increased confidence, it is then usually possible to formulate changes which can lead to improvement in the situation, even if it has been going on for a long time.

Chronic defensiveness

This brings us to another aspect of the subject which is the effect on an individual of having a Defensive Persona which is, for one reason or another, more or less continuously active. Typically we would call such a person stressed. In fact one might look at all stress from this perspective and say that any organic system is stressed if it is reacting defensively for the greater part of the time.

We are all familiar with the interpretation of panics and anxieties in terms of the activity of a "fight or flight" response. But what is that response other than a defensive one? The organism is put in a state where it is going to run away defensively, or fight defensively. The reality or otherwise of the threat is unimportant, of course, compared with whether or not a threat is perceived.

Now, although it is far from being the whole of the way in which such problems are resolved, I find that it is valuable in very many cases of stress to dwell with the client on this matter of the Defensive Persona. The more they become aware of their own responses the more they are likely to be able to control them, rather than be controlled by them.

It is often valuable in such cases to enable the client to develop a conscious awareness of the wide variety of defences that are available, and the situations in which they can most appropriately be used. This will usually dove-tail with any assertiveness training techniques that you use.

A Defensive Persona which is maintained for very long periods of time can lead to all manner of problems, some of which have labels.

If someone gets increasingly into a state where they feel that everyone is threatening them then they are liable to be labelled paranoid. I often feel that this is a bit unfair to the sufferer, because it must be said in his defence that in fact most people are, if not attacking him, at least disliking him. The reason for this is simple. It is because most Defensive Personae are unpleasant at least. If anyone is in a state of chronic defensiveness then it is likely that his every word and gesture will put people off him, and they will reply with their own defensive behaviours which he will, naturally, see as a further attack.

If someone is stuck in an extreme "yellow" defensive condition then, if they approach the medical profession, there is a good chance that they will be classified as suffering from an anxiety neurosis or something similar. Someone who is too long in the "blue" may be diagnosed as a depressive. Someone who is defending himself consistently with a red state of anger is perhaps rather more likely to find himself being labelled a "psychopath" and ending up in court.

There can of course also be physical consequences of a persistent defensiveness. The person who is constantly in a "red" state of anger is likely to run the risk of damagingly high blood pressure, for example. Someone with a defence which is more in the "orange" - a rather cowardly repression of anger which is therefore internalised may well end up with ulcers. In some a characteristic response to feeling under attack is the tensing of muscles - in the neck or back for example. Chronic defensiveness can then give rise to chronic pain in these areas.

If a client reports of any symptom that it seems to go away when on holiday, then it is well worth looking at the ways in which that person reacts - mentally, emotionally and physically - to a feeling of being under threat, and also where the perceived danger is coming from. If the threat is perceived to be there a lot of the time then the distortion of the natural personality involved can lead, as we have seen, to stress in whatever area of the person is most active in the defensive personality.

With some clients it is appropriate to refer to the knight in armour that I mentioned at the start of this article. As long as he only wears the armour in battle, it must be regarded as a good thing. But imagine what happens if it rusts up and he is then unable to get it off, even when he is home from the wars, and in bed with his loving wife again. It is going to do very little for his marriage! But there is many a man who dons a metaphorical defensive armour in his daily work, and who also fails to take it off when he comes home, and so his wife is unable to come close to the real man. In both cases is it so surprising if the wife finds herself eventually drawn to a man who does NOT wear a defensive barrier all the time she is with him?

Of course it is not only men who can get stuck in defensive mode. There are all sorts of reasons - upbringing, abuse, other relationships, etc. - why a woman may well anticipate attacks within a close relationship and get locked into a defensive mode.

Trauma-Induced Defensive Personae

As an important example of how a Defensive Persona can form and last for a lifetime we may consider childhood trauma, abuse or rape. The child is often helpless to get away from such things. The best it can do is to change the way it thinks, feels or acts. It will do its best to defend itself against the pain. And the Defensive Persona it adopts will become a part of its adult personality, too. If the mother always rejected the child then it can easily grow up unwilling to form a relationship with a woman - if the defence was never to get close to one. If the father was always violent and the defence was to go into a shell, then the person is likely to be stuck with the same Defensive Persona when threatened, even when grown up. One of the jobs of the therapist is to trace back inappropriate Defensive Personae to the time they started.

Habits and Defensive Personae

We may note that many habits are also linked into a Defensive Person. Many people smoke, for example, the moment they feel threatened. It may well not be the only reason that they smoke, but it is one reason, and when it is there it is often necessary to deal with the perceived threat as part of the help in giving up smoking.

The same can apply to eating. There are quite a few people - women perhaps more than men - who will eat when threatened. There is biological sense behind this. Imagine life thousands of years ago, before there was any way to store food, and there was little way of carrying more than a few days' supply. Then imagine that a tribe was under threat - perhaps from famine, or a rival tribe. What makes more sense than for the women - who have the overwhelming priority of providing food for their babies - immediately to eat whatever was available, and storing it in the most convenient and secure form: body fat. This is not appropriate nowadays, of course, but old instincts do not die away in a hundred years or so. Consequently, helping some women to lose weight is the same as helping them to feel no longer under threat.

The retreat into drunkenness is yet another form of defensive behaviour that some people can adopt. They may find a situation too difficult and a drunken stupor gives some relief. If this becomes a response that is indulged in to excess, then we have a diagnosis of alcoholism. And I have found in my experience, which is not extensive, that tackling the problem at the root - identifying the perceived threat and the poor defensive response - can give very good results in such cases.

In all of the above problems, I suggest, the problem is better, and more permanently, tackled at the level of the Defensive Persona as a whole, than at the level of a surface symptom.

Therapy

I do not suppose that there is just one way of changing a Defensive Persona which is giving trouble, but will mention some approaches which will be familiar to readers, and help them to integrate the current perspective into their favourite approach.

We may perhaps start with Cognitive Therapy: a method which might incorporate much of the material in this article, because of its reliance on the conscious understanding of the processes involved. From that understanding will commonly flow a more conscious control over defensive processes, both within the client, and in their awareness of and response to, the Defensive Personae of others.

Another approach is via Behaviour Therapy. Here we would focus on the behavioural part of the persona alone and work to eradicate counter-productive behaviour and to institute new behaviour patterns following standard procedures.

If you find yourself using a Transactional Analysis framework frequently, then you could focus particularly on scripts which have a recognisably defensive function, and in particular on conflicts between the Child and Parent which involve, typically, some form of Defensive Persona in each. This conflict may at times be worked out within the individual, or in his or her interactions with others.

Within Gestalt therapy you would naturally be focusing on defences, perhaps getting a client explicitly to act out or externalise the Defensive Persona and expressing the defensive feelings in other ways.

Assertiveness training has already been mentioned, and contains valuable methods for replacing a negative or hostile defence of territory with a calmer approach which avoids making the other person threatened in turn. This avoids the typical vicious circle we have noted, and makes a reasoned negotiation possible.

Regression can be a valuable tool whenever it is the case that the Defensive Persona evolved to cope with a particular difficult situation in the past. It can be useful to resolve the tensions of that time, and also to contrast that situation with present-day ones, to minimise the likelihood of the old defensive patterns emerging inappropriately. Such regression can naturally be enhanced by the use of hypnotic techniques.

Hypnosis can, of course, be used to address some of the other areas involved in defensiveness. Any suggestions of confidence will typically be helpful, for example, because a feeling of confidence reduces the likelihood of feeling defensive. Positive suggestions that other people are not as hostile as is supposed can also help.

Laughter

"Laughter therapy", which was featured on a recent QED programme on TV, could also be seen as a powerful tool, for there is nothing like laughter to dissolve a sense of defensiveness. (Cf. my article, "Mr. Bean the Therapist, Journal, Spring 1995.)

As an example from my own casebook of the use of laughter in family therapy I will give the following.

The husband can enter dark moods. This frightens the wife who gets angry with him. But this only makes him worse, and so we have a classic positive feedback loop: a vicious circle.

To break this with laughter I simply asked the wife to get out her lipstick on such occasions and paint an enormous smiling clown's face on her husband. (Ericksonian's among you will love this.)

The act of doing this, and seeing his morose face transformed into a laughing clown makes her crease up with laughter. He then catches the amusement and finds it impossible to maintain his mood. And so the vicious circle is simply eliminated.

Laughter is so important, and so uniquely human, a way of defusing defensiveness that teaching clients to be able to laugh at problem situations must be very high on our list of priorities.

Finally I might mention Christian Therapy. Such an approach would draw attention to some of the basic and wholesome teachings as, "For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you." (Matthew 5.14), which will act to reduce the intensity with which we react to others' trespass on our territory. "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you," (Matthew 5.44) and "Perfect love casteth out fear," (1 John 4.18) will remind us of the truth that the most effective antidote to fear of our fellow-man or -woman is love.

Or we might quote from other faiths or people. Here is one from Martin Luther King:

Non violence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time, the need for the human being to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. People must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.

Whatever the approach, the overcoming of the use of an inappropriate Defensive Persona is central to very many of the problems to which flesh is heir.

Acknowledgement

I am indebted to Atheline Kelly, who not only helps enormously with the typing and proof-reading of the Journal, but also pointed out a serious omission in my first version of this article. I had forgotten to mention laughter!

This article first appeared in the Journal of the National Council for Psychotherapy and Hypnotherapy Register, Autumn 96.

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Hypnotherapy as De-Hypnosis

I FIND IT FASCINATING to watch Paul McKenna on TV on those rare occasions when I do not have an evening client and he is on.

He is clearly good at his work, and it is clear from his book that he is aware also of much of the material - such as Erickson's work and NLP - that is part of the background of the typical therapist. Yet I have found a reluctance to use the type of inductions and approach of the stage hypnotist in my own work. (And the one time I have seen McKenna work on TV as a therapist I was interested to notice that his approach was pure therapist and no stagecraft.)

In pondering on this matter I have come up with the following thoughts, which might be of interest to others.

The characteristic produced by a stage Hypnotist in his clients is a limitation of the personality. When they are acting out the suggestions made they will typically have no access to much of their common-sense background knowledge. It is interesting and amusing to watch the subjects acting on the suggestion that to put on a pair of trousers is impossibly difficult, but for this to be happen, their normal knowledge must be rendered inaccessible.

Another perspective on this is provided by the word dissociation. Extreme cases of dissociation are provided by people who demonstrate multiple personalities. In such people there seem to be distinct and non-cooperating personalities which can take it in turn to be `in control'. Each personality may have its own memories, or one may have access to those of another but not vice versa.

Some theories of Hypnosis are based on this phenomenon (Cf. Hilgard Neodissociation theory of multiple cognitive controls ). From this perspective a lot of what happens on stage can be seen as the creation of a secondary (and limited) personality in the client. The bounds of this personality are determined by the particular suggestion made, and, as noted above, it typically has very limited access to information available to the normal full conscious.

It is in the interest of the stage hypnotist to create such sub-personalities and to ensure that they are cut off and or dissociated.

Now the Hypnotherapist is also familiar with the phenomenon of dissociated mental systems. The whole theory of repression can be seen in this light as the severing (for defensive purposes) of all information about some traumatic event or events from full consciousness. Concepts such as "the child within" similarly testify to the existence of internal sub-systems which are at variance (often) with the conscious will.

But notice that in these cases what we, as Hypnotherapists, are striving for is NOT to enhance the separation, NOT to make the dissociation more extreme, but rather to reduce or eliminate it.

We are finding ways to allow the inner child and the inner adult to be closer and to love each other not hate each other behind barriers.

We are finding ways to bring repressed traumatic material safely back into consciousness by showing how it may be dealt with.

Or again, think of the many times in which you have heard a client say, "I do not feel that I am in control of ... Instead it is in control of me." In other words, we are dealing with a situation in which some mental subsystem has become independent of the system of conscious control - has become slightly dissociated.

As Hypnotherapists, what are we trying to do in such cases? Are we trying to increase the separation between the systems? Are we trying to let the conscious mind have less control? No, it is quite the reverse: we are trying to reduce the separation: to bring the subsystem back into contact and control again.

Yet again, have you not met clients for whom a problem has been started by some comment made by another to them? The words: "It is your fault!", "You are stupid!", "Sex is dirty!", etc, have stuck somewhere in the mind and been acted on ever since with all the characteristics of a post-hypnotic suggestion. And what do we do then but remove the power of those words, eliminate their quasi-hypnotic autonomous control of the person. We are effectively de-hypnotising.

All the above examples should make it clear why I say that in Therapy I find myself striving to unite subsystems, to create an integrated and harmonious whole. By contrast most of the typical phenomena of hypnosis, particularly of the stage variety, are working in quite the opposite direction: they are implanting suggestions cut off from the normal conscious personality. They want effective amnesia for normal associations when acting out a suggestion.

It is for these reasons, I think, that I do not find myself using a typical stage-hypnotist's techniques. My goals are so very different.

The great value of knowing about such techniques and the results thereof is that it gives one a great awareness of the way in which we work. If you know how to do something it is a great help if your main task is to undo such things.

It is partly for those reasons also that I am strongly against a narrow definition of Hypnotherapy as I have written elsewhere in this Journal. To my mind the Hypnotherapist is far more often using a knowledge of hypnotic phenomena to eliminate them rather than `hypnotising': creating new barriers, dissociations etc.

Of course I am aware that my ideas may be biassed by my own world view, which is one in which:

harmony is preferred to discord, cooperation is preferred to strife, integration is preferred to segregation, democracy is preferred to dictatorship, conciliation is preferred to confrontation and so on.

Finally the thing that makes me most uneasy about the dissociated hypnotic personalities on stage is that they have no sense of humour. To be fully human is to be able to laugh, especially at oneself.

This article first appeared in the Journal of the National Council of Psychotherapists and Hypnotherapy Journal, winter 94.

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Practical Psychotherapy: Interview and Diagnosis

The Disciple came into the presence of the Master and said, "Oh wise one, I am tired of my ignorance. Tell me all the right answers, so that I may also become wise."

And the Master replied, "You are right in calling yourself ignorant. Only the ignorant think that wisdom lies in right answers. The wise merely know the right questions."

ANY DECENT medical course will place a lot of emphasis on diagnosis. But I have yet to read a book on Hypnotherapy which devotes any time to this essential process, while books on Psychotherapy which do devote time to diagnosis are concerned almost exclusively with clinical problems: schizophrenia, clinical depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder etc.

We are not generally faced with such severe problems, but we ARE faced with a variety of problems and it is our job to define clearly in our minds what the problems are, so that we may find the most effective method of solving them.

In this article we will be looking at some ways of tackling this aspect of our work.

Net or line?

There are two traditional ways of catching fish: a net or a line. The two traditional ways of finding out what is in someone's mind are either the trawling technique of letting him or her talk and talk without interruption, at the end of which you hope to have caught all information of value, or the line and hook technique of asking questions. (And if you look at a question mark in a certain way it does look a bit like a hook, does it not (try up-side-down)?)

In practice we may use a combination, with due sensitivity to the inclination of the client. At one extreme I remember one client who gave me the story of her life for six hours, spread over four sessions, as smoothly as if it were a written autobiography. It would have been quite wrong to interrupt during the telling: we must always remember that there is for many a definite need to be listened to and understood, quite apart from any other help offered. At the other extreme there are individuals whose minds are so confused that it is necessary to ask some specific questions in order to tease out any semblance of order.

As a matter of technique I am going to propose a number of questions. They can be thought of as hooks with which to catch the essential information, or as hooks on which to place the information gathered by a trawling technique. As a first example of this we have:

HOOK 1. As an opening question, use "How would you like to start? Some people prefer to talk about the problem in their own words. In other cases it is easier if I ask questions. Which would you prefer?"

The nature of the problem

The only reason clients come is because there is something bothering them. But it is very important to avoid jumping to conclusions. I have lost count of the number of times I have talked with a prospective client on the phone, and after five minutes been quite confident that I understood what the problem was, only to find at the first session that I had got it quite wrong. One reason why this happens is that clients will not open up about very personal matters until they have achieved confidence in the therapist. Thus they may start by talking vaguely of stress and needing to relax, when what really worries them is a sexual problem. At times this can be reversed. One client presented her problem as being extreme masochistic tendencies in her sexual relationships, but it slowly became obvious that the real worry had to do with avoiding facing certain deep fears and insecurities. For her the latter showed weakness, and weakness she despised far more than a mere sexual deviance.

Another reason for initial problems is the different meanings that people give to words. "Paranoid", for example, means to some people something like "mad", to others "emotionally disturbed", to others it means "thinking others are scheming against me". None of these is what is meant by the word in its technical sense as, "The name given to one type of functional psychosis, viz. that in which the patient holds a coherent, internally consistent, delusional system of beliefs, centering round the conviction that he (or, more rarely, she) is a person of great importance and is on that account being persecuted, despised, and rejected."Gregory (1987)Bib.

Here are some questions which can help to clarify the exact nature of the problem, and to avoid any misunderstandings about it.

"Tell me in your own words about the most recent time when you had this problem."

HOOK 2. "What feelings did you have at the time?"

HOOK 3. "What physical sensations did you notice at the time?"

HOOK 4. "What were you thinking at the time?

The purpose of these specific questions is to build up a clear idea on your mind of the complex processes which are going on in the client. Let us take for example a person who comes stating that the problem is "blushing". This one label can stand for a variety of different problems. We might find that a particular female client blushes only in the presence of a male in authority and that it is accompanied by feelings of fear, physical sensations of trembling and thoughts that she hopes he will not approach any nearer. (We may then suspect that the problem is primarily sexual.) Another client might report that it only arises when he is about to address a large group of people, at which point he feels very self-conscious, there is a sensation of shaking in the voice and the thoughts in his head are, "I am going to make a fool of myself." (We may then suppose that the central problem is self-confidence, or similar.) It will be clear that the psychodyanamics of these two cases are totally different, and consequently any help given is also likely to be on quite different lines.

Although I have indicated one-line answers to the questions above, in practice the questions will stimulate quite a lot of information which will throw more and more light on the problem, and often show it to be fundamentally different from what it first appeared.

Origins

Problems do not generally arise for no reason. Extreme phobias of water do not arise without cause, for example. It is usually very important therefore to use

HOOK 5. "When did the problem start? Tell me about the earliest occasions you can remember."

If we find that the first time the client approached a swimming pool she nearly drowned, as happens not infrequently in the case of such a phobia, we have found out something of great importance when it comes to solving the problem.

But this question may also show up any changing patterns in the problem over the years. It is a common phenomenon for an initial problem to become confused in many ways as time passes because the worry about the initial problem can generate further symptoms which can in turn create further anxiety or depressions.

There are times, however, when the connection between the origin of the perceived problem and the real cause is not so obvious. A classic instance of this is the delayed onset of extreme distress, anxiety or panic attacks which can arise six months or more after a bereavement. Typically the bereaved person has repressed the grief for that time. More extreme cases involve the repression of traumatic material from as far back as early childhood.

In order to discover such origins the following questions (6 and 7) are very useful.

HOOK 6. "Can you think of any big changes or upsets or bereavements in the year before it started?"

It is a fact that most people find most big changes rather traumatic, but the current ethos is that we should be able to adjust to them with the ease of well-oiled machines. As a result quite a few problems arise that we, as therapists, can help comparatively easily, because they involve short-term transitions. The client merely needs some help and support while going through a change in life.

In order to find out about the possibility of earlier traumatic material being responsible the following is a very useful question.

HOOK 7. "When you are in that state, how old do you feel?"

I have a client at present who, when entering into certain distressed states, begins to behave and talk like a three year old. This is a clear indicator of what is currently being revealed as a problem rooted in extensive homosexual abuse at that age.

If it is possible to talk to another member of the client's family then material to hang on Hook 7 is usually very easy to obtain, as child-like behaviour is more easily noticed from the outside.

Why is it still a problem?

By the time we have obtained by one means or the other the answer to all the above questions we should have a very clear idea of the precise way in which the problem affects the client, and how it arose. The next really important thing is to find out why it has not disappeared.

It is always worth remembering that problems of all sorts have arisen through the ages. Psychotherapists are inclined to forget that people survived the most appalling traumas through all the history of mankind before the science of psychotherapy arose in the last century. At another level it is worth remembering that everyone on the face of the world has had the "problem" of bed-wetting. The only differences between us lies in the age at which we grow out of it. Most people are nervous in front of an audience at some age, but most who have to address an audience frequently usually overcome the fear naturally. Most people experience grief at a bereavement. But most people get over it in what we may call a natural way: i.e. without professional help.

I am suggesting that the norm is that people do overcome problems one way or other. So it is really important to find out why, in a particular client, the problem continues to be a problem. I will formalise this as a tool for thought.

HOOK 8. Why has the client still got this problem?

To remind yourself of this important point the following is a very important question to ask, for that reason and others as well.

HOOK 9. "What have you tried before, in dealing with this problem?"

This will very rapidly fish out the history of any medical interventions; whether the client has been to see other therapists and any practical ways they have tried themselves.

The most common reasons for a problem to continue are the following.

a) There may be repressed emotional material, which the client has no conscious access to, and it is the driving force behind the problem.

b) The way in which the client is thinking about or treating the problem is actually making the problem worse.

c) There are external factors in the client's life which are maintaining the problem.

We would hope to have uncovered factors a) and b) by the lines of inquiry above. The most common pattern for b) is illustrated by the father in this little story.

"This father took his little girl to the playground. She wanted to go on the swing. He let her, but stood by to make sure that she swung safely. To begin with he was happy, but then he noticed that she was starting to swing to what he felt was a dangerous height. He decided to "take control" and, when the swing was at its highest, pushed it down firmly. For a few seconds he was relieved to see the swing descending rapidly. But then, to his alarm, it rose even higher than before. He had learned nothing, however, and in his alarm he again pushed down firmly when the swing was at its highest!"

You may picture father and child together getting into a more and more frantic state with every swing of the swing.

Steinbeck, in his book Sweet Thursday writes, "There are some people who will say that this whole account is a lie, but a thing isn't necessarily a lie even if it didn't necessarily happen. There are far too many people who make their problem, whether it is anxiety, hypochondria, shaking etc. etc. worse by acting just like that father and panicking when the problem is at its peak with the predictable result of making it even worse the next time.

External causes

Let us next turn to the third big class of reasons why the problem continues: external factors. Such factors most commonly involve other people. Here is a question which will rapidly reveal problems in that area.

HOOK 11. "What do people close to you advise?"

This may seem a little indirect, but it gives a way for the client to talk about husband or wife or father or mother without seeming to blame them at all. This is quite important, for a lot of problems arise because a person does not feel that it is right to go against the feelings or opinions of a loved one. Nevertheless the answers should reveal to you the extent to which the family, friends or employers are the cause of the continuation of the problem.

Collect your own hooks.

I have suggested twelve "hooks" or questions above. It will be obvious that they are not to be applied like an inquisition. In many cases they will remain unspoken, though we will have them in our minds in order to structure the form of the discussion. You will have many of your own favourite questions. Perhaps you are not fully aware of what they are. It can be a useful exercise to note down those that have passed the test of time. (And you may care to share them with others

The disciple said, "Thank you, wise master, thank you. I will immediately seek the right questions and then I, too, will be wise." And he left.

The Master shook his head sadly. "Once a fool, always a fool. There is no wisdom in merely knowing the right questions. Wisdom begins with understanding the answers to the right questions."

Reprinted from the Journal of The National Council of Pscyhotherapists and Hypnotherapy Register, Autumn 93.

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Good Advice

Dylan Morgan

When I was just a small boy
My father said to me,
"Destroy all weeds without delay
Or they will destroy thee."
And so with heat gun in my hand
I go out every day
And burn all weeds, and all around
That dares get in my way.
It makes me feel such virtue.
It makes me feel so good.
But my garden never seems to grow
Or flower as it should.

When I was just a little girl
My mother said to me,
"Waste is a sin, save all you can,
And you will wealthy be."
And so I have saved every crumb,
I saved up every scrap.
And nothing have I thrown away
That fell into my lap.
But now my house is far too small
I cannot move within,
And my twenty stone of body
Just will not seem to slim.

When I was just a little boy
My father I heard speak:
"Be strong, my son, and never show
Your feelings. That is weak."
And so I keep a poker face,
I keep it day and night.
And never frown nor smile nor cry.
I know that I am right.
I was strong when my wife left me,
And when I lost my friends,
And I am strong though unemployed.
I'll be strong when my life ends.

When I was just a little girl,
My mother loved me so.
"All men are dirty", so she said,
And kept me clean. And watched me grow.
And I have kept away from dirt
Each month of my life.
I never have been sullied,
No man made me his wife.
But I am sad now as I reach
The closing of my days,
That I've no daughter of my own
To teach her cleanly ways.

When I was just a little boy
My sailor Dad told me
To "Keep your room ship-shape, my lad,
Or you may drown at sea."
Now I have children of my own
I shout and storm at them
Because their rooms are such a mess:
For their own good I punish them.
But all the same their faces fall
When I come in the door.
And just today my daughter dear
Has left to be a whore.

When I was just a little girl
My mother taught her ways.
"All household dust is like the plague
Avoid it all your days."
I move nothing to disturb it
And move with greatest care.
And shout to warn the others
Of the dangers lying there.
How strange my house is dustier
Than any other wife's.
How strange the others all prefer
Any other lives.

I'm proud to be a Pharisee
I'm proud I keep the Laws
My fathers handed down to me
Perfect, without flaws.
I pay my tithes of mint and herb
My hands are clean as clean
I don't consort with sinners
No evil have I seen.
And when someone accuses me
And says my gain is loss,
He must be mad or bad you know
Fit fodder for a cross.

My father was a farmer poor
And Bible tales he told
Of sorting out the wheat and tares
Of shepherds and the fold.
I am not very clever
and rules I may not keep.
But I know that I am loved
And love each of my sheep.
And at my end my every grain
Shall enter Heaven's store.
And every tare among my grain
Be forgotten evermore.

The meaning of this poem will probably be clear to every therapist. How many times have we had clients whose lives have been crippled by having absorbed as an absolute truth about life one that is only relative? Very well-meaning parents pass on to their children the fruits of their experiences of life - or of their own parents' passed-on wisdom - with no thought for the fact that the world in which their children are to live can be very different or that their children may have very different natures and characters.

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Humour

Serious things cannot be understood without humorous things, nor opposites without opposites. - Plato.

A LECTURER on psychology was explaining to a female student the power of analytic psychology.

"For example," he said, "I notice that you always draw a line at the end of your essays."

"Yes, I do," she replied, "But what does that tell you?"

"It would indicate that when you have finished something you do so very definitely. I can deduce that when you finish a meal you place your knife and fork very neatly on the plate."

"Yes, that's true," admitted the student.

"And that will indicate that when you do the washing up you will do it completely, dry it and put it away."

"You're right!" exclaimed the woman.

"These habits in turn suggest a woman who desires to become a good wife, and is probably already in a steady relationship."

"Right again!" she replied with a smile.

"And I can further deduce that you are very loyal and faithful. You would not, for example, have a one night stand with, shall we say, your best friend's boy-friend."

"Amazing!" said the girl. "I had no idea you could know me so well from such a small thing as the way I end an essay!"

She went away very much impressed with all this and was determined to tell someone. So when she next saw her best friend she said, "Psychology is a brilliant subject. It tells you so much. For example: do you draw lines at the end of your essays?"

"No," replied her friend.

"Oh!" said the student, and then a moment later she added in a fury, "How dare you sleep with my boy-friend!"

. - o O o - .

A Child Psychologist was spending a holiday in laying a new drive to his garage. He had finished and was standing back to admire the perfect level surface when the small boy who lived next door rode up on his bike with great enthusiasm. Such was his momentum that he managed to get half way up the drive before collapsing in a sea of concrete.

The Psychologist released his anger in a furious and unexpurgated outburst which brought the boy's mother out to see what was happening.

"You, of all people," she exclaimed, "should have some sympathy and understanding - you are supposed to love children!"

"Madam, I do" he replied, "in the abstract, but not in the concrete."

Adapted from an "old chestnut" found in "Sleeping Dogs Lie" by Julian Gloag.

. - o O o - .

Solicitor: Your husband is asking for a divorce.

Woman: On what grounds?

Solicitor: On the grounds of your incompatibility.

Woman. Ridiculous! He's the one who's incompatible!!

- Morien Morgan

. - o O o - .

The following is a verbatim transcript of a client's remark - Ed.

I HEARD on the radio about this wonderful book, "Learning how to live without clutter". I made a note of it at the time. Unfortunately it has got lost somewhere in the mess!

. - o O o - .

An executive came back from an assertiveness course. It had been suggested that he place a card on his desk to remind himself of what he had learned. So he carefully wrote out:

BE DECISIVE

Then he stood back to look at it, considered it, and carefully added a question mark:

BE DECISIVE?

- o O o -

A PSYCHOTIC killer had finally been trapped by the police in his hide-out. A martial arts expert, a counsellor and a hypnotherapist all volunteered to get him out.

The martial arts expert broke open the door with a well-aimed kick and then dived to the attack. There was a sound of gun-fire and his dead body was flung out.

The counsellor then walked very slowly towards the house and began to reason with the killer. Then a single shot hit him in the leg and he fell to the ground.

Despite all warnings the hypnotherapist was determined to try, and approached the house. Ten minutes later he emerged, hand in hand with the unarmed killer.

"How did you manage it?" everyone was anxious to know. "Why didn't he shoot you too?"

"Simple. I merely regressed him to childhood: he couldn't hurt me with a water-pistol!"

- o O o -

A MAN telephoned a psychotherapist.

"I wonder if you can help with a difficult problem."

"I might be able to. Tell me about it."

"It is my wife. She thinks she is a hot water bottle. Do you think you can help?"

"Hmm. It is unusual, certainly. But I have helped worse cases. Tell me, how does the problem manifest itself?"

"Well, she spends every night warming my neighbour's bed for him."

. - o O o - .

Psychotherapist: What seems to be the problem?

Client: Well, as far as I am concerned it is my family. You see, I love books, and they think that there is something wrong in that: they say that I love them excessively.

Psychotherapist (with strong feeling): How ridiculous! They are quite wrong. It is an excellent thing to love books. I love them myself, and always have done.

Client: Oh, it is such a relief to find someone who understands! How do you like them best: boiled or sautèed?

- o O o -

Have you heard the one about the woman who went to see a Freudian analyst?

"Doctor, please tell me what is wrong with me. I was standing at the jewellers counter. He had put a lot of rings out for me to look at. Then, when he turned his back to the counter I quickly transferred some rings from the counter to my bag. Please tell me. Am I suffering from kleptomania?"

"Nein, nein," replied the analyst soothingly, "It is ein simple example of Counter Transference."

- o O o -

A woman phoned a hypnotherapist a few days after her depressed husband had seen him.

"Excuse me phoning, but I am very worried about my husband. He can't remember anything about his session with you. What did you do to him?"

"I am sure there is nothing to worry about," replied the hypnotherapist suavely, "It is quite normal to have amnesia for the hypnotic experience. Your husband was suffering from a mild endogeneous depression and so I simply repeated to him in a trance that he would be `Better and Better Every Day, Better and Better in Every Way.' It is an excellent technique. I can't see that anything can go wrong. What exactly are you worried about?"

"I see. Did you know he was a little deaf?"

"Yes, but that has nothing to do with his depression."

"But I think it may have a lot to do with the new problem. Since you saw him he has lost a fortune BETTING: every day and in every way!"

- o O o -

THE WIFE had become so domineering that her husband insisted she see a psychiatrist. The wife consented, and the couple went to a doctor. The husband waited outside, and when his spouse emerged after the hour-long session, he asked, "Did you make any progress?"

"Not much," she replied. "It took me 50 minutes to convince that man that his couch would look better against the wall."

Columban Fathers Mission, reprinted in the Readers Digest.

. - o O o - .

Small girl to mother: Let's play that I'm your Mummy.

Mother (horrified): Oh no, we can't do that, darling! I'm too busy playing your Mummy.

. - o O o - .

A PSYCHOTIC killer had finally been trapped by the police in his hide-out. A martial arts expert, a counsellor and a hypnotherapist all volunteered to get him out.

The martial arts expert broke open the door with a well-aimed kick and then dived to the attack. There was a sound of gun-fire and his dead body was flung out.

The counsellor then walked very slowly towards the house and began to reason with the killer. Then a single shot hit him in the leg and he fell to the ground.

Despite all warnings the hypnotherapist was determined to try, and approached the house. Ten minutes later he emerged, hand in hand with the unarmed killer.

"How did you manage it?" everyone was anxious to know. "Why didn't he shoot you too?"

"Simple. I merely regressed him to childhood: he couldn't hurt me with a water-pistol!"

JDM

. - o O o - .

A MAN telephoned a psychotherapist.

"I wonder if you can help with a difficult problem."

"I might be able to. Tell me about it."

"It is my wife. She thinks she is a hot water bottle. Do you think you can help?"

"Hmm. It is unusual, certainly. But I have helped worse cases. Tell me, how does the problem manifest itself?"

"Well, she spends every night warming my neighbour's bed for him."

THEN THERE was the hypnotist who planted the following post-hypnotic suggestion.

"When the session is over I will ask you to pay and you will say, `That was a brilliant session. I must pay you twice your normal fee.' You will say that but you will forget everything I have said in a trance. You will forget everything I have said."

A few minutes later the subject was woken up, and the hypnotist said, "Now that is the end of the session. It only remains for you to pay me."

The subject, a Yorkshireman, replied, "Session? Ah know nowt abaht t'bloody session. Ah'll not pay good brass for nowt. Good day to you!"

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A Definition of Hypnosis?

The American Psychological Association (APA) has recently published, after much deliberation and consultation, a document purporting to be a "Definition and Description of Hypnosis" for the general public.

This document has been made the basis of a survey of the opinions of the 320-strong British Society of Experimental and Clinical Hypnosis (BSECH). The results of this survey were published in Contemporary Hypnosis (1994) Vol II, No 3. Sixty of their three hundred and twenty members replied that they agreed with the APA document. Others made a number of cogent criticisms.

The original document is reproduced below for the judgement of members of the NCP&HR, together with the main points raised by BSECH members in response. Finally there is a letter written by Dylan Morgan on the subject to Contemporary Hypnosis: the BSECH Journal.

DEFINITION AND DESCRIPTION OF HYPNOSIS

Hypnosis is a procedure during which a health care professional or researcher suggests that a client, patient, or subject experience changes in sensations, perceptions, thoughts, or behaviour. The hypnotic context is generally established by an induction procedure. Although there are many different hypnotic inductions, most include suggestions for relaxation, calmness, and well-being. Instructions to imagine or think about pleasant experiences are also commonly included in hypnotic inductions.

People respond to hypnosis in different ways. Some describe their experience as an altered state of consciousness. Others describe hypnosis as a normal state of focussed attention, in which they feel calm and relaxed. Regardless of how and to what degree they respond, most people describe the experience as very pleasant.

Some people are very responsive to hypnotic suggestions and others are less responsive. A person's ability to experience hypnotic suggestions can be inhibited by fears and concerns arising from some common misconceptions. Contrary to some depictions of hypnosis in books, movies or on television, people who have been hypnotized do not lose control over their behaviour. They typically remain aware of who they are and where they are, and unless amnesia has been specifically suggested, they usually remember what transpired during hypnosis. Hypnosis makes it easier for people to experience suggestions, but it does not force them to have these experiences.

Hypnosis is not a type of therapy, like psychoanalysis or behaviour therapy. Instead, it is a procedure that can be used to facilitate therapy. Because it is not treatment in and of itself, training in hypnosis is not sufficient for the conduct of therapy. Clinical hypnosis should be used only by properly trained and credentialed health care professionals (e.g. licensed clinical psychologists), who have also been trained in the clinical use of hypnosis and are working within the area of their professional expertise.

Hypnosis has been used in the treatment of pain, depression, anxiety, stress, habit disorders, and many other psychological and medical problems. However, it may not be useful for all psychological problems or for all patients or clients. The decision to use hypnosis as an adjunct to treatment can only be made in consultation with a qualified health care provider who has been trained in the use and limitations of clinical hypnosis.

In addition to its use in clinical settings, hypnosis is used in research, with the goal of learning more about the nature of hypnosis itself, as well as its impact on sensation, perception, learning, memory, and physiology. Researchers also study the value of hypnosis in the treatment of physical and psychological problems.

BSECH Comments

The main queries and objections raised by BSECH member to the above can be summarised as follows.

The APA have failed to provide a clear definition of hypnosis by muddling it up with the description.
this totally neglected the central feature of the effect on the subject.
The statement on individual differences fails to distinguish between the experience of hypnosis and the degree of responsiveness.
Some disagreed strongly with the sweeping statement that subjects do not lose conscious control over their behaviour. They felt it was more of an attempt to `clean up' the image of hypnosis than a statement of fact.
The statement is too reassuring: there are dangers in the use of hypnosis if complications are not recognised.
There was only mild questioning of the statement that hypnosis is not a therapy in itself.
The APA statement fails to distinguish between those who do use hypnosis and those who, they feel, should.
There are many groups of people other than `licensed clinical psychologists' who were felt to be entitled to use hypnosis. Social services professionals, medical and dental practitioners, qualified nurses, speech therapists, physiotherapists and educational psychologists and, of course, members of the NCP&HR are examples.
Several respondents forcibly complained that what was supposed to be a definition actually ends up prescribing who should practise.

Letter to Contemporary Hypnosis from J.D. Morgan.

THE AMERICAN Psychological Association (APA) has produced a "definition and description of hypnosis" (Fellows B, Contemporary Hypnosis, 1994, p. 142).

As several respondents to Brian Fellows' survey noted, whatever it was the APA produced, it was not a definition. The reason they failed was a consequence of a categorial confusion of a nature which has been well-known since Bertrand Russell's Principia Mathematica. The essence of the confusion is the epistemological failure clearly to distinguish between a set and a member of that set. In the present context confusion arises by the use of the same word - hypnosis - to describe both a field of knowledge and one of the phenomena within the field.

We see one use in such phrases as "contemporary hypnosis", "experimental hypnosis" or "clinical hypnosis". We see the other in usages such as "hypnosis is a procedure", "people respond to hypnosis", "hypnosis has been used", "the subject is in hypnosis".

A clear way to provide the required definition, with the above distinction in mind, is the following.

Definition: Hypnosis is a particular field of human knowledge. The field (like all others) is defined by its subject matter, which is the naturalistic alteration of the functioning of cerebral, nervous and physiological systems in the human being.

The word "naturalistic" excludes the production of such alterations by means of such things as chemicals, electricity or magnetism, force or lesions.

We may add a few other useful secondary definitions:

There are certain common and typical alterations such as those involved in the production of analgesia, amnesia, atonicity of muscles, selective attention, hallucinations, age regression etc. - the standard material of the textbooks of hypnosis. These will be termed hypnotic phenomena.

There are certain common procedures which are known and practised in order to produce these changes. These are called hypnotic procedures. They have varied considerably down the years, just as medical procedures have changed. (The APA document's emphasis on hypnosis as a procedure would cast doubt on whether Braid and Mesmer were "using hypnosis".)

There are certain sub-fields of hypnosis, as of any other mature subject. They may be consistently denoted by such phrases as experimental hypnosis, clinical hypnosis, dental hypnosis, theoretical hypnosis and analgesic hypnosis, whose meanings are self-explanatory, and again depend on their subject matter. We might wish to use the phrase stage hypnosis to denote the specialised use of certain hypnotic techniques for entertainment purposes.

The following is a deduction from experimental results (as well as being implicit in the APA's statement, "People respond to hypnosis in different ways.").

There is a very wide continuum of different alterations which can be produced in different people by means of different procedures and with different goals. There is no one change which is unique to all. The use of statements such as "Hypnosis is a procedure", or "Hypnosis is a state" is therefore untenable and leads to confused thought about hypnosis.

The above approach to defining our subject avoids the many flaws of fact and logic in the APA document so well noted by BSECH members.

1) It is a clear definition.

2) It avoids the pitfall, noted by Fellows, of defining hypnosis as a procedure, without falling into the opposite pitfall of defining it as a state.

3) It does not confuse a definition with a moral judgement (yet another categorical error of the most gross kind of which the APA is guilty).

4) Neither does it confuse it with the distinct question of who should use

Website by
Dylan Morgan

Articles on Hypnotherapy, Psychotherapy, Smoking, Love, Memory, James Braid, Anton Mesmer, Panic Attacks, Sexual Problems, Circumcision, Humour, etc.

The following is a list of the article titles with a brief description:

A couple of poems:

What is abuse?

Written in response to a client who asked the above question.

Anecdotes of use in therapy

James Braid

The Defensive Persona

Animal Stereotypes

Marital Therapy

The Colours of Defence

Predatory versus Defensive

Vicious Circle

Complementary Defensive Personae

Territorial Defensiveness

Our perspective

Chronic defensiveness

Trauma-Induced Defensive Personae

Habits and Defensive Personae

Therapy

Laughter

Further Reading

Acknowledgement

Hypnotherapy as De-Hypnosis

Practical Psychotherapy: Interview and Diagnosis

Net or line?

The nature of the problem

Origins

Why is it still a problem?

External causes

Related problems

Collect your own hooks.

Good Advice

Dylan Morgan

Humour

A Definition of Hypnosis?

Website by Dylan Morgan

Articles on Hypnotherapy, Psychotherapy, Smoking, Love, Memory, James Braid, Anton Mesmer, Panic Attacks, Sexual Problems, Circumcision, Humour, etc.

The following is a list of the article titles with a brief description:

A couple of poems:

What is abuse?

Written in response to a client who asked the above question.

Anecdotes of use in therapy

James Braid

The Defensive Persona

Animal Stereotypes

Marital Therapy

The Colours of Defence

Predatory versus Defensive

Vicious Circle

Complementary Defensive Personae

Territorial Defensiveness

Our perspective

Chronic defensiveness

Trauma-Induced Defensive Personae

Habits and Defensive Personae

Therapy

Laughter

Further Reading

Acknowledgement

Hypnotherapy as De-Hypnosis

Practical Psychotherapy: Interview and Diagnosis

Net or line?

The nature of the problem

Origins

Why is it still a problem?

External causes

Related problems

Collect your own hooks.

Good Advice

Dylan Morgan

Humour

A Definition of Hypnosis?

Website by
Dylan Morgan