{"id":3221,"date":"2019-10-26T09:00:12","date_gmt":"2019-10-26T09:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stefanhammel.com\/blog\/?p=3221"},"modified":"2020-02-11T18:56:46","modified_gmt":"2020-02-11T18:56:46","slug":"story-of-pain-and-lice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stefanhammel.com\/blog\/2019\/10\/26\/3221\/","title":{"rendered":"Of Pain and Lice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"699\" src=\"https:\/\/www.stefanhammel.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/cereals-4245063_1920-1024x699.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3399\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.stefanhammel.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/cereals-4245063_1920-1024x699.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.stefanhammel.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/cereals-4245063_1920-300x205.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.stefanhammel.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/cereals-4245063_1920-768x524.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.stefanhammel.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/cereals-4245063_1920-439x300.jpg 439w, https:\/\/www.stefanhammel.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/cereals-4245063_1920.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The story \u201cOf Pain and Lice\u201d illustrates how hypnotic anaesthesia can be prevented. We activate and reinforce anything we address and request, whether pleasant or unpleasant, and the only logical purpose of asking for something we do not want is therefore to pick up on an experience we have already had and turn it into something different and positive. What patients refer to as \u201cdistracting themselves\u201d and \u201cthinking about something else\u201d can be a very effective form of anaesthesia, and their efforts can be promoted by the medical and care staff who engage in small talk with them.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I waited in the doctor\u2019s office and wondered how I could distract myself from the treatment I was about to undergo by focusing my attention on something else. The doctor came in, greeted me and started the procedure. \u201cDoes that hurt?\u201d he asked. He could have achieved a similar but more pleasant result if he had said, \u201cThe patient before you had lice. I hope you\u2019re not feeling itchy?&#8221;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The story \u201cOf Pain and Lice\u201d illustrates how hypnotic anaesthesia can be prevented. We activate and reinforce anything we address and request, whether pleasant or unpleasant, and the only logical purpose of asking for something we do not want is &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stefanhammel.com\/blog\/2019\/10\/26\/3221\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stefanhammel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stefanhammel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stefanhammel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stefanhammel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stefanhammel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3221"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.stefanhammel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3678,"href":"https:\/\/www.stefanhammel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3221\/revisions\/3678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stefanhammel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stefanhammel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stefanhammel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}