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This issue of the Menninger Bulletin is an attempt to evaluate various aspects of hypnosis as a form of psychotherapy. Specific projects by the Research Committee of the Menninger Foundation are under way with a view to learning more about the deeper dynamics of hypnosis. This issue represents a preliminary report.
This paper describes a case of anxiety hysteria which was treated by hypnosis. There are four highly significant points: (1) The special ability of hypnosis to overcome simple repression. (2) The possibility of handling transference in the hypnotic situation. (3) The temporary suspension and working out of resistances in hypnosis. (4) The speculation that repressed material can be reintegrated into the ego through hypnosis.
Kubie points out that through the induction of states of hypnagogic reverie, significant information about the patient can be made readily and directly accessible without depending upon the interpretations which are requisite in the translation of dreams or other distorted derivatives. The author is very restrained in estimating how widely applicable the hypnagogic reverie may be as a therapeutic technique. He does state that in a number of patients in whom prolonged analysis had not succeeded in penetrating the roots of a neurosis, the addition of this technique has proven invaluable. A case is presented of a patient who had had a year and a half of analysis with little result. Two years later, for a period of two weeks, he was treated with five prolonged periods of induced hypnagogic reverie as well as several orthodox psychoanalytic hours. This type of treatment produced infinitely more positive