Throughout medical history, suggestion is the oldest and most common method of relieving human distress and treating physical disease. One of the oldest Egyptian documents, the Ebers Papyrus (1552 BC) states, "Lay your hands upon him to quiet the pain in the arms and say that the pain will disappear." The psychogenic and therapeutic potency of Native American trance dances are also well documented. In a North American tribe practicing ancient traditions, such dances were found to produce an altered feeling for time, loss of conscious control, drastic emotional outbreaks, illusions, hypersuggestibility, and a deep feeling of restored youthfulness (Jilek, 1982). These and other historical documents show the deep historical connection between somatic and mental processes. From the viewpoint of a neurologist or a psychiatrist, a combination of somatic illness, depressive syndromes, organic psychosyndromes, and multimorbidity is frequent in elderly patients (Kortus, 1992). Thus, integrated psychotherapy in geriatric rehabilitation is necessary and useful. Practical psychotherapeutic methods are discussed in this manuscript.

Autogenic Training↗

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Experimental basis for a neurophysiological understanding of hypnoid states.

We postulate the hypnoid state of the human organism to be a third possible state besides waking and sleeping. This state can be equally induced by heterohypnotic and by autohypnotic means, by various techniques for meditation, relaxation and psychotherapy as well. It forms a basal status of the organism with partial deprivation of external stimuli. Out of this deprivation derives the possibility of stronger concentration on special stimuli (such as hypnotic suggestions) which would hence be able to act stronger in this state than in the waking state. Thus, it is possible to change external stimuli within their subjective perception (probably by ways of a subcortical modulating effect derived from the hypnotic suggestion). However, within their bioelectric parameters the stimuli pass unchanged through the peripheral receptor up to the cortex, which is measurable. If somebody produces actions within the hypnoid state these actions will have the same neurophysiological correlate as in the waking state, which means desynchronization. This does not exclude such actions (by concentration in the hypnoid state) having a stronger effect than in the waking state and/or having a different subjective perception.

Adult↗

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Headache and depression.

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Age Factors↗