Hypnosis in Academia

This book analyzes the growing presence of hypnosis in academic settings around the world and its implications for research, healthcare and education. The increasing volume of scientific research on hypnosis and its clinical applications to treat health conditions such as pain, anxiety, trauma and depression has renewed the interest for this kind of practice in different disciplines, such as medicine, psychology, dentistry and nursing. As a result of this growing interest, there is an increasing number of spaces occupied by hypnosis in universities of different countries compared to what occurred in recent decades. Nevertheless, what this means, at various levels, is still far from being deciphered, due to the absence of more detailed research and surveys involving a larger number of institutions, students, faculty and research groups.

This volume intends to shed a new light into the discussions about the growing presence of hypnosis in academia by bringing together contributions of practitioners and researchers working with hypnosis in academic settings in ten countries from different parts of the world: Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Cuba, France, Hungary, Israel, Portugal, Russia and Switzerland. The discussions presented in these contributions revolve around four axes of analysis: the historical trajectory of hypnosis within academic institutions; the epistemological nature of hypnosis and its relationships with other fields of knowledge; the importance of scientific research for the current development of hypnosis and its clinical applications; and how teaching and training in hypnosis is organized in universities today, with its ethical and legal implications in different cultural contexts.

Hypnosis in Academia: Contemporary Challenges in Research, Healthcare and Education will be a great resource for both researchers and practitioners working with hypnosis, and a valuable source of information for human and social scientists in general interested in understanding how a once discredited practice regained respect from the academic community and is now a growing topic of interest for scholars and clinicians all around the world.