Matrixchick
08-16-2004, 06:18 PM
When someone is under hypnosis and remembering a traumatic event, are they going to experience the emotions associated with the event? For example, would they sound frightened or would they cry?
Merlin
08-16-2004, 07:40 PM
If they are remembering, probably no.
If they are associating into the memoery, probably yes.
Merlin is brief, but correct. Let me expand upon that a bit.
When remember past experiences, there are two ways to do it. The first is through your eyes, reliving the experience. Technically this is known as an "associated" memory in that you are associating yourself into the memory. If you have an associated memory, if you are reliving it, you will have emotional responses.
The other way to do this is not to see the event through your eyes, but to watch yourself experiencing the event. You separate yourself from the experience and observe rather than participate directly. This is called a "disociative" memory and you will not have emotional responses.
Hypnotherapists will train and study for some time to determine whether a client should have an associative or disociative experience for the best results.