LEARN ABOUT HYPNOSIS

HISTORY OF HYPNOTISM

To begin, let's talk about the history of hypnotism, and trace its connection with suggestion and with all modern mental treatment which is classified under psychotherapy (mind treatment).

The phenomena of hypnotism or magnetism first became popularly known towards the end of the eighteenth century (1778), when Anton Mesmer, an Austrian physician, came to Paris, and under the patronage of Marie Antoinette practiced the art of healing by magnets. Hence arose the term mesmerism or magnetism. Mesmer claimed that he cured through the application of magnetic plates, amulets, rings, and collars, which were charged with magnetic fluid, and that it was in his power to direct the flow of the magnetized fluid through the body by means of manipulations and passes. Mesmer held seances to which flocked people of all classes of society, among them many distinguished men and women of the court of Louis XVI. These seances were held in a dimly lighted room to the accompaniment of music, the proceedings being directed by Mesmer himself clad in yellow robes and bearing a wand in his hand. In order to facilitate proceedings on account of the numbers, a large magnetized tub or "baquet" was placed in the center of the room, those desiring treatment being arranged round it in a circle and connected to it by means of iron wires capable of application to various parts of the body.


In this way large numbers of people could be treated at the same time. Mesmer regarded crises or convulsions as a necessary part of the cure, and these were indeed only too easily produced in an atmosphere so surcharged with excitement. By degrees Mesmer and his work fell into disrepute, he himself was ridiculed in burlesque poems and songs, and finally the death-blow was given to his cures by the condemnatory report of a body of scientific men who had been appointed by the Royal Academy of Medicine to enquire into them. Mesmer therefore shook the dust of Paris from his feet. His teaching however was repressed in appearance only, and the French Revolution which followed soon after was the means of spreading it in several countries, in consequence of the forced expatriation of many of his devoted followers. Though it is the custom now to decry Mesmer as a humbug and an impostor, we cannot afford to forget that in spite of the errors of his teaching he was the fist pioneer of all modern psychotherapy.In 1784 a pupil of Mesmer, the Marquis de Puysegur, revived his teaching, but carried out the cures in a more normal and healthy fashion. The Marquis, a man of a gentle and kindly nature, aimed at curing not by convulsions, but by magnetic sleep. It is reported that patients came to him from great distances, were thrown into gentle sleep while seated around a magnetized tree in his domain, and that numbers went away relieved of various ills.

In more recent times there have been two rival French schools of hypnotism, represented respectively by Charcot and Richet at the Salpetriere Hospital in Paris, and by Liebault and later by his pupil Bernheim at Nancy ; Charcot and Liebault being now both dead. According to Charcot and his disciples, the hypnotic state was merely a manifestation of hysteria, and it with its accompanying phenomena of anesthesia, catalepsy, exaggerated suggestibility, etc., could only be evoked in hysterical subjects. This view has been controverted and shown to be absolutely erroneous, not only by Liebault and Bernheim, but by all modern hypnotizts, who have amply demonstrated the fact that these phenomena can be induced in perfectly normal individuals of both sexes, not only during the hypnotic trance, but to a certain extent in the waking state. We will dwell upon this in greater detail in a subsequent section. Leibault, the exponent of the Nancy school, may be regarded as the founder of all modern psychotherapy, and to him is due the honour of having cleared this branch of medicine from the opprobrium which Mesmer's methods had unfortunately cast upon it.


Liebault settled in Nancy in 1864 and for twenty years worked quietly, simply, and ignored by the medical profession at his dispensary, which was daily thronged by crowds of suffering people. He was beloved by his poorest patients, and to this fact doubtless he owed much of the wonderful influence he exercised over their diseases. He would accept no fees, lest it should be said that he practiced hypnotism in order to make money. It is reported that he said to his patients: "If you want drugs I will give them, but you will have to pay me; if you will allow me to hypnotize you, I will do it for nothing."

Liebault's contention was that it is suggestion that induces this so-called hypnotic sleep and the phenomena evoked during it, and not either a magnetic fluid or the psycho-physical effect of concentration of mind and eyes on a bright object. This latter theory, as we shall see later, had been already advocated by Braid. Therefore in order to induce hypnosis, Liebault availed himself of neither manipulations nor of fixation of the eyes on a bright object, but instructed the patient to gaze steadily into his eyes, while he suggested the phenomena of sleep in detail : "Your eyelids are heavy; you can hardly keep your eyes open," and so on. Having by this means induced sleep, he proceeded to give curative suggestions which varied according to the malady of body or mind to be treated.

To Bernheim (1882), a pupil of Liebalt, is due the honour of having realized the value of the work that was being done so quietly and unobtrusively at Nancy, and of having made Liebault and his work known to the world. Bernheim has still further modified the teaching of Liebault by pointing out that the phenomena of anaesthesia, suggestibility, etc., which the latter regarded as being peculiar to the state of hypnotic sleep, can be induced with equal readiness during the pre-hypnotic or slightly drowsy state. Bernheim has thus advocated and carried out treatment by suggestion without the previous induction of deep hypnotic sleep, and in this many have followed his lead, adopting it as the basis of modern psychotherapy. Even this method has been still further modified, due to the teaching of Dr. Dubois of Berne, so that now persuasion by clear and convincing reasoning in the waking state and without hypnotism has taken its place as a branch of modern psychotherapy.

We thus see that the term psychotherapy must be accepted as covering several forms of treatment: suggestion during the hypnotic sleep, suggestion in the pre-hypnotic or slightly drowsy state, persuasion in the waking state, and we might add, re-education in its various forms.

We must now turn our attention to the work of various English physicians who during the same period were doing pioneer work in England on the same lines as those of the French workers, and with the same opposition. The first name of note is that of John Elliotson, who was led to interest himself in mesmerism in 1837 through the influence of a French nobleman, at whose house leading members of the medical profession had met, to witness various experiments. Elliotson was at that time one of the foremost physicians in London and President of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Societies. He availed himself of his position on the staff of University College Hospital to use mesmerism in treating patients suffering from various diseases, and had special success in treating hysteria and allied nervous states. Soon, however, a storm of opposition was raised by his colleagues, who heaped ridicule upon him and finally made matters so uncomfortable that Elliotson was called upon by the hospital authorities to desist from using mesmerism. This he refused to do and was therefore forced to resign his position as hospital physician. He continued however to use mesmerism in his private practice, and widely spread his views with the help of several sympathizers and by the publication of a journal, the Zoist, which continued to appear quarterly for thirteen years.

James Esdaile, a surgeon in the service of the East India Company, was led in 1845 to interest himself in mesmerism by reading of Elliotson's work and views in the Zoist. He was at that time in charge of the native hospital at Hooghly, and welcomed the use of mesmeric sleep for operative work, chloroform being then unknown. As a result of the great success which followed his first attempt he was soon able to report seventy-five painless operations to his Medical Board, who however ignored the letter. Later, after an investigation of his work by a specially appointed committee, he was placed by Government in charge of a larger hospital at Calcutta. In spite of his splendid success here, and in spite of an influential petition testifying to this and praying that the hospital should remain open, it was at the end of a year closed by Government. Esdaile continued his work in a hospital which was specially opened for him by numerous Indian admirers and sympathizers. At the end of six months however, Government once again appointed him to the Sarkea's Lane Hospital in Calcutta, and he continued to work there, doing thousands of painless operations, till he left India in 1851. Esdaile's closing years, after his return to Scotland, were saddened and embittered by the antagonistic attitude of the medical profession and by the refusal of medial journals to publish the results of his operative work under mesmerism.

There is yet a third name of note to be mentioned, that of James Braid, a surgeon of Manchester, whose pioneer work, begun in 1841, was of great value as it concerned itself not only with the practical application of hypnotism, but with an attempt to study and understand its phenomena. It was as a result of his work that in England the word mesmerism now gave way to hypnotism, from hypnosis--sleep. Braid was unfortunately regarded by Elliotson and Esdaile as an opponent because he maintained that the phenomena of hypnotism were due neither to the action of magnets nor to any peculiar fluid or force.

Braid discovered that hypnotic sleep could be induced in a patient by causing him to fix his eyes intently on a bright object held at a short distance above the head, with accompanying concentration of the mind on the same object. He also noted that the depth of the sleep varied in different people from slight drowsiness to a state of complete unconsciousness, and suggested limiting the term hypnotic sleep to those cases where on awaking entire forgetfulness of all that had transpired during sleep was acknowledged. Braid laid the foundation of the theories elaborated later by Myers and Carpenter, in which an attempt is made to explain the phenomena of hypnotism by an acceptance of the view of subliminal consciousness. Like his predecessors, Braid received but small encouragement from the medical profession in this country, but was held in high honour by the German workers who were at this time interesting themselves in hypnotism and in its practical application in medical practice.

Among the German pioneers of note must be mentioned Heidenhain, a contemporary of Braid, Krafft-Ebing, Preyer and Eulenburg, Wetterstrand, and more recently Forel and Moll, but it is not within the compass of this small website to take special note of their work.

At the present time treatment by hypnotism is fully recognized world-wide as a branch of medicine.

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