While hypnosis has a complex history both real and fictional, its value in treatment cannot be denied. Not with all medical and psychological conditions but with some. But first two stories: (1) Soon after beginning work as a hospital administrator I began getting neck pain which is a common symptom of stress. It disappeared after listening twice to a self-hypnotic relaxation tape that I made from the research protocol of an article in the American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis relating stress to the development of cancer, having received training in hypnosis in a medical school class years before. I later interpreted this pain to many of my employees being a pain in the neck. (2) A psychiatrist/hypnosis expert wanted his gall bladder surgery to be performed using only hypnosis as anesthetic. The surgeon initially demurred but finally agreed, being more nervous than his patient. At the first surgical incision the doctor's blood pressure dropped but quickly recovered and, after surgery, he walked back to his room. Studies have revealed that surgical patients who use self-hypnosis for relaxation are discharged from the hospital significantly more quickly.
While few can undergo surgery without anesthesia, a percentage which increases when it isn't available as during a war situation, hypnosis has been found valuable with both children and adults for conditions including asthma, back pain, high blood pressure and more, including general relaxation.
The small use of hypnosis in medicine and psychology derive from several factors: that, unlike the one-minute needed to write a prescription, hypnosis takes time for teaching and learning; that some patients refuse its use, believing it weird in some way though the hypnotic experience--an altered neurological state enabled through selective attention--is innate to the human condition like when a child at a ball game tunes out loud noise. Still, hypnosis is cheap except in time required and safer than anesthesia or medication. Nuff said.