Some notes quickly jotted stating my opinions including a lack of interest in doing a literature review of controlled studies of hypnosis. I leave that to others. My energies now go to other things. But of course I'm glad to lead a discussion next week based on the below when hopefully we'll meet outside in clement weather. And glad to tell of the inducing technique to the extent I know it.


Best wishes, Russ


Anecdotal Impressions of Hypnosis 

by a former Psychiatry Educator/Administrator

Also Psychoanalyst/Psychotherapist/Psychopharmacologist


Russell Gardner, Jr., M.D. (University of Chicago, 1962)

Chaos Complex Systems Seminar (CCSS)

September 7, 2021


    Opinion based on education, training and experience as detailed below
    When a licensed clinician, I deployed hypnosis selectively and without great skill
        Have felt biased against it for ethical concerns:
            Hypnosis implies a power relationship in which the patient/client is subordinate to treater 
                For me as an M.D. the other person was patient never client
                Also “patient” implied that the person needed patience with their malady and its complexities
            I have felt that one ought to have a peer relationship with the money-exchange business-features a determinant
                A treater takes the patient’s money for expected benefit
                While practically true of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy, each of which I learned and practiced, one should treat the patient with the respect of a potential peer
            The treater knew that that patient’s manifest wishes with for improvement was met with internal resistance
        My emphasis as a treater always aimed at focusing on and discussing those inhibitions, resistances, means of lessening expected pain
            I wanted that the patient should be respected peer; if subordinate now, the treatment should move to a position of full respected peer
            Stasis and lack of progress should be dealt with as resistance too
        Psychopathology typically hinged on variations of trauma and was what we currently know as post-traumatic syndrome 
        Pharmacology also is a power relationship
            Helped by concurrent psychotherapy with implied peer contract as in B.1.
        Am skeptical of most research in view of many of the very familiar concerns raised in CCSS on 9/7/2021 



III.	Personal Background (not a usual CV)

    1966-1968: Clinical Research Branch, NIMH
        Backdrop for creation of NIMH and its clinical research emphases
            JFK from his family fostered new prioritizations (stemmed from maltreatment of his sister still in Wisconsin)
            He and family knew that too little systematic research was being done 
            Therefore NIMH received highest level emphasis and funding infusion
        Administrative roles in reviewing research grant proposals (including hypnosis!)
                Wrote “pink sheet” summaries of study section comments and decisions
                Attended discussion and decision meetings of the oversight committees
                Went on site visits with study section representatives 

                A guru then on hypnosis was Martin Orne
                    He and associates at U Pennsylvania studied it—
                    Was a valued NIMH consultant
                Other experts (and well-published advocates) at that time were Herbert and David Spiegel (father and son both of whom wrote books on hypno-treatment)
                    Strongly advocated treatment, very enthusiastic promotors
                    Met them at professional meetings and heard presentations
                    Recall having one of their books but don’t recall more than skimming it
            1968-1974: Junior faculty at Albert Einstein College of Medicine 
                    At Montefiore hospital doing sleep movement research
                    Also gained more education as a fellow in Consultation-Liason (CL) Psychiatry
            1974-1984: Administrative: Professor and Chairman at U. North Dakota 
                Teacher/Administrator—Oversaw and hands-on for developing programs for preclinical behavioral sciences, 3rd year medical student clerkship, and a new residency in psychiatry in concert with Neurology program doing the same
                    Clinically developed a CL team meant adapting a University program to satisfy a private hospital’s need
                    Psychotherapy to a limited degree
                    Demonstrated a limited session short term psychotherapy that included
                Called on for NIMH roles in Clinical Training in Psychiatry
                    Served on a study section for grants in education then being funded which  for a time made me their chairman
                    Became acquainted with most other administrative psychiatrists, traveling the country for committees and the like
                    Sometime then and beyond (16 years total) was an oral examiner four times/year for the American Boards of Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN) on sequential examining teams (two Directors for eight years each) 
                    Began a major role in the newly developing Psychiatry Residence In-Training Examination (PRITE) 
                        This flowed from Sabbatical at Thomas Jefferson U program in Philadelphia
                        Numerous multiple choice questions that had to be newly originated each year
                        Separate from a parallel examination for the ABPN which committee I had already served on 
            1984-1999: Harry K. Davis Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at UTMB, Galveston, TX
                At beginning, a vice-chairman (in view of my reputation to then)
                But I had wished for a clinical role so became director of Consultation-Liaison for the program
                Also did psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy; left program to retire when new chairman, funded by Big Pharma, moved to diminish psychotherapy 
                Could afford to retire and did, but found the barriers to Wisconsin licensure too high so now write creatively, do art, and walk five miles per day, living a good life