A Modern Hypnosis Dictionary: The Letter G
- Glove Anaesthesia - Can occur as a sympton of some mental illnesses (where normal sensation can normally be restored by hypnosis) but can also be induced with hypnosis. It is typically used as a method of enabling patients to ease their own painful symptoms. The patient is taught how to induce glove anaesthesia (loss of sensation in the hand) in self hypnosis and this 'anaesthesia' is then transfered to other parts of the body that require it. See also Glove Analgesia.
- Group Hypnosis - Referres to the effect percieved that hypnosis of people in large groups often results in greater depth of success, perhaps because the members of the group 'feedback' from each other. Mass hypnosis is a recognized phenomenon. Not normally used in therapy, which needs to be tailored to specific individuals but is often used at religious and political gatherings to get simple ideas accepted at the group level.
- Galvanometer - A device which measures the galvanic skin response. This response is a small change of electrical conductivity of the skin, due in part to the presence of stress. Used as the basis of lie detection equipment it is used by some hypno-analysts to detect areas of conflict and stress as patients recount their personal history.
- Generalization - A psychological process often uncovered by hypnosis, at the root of many phobias and neuroses. It is part of the normal learning function but can lead to error due to unchecked extrapolation. As a simple example - you are tormented as a child by a bully with red hair, which leads to the unconscious generalization that all persons with red hair are tormentors. Thus you might feel anxiety in the presence of a red haired person, even if you have not met them before. It can develop even further as the colour red itself develops into a stimulus for anxiety even though it is no longer connected to a person but to some other object.
- Glossolalia - Where a person 'babbles' or speaks in some unknown tongue, usually while believing perfect sense is being made. Can be a symptom of religious hysteria and mental disorder but can also be made to occour by suggestion in deep hypnosis.
- Gnosis - From the Greek word for knowledge. In hypnotherapy it referres to the uncovering of piece of information or personal experience which enables a dynamic re-evaluation, leading to rapid improvement, or cessation of presenting problems. Axial information.
- Gynophobia - Irrational morbid fear of women
Tom Connelly© connelly@hypnos.co.uk