Book Review: The Breakout Heuristic

by on January 16th, 2010 § 1

Rossi, E. L. (2007). The breakout heuristic: The neuroscience of mirror neurons, consciousness and human creativity.  Phoenix, AZ: The Milton Erickson Foundation Press.

Ernest L Rossi: The Breakout Heuristic

The work of Ernest Lawrence Rossi covers a great deal of terrain from four decades.  It includes the study of the function of dreams as a precursor to psychic growth, the compilation and editing of Milton Erickson’s collected works, and work on chronobiology and genetic functioning in psychotherapy and hypnosis.  Before now, much of it could only be obtained by gathering it from various and diverse sources.  With The Breakout Heuristic Rossi does a great service in collecting many of his most important articles and book chapters from the past forty years.

The book is divided into four sections: The Breakout Heuristic: Daily Updates of Our Brain; Dreams and the Creation of Consciousness; The Epiphanies of Therapeutic Hypnosis; and Art, Beauty, and Truth in Human Relationships.  Each is prefaced with an overview by Rossi. » Read the rest of this entry «

Hypnosis & Creativity: An Overview of Experimental and Clinical Research

by on January 16th, 2010 § 4

The connection between hypnosis and creativity was extensively explored since the mid 1960’s, but it has largely fallen to the wayside since the beginning of the 1990s (Council, Bromley, Zabelina, & Waters, 2007).  A small body of research has been done in connection with the application of hypnosis to enhance creativity in subjects (Council, et al, 2007). This paper will present a brief overview of some of the research and theoretical work done by various authors over the past 50 years.  Two major definitions of hypnosis in relation to the creative act will be investigated, as well as the literature involving creativity enhancement.

Hypnosis and Creativity Research

Encadré (Jardim Botânico, Rio de Janeiro)

Operational definitions of creativity vary between researchers (Shames & Bowers, 1992; Weisberg, 2006).  Essentially, four areas, as espoused by Rhodes, are emphasized: product, process, person and press (as cited in in Shames & Bowers).   Process is the internal, subjective experience of the creator, and is emphasized in hypnosis and creativity research (Shames & Bowers).  Why single out process only? Much of the theory of hypnosis and creativity has been an extension of the psychoanalytic theories of personality (Lynn & Sivec, 1992; Shames & Bowers).  The idea of regression is considered both an element of psychoanalytic theory and hypnosis (Bowers, 1967; Shames & Bowers). » Read the rest of this entry «

New Book Just Released

by on November 18th, 2009 § 1

Just want to let everyone know of a new hypnosis book that has just been released. It is called, “Patient Sedation Without Medication” by Elvira Land and Eleanor Laser. The book describes practical strategies to increase patient comfort during medical procedures. I highly recommend it.

Hypnotizability May Be Unrelated To Dissociation & Cognitive Inhibition

by on September 8th, 2009 § 3

The prevailing theories of hypnotic susceptibility hold that the ability to experience hypnotic phenomena is a function of either dissociative capacity or of attentional control. However, an upcoming study in the journal Consciousness And Cognition claims to challenge both of these ideas.

The researchers administered the Waterloo-Stanford Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility (Form C), the Dissociative Experiences Scale (normed for non-clinical populations), and a series of cognitive inhibition tasks to 180 study participants. They conclude, decisively, that “the data ruled out even moderate correlations between hypnotic suggestibility and all the measures of dissociation and cognitive inhibition.” » Read the rest of this entry «

Welcome Hypnotists!

by on August 19th, 2009 § 0

hypnoticWelcome to the clinical and experimental hypnosis community blog on Chicago Psychology. This group blog is for the discussion of research, theory, and techniques relating to hypnosis and hypnotic phenomena.

Participating is very simple: once you’ve set up your free account on ChicagoPsychology.org, just join the Hypnosis group and then ask a group administrator to grant you access to post on the Hypnosis group blog. This will allow you to post your own thoughts and ideas, experiences, announcements about hypnosis-related events, or anything else you think is relevant to the professional hypnosis community. Other members will be able to post comments on your post, or write their own separate posts in response.

An account on ChicagoPsychology.org also allows you to create your own free web site or blog to promote yourself and your practice, or to just share information and ideas that you think others will find interesting or helpful.

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