You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
Pascal summarizes his experience with a psychotherapeutic technique applied to twelve neurotics in an army setting, briefly reviewing the course of psychotherapy with five of them. The two high lights of his technique were to encourage a feeling of participation, of 'democracy', in the therapeutic relationship, and to use a method of inducing relaxation in his patient. The spirit of participation was fostered by stressing the voluntarily coöperative aspect of receiving treatment and giving information to the therapist, the joint nature of decisions, and the therapist's reliance on the patient to help him track down etiological factors. The technique of inducing relaxation, similar to that of inducing hypnosis, is described. Once relaxed, the patient is helped by suggestive directions to relive critical emotional experiences and to recover repressed memories. 'Simple relaxation seems to be sufficiently far along on the hypnotic continuum to facilitate recall and to increase the suggestibility of the patient.' The technique is recommended as useful when relief from symptoms, based on partial insight, is as ambitious a therapeutic goal as circumstances (army setting) allow.