The sequential art of the mind: Parallels between comics and therapeutic hypnosis Metaphor as a healing technique is as old as humanity. Metaphors are expressed in stories and emotional journeys in many ways. They can be spoken, written, drawn, danced or sung. Therapeutic metaphors usually involve a sequence of images and action creating a journey through the imagination to the healing powers of the brain. Comics make their metaphors through sequential images and apt words and their usefulness in medicine is now being recognised. Hypnosis can also heal and involves similar sequential images and meaningful stories. This paper presents an ultra-quick primer on therapeutic hypnosis and then presents three hypnosis cases with comic-like qualities. Neil is an Australian rural and remote community psychiatrist. He's interested in Indigenous mental health and in the therapeutic and psychodynamic power of metaphor which serves well in therapeutic hypnosis. He's been drawing since infancy, a cartoonist since high school in the sixties, and now he's working on a Comic Memoir that is stirring his emotional pot.
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