Phenomenological and Evidence Based Research in Ego State Therapy: Recognized and Unrecognized Successes and Future Directions

Abstract

The status of research in ego state therapy is examined against the backdrop of 20th and 21st century developments in the philosophy of science and the emerging recognition of the subjective as a vital element in all science. Attention is paid to the phenomenological method because until recently phenomenological studies have been the basis for the standards of care and training in ego state therapy as well as in many aspects of hypnotically facilitated psychotherapy. The importance of bringing an end to the "science wars" through the integration of the subjective and the objective, of phenomenological studies and evidence-based studies in ego state therapy and hypnosis research, is proposed.

The Myth of Hypnosis:The Need for Remythification

“…One of major theoretical and clinical features of the hypnotic process is dissociation: dissociation from everyday functioning, dissociation between internal-mental and external stimuli, as well as dissociation of mental functions that usually are interconnected (Edgette & Edjette, 1995;Kirsch & Lynn, 1998;Nash & Barnier, 2008). Myth can serve as an appropriate container for holding dichotomies and fragmentations in the way the subject experiences himself/herself that may appear during the hypnotic session (e.g., ego-state approach, Barabasz, 2013;Hageman & Frederick, 2013) by providing an easily comprehensible, metaphorical explanation for their existence (Lévi-Strauss, 1966;Segal, 2004).…”