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L Chertok

Publications and source records attributed to L Chertok.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1984

On the centenary of Charcot: hysteria, suggestibility and hypnosis.

In studying hysteria by means of hypnosis, Charcot placed emphasis on the psychological aetiology of the neuroses. Among his pupils, Freud alone grasped this epistemological turning-point, from which he made his great discoveries. But hysteria and hypnosis still remain today largely unknown. We have not yet elucidated the 'mysterious leap' between the psychological and the somatic for the former, and between the relational and the instrumental for the latter. While psychoanalysts have constantly concerned themselves with hysteria, they have shown a lack of interest in hypnosis after Freud abandoned its practice. According to Freud, thanks to transference, affect would be controlled by cognition, a viewpoint eminently suited to satisfy his rationalistic outlook. Affect, however, remains an unknown realm. The affective relationship has, at all events, acquired an ever-increasing importance in psychoanalysis during the last few years, with the emphasis on the early mother-child relationship. The 'affective locus' remains the basic, as well as the most obscure, element in the hypno-suggestive relationship. The behaviourist approach, which quantifies the 'vertical' dimension in depth, is a limited one. The study of the 'horizontal' dimension of subjective experience represents a new line of research, which may make it possible to distinguish different forms of hypnosis. The understanding of hypno-suggestion may throw light on psychoanalysis, psychotherapy, and the human sciences in general.

France↗
PubMed1984

Hypnosis and suggestion in a century of psychotherapy: an epistemological assessment.

From 1882 to 1982, a century of psychotherapy passed. Its inception was marked by the rehabilitation of hypnosis in the work of Charcot at the Salepêtrière, and in the Nancy School (Liébeault and Bernheim). The young Freud became acquainted with this work in the course of his visits to France at this same period. It was thus that he was put on the track leading to the discovery of psychoanalysis. With the concept of transference, Freud thought he was reabsorbing suggestion and placing affect under the control of cognition. But today it is realized that suggestion (direct and indirect) is ever-present in psychoanalysis, as in other psychotherapies, which indeed do not cease to proliferate. This common element might be an important constituent of the curative process. Under these circumstances, it seems highly desirable that suggestion and hypnosis, those "crossroad" concepts which still remain so mysterious, become the subject of basic research, notwithstanding the prejudices that are still very much alive. The results of such research would prove beneficial to psychotherapy, as well as to the other human sciences.

Austria↗
PubMed1982

[30 years later. The story of the discovery of neuroleptics].

The first trial use of neuroleptics for psychiatric purposes took place on 9 November 1951 at Villejuif psychiatric Hospital. It consisted in the administration of chlorpromazine to a female psychiatrist on the staff of the hospital. The protocol drawn up during the session indicates the characteristic effects of chlorpromazine on the subject's emotional state. The experiment was taken no further at Villejuif. The author subsequently abandoned psychopharmacology in favour of research into psychosomatics.

Antipsychotic Agents↗
PubMed1982

[Hypnosis, hysteria, psychoanalysis. Apropos of 5 cases].

Five cases, chosen for their illustrative value and for the perspectives they open up for clinical and theoretical research, show that hypnosis does sometimes produce lasting results in patients who have failed to respond to all other forms of treatment; after all these centuries, this form of therapy is alive and well. Further, hypnosis offers an excellent opportunity of studying suggestion, which lies at the heart of the psycho-therapeutic process in general, and which is still little known. The strength of still-surviving prejudice on this subject are an obstacle to greater understanding.

Adult↗
PubMed1981

Reinstatement of the concept of the unconscious in the Soviet Union.

The author reports on a symposium on the concept of the unconscious held in Tbilisi, U.S.S.R., in October 1979 to which Western scientists, including psychoanalysts, were invited. He provides a brief historical review of Soviet psychology, then describes the more recent emergence of two distinct groups--"psychologists" and "antipsychologists." The "psychologists" are aware of the need for improved understanding of unconscious motivations; the "antipsychologists" maintain the physiology-oriented tradition of Pavlov. The author contrasts current Soviet views of the unconscious with those of Freud and his followers and provides an up-to-date report on current Soviet attitudes through January 1981.

Communism↗
PubMed1980

[The unconscious and hypnosis].

Hypnosis and the unconscious: both fields equally obscure, giving rise to broad plurality of conceptions. The only point we may assert with any certainty is that they are closely linked. Historically, experiments on post-hypnotic suggestion were in fact the starting point for the discovery of the unconscious. Post-hypnotic suggestion is in effect one of the most irrefutable proofs that psychical contents can influence behaviour, albeit eluding the subject's consciousness. In this paper, we provide a description of Soviet researchers' conceptions of the unconscious, and of the point of view from which they approach hypnotic phenomena. We then study psychoanalytical theories on hypnosis, which are essentially based on transference. We show why this notion seems to us powerless to account for the specific nature of the hypnotic relationship. There is, in effect, a psycho-physiological dimension of hypnosis. It lies at the crossroads between the instrumental and the relational. But we know nothing about what unconscious processes hide at the psycho-physiological level. Psychoanalysis has brought to light the laws governing the functioning of unconscious representations. But the realm of the affect, the non-verbal, the corporal still remains beyond our knowledge. This is a hidden side of the unconscious, in relation to which hypnosis may serve as another "royal way". Finally, we point out a few directions now opening up for hypnotic research work in this perspective.

Adult↗
PubMed1977

Dynamics of hypnotic analgesia: some new data.

Following two surgical operations under hypnotic anesthesia, it was possible, during subsequent recall under hypnosis, to elicit a representation of the past operative experience. It would seem that under hypnosis there is a persistence of the preception of nociceptive information and of its recognition as such by the subject. From an analysis of these two experiments in recall, it is possible to formulate several hypotheses concerning the psychological processes involved in hypnotic analgesia. In consequence of an affective relationship, in which the hypnotist's word assumes a special importance for the subject, the latter has recourse to two kinds of mechanism: a) internal (assimilation to an analogous sensation, not, however, registered as dangerous-rationalization); and b) external (total compliance with the interpretations proposed by the hypnotist), which lead to a qualitative transformation of nocieceptive information, as also the inhibition of the behavioral manifestations normally associated with a painful stimulus.

Awareness↗
PubMed1977

[Experimental psychosomatic medicine. Blisters].

Following a survey of the literature on the production of blisters by hypnotic suggestion, the author presents his own case. He discusses the physio-pathology of this phenomenon in the light of present day physiological theories, and contests generally admitted opposition in psychosomatic theory between conversion as concerns the voluntary system and striated muscles, and somatisation, involving non-striated muscles and the autonomus system.

Autonomic Nervous System↗