In the Intersubjective Space: Hypnosis Through a Neuropsychological Lens.

This article explores five interwoven principles about relationship that impact on attentional focus as it relates to the practice of clinical hypnosis. It first reviews how relationship is an irreducible feature of life that greatly predates the arrival of human beings. Second, it describes brain structures that, from an evolutionary perspective, appeared relatively recently, and the neuropsychological abilities those structures confer on human relationships. Third, it links those social brain structures to trance, an inborn response to novelty that is an important feature of our adaptive learning capacity. It further suggests that narrative is a multilevel concept that is deeply embodied and constitutes the sorbate from which hypnotic interactions can draw their rich impact. Finally, the article posits that hypnosis represents a skill set through which attuned clinicians engage in co-creative dances with clients, where the choreography of their interaction attends and responds to spontaneously arising and/or deliberately seeded opportunities for adaptive change. Reconstructed descriptions of interactions with clients are provided to illustrate the application of the principles presented.