108. Anal pruritus

PERSON: woman.
DESCRIPTION: intractable anal pruritus (negative dermatological and gastro-enterological tests, useless pharmacological treatments of any conceivable type); rather rigid and closed personality, but nonetheless still pleasant; evident psychosomatic nature of her symptoms (completely unrecognized by her physicians, with a consequent loss of time and money, and prolonged damages to her life and to her mental health).
APPROACH: simple explanation of the situation ("nerves can send itching signals when they are excited from the outside, for example when a wound is healing, or from inside, when the nervous system is excited for its own reasons"); indirect hypnosis (after her complete opposition to any formal and recognizable induction, and even to any instruction about hypnosis); hidden technique and consequent substantial reduction of her itching; extreme astonishment of the client; immediate reinforcement: "and now you have learned that pruritus can become bearable"; trance extension and deepening.
RESULT: substantial fall of her pruritus after the preliminary talk; about two days of complete freedom from her pruritus after the first session, and then reappearance of that "hot burning and tingling"; her admission, during the second session, of becoming able again, after a long time, to cry and shed tears, followed by her comment: "but I didn't want to reveal it to you for some reason"; spontaneous trance, several abreactions, and then, on coming out of the trance, complete amnesia of these reactions ("why my eyes and my cheeks are so much wet?"); strong decrease of her pruritus; uncovering of a very deep suffering for a personal issue (omitted for privacy) that she had wrongly considered of little importance; her decision of stopping the hypnotic work, and final determination in leaving everything unchanged; evident psychiatric problem, erroneously diagnosed and erroneously treated by all the physicians as a mere dermatological symptom.
UPDATE (7 months): no further news.

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