Hypnosis in the Realm of De-Sign

This book presents a new theoretical framework for the study of hypnosis based on an innovative epistemological approach called De-sign. This approach transcends the opposition subjectivity-objectivity and presents itself as a metaknowledge that integrates design and semiotics and proposes a phenomenological method of inquiry that helps overcome some of the traditional challenges to create theoretical models to explain hypnosis.

Both hypnosis and De-sign are critical practices against absolute notions of reality, especially regarding time, space, and otherness. Both of them consider the importance of epistemological notions such as imagination, feelings, and desire, that modern science commonly marginalizes. Hypnosis and De-sign implicate people in partnership, being critical to a dominant notion of control. Thus, the book presents in-depth discussions on major themes of hypnosis, bringing clinical practice closer to the reflections brought by De-sign.

Hypnosis in the Realm of De-Sign shows how to integrate semiotic systems, pragmatism, and De-sign principles to analyze actual hypnotherapeutic experiences. As with every De-sign situation, each patient requires a unique therapeutic strategy and approach that is individually appropriate for them. The author thereby encourages therapists to become de-signers, working with — not for — their subjects to create a context within which their subjects can awaken their therapeutic potential. By doing so, patients can then bring into focus that which could be, rather than focusing on that which is.

Chapter 1: De-Sign and Hypnosis.- Chapter 2: Hypnosis and Reality: About that Which is Overlooked.- Chapter 3: Working With.- Chapter 4: Thinking and Doing: The Challenge of Effectiveness.- Chapter 5: Hypnosis, De-sign & Paradoxes.- Chapter 6: The Multiple Faces of Love.- Chapter 7: Hypnosis and Trance-Modernity.

Maurício Neubern, PhD, is an Associate Professor at the Institute of Psychology, University of Brasilia (UnB), Brazil. He coordinates the group Complexity, Hypnosis and Subjectivity (CHYS) linked to CNPq, a research agency of the Ministry of Science and Technology. His doctorate (2003, UnB) was on "Complexity and Clinical Psychology" and his first post-doctorate (2015-2016), at the Centre Edgar Morin, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Paris, France, was on the project "Complexity, Hypnosis and Chronic Pain", with the Professor Nicole Lapierre, PhD. His second post-doctoral research was the project “Hypnosis and De-sign” with Professor Farouk Seif, PhD, Antioch University, Seattle, Washington, USA. Prof Neubern integrates the Work Group of Ethnopsychology of the National Association of Research and Graduate Studies in Psychology (ANPEPP) and also is member of Semiotic Society of America (SSA). His research interests, always linked to hypnosis, are hypnotherapy, psychotherapy, complexity, semiotics, De-sign inquiry, epistemology, ethnopsychology, and spirituality. His researches are commonly derived from his work as a hypnotherapist and trainer of therapists (Teaching Competence Certificate, Milton Erickson Foundation, USA and Milton Erickson Institute of Belo Horizonte, Brazil, 2007). He also founded the Milton Erickson Institute of Brasília, Brazil (2005).