Title: Helping Yourself with Self-Hypnosis
Author:
Frank S. Caprio
Memorial tribute to Dr. Caprio: http://www.durbinhypnosis.com/caprio.htm
Date:
1963
Publisher:
Prentice-Hall
ISBN:
none
Length:
192 pages + 8 pages endnotes and 6 pages index
Quote:
“We have…attempted merely to point out the importance of correct thinking, how
the mind influences the way we feel…since all hypnosis is self-hypnosis, the
average person can be taught the techniques of self-hypnosis to increase his
confidence, his zest for living.”
Yes, the
average person to whom this book was addressed was a “he.” So was his doctor.
From time to time the author mentions a female, but it was a different era; the
female reader was supposed to identify with the “average” reader as “he.”
That’s how quaint this book is.
If you’ve
read more recent books about stress management, weight control, meditation,
visualization, or “self-help,” Helping
Yourself with Self-Hypnosis will seem very basic, like reviewing phonics at
school when you were already reading whole words. There is nevertheless some
benefit in going back to the basics.
Dr.
Caprio and writing assistant Joseph Berger were writing for an audience of
people who thought “hypnosis” was something mysterious that only Professional
Psychiatrists (and Professional Charlatans) could do, even something
occult, satanic, a way to gain “mind control” over people that could force them
to do all kinds of things. They had to spend some time explaining that in the
light-trance state people enter during self-hypnosis, they are conscious, able
to revert to an ordinary state of consciousness if necessary, and able to
decide what they will and won’t tell themselves to do.
As Scott
Adams frequently reminds Dilbert Blog readers, a trained hypnotist can
persuade people to do a lot of things, but not without their consent. If the
hypnotists of the early twentieth century were ever able to suggest that
someone in a trance state should give the hypnotist all the money in his or her
bank account, they did that, just as salesmen and scammers do today, by
convincing the person that giving the money to the hypnotist would be
profitable, or at least fun. More sinister “brainwashing” techniques are achieved by other forms of persuasion, such as violence, threats, and blackmail. Caprio discusses how to use logic, observation, relaxation, meditation, and
rewards to convince yourself that you want to stay sober more than you want to
get drunk.
In
self-hypnosis, the most conscious part of your mind wants to persuade the less
conscious parts of your mind to cooperate in achieving certain goals. Suppose
you want to lose weight; you also have formed a habit of eating high-calorie
food when you feel stressed, and you’re also in a long-term relationship that
is currently quite stressful. Caprio offers a nine-step program, beginning with
“Devote the initial session of self-hypnosis to making a definite decision about your weight-problem.” Next, persuade
yourself to get a complete physical checkup and follow your physician’s
orders—engaging both the most conscious and logical part of your mind, and the
unconscious, biochemical “body-mind” in your brain. “Tell yourself all the
reasons why you should reduce.” “Repeat to yourself…reasons why you would like
to reduce.” Analyze your eating habits, when and why you overeat. List the
foods you should and shouldn’t eat and the number of calories you need every
day. “Decide in advance what you are going to eat. Weigh yourself daily…Keep a
weekly progress record…Reward yourself…by buying…a new suit in a smaller size.
Take pride in your appearance.” Finally, “Repeat daily that you an and will
maintain your ideal weight, that you have now developed new eating habits,
sensible ones.”
Caprio
discusses this process in detail, and then goes into similar depth in
discussing how to use self-hypnosis to stop smoking, to stop drinking, to enjoy
the act of marriage more (if married), to be more attractive in social
situations (if single), overcome fear of oral examinations, alleviate menstrual
cramps, break the habit of worrying, and so on.
People
who publicized hypnosis as a method of entertainment relied on the fact that a
lot of people would like to be singers, dancers, clowns, etc., but didn’t think
their skills were good enough for public display. Lack of understanding of how
hypnosis works made it easy to pick one of these people out of a crowd and
persuade him or her to do something entertaining. Many young people who have
prepared to pass tests, make speeches, or whatever, but suffer from
“performance anxiety,” can still benefit from using self-hypnosis to program
themselves to act braver than they feel.
Caprio also
discusses ways people can use self-hypnosis to adapt to social mores that many
people now prefer to discard. “My husband needs to have his ego inflated…As a
wife, I am responsible for a neat orderly home for my husband.” (Why not, “As a
husband, I am responsible for a neat orderly home for my wife”?) “Persons who
are popular are usually extroverts.” (This is a few pages after the observation
that people can use self-hypnosis to become better listeners, but still…do
people really like extroverts?) “Old age
is conceived in the mind…I am going to remain young.” (Why not, “Old age is often confused with ill
health, which is possible and
undesirable at any age. I am going to maintain good enough health to enjoy the
age I really am”?)
Well…if Helping Yourself with Self-Hypnosis were
a human it would be approaching retirement age by now. It’s a period piece. If
you need a lot of detailed examples of how to use self-hypnosis to stick to an
exercise plan, keep a New Year’s resolution, or something else you want to
motivate your whole self to accomplish now, this book can still help you. If
you just want to remind yourself that the world in which your parents or
grandparents grew up was not better than yours in every possible way, this book
can help you with that, too.
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