Before we talk about what ab-reation is in Freud and in psychology, it is necessary to understand a little about the history of hypnosis. This history begins with Sigmund Freud's completion of his medical degree in 1881 at the University of Vienna.

Freud had an enormous interest in the field of scientific research, but, denying his desires, he pursued a clinical career seeing patients in the Austrian capital's general hospital. Observing a field almost entirely free of competition, Freud began to study nervous diseases and, in 1885, secured a fellowship in Paris. Read on and see more about what is Ab-reaction in Freud and in Psychology?

What is Ab-reaction in Freud and Psychology?

Freud met Jean Martin Charcot, renowned physician because of his advances in the fields of neurology and psychiatry.

Charcot had rescued hypnosis and used it to combat a variety of symptoms in his patients. He used the technique of suggestion direct hypnotic. A simple way of putting patients in a hypnotic state and giving direct orders to the patient so that "upon awakening" they would no longer show a certain symptom, and most of the time, the symptom actually disappeared.

With this, Freud realized that if direct hypnotic suggestion was able to rid patients of their symptoms, "hysteria" was not a physiological disease as he thought it was, originating in the womb, but rather a psychological ailment.

Ab-reaction and hypnosis

Back in Vienna, Freud resigned from the hospital where he worked and opened a psychiatric practice. Until then, hysteria cases were treated with massages, hot baths, electric shocks, and medications, but Freud included hypnosis as his main tool to alleviate the patients' symptoms until he came across the abnormalities.

Tired of trying to convince doctors of the benefits of hypnosis, Freud decided to step away from academia and pursue hypnosis in his practice. However, over the months, he realized the limits of his performance and wanted to understand the origins of the patients' disorders.

The case of Emmy Von N.

In 1889, Freud received a patient by the pseudonym Emmy Von N. in his office seeking help.

Emmy was 40 years old and had been living poorly since the death of her husband 14 years earlier; she claimed to suffer from depression, insomnia, pain, panic attacks, had a stutter and speech tics. In addition, Freud also recorded convulsive movements and swearing uttered without any reason, which is said to be linked to ab-reaction.

Emmy Von N.'s Ab-reaction

These symptoms were, for Freud, a case of "hysteria". At that time, the term "hysteria" could be understood as any kind of physical disorder with an emotional background in women. hypnotize Emmy, Freud first asked the patient to fix her gaze on a point, gave suggestions for relaxation, to lower her eyelids and get sleepy.

Quickly the patient was in trance, Freud also took advantage of Emmy's hypnotic state to investigate the origin of the problems by asking her to remember under what circumstances each of the symptoms had first manifested itself.

When talking about the memories, Emmy seemed to improve. After seven weeks of hypnosis, Freud discharged the patient and hypnosis proved to be a valuable tool for symptom investigation. But what is ab-reaction anyway?

The Influence of Hyppolyte Bernheim

In 1889, Freud traveled again to France to improve his hypnosis technique with neurologist Hyppolyte Bernheim. And it was he who showed Freud that traumatic memories could be retrieved from the minds of patients in trance.

The French doctor said that, under normal conditions, patients maintained a vigil that prevented them from remembering certain episodes, and the hypnotic trance broke this barrier.

This hypothesis helped Freud to assume that the mind is divided into levels, with some memories more hidden than others. This is the harbinger of the unconscious concept! Currently, when done in the office under a therapeutic point of view, the technique of hypnosis can be useful in the treatment of physical or emotional illnesses.

The technique of hypnosis

The technique is absolutely harmless and can be used as a tool in reprogramming the mind to deal with various ailments such as, for example, obesity, binge eating, stuttering, phobias, addictions, pain control, anxiety, depression, panic syndrome, and other traumas, since our unconscious, when suggested, does not question, just accepts the suggestion and acts accordingly.

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Hypnosis is recognized as a therapeutic resource by psychologists, dentists, physical therapists, physicians, psychoanalysts, holistic therapists, among others, can use this tool as a resource in their attendance.

The Hypnotherapist's Responsibility

The professional who works with clinical or therapeutic hypnosis is called hypnotherapist. During hypnosis sessions, the unconscious and conscious mind are not relevant.

The unconscious mind is responsible for our immune system and controls the vital functions of our body, such as heartbeat, peristalsis, and breathing, and the conscious mind is responsible for our rational and analytical factor. She is the one who takes charge of our daily decisions and gives us explanations of how things work.

The conscious also controls willpower and short-term memory, while the mind subconscious is responsible for your long-term memory, your habits, your emotions, your self-preservation, idleness, and self-sabotage.

The Subconscious

To understand a little better the workings of the subconscious we have, for example, the feeling of rejection of some food that you don't like, which is done when the conscious mind asks the subconscious mind if you like that food, and the subconscious mind will respond with the emotions of remembrance and taste.

This process is similar to the state between sleep and wakefulness without losing the awareness. This means that you are able to hear and feel things around you, but normally your eyes are closed, you are not moving, just resting comfortably and relaxed.

Hypnosis works within the subconscious looking for the trauma factors that limit your wholeness and sets you free without erasing any memory. and, therefore, can be used as a tool in the treatment of obesity, binge eating, stuttering, phobias, addictions, pain control, anxiety, depression, panic syndrome, trauma, and in reprogramming the mind for any purpose.

Final considerations

During hypnosis, we have a greater ability not to judge or analyze how true or false, what we imagine for ourselves and the process of releasing the traumas takes place. Then comes ab-reaction.

Ab-reactions are spontaneous unconscious manifestations of repressed emotions that may occur during the hypnotic trance state. The most common ab-reactions are: Crying, screaming, shaking, among others...

It is important to emphasize that when this occurs it does not mean that the patient is in danger, it is just a reaction of the unconscious mind due to the strong emotions experienced. With the correct and skillful professional approach, the professional calmly leads his patient to a comfortable situation in order to continue the necessary care. So, always, look for a professional you can trust!

This article about Ab-reactions was written by the author Renata Barros ( [email protected]). Renata is a Holistic Therapist at Mundo Gaia - Espaço Terapêutico in Belo Horizonte, a Biologist, and a Psychoanalyst in training at the Course of Clinical Psychoanalysis.

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