Hypnotherapy

Hypnosis is used in several ways in therapy. Sleep may be induced where prolonged periods free from stress may be beneficial. It may be used to facilitate the emergence of memories and associations in classical psychoanalysis or to produce cathartic abreactions during treatment of post-traumatic neuroses. Hypnosis may also be used as a means of communicating direct suggestions to the person when suggestibility is high, thus offering the possibility of relief of specific physical or mental symptoms without attempting to influence underlying causes. The person may also be helped to gain insight into the dynamic unconscious sources of his difficulties as a result of the therapist demonstrating to him the meanings of his symptoms in terms of repressed conflict by inducing experimental conflicts in the course of the hypnotic trance. Self-hypnosis is the term when self-suggestion is used to induce the hypnotic state, and can be used to discover the reason behind a person's problems and to condition or de-condition, adjust and strengthen the responses; guided-hypnosis  is when the subject is hypnotized by a therapist, and is said to lead to a deeper level of consciousness; heterohypnotherapy is another term used to describe therapy under guidance, where suggestions or instructions assist in altering behaviour patterns and in revealing previous experiences which may have a subconscious inhibiting effect.

Early demonstrations of hypnosis or biomagnetic therapy inspired preliminary discovery and analysis of the subconscious mind.