Chapter 10. To Begin With ―Psychoeducation (4)

Of course we cannot deny altogether the healing effect of spiritual healing. There is even a scientific study in Japan regarding therapeutic effect of kuchiyose (communication with dead people in a trans state) by itakos (Japanese spiritual mediums) for bereaved family members (Yomiuri Shinbun Journal, August, 14th, 2010). However, there are also quite a number of fraudulent lay “therapists” that patients need to beware of.
On the other hand, hypnotherapy has its long history of a recognized treating method and dissociative disorder has been found to be one of its indications. However, sometimes its distinction from some lay healing methods may seem unclear. Some hypnotherapists assert that age regression therapy and Past-Life Therapy should not be confused with spiritual healing (Weiss, 1988).
Weiss, BL: Many Lives, Many Masters (1988) The True Story of a Prominent Psychiatrist, His Young Patient, and the Past-Life Therapy That Changed Both Their Lives. Fireside.
2. What does psychoeducation serve?
① 　To provide accurate information about dissociation.
There is a huge variability in knowledge and understanding on dissociative disorder among people, even among clinicians. Those who finished their training before official diagnosis of dissociative disorder appeared, i.e., in the 1980s, might show a considerable resistance in recognizing and diagnosing dissociative disorder. Some psychiatrists have an almost fixed idea that hearing voices are clue solely to the diagnosis of schizophrenia. This is the reason for a paradoxical phenomenon that visiting psychiatrists can lead to the misdiagnosis of the dissociative condition.
On the other hand, patients and their family members who are naïve about common psychiatric knowledge are one step closer to accepting and understanding dissociative disorder properly. Their problem is that their main source of information, i.e., internet, is a mixture of wheat and chaff: some information is very resourceful while other are blatantly false.