A Hypnotherapist’s View: Basic Behavior

Battle trauma creates an imbalance in the warrior’s mind. Fear dominates his or her expectations. Obviously battle is not a typical experience, and the imbalance is extreme.

But parents raise children with predispositions toward euphoria or fear. When the former is expected, the child becomes adventurous. When the latter is expected, the child is protective. Most children have experiences that balance those expectations – they may be adventurous in one context and protective in another.

Until the 1950s, many hypnotists believed that protective people could not be hypnotized. Unfortunately, it is the protective person that most often needs hypnotherapy. As his practice became dominated by such clients, Dr. John Kappas applied himself to cracking their hypnotic code.

In the course of that study, surprising behavioral differences were revealed. Most naturally, adventurers (called “physicals” by Kappas) attract attention and crave intimacy, while protectors (called “emotionals”)  dress conservatively and prefer time alone. Less obviously: adventurers tend to answer questions indirectly, taking the listener on a journey of experience. Protectors tend to be terse – in extreme cases answering only with “yes” and “no.” Paradoxically, adventurers interpret requests literally – they take words at their face value – while protectors anticipate the motivations behind the request and act accordingly.

As regards the psychic struggle of combat stress, the most important difference is that the adventurer invests heart in every relationship, while the protector invests mind. They both care – and in fact complement one another. Adventurers without a protector find themselves out on a limb; protectors without an adventurer find themselves isolated and bored.

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