There is certainly no shortage of stress relievers and in addition to the above, various progressive muscular relaxation exercises, autogenic training, deep breathing, massage therapies, visual imagery and self-hypnosis practices are popular.

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Ms. Kienle argues, with Van Gogh's many letters as evidence, that the greatest Dutch painter since Rembrandt managed to survive, in part, by employing a kind of self-hypnosis, sessions of superhuman focus that helped Van Gogh put down the fires in his head.

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Through Freud, dreams were then discovered as the voice of the subconscious, its inner secrets revealed through automatic writing or self-induced hypnosis (with Breton's first wife, Simone, assigned the women's role of note-taker).

ECONOMIST: 20th-century art

The devilish-looking comedian Jack Black, a sexist loser who wants a physically perfect woman, receives a mystical hypnosis from the (literally) gigantic self-help guru Tony Robbins.

NEWYORKER: Shallow Hal