Personalized evaluation of self-hypnosis as a treatment of chronic pain: a repertory grid analysis

Self-hypnosis was taught to 5 highly hypnotisable patients referred to Auckland Hospital Pain Clinic. Evaluation included the Illness Self-Concept Repertory Grid (ISCRG) and follow-up was at 1 and 6 months post treatment. Consensus grids indicated the subjects initially identified with physical illness but this association decreased over the course of the study. There appeared, therefore, to be a shift in self-concept away from physical illness, in association with the learning and practice of self-hypnosis. This change was especially evident in the grids of those subjects who experienced the most pain relief. An association between pain reduction and self-concepts is thus noted. This study does not identify whether self-concepts merely reflect therapeutic change or whether strong self-identification with physical illness indicates a poor prognosis for pain relief. This is a question which deserves further study.