Affect and hypnosis: on paying friendly attention to disturbing thoughts

The real mystery about hypnosis is the simplicity of induction and the ease with which a willing participant will accept and work within the trance state. Something so natural must involve neural systems that make trance a normal phenomenon. Presented is the language for emotion developed by Silvan Tomkins between 1960 and his death in 1991, brought into contemporary science by the author. Tomkins focused on the facial displays of affect, programmed reactions to specific patterns of stimulation. Each of these 9 innate mechanisms initiates a reaction pattern people experience as an emotion that brings its trigger into conscious awareness. How people think about or understand anything is controlled by the affect with which it has become linked. Cognitions locked to unpleasant emotions can become disturbingly resistant to change until trance work alters the affective environment of the participant.

Int J Clin Exp Hypn. 2009 Oct;57(4):319-42.Nathanson DL. Silvan S. Tomkins Institute and Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania19103-6224, USA. nathanson@tomkins.org