Hypnosis and the Control of Pain

The specific applications of hypnosis in pain management will be different depending on the nature and history of the patient's pain. Acute pain is best managed by anxiety-reducing strategies often facilitated by hypnosis. Chronic pain has gradually become a weapon in the control of contingencies in the sufferer's interaction with the internal and external world. It requires strategies that deal with handling one's psychological environment effectively. In such cases the pain may have no clear organic basis, even though from the patient's viewpoint 'it hurts'. Several powerful hypnotic strategies -- relaxation, imagery, ideomotor action, dissociation, self-hypnosis -- are available to teach self-control and cognitive mastery.