Author: Masud Ansari
Format: book
Source: gift
Price: free
Rating: mixed
Modern Hypnosis gets the prize for the least aptly named book I've read in a long time.
Well, perhaps that's unfair. The book is about hypnosis, but there is little in this self-published tome that can be regarded as modern in its approach.
Though originally published in the nineties, this book's obligatory chapter on the history of hypnosis ends before 1960, as though there have been no significant developments in hypnosis since that time. Furthermore, the chapter closes with the American Medical Association and its British counterpart approving the use of medical hypnosis. Unfortunately, the chapter fails to mention that both organizations have since reversed that decision, a regrettable fact that is nonetheless significant, especially when we consider rumors that some hypnotists have landed in hot water for claiming AMA approval on their websites.
Of course, something very significant in hypnosis history did happen in the 1950s: Dave Elman published his famous book and trained thousands of doctors and dentists in the use of his methods. But Ansari neglects to mention Elman anywhere in his book. I'll get to my suspicions as to why that is in a moment.
There are other aspects of this book that strike the modern reader as outdated. The author persists in using academic terms such as "subject" and "susceptible," a practice that is fading outside of academia for good reason. The connotation of these words implies that hypnosis is something a hypnotist does to a passive "subject," whose ability to enter trance is characterized as "susceptibility," the same word we use to denote a weak immune system.
The description of hypnosis as though it were a disease dovetails nicely with the misconception that some people are immune to hypnosis, that is, "insusceptible." I find that the hypnosis community falls into three opinion groups on this topic. There is the academic group, who arrived at this notion through a series of clinical trials that fail to consider the artistic and individual nature of trance induction. There is the group who take the attitude that everyone can enter hypnosis, and it's up to the hypnotist to facilitate that. And there is the group of hypnotists who hide behind their failure to find the right induction with the claim that "the subject is not hypnotizable." Rather than problem-solve or admit that they are not all-powerful and all-knowing, they simply claim that the deed can't be done. All in all, it's a top-down view of hypnosis that is neither accurate nor useful.
In keeping with this approach, the author presents considerable information on the various depth testing scales that academics have devised. To his credit, Ansari does admit that some authors question the utility and accuracy of depth scales.
Another early chapter in the book describes the conditions necessary for hypnosis. The author then advises the reader on how to arrange an office, what color to paint the walls, what kind of sounds to have, and so on. While I agree that I much prefer to do a session in my carefully arranged office, it's ridiculous to suppose that those conditions are necessary. I've done powerful change work in settings that were perfectly the opposite of what Ansari says are necessary—noisy, hot, uncomfortable, and full of distractions. My client was even wearing a corset, which Ansari recommends should be loosened prior to induction. (When I read that sentence, I immediately checked to see in what century the book was written.)
The chapter on induction starts with eye fixation and then discusses a number of the standard inductions of the first half of the twentieth century. Not surprisingly, there is no mention of Elman. A brief but scornful section on rapid inductions repeats all of the worst stereotypes of stage hypnotists and discusses the old "cut-off-the-blood-to-the-neck" hypno-trick as being representative of rapid induction methods. It's ironic that Ansari writes with disdain about the theatrics of stage hypnotists, yet later advocates casually cutting or burning a client's hand in order to test anesthesia. Who's showboating now?
Overall, I get the impression that the author is doing his best to fit in with the academic hypnotists. This group is characterized by their disdain for stage hypnotists, their reliance on antiseptic terms such as "subject," their complete refusal to acknowledge the value of Elman's work, and their insistence that hypnosis should only be practiced by members of their degreed brotherhood. I call this group the "priest hypnotists" because they call people like me "lay hypnotists." (More on this in another post.)
Ansari claims doctoral degrees in hypnosis and psychology, but a little investigation has shown that the degrees are not from accredited institutions—in other words, from a legal and academic standpoint, they are fake. The author might be an extremely skilled and knowledgeable hypnotist, but when it comes to the academy, Ansari is a wannabe.
Modern Hypnosis: Theory and Practice is not entirely without utility. Any examination of hypnosis through another's eyes may shed light for the reader, and a studious hypnotist may find a nugget of gold even in a trash heap of worn-out information. It was possibly worth the price I paid for it--but then again, I got it for free.
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