Table Of ContentAdvance praise for
The Psychobiology of Mind-Body
Healing, Revised Edition
UA rare treasure, scholarly and engaging, by one of the most
brilliant scientists and therapists of our time. Ernest Rossi pre
sents a framework for healing that encompasses the latest ad
vances in neurobiology, information processing, wave energy
medicine, and hypnosis. Histheoryofstate-dependentlearning,
memory, and behavior is a powerful model explaining the me
chanics ofconsciousnessand the elegant subtletiesofthe thera
peuticprocess.Thisbookisamustforallprofessionalsinthefield
ofmind-body medicine"
-Joan Borysenko, Ph.D.
President. MindlBodyHealthSciences, Inc.
author,Minditf8the&dy,Mending theMi"d
"InthisneweditionErnestRossicontinuestoexplore,synthesize,
and integratefindings in thearea ofmind-bodyhealing, notonly
acrossdisciplines, butacross time. Heboth providesan excellent
review ofearly mind-bodyconstructsand also brings new inter
pretations to those constructs, employing contemporary neuro
sciencedata. Itis rare to find such a sensitivec1inidan who can
alsoelucidatethemeaningofliteraturein thefields ofthebiolog
ical and neural sciences for psychotherapy, outlining practical
therapeutic suggestions for clinicians working in the area of
mind-bodyhealing. Thisisanexcellentbook, and Iwouldhighly
recommend it to anyone interested in having a comprehensive,
integrated model for understanding the complex field of mind
body medicine."
-HowardHall, Ph.D., Psy.D.
RainbowBabiesandChildrensHospital
Oeve:land, Ohio
W·W·NORTON
15<1
NEWYORK·LON[)()N
ISBN0-393-70168-9 $39.00USA
S52.ooCAN.
THE
PSYCHOBIOLOGY
OF MIND-BODY
HEALING
ew Concepts of
Th-er-a-p-eu-t-ic-H--yp-n-osis
-----------
ManyofthehypothesesthatRossiproposed
when thefirsteditionofthisbookwaspub
lished in 1986 have now been confirmed:
Themind-bodyconnection isa real process
that can be seen, measured, and accessed
through psychotherapy.
Inconfirmingthat itispossibletousethe
mind toheal body illness, Rossi nowbrings
together extensive new evidence from psy
choneuroimmunology, neuroendocrinol·
ogy, molecular genetics, and neurobiology
to show that there is no mysteriousgap be
tween mind and body. State-dependent
memory, learning, and behaviorencoded in
thebmbic-hypothalamicsystemofthebrain
are major information transducers forming
the mind-body connection. Rossi docu
mentsandillustrateshowthispathwaycoor·
dinates all the "messenger molecules" of
mind-body communication via the auto·
nomic, endocrine, immune, and neuropep
tidesystems.
With the evidence for mind-body healing
in hand, heasks: Howdowelearn toutilize
thesenaturalprocessestofacilitateouremo
tionaIand physical well-being?Moretliana
frordrnJUdorrhdfUlpJ
Jilckl:'lcksignbyDebraMortonHoyt
JaeketiIIustratiOllbylilt-author
P"mtd,PIIIwlhu,tdSI~":lIII(A...tr~~
10-93
(conlimudfromfrontj/Dp)
dozen new approaches to mind-body heal
ingareoutlined inaseriesofteachingtuto
rials. Many of these utilize the ultradian
healingresponse, whichanyonecanlearnto
use, based on the body's natural 9O-minute
psychobiological rhythms.
While the research supporting the con
cept of mind-body healing is complex, it is
made readily accessible to readers through
excellent illustrations and Rossi's lucid
three-step outlines to accessing the state
dependent systems that encode psycho
somaticproblems, re{ramingtheminhealthy
ways, andratifyingtheproblem-solvingthat
hastakenplace.Thisapproachtoconverting
symptoms into signals and psychological
problemsintocreativeresourceswilldelight
readers who intuitively sense that we all
hold wilhin ourselves the keys to our own
health and well-being.
ERNEST LAWRENCE RosSI, PH.D., has written
and edited numerous books, including
Ultradian Rhythms in Life Processes (with
David Lloyd), TheTwenty-MinuteBreak(with
David Nimmons), Mind-Body Therapy (with
David Cheek), and Dreamsand theGrowth of
Personality. In addition, he has written sev
eral books on therapeutic hypnosis with
Milton H. Erickson and is the editor of
Erickson's Collected Papers. He lectures
widely and conducts a private practice in
Malibu, California.
•
e S C O l O 0
.......
•
o I n 0
•
e a l n
N e w Concepts of
Therapeutic Hypnosis
Revised Edition
,
E R N E S T L A W R E N C E R O S S I
w •
W • NORTON & COMPANY, INC. • NEW YORK • LONDON
Permission to quote from the following is acknowledged:
N. Ischlondsky, The inhibitory process in the cerebrophysiologicallaboratory and in the clinic, lounull of Nervous and
of
Mental Di......, 121, 5-18 © Williams &: Wilkins, 1955. K. Bowers, Hypnosis: An informational approach, Annals the
New Yon: Academy of Sciences, 296, 222-237 © The New York Academy of Sciences, 1977. W. Cannon, "Voodoo" death,
PsychosomJltk Medkine, 19(3), 182-190 © American Psychosomatic Society, 1957. B. Klopfer, Psychological variables in
human cancer, lournal of Projective Techniques, 21, 331-340 © Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., 1957. Pribram, K.
(1986). The cognitive revolution and mind-brain issues, American Psychologist, 41, 507-520 © by the American Psycholog
ical Association. T. Hunter, A thousand and one protein kinases, Cell, SO, 823-829 © Cell Press, 1987. D. Cheek,
Effectiveness of incentive in clinical hypnosis. Reprinted with permission of the American College of Obstetricians and
Gynecologists (Obstetrics and Gynecology, 9(6), 720-724). F. Balkwill, Improving on the follnula. Reprinted with permis
sion from Nature, 361, 206-207 © Macmillan Magazines Ltd., 1993. The Transformed Cell by Steven Rosenberg. Copyright
© 1992 by Steven Rosenberg. Permission from The Putnam Publishing Group. Jung, Carl G., The Structure and Dynmnks
of the Psyche, Vol. III. The Collected Works of Corl G. lung Copyright © 1960 by Princeton University Press. J. Bodden,
Accessing state-bound memories in the treatment of phobias: Two case studies. American lounull of Cliniazl Hypnosis, 34,
24-28, 1991. T. Melnechuk (1985), Neuroimmunology: Crossroads between behavior and disease. Reports on selected
conferences and workshops. Advances: The lounull ofMind/Body Health, 2:3, p. 54-58. A. Kreinheder, The call to individu
ation. PsycholOgical Perspectives, 10(1),58-65 © 1979 by the C. G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles, 10349 W. P1co Blvd., Los
Angeles, CA 90064. L. Seltzer, Paradoxical Strategies in Psychotherapy, copyright © 1985 by L. Seltzer. Permission from
John Wiley &: Sons, Inc.
Copyright © 1993 by Ernest Lawrence Rossi
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
Second Edition
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rossi, Ernest Lawrence.
The psychobiology of mind-body healing: new concepts of
therapeutic hypnOSiS I Ernest Lawrence Rossi.-Rev. ed.
p. em.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-393-70168-9
1. Medicine, Psychosomatic. 2. Mind and body therapies.
3. Psychoneuroimmunology. 4. Hypnotism-Therapeutic use.
5. Psychobiology. I. Title.
RC49.R674 1993
615.8'512-dc20 93-23757 CIP
W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10110
W. W. Norton & Company, Ltd., 10 Coptic Street, London WC1A 1PU
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0
Other Books by the Same Author
Dreams and the Growth of Personality (1972/1985)
Hypnotic Realities
(1976, with Milton H. Erickson)
Hypnotherapy: An Exploratory Casebook
(1979, with Milton H. Erickson)
Experiencing Hypnosis
(1981, with Milton H. Erickson)
The Collected Papers of Milton Erickson on Hypnosis
H. (1980, editor)
The Nature of Hypnosis and Suggestion
Volume I:
Hypnotic Alteration of Sensory, Perceptual, and Psychophysiological Processes
Volume II:
Hypnotic Investigation of Psychodynamic Processes
Volume III:
Innovative Hypnotherapy
Volume IV:
Healing in Hypnosis.
Volume The Seminars, Workshops, and Lectures of Milton Erickson
1: H.
(1984, edited with Margaret O. Ryan)
Life Reframing in Hypnosis.
Volume The Seminars, Workshops, and Lectures of Milton Erickson
2: H.
(1985, edited with Margaret O. Ryan)
Mind-Body Communication in Hypnosis.
Volume 3: The Seminars, Workshops, and Lectures of Erickson
(1986, edited with Margaret O. Ryan)
Creative Choice in Hypnosis.
Volume 4: The Seminars, Workshops, and Lectures of Erickson
(1991, edited with Margaret O. Ryan)
The Psychobiology of Mind-Body Healing: New Concepts of Therapeutic Hypnosis (1986)
Mind-Body Therapy: Ideodynamic Healing in Hypnosis
(1988, with David Cheek)
The February Man: Evolving Consciousness and Identity in Hypnotherapy
(1989, with Milton H. Erickson)
The Twenty Minute Break: The Ultradian Healing Response
(1991, with David Nimmons)
Ultradian Rhythms in Life Processes:
A Fundamental Inquiry into Chronobiology and Psychobiology
(1992, edited with David Lloyd)
NORTON PROFESSIONAL BOOK
A
Foreword
to the First Edition
Psychobiology of Mind-Body Healing supplies the missing link be
HE
tween the theory that the mind can make a significant difference in
dealing with disease and the clinical observations of physicians that the
theory works in enough cases to be taken seriously. This book identifies
what the medical profession calls "pathways," that is, the way attitudes
or emotions are processed by the body in creating physiological or bio
chemical change. The past ten years have seen extraordinary advances
in the knowledge of such pathways-so much so, that the concept of a
patient-physician partnership is rapidly becoming a dominant feature
in contemporary medicine. In such a partnership the physician brings
the best that medical science has to offer and the patient brings his or
her resources in the form of a healing system and the confidence and
determiJ:1.ation to get the best out of what the physician has to offer.
This book provides state-of-the-art information on the interaction of
the nervous system, the endocrine system and the immune system. The
facts assembled and summarized in this work make it impossible any
longer to say that "hard" evidence is lacking to support the belief that
what we think and believe can sometimes have a profound effect on our
ability to deal with major challenges, whether with respect to disease or
,
the way we function in our daily lives. .
Norman Cousins
August 1986
••
VII
C o n t e n t s
••
Foreword to the First Edition by Norman Cousins
Vll
List of Teaching Tutorials
X
•
List of Boxes
Xl
..
List of Tables
XlI
...
List of Figures
Xlll
Preface xv
•
Acknowledgments
XIX
SECTION I
The Psychobiology of Mind-Body Communication
1 The Placebo Response: A Rejected Cornerstone of
Mind-Body Healing 3
2 Information Transduction in Mind-Body Healing
23
and Hypnosis
3 State-Dependent Learning in Mind-Body Healing
47
and Hypnosis
4 Stress and Psychosomatic Phenomena 69
5 The New Language of Mind-Body Communication:
90
Ten Teaching Tutorials
SECTION II
The Psychobiology of Mind-Body Healing
133
6 An Overview of Mind-Body Communication and Healing
7 Mind Modulation of the Autonomic Nervous System 161
8 Mind Modulation of the Endocrine System 186
217
9 Mind Modulation of the Immune System
278
10 Mind Modulation of the Neuropeptide System
313
Summary and Overview
315
References
Index 345
•
IX
List o f T e a c h i n g Tutorials
1 Going with the Flow 93
2 The Basic Accessing Question 101
3 Accessing Creative Resources 104
4 Incubating Mind-Body Healing 109
5 Symptom Scaling and Healing 111
6 Utilizing the Patient's Behavior 114
7 The Ultradian Healing Response 116
8 Three-Step Problem Solving 120
9 Ideodynamic Movements Signaling Healing 124
10 Facilitating Autocatalytic Healing 128
11 Converting Negative Threat to Positive Challenge 178
12 Shifting Cerebral Hemispheric Dominance and
Mind-Body States 184
13 Naturalistic Self-Hypnosis: The Ultradian Healing Response 216
14 Converting a Symptom into a Signal 271
15 Transforming a Problem into a Creative Function 293
•
x
