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Developmental psychologists (especially followers of Erik Erikson) and Jungian psycho-therapists, among others, have noted that mature/self-actualized people must balance seemingly contradictory traits in aspects of their lives. When people list too much to one extreme or the other, such as tending to express only passion or only objectivity, Ericksonian hypnotherapy can be used to enable individuals to achieve balance through two major processes, differentiation and integration. Both processes are analogous to developing 'response sets' (as they are called in Ego-State Therapy) that facilitate balance in these juxtaposed traits. Recent research into the creative/complex personality has isolated a specific set of ten dialectics that are consistent across creative/complex adults (Csikszentmihalyi, 1996). A review of some of Milton Erickson's case studies illustrates how one or more of the ten dialectics is the focal point for creating response sets that will right the individual's imbalance(s). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This report presents qualitative accounts from a pilot clinical study of six chronic stroke subjects. Our hypothesis was that a hypnotic procedure would help overcome learned nonuse, which is thought to contribute to impaired motor function of the paretic upper limb in chronic stroke patients. The hypnotic procedure involved selecting motor tasks that would challenge each subject, then (1) imagined practice of the challenging motor task revivified from prior to the stroke alternated with imagined practice in the present; (2) imagined practice in the present alternated with imagined practice during active-alert hypnosis; and (3) active-alert imagined practice alternated with actual physical performance. We observed qualitative improvements in motor function related to increased range of motion, increased grip strength, and reduced spasticity of the paretic upper limb. Subjects consistently reported an improved outlook, increased motivation, as well as greater awareness of and decreased effort to perform motor tasks with the paretic limb. Copyright © 2006 British Society of Experimental & Clinical Hypnosis. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]