Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Theory and Practice of Sensorimotor Psychosynthesis

  • From the Researcher’s Notebook
  • Published:
Herald of the Russian Academy of Sciences Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This article presents the theory and practical application of a promising technique called sensorimotor psychosynthesis, which permits the induction of an altered state of consciousness in a patient. A state termed the “entangled state” in quantum physics and an empathy state in psychology emerges as the therapist (suggester) and the patient interact. The active dialogue between the suggester and the patient is the major distinctive feature of the sensorimotor psychosynthesis method and the major difference between this method and directive hypnosis. The authors describe a dynamic transformation of the worldviews (or mentality) in a number of patients during psychotherapy. This transformation occurred due to the construction of semantic spaces, a major psychosemantic approach to personality analysis, which involves the construction of a unique reality by the patient in an altered state of consciousness and the patient’s existence in this reality, which conforms to the patient’s desires and motives. Applications of the method in psychotherapy, sports, and criminal investigations are discussed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1.

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Examples of age regression are more common in publications on psychology [28]: the patients were made to believe that they returned to childhood, and then they showed childish behavior; virtually no hypnosis-based “age progression studies” were performed.

REFERENCES

  1. V. F. Petrenko and A. P. Suprun, “Methodological manifesto of psychosemantics,” Psikhol. Zh. 37 (3), 5–14 (2016).

    Google Scholar 

  2. V. V. Belokurov, O. D. Timofeevskaya, and O. A. Khrustalev, Quantum Teleportation—a Usual Miracle (Regulyarnaya I Khaoticheskaya Dinamika, Izhevsk, 2000) [in Russian].

    Google Scholar 

  3. C. G. Jung, Two Essays on Analytical Psychology (Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton, 1989).

    Google Scholar 

  4. V. F. Petrenko, V. V. Kucherenko, and A. V. Rossokhin, “The altered state of consciousness as a psychological reality,” Zh. Praktikuyushchego Psikhologa, No. 4, 81–93 (1998).

    Google Scholar 

  5. V. F. Petrenko, V. V. Kucherenko, and A. A. Nistratov, “The influence of an affect on the semantic organization of meanings,” in Text As a Psychological Reality (Institut Yazykoznaniya AN SSSR, Moscow, 1982), pp. 60–80 [in Russian].

    Google Scholar 

  6. V. F. Petrenko and V. V. Kucherenko, “Interrelation between an emotion and a color,” Vestn. Mosk. Univ., Ser. 14: Psikhol., No. 6, 70–72 (1988).

  7. V. F. Petrenko, “Psychology of the consciousness revisited,” Vopr. Filos., No. 11, 57–74 (2010).

  8. V. F. Petrenko and V. V. Kucherenko, “Meditation as a form of nonmediated cognition,” Vopr. Filos., No. 8, 83–101 (2008).

  9. V. F. Petrenko, V. V. Kucherenko, and A. P. Vyal’ba, “The psychosemantics of altered states of the consciousness (a case study of the hypnotherapy of alcoholism),” Psikhol. Zh. 27 (5), 16–27 (2006).

    Google Scholar 

  10. M. H. Erikson, Hypnotic Realities: The Introduction of Clinical Hypnosis and Forms of Indirect Suggestion, Ed. by E. L. Rossi and S. I. Rossi (Irvington, New York, 1976) [in Russian].

    Google Scholar 

  11. R. Bandler and J. Grinder, Frogs into Princes: Neuro Linguistic Programming (Real People Press, Moab, Utah, 1979).

    Google Scholar 

  12. H. Bergson, Creative Evolution (Henry Holt, New York, 1911).

    Google Scholar 

  13. V. F. Petrenko and A. P. Suprun, “Methodology of psychosemantics in the context of the philosophy of postnonclassical rationality and quantum physics,” Herald Russ. Acad. Sci. 85 (5), 434–442 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. V. F. Petrenko and A. P. Suprun, “Classical and quantum physics in the language of consciousness and unconsciousness as postnonclassical rationality,” Vopr. Filos., No. 9, 76–90 (2014).

  15. S. S. Stepanov, Psychology of Persons (Eksmo-Press, Moscow, 2001) [in Russian].

    Google Scholar 

  16. O. V. Ovchinnikova, E. E. Nasinovskaya, and N. G. Itkin, Hypnosis in the Experimental Study of Personality (Izd. Mosk. Gos. Univ., Moscow, 1989) [in Russian].

    Google Scholar 

  17. A. A. Gostev, The Psychology of a Secondary Image (Institut Psikhologii RAN, Moscow, 2007) [in Russian].

    Google Scholar 

  18. L. P. Grimak, Reserves of the Human Psyche (Politizdat, Moscow, 1989) [in Russian].

    Google Scholar 

  19. S. Grof, Psychology of the Future: Lessons from Modern Consciousness Research (State Univ. of New York Press, Albany, 2000).

    Google Scholar 

  20. C. T. Tart, Altered States of Consciousness: A Book of Readings (John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1969)

    Google Scholar 

  21. A. Dittrich, “Standardized psychometric assessment of altered states of consciousness (ASCs) in humans,” Pharmacopsychiatry 31 (7), 80–84 (1998).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. V. V. Kozlov and Yu. A. Bubeev, The Alteration of the State of Consciousness: Psychology and Physiology (Nauka, Moscow, 1997) [in Russian].

    Google Scholar 

  23. B. G. Anan’ev, The Psychology of Sensory Perception (Nauka, Moscow, 2001) [in Russian].

    Google Scholar 

  24. V. F. Petrenko, Fundamentals of Psychosemantics (Izd. Mosk. Gos. Univ., Moscow, 2010) [in Russian].

    Google Scholar 

  25. V. F. Petrenko and A. P. Suprun, Methodological Intersections between the Psychosemantics of Consciousness and Quantum Physics (Nestor-Istoriya, Moscow, 2017) [in Russian].

    Google Scholar 

  26. A. R. Luriya, A Small Book about Big Memory (Izd. Mosk. Gos, Univ., Moscow, 1968) [in Russian].

    Google Scholar 

  27. A. N. Leont’ev, “Psychology of the image,” Vestn. Mosk. Gos. Univ, Ser. 14: Psikhol., No. 2, 3–12 (1979).

  28. O. K. Tikhomirov, V. L. Raikov, and N. A. Berezanskaya, “On an approach to the study of thinking as an activity of a personality,” in Psychological Studies on Creative Activity (Nauka, Moscow, 1975), pp. 140–205 [in Russian].

    Google Scholar 

  29. V. V. Nurkova and D. A. Vasilenko, “Formation of a variative repertory of self-defining memories as a tool to develop self-identity,” Vestn. Ross. Gos. Gumanitar. Univ., Ser: Psikhol. Ped. Obr., No. 18, 11–30 (2013).

  30. D. A. Vasilenko, Autobiographical Memory As a Constructive Process, Cand. Sci. (Philol.) Dissertation (Moscow State Univ., Moscow, 2017) [in Russian].

  31. V. V. Nurkova, “Credulous memory: How information incorporates into the system of autobiographical knowledge,” in Cognitive Studies: A Collection of Research Papers, Ed. by V. D. Solov’ev and T. V. Cher-nigovskaya (Institut Psikhologii RAN, Moscow, 2008) [in Russian], vol. 2, pp. 87–102.

    Google Scholar 

  32. I. E. Hyman, T. H. Husband, and F. J. Billings, “False memories of childhood experiences,” Appl. Cognitive Psychol. 9 (3), 181–197 (1995).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. K. A. Wade, S. J. Sharman, M. Garry, et al. “False claims about false memory research,” Conscious Cogn. 16 (1), 18–28 (2007).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  34. C. R. Rogers, On Becoming a Person: A Therapist’s View of Psychotherapy (Houghton Mifflin, New York, 1961).

    Google Scholar 

  35. A. E. Alekseichik, Psychotherapy of Life (Institut Gumanisticheskoi I Ekzistentsial’noi Psikhologii, Vilnius, 2008) [in Russian].

    Google Scholar 

  36. A. P. Nazaretyan, Nonlinear Future (Izd. MBA, Moscow, 2013) [in Russian].

    Google Scholar 

Download references

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This study was supported the Russian Science Foundation, project no. 17-18-01610 “Psychosemantic Analysis of Consciousness and the Unconscious (with Materials from General Psychology, Political Psychology, and the Psychology of Art).”

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia

    V. F. Petrenko & V. V. Kucherenko

  2. Federal Research Center for Informatics and Management, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

    V. F. Petrenko

Authors
  1. V. F. Petrenko
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. V. V. Kucherenko
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to V. F. Petrenko.

Additional information

Translated by S. Semenova

Viktor Fedorovich Petrenko, Corresponding Member of the RAS, head of the Communication Psychology and Psychosemantics Laboratory at the Faculty of Psychology, Moscow State University, Leading Research Fellow of the System Analysis Institute, IM FRC RAS. Vladimir Viletar’evich Kucherenko, Cand. Sci. (Psych.), Senior Research Fellow of Communication Psychology and Psychosemantics Laboratory at the Faculty of Psychology, Moscow State University.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Petrenko, V.F., Kucherenko, V.V. Theory and Practice of Sensorimotor Psychosynthesis. Her. Russ. Acad. Sci. 89, 56–64 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1019331619010076

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S1019331619010076

Keywords:

Search

Navigation