Hartland's legacy (II): The ego-strengthening monologue

The nature, form, and content of the final (1971) version of Hartland’s hypnotherapeutic monologue is examined. Originally the central feature of the (c.1965) “ego-strengthening procedure” developed by Hartland to facilitate symptom-removal by direct hypnotic suggestion, it later proved equally efficacious as a stand-alone intervention. Despite its linguistic negativity and equivocation, it was specifically designed to generate very positive outcomes. Criticisms of its expression, wording and application are addressed. An analysis of its suggestive sequence is presented which strongly suggests that, once equivocal expressions are rectified, and wording changed to match a therapist’s natural language, it could significantly increase the efficacy of most hypnotherapeutic interventions, especially those addressing poorly defined or otherwise ambiguous clinical circumstances. Hints to assist recension of Hartland’s transcript are supplied, which may also serve as a basic guide to the appraisal and conversion of other published hypnotherapeutic “scripts”. The “poetic hypnograms” of Samuel Silber, M.D. are re-visited