Francois Roustang on Hypnosis - A book review

An Interesting Book Review first published in The Newsletter of the European Society of Hypnosis by Christine GUILLOUX, March 2008

Qu’est-ce que l’hypnose ? François Roustang Editions de Minuit, Paris, 1994, Re-Issued 2003,

ISBN 2-7073-1814-0

We quite often say that every writer is the author of only one book. Could we say that this book of François Roustang, entitled Qu'est-ce que l'hypnose, What is hypnosis? is his only book? This reissue, or new promotion, of this foundational book, this reference book, was first published in 1994 and seems to have been, unfortunately, neglected.

François Roustang (1923- ) has gone into the field of hypnosis after a deep experience with philosophy, theology and psychopathology, and a practice of psychoanalysis. He comes aside Léon Chertok and Milton H.Erickson and has developed a philosophical approach of hypnosis in relation to the teachings of the oriental school of wisdom. In order to clarify this mysterious thing and to understand to what it could be connected and linked, he has committed a number of books, among them La fin de la plainte, The Ending of Complaining (2000), Il suffit d'un geste, A Simple Gesture Is Enough (2003); Savoir attendre pour que la vie change, Learning How To Wait So That Life Changes (2006).

Qu'est-ce que l'hypnose? is not a manual, a guide to teach hypnosis. It questions us about our representations about hypnosis--- a fascinating phenomenon, a submissive state where we lose judgment and sensitivity--- and goes back to the basis of perception. He plays with the notions of general and restrictive waking, of paradoxical waking. Hypnosis is defined as a state of intense waking in which we can access the power of setting-up the world.

Five main sections or themes are the doors to the questioning: the precondition, the anticipation, the posture, the modification, and the action. The precondition section shows the different types of empowering resources we have: the ability to dream, the ability to set up the world, the ability to imagine. "In paradoxical sleep, we are submitted to dreams; in paradoxical waking, we introduce ourselves in them and we wait to see if they are to be continued or transformed.” (page 30). The section presents how the newborn evolves and matures in himself through dreams, being immersed in a society that already has its own rules, structures, stereotypes..., how the ability of dreaming moves to the ability of imagining when adult.

Roustang defines the "unconscious" as what is sleeping during our limited waking and invites us to pay attention/to open ourselves to what poets offers us on those paths on the other side of the frontier conscious/unconscious. Those three abilities are revealed through anticipation. The hypnotic induction goes through several steps that can be described as fixation, indetermination/ vagueness, possibility, and power.

The relationship between the therapist and the patient is quite strong and allows the patient to listen to his preoccupations, to be invaded by them and so, as Milton H.Erickson would say, "Every time you dissect something in details, you destroy it. You destroy its value." (page 68). This concept is also proposed by some Buddhists such as Walpola Rahula. He suggests observing from outside the sensation of sadness, of worries, of pain; he suggests observing as a scientist.

Then comes the indetermination/vagueness phase, where the patient is asked to hallucinate in analgesia or anesthesia. Roustang gives keys to understand those different levels of dissociation in which the therapist affords the patient the opportunity to make an internal representation of what he aims at, and to anticipate how to build possibilities, quite often through different angles and by trials and errors. What kind of posture is described here? The posture is described here as the internal position, the internal arrangement, the availability of the patient to move, to evolve in a different way, in a different attitude, in a different mood. This is all the art of the therapist: to "train" the patient in doing hypnosis, to listen to all those physical and subconscious physical signs, to listen to how the symptoms of the patient have appeared in his connection to the environment in which he lives.

This posture presents a wide opening of our five senses, for both the therapist and the patient, and gets into a world of freedom and harmony in relation to the whole world. In offering absurd tasks to his patients, Milton Erickson was going further than creating a state of confusion: he was willing the person to explore a new path, to discover his freedom and his power. The modification leads us to the levels of apprenticeship, the access to "a third level", the ability to imagine, the decision as a reduplication/ intensification, the decision as a reversal, the design/role of the therapist, from psychology to physics. This section helps us to understand how hypnotic induction can also be described as a "lack of anything to do", a non-worry, a nonconcern, a forgetting and an unlearning.

We give up a way to relate to the world for another one; we access, after confusion and emptiness, lightness, mobility, and strength that are somehow the conditions of change. Léon Chertok mentioned that "blank hypnosis" is often the more efficient way to help the patient. Roustang also illustrates a deep modification of life through a quotation of the example of Betty, who was suicidal and disappeared for the good, in fact, --- she called Ercikson sixteen years later---, after being hypnotised by Erickson (Peter Brown, The Hypnotic Brain, Hypnotherapy and Social Communication, p248) and shows how the therapist can be an active and very involved participant in the process.

The action section contains three angles: to live, to take shape, to let life live in us. What does hypnotherapy mean: answering to the patient that comes to us so he can be helped to modify his relation/connection to the world. Roustang explores here our fears of losing our control: control of thoughts, feelings, gestures in what he calls the paradoxical waking. In fact, this fear is the fear to live, to exist, to confront ourselves with new things, new experiences, novelties... We have to learn again to walk, how to be in our walking and get joy from it: "Learning again to walk with the attention that a child pays when he makes his first steps is not only a way to relax ourselves and to get rid of our worries. It gives us the opportunity to discover again the ground which doesn't miss us, to fully enjoy the movements.” (page 168)

As therapists, we have to get into this paradoxical waking in order to be able to welcome, to receive, to care for the patient in his whole life. We have to be well accustomed/versed in hypnotic techniques, to overcome them so as to create the space in us to create new ones, to participate in the dialogue with ease and distance, to observe and to listen respectfully in the here and now. While we let go, we can access what Germans call “Gelassenheit”, i.e. at the same time, calmness, composure and serenity. (...) Practicing paradoxical waking with patience means to go do long rides in the "gardens of longevity"." (page 181)

No need to say that this book is difficult to pass on, for it’s so rich, so subtle, so vivid. The language and the style are also pleasant journeys and have delicate and elegant flavors. Here in France, François Roustang gained some kind of reputation as the nectar of Ericksonian Hypnosis. Qu'est-ce que l'hypnose? really deserves your attention, and to be read and read again to obtain a better understanding of the deepness of our practice as hypnotherapists. If I were to add something with my poetical style: Accepter dirait la bonne morale, faire contre mauvaise fortune bon cœur. Jouer de soi dans cet aller et retour qui ouvre, qui offre de multiples visions du monde, de soi, tout en sachant que ce n'est qu'un jeu et que le jeu en vaut la chandelle. Allers et retours, détours, contours, facettes si nombreuses, si multiples, si irrisantes, aveuglantes parfois que l'on finit par se laisser prendre au piège d'un seul reflet, d'une seule facette. Volonté de non-volonté, vouloir sans vouloir, se laisser effleurer, affleurer à l'intérieur de soi de ces multitudes de rives, d'abords, de débords.

Acceptance could say moral philosophy, putting on a brave face. Playing with oneself in this trip to and from oneself opens and offers multiple visions of the world and of oneself. Yet, even though we know that it's only a game, one plays that game and knows that the game is worth the candle. It is worth the light. There are so many, so multiple, so iridescent, return tickets, detours, bends, twists, turns, and facts. So blinding sometimes that one gets trapped in only one reflection, one only facet. Willing not-wanting, willing without wanting, let oneself be lightly touched, surface inside oneself into those numerous shores, accesses, overflows. ----