Autoscopy (hypnosis) in psychiatry

• Autor(a) principal: Nogueira, João Jorge Cabral
• Data de Publicação: 2013
• Outros Autores: Cortez, Célia Martins
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Debates em Psiquiatria (Online)
• DOI: 10.25118/2236-918X-6-3-2
• Texto Completo: https://revistardp.org.br/revista/article/view/130
• topic: Hipnose; autoscopia; psiquiatria; Hypnosis; autoscopy; psychiatry

This paper presents a discussion based on data found in the literature that can contribute to improve the understanding of the mechanisms involved in therapeutic responses arising from the use of autoscopy in hypnotherapy for the treatment of diseases or physical symptoms. Autoscopy is a hypnosis technique that relies on internal visualization of one’s body to find the cause of and cure for a symptom or disease. A systematic review was conducted in the MEDLINE, SciELO, andLILACS databases, and 63 journal articles and books were selected. The mechanisms behind autoscopic phenomena are still not fully understood. The most convincing hypothesis is failure in multisensory signal integration at the temporoparietal junction, resulting in dissociation of the spatial unity between body and self. The autoscopic phenomenon is far from being exclusively an intrapsychic hallucinatory experience, as it is especially common in dreams and other physiological conditions. The observation that it is possible to establish a dissociative state through hypnosis a state that undoubtedly facilitates the evocation of memory and the emotional modulation of its content is a proof of the therapeutic potential of hypnotherapy, especially when associated with a powerful tool such as autoscopy.