Obituary - Dr. Herbert Spiegel

From today's New York Times
A trained Freudian analyst, Dr. Spiegel came to see traditional, open-ended psychoanalysis as too costly and meandering for many patients — and hypnosis as a way to accelerate healing, effecting change in some people even in a single session. As Dr. Spiegel’s reputation grew, performers and politicians in New York and prominent people from around the world made their way to his office in Manhattan.

Chris's psychiatrists in his day program wouldn't hear of hypnosis. "It's not for schizophrenia," they said, quickly changing the subject whenever it was raised by the parents. They left us with the impression that there was something so strange about schizophrenia that hynosis would only serve to destabilize the individual. I beg to differ. A holistic approach to healing means to employ different approaches in order to ferret out the root cause of the suffering. Hypnosis should be considered when treating schizophrenia. Deep trauma is not easy to get at through conventional therapies.