STRATEGIC SELF-HYPNOSIS

This is old-fashioned positive thinking, Dale Carnegie style, with a dangerous twist: readers are advised to hypnotize themselves and provide their own suggestions, ""guided"" fantasy, etc., via pre-recorded tape messages. The idea is that whatever plagues us can be changed--at least to some degree--by forcing ourselves to absorb into our unconscious the conscious dictates of attitudinal chimp. There is a little more sophistication to this approach than to most of the self-hypnosis garble: we don't simply command ourselves to ""stop smoking""; instead, we focus on the underlying assumptions of need and free ourselves from those limiting assumptions. (Loosely translated, it's not ""stop smoking"" so much as ""stop needing smoking."") The dozens of exercises sound suspiciously similar: relax progressively, breathe deeply, make your eyelids heavy, fantasize a brighter future, and order yourself to get these pronto. Hypnosis is really nothing for the lay person to fool around with; and this prescription for a happier, healthier life could backfire more seriously than the usual self-help line.