Hypnogenesis, Chronic Pain and Peircean Habit: Implications for Clinical Endeavors

Abstract

This study’s objective is to discuss hypnogenesis parting from one of Erickson’s chronic pain cases, analyzing hypnogenesis involvement in iatrogenesis and in the therapeutic interventions. Hypnogenesis is a concept for how clinical relationships tend to reproduce the ideas and theories of the therapist in the subject’s subjectivity. In hypnotherapy, hypnogenesis is implicated in the relational nature of the hypnotic experience, addressing the difficulty in separation between fabricated and revealed realities. A case of trigeminal neuralgia is analyzed and discussed to illustrate the implications of hypnogenesis in iatrogenesis and its therapeutic potential for chronic patients. The study draws a theoretical possibility on how hypnogenesis highlights iatrogenesis by the neglect of the subject’s needs in clinical consultations. Then, the study demonstrates how Erickson uses hypnogenesis in the patient’s therapy, favoring her well-being. To approach hypnogenic communicational processes, Charles Peirce’s concept of habit and is utilized as a complex system of subjective processes.