Hypnosis and philosophical aspects of mental conditions

We know that hypnosis represents a state of altered consciousness that is initiated by a therapist (a hypnotist) and that it is a form of narrowed consciousness that is directed by the suggestions of the person who commences the method. This consciousness is triggered by the idea of the hypnotist and it reacts on the impulses from the immediate surroundings very slightly or it does not react at all. I do not intend to analyze the medical importance of hypnosis. I will first concentrate on the vast possibilities of an interdisciplinary approach that takes for its starting point the philosophical aspects. Within the philosophy of the spirit, exist two points of view that offer opposing explanations of mental conditions, i.e. of consciousness itself. The first one is mentalism, and the second one is physicalism. Mentalistic conception interprets consciousness with psychic, mental terms, emphasizing mental attributes as the basis of interpretation. Consciousness in itself has an elusive meaning and is hard to the define, as it is the case with most general and wide concepts, however the foundation of mentalistic approach to this problem is that the human being is characterized by the freedom of will, on the grounds of which he makes decisions and determines the courses of its own actions. Philosopher Davidson believes that a mental occurrence is any occurrence that operates in logical rather than physical realm. Actually, according to him, the condition for a description of any situation is in an adequate logical explanation of the event that has the importance of a system or totality. (Nisam razumeo recenicu na srpskom, pa je i prevod takav) If we would perceive belief as only connected to an individual person, we would be wrong, because even that individual belief is only understandable in relation to other beliefs. The difficulty that characterizes the essence of mentalistic comprehension of the term mental state (consciousness) is the absence of an empirical proof (for instance, that someones intention is such and such). In addition, the conception that human personality is characterized by a high level of autonomy (having the daily option to evaluate and act) seems maximalistic. Physicalism, on the other hand, looks at everything that exists through its physical attributes and interaction between these attributes. In contrast to mentalism, it allows science to set proudly forward with its neurophysiologic explications of the consciousness. Its main tool is the empirical experiment. In other words, consciousness could be explained by a chemical process that takes place in the brain and by the structure of that process. Indeed, influences of drugs, electroshocks and physical traumas to the head undoubtedly provoke changes in human consciousness. This fact is supported also by the large number of neurosurgical and neurophysiologic results in the research of the capabilities of the brains left and right hemisphere. So in brief, the nervous system with its functions becomes the cause of human mental state. However, the human spirit is an endless secret, and the attempt to explain it on purely physical grounds cannot end successfully. Somewhat justified optimism of physicalism finds a serious obstacle in its failure to interpret the feeling of pain which is an experience immanent to men. (Narednu recenicu nisam u stanju da prevedem) In the course of conducting the process of hypnosis, hypnotist (therapist) faces the multiplicity of personalities of hospitalized subjects. The point is that application of hypnosis on hysterical persons creates a fertile

ground that can show multiple lives inside one individual. Induced by the energy of an idea, they reveal their own thoughts, wishes, desires and beliefs that are stored deeply in their subconsciousness, as a result of different forms of traumas or divers perceptions of reality. On the other hand, the method of medical hypnosis is applied also on healthy individuals. The unconscious area of their psyche can also give us an insight into different impressions of ones personality through the altered states of consciousness. In the state of hypnotic trance incentives, inclinations and objectives appear, that are unknown to the real consciousness. Because of that, it is natural to ask oneself whether this is the case of multiple personalities - a mental dysfunction. If that is so, how can that be explained? One of the well-known conceptions of personal identity is that of S.E. Braude. It is a dual concept, and the first part defines identity as the connection of the body and the personality itself (in time and in space). Secondly, it illustrates that the human being is a moral being, regardless of the physical component and ,,that allows the possibility that one body can contain more than one person (M. Govedarica, Filozofska analiza iracionalnosti: izmenjena stanja svesti i slabost volje, Mali Nemo, Panevo, 2006., p.60). His oppinion is that the term incomplete person is to sever for describing someone who shows different sides of himself. Therefore, it is necessary to accept man's personality with the rich and diverse totality of its I. (?) Braude gives us an advice on how to avoid familiar patterns which denotate multiplicating personalities as a mental disorder. His insight begins with the assumption of some sceptics that hypnosis opens the door for multiplicating personalities. Janet also had noted how hypnosis can sharpen and solidify an alternate personality, but in the continuation he offers a different prospect: Several social psychologists have taken slightly different approach. They charge that patients in therapy may simple be encouraged to act as if they had multiple personalities (S. E. Braude, First Person Plural: Multiple Personality and the Philosophy of Mind, Lahnham, 1995., str. 61). Whether hypnotised persons are encouraged to show multiple I or not, I think that it is exegerated to necessarily call something like that a serious disorder. Even if we accept something like that, we are obliged to offer a definition of that term. In the terminological system of philosophical psychopathology, but also the philosophy of the spirit, a mental disorder is not necessarily a serious, irreparable, dangerous, permanent or sick condition. On contrary, it is of transient nature. Citing the state of being in love, which is by nature a pleasent event (and at the same time a manifestation of a mental disorder), Govedarica says: In that sense we can consider mental disorder to be any irational mental state, under the assumption that there is at least a minimum of rationality present, that leaves the opportunity for its overcomming. Aiming to clarify, I believe that this definition does not opose this term to the term rational. Furthermore, from the standpoint of philosophical psychopathology, irationality is a faithfull shadow of rationality. In effect irationality, as a model for interpretations, serves to rational comprehention. This context of mental disorder has its support in Davidson's concept of mental partition. It is necessary to mention that we should diferentiate mental partition (diferent segments of the psyche) and possible divison inside a person. As Freude identified parts of the psyche as: Id, Ego and Superego (?), Davidson introduced his thesis about the mental structure. In his opinion psychic is composed of certain number of substructures which possess their own thoughts, desires, hopes etc. These substructures are characterized by a high degree of inner organization.

Nevertheless, if we talk about conections and coordination between these subsystems we are bound to encounter the absence of harmony. This is manifested by different records of the same event in, for example, subsystems A1 and A2. It is possible that A1 has a feeling of guilt for something that happened, and A2 does not have it. You can be certain that this is not contradictory. It is acctualy possible that in one part of the psychical system there are enough evidences that can support the first statement, and in the other part there are no proofs and the same statement seems false. After a while A2 can also come to believe the accuracy of the statement, just as A1. However, this only happens because of the fear that is transmitted from sustructure A1 to substructure A2. Fear is not the actual reason why A2 starts to believe, but it has a negativ motivational effect on it. Davidson diferentiates mental system and mental subsystem (analog to Freud's conscious and subconscious). According to Davidson they both have consciousness. Their discrapency and unfunctionality is caused by obstacles in the form of diverse beliefs. This idea of unconnected consciousnesses inside a single system (that functiones rationaly) implies an unusual conception of irationality. Disharmony is not caused by errors, but by some kind of confrontation between beliefs and fears, opinions and emotions. Thereby, a wider concept of irationality (interpreted rationaly) confirms the inadequacy of the standard definition of mental disorder. Having that in mind, we can see that hypnosis does not have to be a method that relates only to the pathology of multiple personalities. Its movement through the deapths of human being can lead to great discoveries. A discovery that a single man is rich with diversities, or perhapes that his rationality and health are conditioned by momentary disruptions, with the presence of irational. This can be paraleled to an actor who has as many aspects and faces as is neccesary for him to fullfil his acting task. I have to say that this a case of concentrating on the destiny of the person which is being played, and it is very similar to selfhypnosis. The theory of acting emphasizes the presence of rational and irational part of actor's personality, and if acting was indeed a disorder (a sickness) every actor could be labeled with some diagnosis. Rational and irational could be illustrated by a medalion that has a frontal, visible side, but also a back side, which is hidden from eyesight. We find another example in the thoughts of german philosopher H.G. Gadamer. According to him the foundation for any apprehension lays in prejudices (german: Vorurteil). Prejudices don't have an exclusively negativ conotation. Their positive value lays in the fact that although the mind does not accept them at first, it can verify them later. Their main importance is that they are a prerequisite for something truer. (Narednu recenicu nisam u stanju da prevedem) For example, when reading a text by a certain author, we must always develop new preconceptions that will lead us to a reasonable conclusion. Hermeneutically trained mind must be susceptible to the diversity of the text from the start This includes a limited acceptance of personal preconceptions and prejudices. It is necessary to be aware of your own partiality. (H. G. Gadamer, Istina i metoda, osnovi filozofske hermeneutike, IP Veselin Maslea, Sarajevo 1978., str. 302.) If the persone who is reading this text is impatien and demands another illustration of the nature of prejudices, I will give one more example. Let us imagine that we are on ill terms with a close relative of ours. This situation exists, say, for years. In the meantime, he finds out that his daughter, who he thought dead, is acctualy alive. He is very happy, and relatives come to visit him and share this moment with him. We, on the other hand, have a dilema whether to visit him or not. Reason is stoping us from going, but emotions motivate us to do it. Finaly, we decide

to go. Welcomed with embraces, we see that we haven't made a mistake. Thus, the rationality that at the beginning did not accept preconceptions (which are irational), at the end has to acknowledge them. Let us now look at the role of suggestion in hypnosis. My oppinion is that suggestion represents the essence of hypnotic energy that leads to the state of trance. We could say that it is conditio sine qua non of every hypnosis. Suggestion, whether we are talking about autosuggestion or suggestion by another person, is nothing else and that was discovered by Pavlov - but conditionality. (P. oar, Hipnoza i sugestija, Novo delo, Beograd 1987., str. 68) He also emphasizes that hysterics are more liable for suggestion, which is accounted by the physiology of the brain. Hysteric is a person whose brain is predesposed to inhibition, because his consciousness is weakened (P. oar, Hipnoza i sugestija, Novo delo, Beograd 1987.) Again we encounter the physicalist standpoint that explains the narrowed consciousness and the supremacy of suggestion with physical processes. On the other hand, autosuggestion is associated with imagination and faith. Here we find a mentalistic interpretation of the human spirit. One of the most famous examples of physical and emotional meditation is described in Plato's Feast. (?) On the way to Agaton's house, Socrates contemplates a problem and is left there standing for 24 hours. Self-control, in which the power of suggestive mind can produce a state of deep trance was not uncommon to other famous thinkers. In ancient Greece this was described with a word enkrateia. Hermes, an egiptian philosopher, was brought to a state of trance by the fusion of individual imaginative power and concentraton of his mind towards that what we call archetyps (?) (ideas). With his mind awake, and his body asleep, he experienced an encounter with the cosmic soul, with God himself. This someone is revealed to be God, in the form of Cosmic Nous My silence became pregnant with the Supreme God (Copyright Donald Robertson, On Socrates and Self-Hypnosis, 2003., www.ukhypnosis.com). James Brady informs us that Horatio described the way god Bachus fell into a dreamlike trance. He also believes that the altered state of consciousness was common among some greek sculptors. Aiming to achieve a true likeness to the form of human body, they led themselves to a state very similar to hypnosis. After all of this is said, we are led to the conclusion that no physical shape of things, of the brain or of the world can serve to truely explain the functioning of human spirit, even when they are based on verified results of scientific experiments. The domain of personal, mystical experience is unexplainable to the scientific eye, although Prima Faciae is within the grasp of the one who is experiencing the event (the only relevant epistimological source). (Nisam razumeo recenicu na srpskom, pa je i prevod takav) Failing in its quest for universal knowledge, faced with the fact that some secrets are guarded by the most loyal soldiers, physicalism had no other choice but to make a compromising encounter with mentalism in order to compensate for the other side of knowledge. The old formula Tertium Non Datur, did not relate to the creation of a new theory that tried to offer a more complete model of explications for the states of consciousness. That was the theory of psycho-physical identity. It contained some sort of reduction of physicalism and the possibility of eliminating mentalistic terms that were allegedly ontologicly neutral. Both mental and physical were equaly valued as causes for conscious states. In time, strong contra-arguements and objections to this theory

appeared. According to Grahek, psycho-physical identity is mentaly induced, intrisic own quality. (WHAT THE FUCK?) (M. Govedarica, Filozofska analiza iracionalnosti: izmenjena stanja svesti i slabost volje, Mali Nemo, Panevo, 2006. str. 34) Consequently, auto-suggestion also escaped being appropriated by physicalists. I also noted the behavior of consciousness during hypnosis. What is acctualy consciousness? It represents a directions of thoughts towards a certain object, perceptition of your own I and a specific articulation of ideas. We say this when we speak of the consciousness of our everyday reality, consciousness in the state of awakeness. Opposite that we have altered states of consciousness, for example in the process of hypnosis. Pijzeger (?) wrote of the incredible reports about hypnotized patients. Different sides of their personality showed such placidity in behaviour and willingness for emotional experiences, as well as acceptance of the imaginative approach to life. Reposing consciousness, following the instructions of the hypnotist, seems to awake the obundance of all that is missing to the alert consciousness. Aside of frightening scenes, which are characteristic for histerics, methods of hypnosis have exposed the realm of awakeness. I will call this phenomenon the paradox of alert consciousness. Covered with a veil of information, in constant race for accomplishments, hiding away from the deepest parts of its nature, the consciousness of our reality is in some way asleep. Hypnotic trance, on the other hand, sheds light on the area of unconsciousness. In it, the limitations and problems, that were thrown away by the alert consciousness as a burden, start to speak. New prospects of personality become clarified, like with the Greeks, for whom Robison said, they were writing pages of a new discipline, the philosophy of hypnosis. (?)

An attempt of moral justification of hypnosis with Bergson concept of empathy (compassion) and the dialectics of hypnotic method
It is not neccesary to speak too much about a special moral justification of the hypnosis as a means of therapy. Medical ethics assumes that the hypnotist, as the person who conducts the method, takes upon himself the appropriate resposability. Hypnotized person should be free of any obligations and violence. Sexual abuse and incitement to crime are disabled in the process of hypnosis if they are contrary with the moral principles of the persons involved. Thus, during the hypnotic sleep one part of vigilance is sustained in order to satisfy the moral purposes. And the purpose is the man himself. Here we can apply, to a certain extent, Bergson's concept of plurality to the ethical dimensions of the problem. Bergson advocates the belief that the plurality of apperances is an immediat data (?) of the consciousness. Duration is understud as being directly of the consciousness. This is the space for creating the experiance of freedom. Bergson differentiates quantity and quality of multiplicity. Quantitativ multiplication can be understood on the example of counting sheep, if the heard is

considered to be homogeneous. Qualitativ multiplication is related to the fact that every sheep is exempt from being positioned in a succession of others. This multiplication characterizes heterogenousness. Heterogenousness does not imply successiv order of things, because duration itself does not incorporate mechanic causality. Empathy is a moral feeling, but also meaning (denotation ?), according to Bergson. We all have the need for this feeling. Entering a certain state of complicity with the pain and suffering of another man, we first feel some sort of fear and than selfhumiliation. Afterwards, empathy produces superiority and dissociation from the suffering itself. Bergson deduces from this relationship: permeation, heterogenousness and the absence of negation. Negation does not exist in duration, because if it did, it would than had to be understud as a denial of everything that preceded it in the succession of things. Very consciousness does not contain two identical moments. Memory preserves the past that has approached the present. Preservation is the preservation of difference, not the similarity. Implementation of empathy is present in the hypnotic process in a certain form. Inside the revived memories, in the place of the accomplice we find the hypnotist. However, the character of the hypnotist is not completely involved in the process of conscious experiencing by the hypnotised person. Basing the induceed state of the patient on suggestion, the hypnotist is in a position to control the procedure with his consciousness by giving instructions. Hence, he is able to create a distance towards what he is examening. The other part of his personality is emerged in what he sets as a goal for himself exploration of the state of mind. It is as if the hypnotist and the hypnotized person are merged into one being, one electrical circuit. This is relatable also to Gadamer's idea of merging horizons (understanding the nature of other). Bergson's idea of perservation of difference is in duration, like a dialectic game in the act of hypnosis.