A Modern Hypnosis Dictionary: The Letter E
- Echolalia - Also known as echophrasia. Where the hypnotized subject automatically repeats the words of the hypnotist (even when the words make no sense or are in a foreign language) in parrot fashion.
- Ego - Freud proposed the Ego as part of the mind in direct interface with reality, balancing the urges of the Id and the demands of the Super-Ego. More commonly accepted to mean the individuals sense of self.
- Egocentricity - Acting as if the world revolves around the self and the self is the centre of the world.
- Eidetic - Refers to eidetic memory and eidetic imagery. Commonly known as photographic memory. Can be induced in deep hypnosis, to the point where (with fantasy) it becomes hallucination.
- Engram - The name given to the idea that memory is stored 'traces' or 'images' in the brain. Thus memories are stores in engrams.
- Esdaile, James - Early pioneer of modern hypnosis (Edinburgh, Great Britain 1808 - 1859) performed major surgery using only hypnosis for anaesthetic.
- Eye Fixation - Simply having the subject fix their gaze on a point (to narrow and focus their attention).
- Eye Closure - The point in hypnotic induction when the subjects can no longer keep their eyes open. At this point the hypnotist has achieved eye closure.
- Eyelid Catalepsy - A good test of receptivity to suggestion and eyelid relaxation. The subject is told after eye closure that their eyelids are so relaxed that they cannot open them (sometimes the subject is also asked to look upwards as if at a point on their forehead). When this is shown to be the case, eyelid catalepsy has been achieved.
- Enuresis - Involuntary urination. Noctural enuresis is involuntary urination at night, commonly known as bed wetting. Can be treated with hypnosis to good effect.
- Epinosic - The psychoanalytical term for secondary gain.
- Erethism - Where a part of the body becomes extremely sensetive, can have organic causes or can be induced by in hypnosis.
- Erotophobia - Irrational fear of sexual stimuli /arousal.
- Expectation - Expectation is an important factor to take into account before beginning hypnosis. If the patient expects to be successfully hypnotized he probably will be. Also in pre-induction talks always take the time to ensure patients have realistic idea of what the hypnotic state will be like and what the likely outcome of it will be.
- Extinction - The term given to the process of deconditioning a reflex, more commonly known as breaking a habit. The condition is said to be made extinct.
- Extravert - A term originally coined by C.G.Jung which has passed into popular parlance to describe an outward going personality type. As opposed to Introvert.
Tom Connelly© connelly@hypnos.co.uk