TODAY'S TWD: HYPNO-TOLD

Unbeknownst to his assistant Natalie or his therapist Dr. Bell, Adrian Monk snuck off to see a hypnotherapist in the 'Monk' episode "Mr. Monk Gets Hypnotized".

We've seen TV characters get hypnotized in the past, usually for comedic purposes. My personal favorite is when Rob Petrie was hypnotized to act drunk whenever a bell rang on 'The Dick Van Dyke Show'.

Here's what my old TWD standby Wikipedia has to begin their article on hypnotherapy:

Hypnotherapy is therapy that is undertaken with a subject in hypnosis.

The word "hypnosis" (from the Greek hypnos, "sleep") is an abbreviation of James Braid's (1843) term "neuro-hypnotism", meaning "sleep of the nervous system".

A person who is hypnotized displays certain unusual characteristics and propensities, compared with a non-hypnotized subject, most notably hyper-suggestibility, which some authorities have considered a sine qua non of hypnosis.

For example, Clark L. Hull, probably the first major empirical researcher in the field, wrote,

If a subject after submitting to the hypnotic procedure shows no genuine increase in susceptibility to any suggestions whatever, there seems no point in calling him hypnotised [...]

(C.L. Hull, Hypnosis & Suggestion, 1933: 392)

Hypnotherapy is often applied in order to modify a subject's behavior, emotional content, and attitudes, as well as a wide range of conditions including dysfunctional habits, anxiety, stress-related illness, pain management, and personal development.

BCnU!
Toby O'B