Hypnosis for Resilience

Abstract

The topic of resilience is of paramount importance. Although the term resilience was coined in the fields of physics and engineering, its use has spread to the fields of social sciences, biology, psychology, and psychiatry, as well as to the industry. Moreover, the term is now endowed with a wide range of meanings. The topic of resilience plays a central role in all critical life events. It is of paramount importance in medicine as well as in psychology and psychotherapy, where it is involved in both psychiatric disorders and physical diseases, particularly when encountering the specter of chronic pain, suffering, disability, and death. The available data indicate the relevance and effectiveness of hypnosis for resilience in numerous clinical conditions, and propose hypnosis as a candidate for a central role in palliative care. Furthermore, resilience is endowed with deep philosophical implications that are not to be neglected during patient management. Indeed, suffering, including the perception of one’s doom as well as the real mystery of life and death, relies closely on philosophical, cultural, and ethnic factors. Eastern, as well as pre-Socratic philosophers, based their philosophies on an epistemologically sound, non-dualistic paradigm; they profoundly explored the inner–outer world relationship, allowing for so radical a resilience that has no equal in the modern Western culture. Therefore, these philosophies should be re-appraised and properly understood from a metaphilosophical perspective, in order to utilize their wisdom and knowledge in an efficient manner. A few examples of Eastern philosophical concepts drawn from Taoism, Yoga, and Buddhism, as well as those from Heraclitus and Parmenides, which would be potentially useful in patient care, are provided in the present article.