Hartland's legacy (I): The ego strengthening procedure

Hartland's powerful and efficacious “Ego-Strengthening Procedure” is examined. Designed to facilitate subsequent symptom-removal by direct hypnotic suggestion, and centred on a therapeutic monologue derived from the work of Émile Coué, its 1965 publication also positioned the term “ego-strengthening”. Hartland published improved versions of his monologue in 1967 and 1971. Worldwide hypnotherapeutic practice benefitted greatly from this new, different, and easy to follow approach; especially in terms of developing strong therapist expectation of positive outcomes in otherwise ambiguous or poorly defined clinical circumstances. Clear, detailed descriptions in Hartland’s textbooks encouraged many less-than-well-trained therapists to experiment with hypnotherapeutic interventions for the first time; and others with some experience, to apply hypnotism to a much wider range of subjects, social circumstances and clinical conditions. The benefit of Hartland’s approach is discussed, and his emphatic, but of-tignored instruction, that his “ego-strengthening” monologue must never be applied with its precise published wording, is strongly emphasized