Contemporary psychoanalysis and hypnosis

Abstract

The relationship between psychoanalysis and hypnosis is presented in three parts: past, present, and future. First, the parallel developments in psychoanalysis and hypnosis over the past 100 years are summarized. Four major theoretical evolutions in psychoanalysis (drive theory, ego psychology, object relations theory, and self psychology) are described, with their corresponding influences on the practice of psychoanalytically informed hypnosis. Second, four contemporary movements in psychoanalysis are enumerated (postmodernism, spontaneity, pluralism, and integrationism), with commentary on these movements' likely impact on the current and future practice of hypnosis. Finally, the impact of shrinking mental health dollars on the practice of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytically informed treatments is presented. Hypnosis is offered as uniquely positioned, with its history of multitheoretically informed brief interventions, grounded in research and clinical practice, to provide psychoanalysis with a life raft into the next 100 years of practice.