Sport Psychology, Hypnosis and Golf.

Hypnosis has received relatively little attention in the academic and professional sport psychology literature and concerns have been expressed about its use. Nevertheless, there are numerous websites advertising products and services related to hypnosis and golf. The purpose of this article is to provide a resource for practitioners to reflect on their provision of services related to hypnosis. Hypnosis has been highly controversial since the 18th Century when a medical student by the name of Mesmer learned of how a Jesuit priest successfully cured his patients with magnets applied to their bodies. In the 19th Century, the notion that hypnosis involves a different state of mind; i.e., hypnotic trance, became established in science and it was not until the 1940s that this notion was seriously questioned by scientists. In this article, alternative theoretical viewpoints of hypnosis are presented with particular reference to the stage hypnosis and NLP work of Paul McKenna. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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