Wikipedia
Hypnotherapy
Hypnotherapy is therapy that is undertaken with a subject in hypnosis.
The word "hypnosis" (from the Greek hypnos, "sleep") is an abbreviation of James Braids (1843) term "neuro-hypnotism", meaning "sleep of the nervous system".
A person who is hypnotized displays certain unusual characteristics and propensities, compared with a non-hypnotized subject, most notably hyper-suggestibility, which some authorities have considered a sine qua non of hypnosis. For example, Clark L. Hull, probably the first major empirical researcher in the field, wrote,
If a subject after submitting to the hypnotic procedure shows no genuine increase in susceptibility to any suggestions whatever, there seems no point in calling him hypnotised... C.L. Hull, Hypnosis & Suggestion, 1933: 392
Hypnotherapy is often applied in order to modify a subjects behavior, emotional content, and attitudes, as well as a wide range of conditions including dysfunctional habits, anxiety, stress-related illness, pain management, and personal development.
Definition
Hypnotism versus Mesmerism
Hypnosis is often confused with Mesmerism, its historical precursor. As Hans Eysenck writes,
The terms "mesmerise" and "hypnotise" have become quite synonymous, and most people think of Mesmer as the father of hypnosis, or at least as its discoverer and first conscious exponent. Oddly enough, the truth appears to be that while hypnotic phenomena had been known for many thousands of years, Mesmer did not, in fact, hypnotise his subjects at all. It is something of a mystery why popular belief should have firmly credited him with a discovery which in fact was made by others.(Eysenck, Sense & Nonsense in Psychology, 1957: 30-31)
Franz Anton Mesmer held that trance and healing were the result of the channelling of a mysterious "occult" force called "animal magnetism." In the mid-18th Century, this became the basis of a very large and popular school of thought termed "Mesme read more at » http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnotherapy