The affect bridge: A hypnoanalytic technique

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Abstract
The “affect bridge” is a technique whereby a patient is moved experientially from the present to a past incident over an affect common to the 2 events rather than through an overlapping “idea” as is usual in psychoanalytic association. The current affect is vivified and all other aspects of the present experience hypnotically ablated. The patient is then asked to return to some earlier experience during which the affect was felt and to re-live the associated event. A case is presented during which 2 “affect bridges” were used to secure a regression to early oral levels of development as part of the treatment of obesity. Significant conflict material so secured was “brought forward” to the present to achieve “insight” and “working-through.” The technique appeared to achieve significant therapeutic change in a comparatively short period of time.

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