Hypnosis, De-sign & Paradoxes

This chapter explores paradoxes in hypnotic experience, emphasizing that, by its own characteristics, trance is a paradoxical experience, being multiple and unified. In this sense, De-sign is a form to lead people to persevere through paradoxes, in order to help them to a teleological process. The chapter approaches the relationships between hypnosis and De-sign through two main axes. On the one hand, the polarity of sanity vs madness highlights how cultural technologies can sometimes propose significant alternatives for it. The case of the Hindu Guru Ramakrishna, who was considered mad for many years, and Erickson’s schizophrenic patient will illustrate this axe. On the other hand, the chapter discusses the polarity of determinism vs. freedom or sleepwalking vs. being awake, mainly considering the affirmations in which hypnosis doesn’t respect individual freedom. This axe is illustrated by a case study of a woman who apparently needed to be commanded in order to develop her hypnotherapeutic process. This case study emphasizes that the use of amnesia can also be a form to promote individual choices during the therapeutic process.