Logical thought and magical thought
Silvia Bonino in Coping with Chronic Illness, 2020
It is not uncommon for people to resort to magical thinking in situations of illness, as well as in threatening and dangerous situations. Many are surprised that a sick person, totally rational and perhaps engaged in a job that requires scientific mentality and skills, in the face of illness may also use forms of magical thinking. Why then do educated and rational people resort to forms of magism? In order to try to answer this question and to understand the contradictions of the phenomenon, it is necessary to remember that magical thinking performs various functions. Next to a cognitive function, as a way of explaining unknown and potentially threatening events, magism also performs a defensive and propitiatory function: particularly relevant in confronting dangers, in order to protect oneself and gain the favor of positive forces, so that they can counteract negative events. Since the most primitive forms of thought do not completely disappear, magism can reappear in particular moments, when, faced with a situation that is too incomprehensible and threatening, the use of logical thinking appears to the person insufficient to respond to his or her cognitive and emotional needs. One of these moments is precisely illness, where magical thinking can manifest itself as regression to more primitive ways of thinking, in a direction that is therefore not developmental. Regression, as has been said, constitutes a frequent defense mechanism, acceptable if not too marked or lasting: when the individual cannot find satisfactory adaptation, he returns to behavior and ways of thinking and relating which are more primitive, and may use those that in the past had been adaptive, hoping to function even in the present.
Signs and Symptoms in Psychiatry
Mohamed Ahmed Abd El-Hay in Essentials of Psychiatric Assessment, 2018
Magical thinking means believing in things more strongly than either evidence or experience justifies. Magical thinking is illogical, often attributing more connectedness to events than is actually the case; many superstitions are examples of culturally validated magical thinking. Individual examples might include the belief an extramarital affair was responsible for a traffic accident, or it will rain because he/she got up on the left side of the bed. Such thinking is common among children and obsessive-compulsive or schizophrenic patients, but it is not necessarily indicative of psychopathology. Sometimes a magical belief forms an overvalued idea.
Stimulating unconscious processes with metaphors and narrative
Published in American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 2022
The structure of a therapeutic story can also evoke an initiatory journey, in which the protagonist explores unknown lands and hidden territories, challenging him/her to find both limits and hidden resources. By following this structure, the therapist can build many variations on the universal themes of exploration, salvation, and care. Each story will also have its own tone, whether pedagogical (or andragogical, the learning process of adults), challenging or encouraging, pragmatic or transcendental. In creating a story, the therapist can also adopt different styles of thinking: magical thinking can be intertwined with scientific knowledge, the laws of indifferent nature with empathy, philosophy with religions, astrology with astronomy, or historical figures with archetypes. The therapist can also create a therapeutic story by taking a cue from personal and professional knowledge and also from direct experiences, or other patients’ anecdotes.
Does the Homo Hypnoticus Exist? Personality Styles of People Interested in Hypnosis
Published in International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 2020
Connections between hypnotizability and “positive” aspects of schizotypy have already been found by Jamieson and Gruzelier (2001) and Gruzelier et al. (2004). In a study by Barkus et al. (2010), higher reported levels of dissociative experiences and higher suggestibility both independently predicted higher scores of positive schizotypy, although suggestibility appeared to be a stronger predictor than dissociation. Cardeña and Terhune (2014) found connections between the personality aspect of self-transcendence and hypnotizability; self-transcendence in turn is associated with schizotypy (see Laidlaw et al., 2005). The results of Dasse et al. (2015) go in a similar direction, namely a positive correlation between hypnotizability and values of the Magical Ideation Scale, which captures magical thinking and schizotypical experiences. For example, an item in the Magical Ideation Scale is “Some people can make me aware of them just by thinking about me.” This corresponds with the schizotypy item No. 6 of the PSDI: “I believe others sometimes feel my emotions even if they are far away.” Connors et al. (2014) also found correlations between hypnotizability, delusion proneness, and the cognitive-perceptual subscale of schizotypy.
Conversational Hypnosis: Conceptual and Technical Differences Relative to Traditional Hypnosis
Published in American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 2018
Assessing the client’s established system of beliefs is premised on the phenomenology of the spoken word (i.e., words mean different things to different people) and the instinctual tendency to defend one’s beliefs. As demonstrated throughout recorded history, people are sometimes willing to use denial, magical thinking, or temporary flights into delusional fantasy, or even die for emotion-laden beliefs (Mercer, 2010). For these reasons, the hypnotherapist engages the client within the system of belief that she is most likely to accept (i.e., her own).
Related Knowledge Centers
- Causal Inference
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- Thought Disorder
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- Taboo
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