Hypnosis: New Tool in Nursing Practice

Unlock Your mind was really 'the missing link' for me. Since I read the book, sessions in my professional life as a hypnotherapist has become a lot easier. The metaphor about putting your feelings into prison as a child and giving them a second chance as an adult has helped my clients to understand their dispair and made suppressed feelings come alive to live a secure life. The persons change - and become free!

This is a book written by a general practioner who became so enchanted with the power of hypnotherapy that he changed his specialty to accommodate his newfound love for psychiatry. Dr Barnett makes a bold move at creating and following a novel metaphor through out the book. He states that the mind is analogous to the criminal system and that through no fault of our own that prisons are created within our mind. He feels that there are many medical illnesses that have their origins within the 4 prisons mind. First, phobias are unresolved conflicts that have triggers that the patient attributes to the phobia rather than the unresolved conflict. The trigger produces anxiety, which is a manifestation of a powerful fear that imprisons the mind. The second is repressed anger. He states that suppressed anger is like a sleeping volcano that can erupt in the form of a headache, peptic ulcer, back pain, hypertension or obesity. The third prison is pain and sadness, which he feels central to the genesis of all emotional illnesses. He makes a convincing argument for the earlier the rejection, the more devastating the effects because the client has fewer resources with which to deal with it. Asthma, depression, drugs and smoking are attributed to rejection. The final prison is that of guilt which is consistently a potent factor in the production of emotional illness. Impotence, frigidity, obesity, skin diseases and suicide many times have their origins rooted to guilt. Dr Barnet makes the argument that a crime is any act that endangers the peace of society. The analogy here is that a crime of guilty is often self-imposed on children who interfere with their parent's harmony. He makes the bold move to suggest that many of these self-imposed crimes are perpetrated in utero. His argument makes sense even though it flies in the face of western medicine. He states that at least on a subconscious level, the child hears and feels what his parents say or feel about him. The most convincing argument for this is that of gender conflict. It makes sense that a child would have conflict with their gender if their parents were disappointed that they did not get the sex that they desired. This suggestion that they are not desired at birth, places the child into a prison of guilt as the child grows. Prisons of guilt and fear can also develop from similar circumstances. The court of the mind is similar to other court systems. When an individual is accused of an emotional crime, his mind makes a decision that is binding and will determine that individual's future. This courtroom analogy goes further when delving into psychiatric evidence that we all operate from more than one ego state. To fully understand the complex metaphor the ego states must be reviewed. The three states of the mind are the child, the parent, and the adult. The child is the first state and is the feelings part of our being that provides drive and energy. The child ego says: "I l

In a world often fraught with depression and emotional prisons...Dr. Edgar A. Barnett gives us this enlightened book to show us step by step the way that we can turn the key and free ourselves through the use of analytical hypnotherapy. The chapter on self hypnosis has taught me great relaxation skills. I have been a fan of this book for over 15 years and find it as relative today as it was when it was first published. This newest version comes with a wonderful new cover design and clean crisp text. Wonderfully written to be easily understood by both the student of hypnosis and the average reader. Well worth the asking price.