Archives of General Psychiatry · 1961 · 225 citations · 0 references
EducationSocial SciencesPsychologyPsychoanalytic TheoryIrrationalityPsychophysiologyLearning PsychologyPsychoanalytic TheoristPsychoanalytic PsychotherapyHistory Of PsychologyPsychiatryPsychodynamicHypnosisGreat ServiceCompulsive BehaviorRelated StatesSystems Of PsychologyPsychopathologyPhilosophy Of MindPhilosophical Psychology
Gill and Brenman’s 1947 comprehensive review of hypnosis literature serves as a foundational resource for advanced readers familiar with hypnotic techniques and psychoanalytic theory. The authors aim to distill their decades of work and insights into a concise synthesis for this audience. The resulting distillation is criticized for diverting focus from hypnosis phenomena to defending ego psychology, thereby compromising its scientific neutrality.
Gill and Brenman offered a great service to students of hypnosis in 1947 when they published their comprehensive review of the literature (<i>Hypnotherapy</i>, International Universities Press, Inc.). Now they extend this service by offering a distillate of their work and thinking over the years. This is not a handbook for the novice, nor is it a guide for learning techniques. It assumes that the reader has some degree of sophistication with hypnotic techniques and some knowledge of psychoanalytic theory. This leads directly to its major weakness. Instead of maintaining the central focus on the phenomena of hypnosis and its appropriate place in the field of the science of human behavior, it puts empirical data about hypnosis into the service of defending the ego psychology of Kris, Hartmann, et al. and at the same time, pays homage to these pioneers for enabling the psychoanalytic theorist to transcend