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Uses Of Hypnosis with Multiple Personality

by Bennett G. Braun, M.D.

page 5

Successful and lasting integrations have psycho-physiological components. Some patients report that stimuli are greater, things and colors seem sharper, color blindness is lost, allergies are lost or found, eyeglass prescriptions need changes, insulin requirements change drastically, etc. At first reading, there also appear to be neurophysical changes that go along with the psychophysiological ones.

The final integration which meets Kluft's criteria still represents only about the 70% mark of therapy. If the patient has not learned self-hypnosis before teaching it is valuable at this time. It can be used to learn new coping skills such as relaxation, assertiveness training, rehearsal in fantasy, etc. For protection from overstimulation, an adaptation of Allison's "egg shell" technique is very useful. One imagines a healing white light or energy entering the body (via the top of the head, unbilicus, etc.), filling it up, coming out through the pores and laying on the skin as a semipermeable membrane. This membrane is as moveable as the skin, but protects the patient from the "slings and arrows" of life like an armor.

It serves to damp down stimuli so they can be observed and registered without inundating the patient and causing blocking, denial, and additional dissociation. The patient needs to be assured and reminded that stimuli will be moderated so that they may be responded to appropriately, but nothing important will be missed.

Deep hypnotic trance can be used (like meditation) as a coping skill and healing process. This is equally true both before and after final integration. I first learned of this from M. Bowers, in October 1978. The patient is placed into, or goes into, a deep trance and continues to deepen it over an extended period of time. Usually, it is suggested that the mind will be blank until a prearranged signal is heard. This may be an alarm clock, a danger stimulus, or a cue from the therapist.Occasionally it is useful to suggest that the patient will work unconsciously on "X," or have a dream about "X."

SUMMARY

Patients with multiple personality disorder are, as a group, highly hypnotizable. No significant evidence has been published which causally links judicious heterohypnosis to either the creation of multiple personality disorder or the creation of new personalities, though the demand characteristics of the situation in which hypnosis is used may aid in the creation of a fragment. Hypnosis is a useful tool when used with multiple personality disorder, for diagnosis and both for pre- and post-integration therapy. The major limitations to its use are the skill and experience of the hypnotherapist.

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