The Vietnam Combat Delayed Stress Response Syndrome: Hypnotherapy of “Dissociative Symptoms”

Abstract

The Delayed Stress Response Syndrome in Vietnam veterans has been recently described to be a fairly typical symptomatic picture that includes physical symptoms, nightmares and flashbacks, memory lapses, angry outbursts, and an instability of relationships. It seems in part to be derived from repressed feelings of fear, grief and rage. In a veteran treated for 15 months using traditional psychotherapeutic techniques during the first phase of treatment, and hypnotic age regression techniques during the second phase, it was found that the re-experiencing of prior traumatic events, in the context of a trusting therapeutic relationship, led to an integration of the following affective components of the traumatic events: 1) fear and helplessness; 2) betrayal; 3) rage; 4) guilt; and 5) survival of a near-death experience.