I can't imagine I would have given hypnotheraphy (let alone the more generic concept of hypnosis) much consideration anytime soon if I hadn't learned the author had written a book, based on her expertise, on the subject.

Having a background in philosophy, I was mostly familiar with Freud and more recent leaders in psychoanalysis, as far as modern takes on psychology were concerned (outside of cognitive science and neurology). It was great to get to read about other important thought leaders in psychology, as the book does include several mentions of the origins of hypnotherapy and its advocates.

Also being more of an intuitionist than a pure rationalist myself, the idea that the unconscious holds greater sway than the language that founds itself on it -- that is, that the world really isn't one of a constructivist sort qua language, as some more postmodern psychoanalysts and hermeneuticists might have it -- is very refreshing to hear.

The majority of the book takes on (1) building a case for hypnosis as a natural phenomenon we're all familiar with, whether we're aware of it or not; (2) establishing hypnotherapy as a viable alternative to other more regular psychotherapeutic and (in certain cases) even medical procedures where psychosomatic ailments may be at play -- and otherwise at least complementary to these; and (3) debunking the stigmatic imagery around both hypnosis and hypnotherapy as magicians tricks or snake oil quackery, as both popular media and other psychological professions have been apt to treat them.

In addition to these, the book goes into the phenomena of blocks, hemispheric asymmetry in the brain, and the nature of the unconscious, among other fascinating things to read about and ponder over.

One thing that I would have liked to learn more about, stemming from a question that sort of hung out in the back of my mind throughout the book, and unfortunately without full resolution: in the chapter titled "Hypnotherapy," Dr. Rosner mentions the abuse of the power of suggestion by a number of psychotherapists in coaxing clients into believing in the existence of a traumatic event in their lives when none was hinted at or likely existed. (This series of incidents was something I recall hearing some public decry around several years back.)

While the author addresses this and reassures readers that hypnotherapists don't lead clients in this way in their profession (i.e. "Because we [hypnotherapists and coaches] don't have a treatment plan for the client, we don't have an agenda that can influence the session." [85, paperback]), I still felt curious what measures hypnotherapists might take to avoid or minimize the chances of confirming false memories generated by the client him-/herself, particularly harmful ones that can depreciate the experience of the client with other people or events whom such a false memory might involve. While, according to the author, the client has the option of not disclosing certain details of their thoughts and still getting treated -- and well, it seems -- I wonder how the author and other hypnotherapists work to prevent similar memory implanting tendencies or (in the weaker case) leading suggestions in the case that the client shares more sensitive (albeit potentially false) details of their more private memories.

Having said that, I felt Dr. Rosner rightly touches on this problem as "a valid concern about hypnotherapy [regarding] the accuracy of a client's memories" (84). Her claim that the details of memories (of whatever sort) aren't necessarily important to divulge in order to benefit from treatment is reassuring -- perhaps even fortifying the viability of hypnotherapy over other psychotherapeutic treatments that may indeed require clients to vulnerably divulge details of memories they aren't certain about and compromise their psychological health through regression-directed techniques (which we're reminded as well isn't what [good] hypnotherapists use).

Overall, this book opened up a branch of psychology for me that I'd have otherwise likely remained ignorant of for decades to come. I'm quite happy to now feel more familiar with it and more open to learning more about it.

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Rating	4.7 (266 ratings)
Price	$16.99
Category	Alternative Medicine

Reconstructing Reality: Outsmarting the Brain to Rewrite Our Life Stories