History of hypnosis
and hypnotism
Extract from 'Successful Hypnotherapy' Diploma
course ©1981
INTRODUCTION
In any discussion about hypnosis of hypnotic like phenomena we are bedeviled
by the lack of a clear acceptable definition. From the 'physicalists' (Heidenhain
1888, Pavlov 1923) through the 'suggestionists' (Bernheim et al. 1884) to
the more recent 'no special hypnotic state' school (Barber, Sarbin et al.
1969) it is clear there is a wide divergence of opinion which is likely
to persist well into the future.
For this reason, it may be more constructive to look at some of the historical
evidence for the existence of the calculated use of suggestion, tracing
back from the time of Franz Anton Mesmer.
Pre-Mesmer Period
It is known that Mesmer himself was strongly influenced by Father Maximillian
Hell, especially in his speculations about astrology and the influence of
the planets upon the human body. Mesmer wrote his Thesis on this. But rather
Hell had been using magnets to treat the sick and Mesmer, a physician, made
his classic mistake of crediting the magnets with the power of healing,
and overlooking the subjective nature of the 'cures'.
Other magnetisers may well have been at work, but without 'attracting' the
attention subsequently achieved by Mesmer.
Pietro
D'Abano (ca 1250 1316)
Pietro
D'Abano was (according to World History of Psychiatry, (Ed. John G. Howells)
a teacher of medicine, philosophy and astrology in Padua.
He wrote Conciliator Differentiarum and he held '... that suggestion (pracentatio)
when practiced by a kind and, at the same time authoritative personality,
had definite effects on mentally disturbed people well disposed toward this
method of treatment' (my underscoring).
Pietro D'Abano could well have been described as a 'Suggestionist': but
this was 400 years before Mesmer. There was no need for magnets, but D'Abano
might well have considered that Mesmer's 'trappings', however erroneously
conceived, may well have heightened the effect of suggestion.
Kutagu
Bilig (1069)
A book written in Turkish (according to W.l. of P.) called KutadguBilig,
tells about the efsuncus. These were a kind of medical auxiliary, who used
'suggestion' to ward off jinns (or demons). They enjoyed a status rather
less than that of physicians.
Biblical
Times
Both the 'Old' and the New Testaments contain numerous references to events
seemingly 'magical' or 'miraculous'. Looked at objectively, many such happenings,
but by no means all of them, become easier to understand in terms of suggestion.
Hellenistic Period (ca 500 B.C.)
During the Hellenistic Period and later there were numerous Aesculapian
Sleep Temples, and these were much in use for the mentally ill. A room was
set aside for those who would sleep in the Temple, having been prepared
by the priests; and whose dreams were 'interpreted' by the priests so as
to 'cast out bad spirits'. The method was basically suggestion; the awe
produced by the priest, the solemn procedure and the powerful effect of
atmosphere within the Temple, all heightening the effect of suggestion.
Mac Hovec (Hypnosis before Mesmer) reports that the Aesculapian priests
sometimes used a brush, as if to brush away' unhealthy symptoms. Or they
would use a cloth, or touch with the hand.
This, of course, is very similar to Mesmer's passes with or without contact.
Going back still deeper into history, it is well known that ancient civilisations
have used what is now called hypnosis. Certainly the ancient Egyptian, Creek
and Persian cultures have produced the best documentation.
Ancient
Civilizations
Kroger and Fezler (Hypnosis and Behaviour Modification) discuss the ancient
Hebrew's use of magical rites and incantation: they used meditation with
chanting; breathing exercises and fixation on the Hebrew letters of the
alphabet that spelled GOD (or other name for God).
These ritualistic practices were rather similar to auto hypnosis and produced
an 'ecstasy state' called Kavanah. 'In the Talmud, Kavanah implies relaxation,
concentration, correct attention (motivation) and all enhanced the ritualistic
procedures' (Kroger and Fezler).
Benson (The Relaxation Response) cites other traditional religious practices
capable of achieving 'altered states of consciousness) and what he calls
the 'relaxation response).
Ancient Egyptians
(2980 2900)
Again
quoting World History of Psychiatry, 'one of the interesting psychotherapeutic
methods ancient Egypt was the 'incubation', or 'temple sleep'. This method
was associated with the name of Imhotep, the earliest known physician in
history. Imhotep (he comes in peace) was the Physician Vizier of the Pharaoh
Zoser (2980 2900 B.C.)
The Temples of Imhotep were busy centres for incubation or sleep therapy
and 'shrine sleep' is still encountered in some parts of Africa and the
Middle East'.
' Under the influence of incantation, and through the performances of religious
rituals, sick persons were psychologically prepared for such therapeutic
procedures'.
Pre History
While it is true that the very early origins of Hypnotic like behaviours
are 'shrouded in mystery and magic', much can be inferred. One of the best
descriptions of the pre history development of suggestion therapy is given
by Brian Inglis (Natural Medicine), in which he deals with Shamanism, Witch
Doctors, Suggestion, etc.
TRIBAL MAN
'... Tribal man began to rely on memory, rather than instinct, to tell him
which berries were safe to eat, and from which springs it was safe to drink;
decisions were left to the elders of the tribe.
TRIBAL
DOCTORS
There was, however, another health service available to him. If consciousness
could be suspended for a while, instinct or intuition might provide the
answers. An individual who could 'dissociate' enter into a state of trance,
in order to consult instinct was consequently regarded as of great value
to the tribe; the obvious choice, in fact, as Tribal Doctor.
When explorers, missionaries, and traders began to describe what they had
seen of tribal customs, their reports showed that tribes all over the world
employed what they variously described as shamans, witch doctors or medicine
men, chosen because of their ability.
Sometimes the tribal doctor would simply become abstracted, as if unaware
of his surroundings; on recovering consciousness, he would relate what he
had seen, and learned, in his trance. More often or perhaps it was more
often reported, because it was more striking he had what looked like a fit,
foaming at the mouth and going into convulsions, until the voice sounding
unlike his own would speak through him, or sometimes to him'.
ANIMAL
MAGNETISM
The magnetic properties of pieces of lodestone and later, magnetic iron
ore, have interested and puzzled countless enquiring minds. At the time
of Mesmer, in eighteenth century Europe, magnets were sometimes used in
the treatment of nervous illnesses, and there were reports of cures of stomach
troubles and toothache.
A Jesuit priest, Maximillian Hell, a friend of Anton Mesmer, was court astronomer
and head of the observatory in Vienna, He had obtained some of the improved
hardened steel magnets, following information given to him about their curative
effects, and he carried out a number of experiments. He then published a
report of twenty successes in a Viennese news sheet.
After reading Father Hell's report, Mesmer published a letter to the public,
in which he asserted that the magnet merely acted as a conductor of the
force or fluid that influenced the patient. This was dated January l9th,
1775.
FRANZ ANTON MESMER
Whether
Maximillian Hell used magnets before Mesmer is of little importance now,
since it was the latter's flair and tenacity of purpose that resulted in
the long and controversial introduction of 'animal magnetism' Mesmer's term
to the world of medicine.
Franz Anton Mesmer was born on May 23rd, 1734 at Iznang on Lake Constance
in Austria. He grew up in a world turning more and more to science. Mesmer
obtained a scholarship to enter the University of Dillingen in Bavaria,
at the age of 16, and he spent four years there studying logic, metaphysics
and theology. he also studied at the University of Ingoldstadt, in Bavaria.
After two years at the University of Vienna, reading law, Anton Mesmer decided
to apply to the medical schools, where he took his degree after six years.Despite
the claims made against Mesmer, it would appear to be indisputable that
his academic knowledge was well founded.
He spent sixteen years at Universities and was awarded two doctorates in
medicine and philosophy.
MESMER'S THESIS
Mesmer's great interest in astronomy was evident in the thesis he wrote
for his final doctorate. This was entitled: 'The influence of the Planets
on the Human Body'.
Some of Mesmer's many detractors mistakenly believed him to be involved
in astrology, when in fact he was concerned with forces that operate within
the solar system. Mesmer himself cites Newton's hypothesis of 'a certain
subtle spirit' pervading all material bodies by the force of which they
attract one another. Newton also writes of 'electric and elastic spirit'.
Another writer who almost certainly influenced Anton Mesmer was Hermann
Boerhaave, the Dutch physician and scientist, whose lectures were published
after his death. It was Mesmer's supervisor van Swieten, who wrote the commentaries
to the lectures. Boerhaaves's view that metals, particularly copper, were
influenced with a certain power or force that could be efficacious foreshadowed
Mesmer's magnetic theory.
In his thesis, Mesmer termed 'animal gravitation' what, in his later writings,
became 'animal magnetism'. He believed that when the ebb and flow of the
fluid within a human organism was disturbed through being out of harmony
with the universal rhythm mental or nervous illness could result.
Anton Mesmer, using a mixture of conventional methods and the application
of magnets, quickly drew attention to himself in Vienna, and some of it
was hostile. He obtained a number of remarkable cures and listed, in his
first published report: cures for apoplectic lameness, epilepsy, hysteria,
melancholia and fitful fever. His method with magnets (horse shoe shaped
magnets) was to apply them to the patient's body, at the soles of the feet
and upon the chest.
To his credit, Mesmer emphasised that the magnets were not crucial. He had
demonstrated that almost anything would do in place of magnets e.g. metals,
wood, silk, paper, stone, glass and water.
It is not entirely clear why Mesmer decided to leave Vienna, but what is
certain is that the Faculty were unhappy about his use of 'animal magnetism'
and Mesmer himself was weary and disheartened because of the criticism,
and his being involved in a protracted disagreement, and unpleasant scenes,
with the family of a blind girl who disputed his claimed cure. He arrived
in Paris in 1778.
MESMER'S PARIS SALON
When Mesmer first set up his Salon in a large rented mansion in the Place
Vendome, there was no lack of interest. His reputation had preceded him,
and there were many wealthy patients to be seen at high fees, as well as
those who would pay less. After several months, he moved to a house in the
village of Ceteil, just a few miles from Paris, and it was here that the
famous baquet made its first appearance.
The
baquet, a large round oak barrel about the height of a low table, enabled
people to sit around it who then had access to the movable iron rods that
pierced its cover. The lower ends of the rods located into the vessels of
magnetised water, and each vessel itself immersed in water containing iron
filings, glass filaments and some other material. Variations included cords
to replace the rods, and sand to replace the water.
This contraption made it possible for Mesmer and his assistants to treat
a number of patients together a form of group therapy. Patients sat around
the baquet, holding hands to assist the circulation of the 'magnetic fluid',
and bringing the affected parts into contact with the rods or cords. Anton
Mesmer would move among them, resplendent in his lilac silk robe, sometimes
talking quietly and from time to time making passes with his iron wand or
hands. He would also 'fix the patient with his penetrating eyes'. There
would usually be some appropriate piano music and, just occasionally, Mesmer
himself would play his glass armonica.
It should be remembered that the scene described was enacted in the 1780's;
that silk robes were as commonplace then as double-breasted jackets are
now; and that Mesmer, as well as acting upon his patients, was himself being
acted upon by his patients by their expectations and their responses to
his methods. He was exploring a new therapeutic relationship.
At his Paris Salon, when he shortly moved back into Paris and converted
the building known as the Hotel Bullion, in the Rue Coq Heron, Mesmer had
the great aid of his partner and friend Dr. Charles D'Eslon. They were so
successful that frequently would-be patients had to leave without treatment,
bitterly disappointed. Mesmer realised that he did not need the baquet,
so he used a large tree, as he had done before in Vienna, and often a hundred
people were said to be sitting around the tree in the Paris suburbs and
holding cords that were attached to the branches of the tree. Many of these
subsequently reported that they were cured-or felt better. It is not difficult
to see why Mesmer was attacked by orthodox medical practitioners.
In 1782, Mesmer and his associates founded the Society of Harmony. One hundred
subscribers would each pay 100 louis d'or (over £400 at present values)
and receive, in return, full instruction in Mesmer's methods and the right
to practice in specified towns.
Among the subscribers was the Marquis de Puysegur and the Marquis de Lafayette.
The Society was a great success and soon other Societies of Harmony were
operating in the French provinces and abroad. Important discoveries about
the therapy were to be made by the Marquis de Puysegur, in particular, and
others who had been introduced to the subject for the first time by Anton
Mesmer.
But the hostility and rancour continued, with both Mesmer and D'Eslon pressing
for investigations that would, they believed, make them acceptable to the
Establishment.
During Anton Mesmer's declining years and after his death, Mesmer's pupil
and friend, the Marquis de Puysegur, continued to practice and teach animal
magnetism. Later, de Puysegur's student and friend, Professor Jean Deleuze,
demonstrated post hypnotic suggestion, probably for the first time.
Baron Dupotet de Sennevoy, noted for his work at the Saltpetriere, lectured
in France and later in England on animal magnetism. It was Dupotet who fired
the imagination of John Elliotson. Dupotet was a member of yet another Commission
of Enquiry set up by the Academy of Science. The findings vindicated Mesmer
but provoked intense opposition. The Report was held up until 1831, five
years after the Enquiry sat, and was never published.
John Elliotson was undoubtedly a leading physician of his day. He introduced
the use of the stethoscope into England and was noted for other medical
advances. Elliotson was appointed Professor of the Practice of Medicine,
in 1831, to University College, and was mainly instrumental in founding
University College Hospital.
John Elliotson had seen the demonstrations of Chenevix in 1829, but it was
the lectures of Dupotet, in 1837, that sparked off his own researches into
animal magnetism. But he ran into considerable opposition to this work and,
in 1838, the Council of University College ordered EIliotson to cease the
practice of mesmerism. He was so incensed that he resigned his appointments
at both College and Hospital.
In 1843, Elliotson and his followers started the publication of a quarterly
journal called the Zoist, to which Elliotson contributed numerous medical
articles, including reports on painless mesmeric operations of thigh, leg,
arms, breast, etc. According to Milne Bramwell, the influence of the Zoist,
which ran from April 1843 until December 1855, resulted in mesmeric institutions
being formed in London, Edinburgh, Dublin and elsewhere.
Unfortunately, while the Zoist contained much that would be acceptable even
today, it also devoted a good deal of space to subjects like clairvoyance,
phrenology and odylic force, which were ridiculed by Elliotson's detractors.
One of the regular contributors to the Zoist was James Esdaile.
1808 1859. James Esdaile made his first mesmeric experiments in 1845, when
in charge of the Native Hospital at Hooghly, in India. He subsequently used
mesmeric analgesia successfully in numerous operations though he was not
the first. (The first recorded operation using mesmerism to produce analgesia
was carried out by Dr's Topham and Squire Ward, in amputation of the leg).
In 1846, Esdaile was given a small hospital in Calcutta. Despite a petition
attesting to its success, this mesmeric hospital was closed down. A second
hospital making full use of mesmerism was established in 1848, entirely
supported by voluntary contributions, the greater bulk of which came from
the native population.
By the time Esdaile was ready to leave India, he had carried out thousands
of painless operations, and no less than three hundred of them were major
operations. These included nineteen amputations and the removal of scrotal
tumours.
Despite Esdaile's vigorous defence of mesmerism for painless surgery the
introduction of ether then chloroform signalled the virtual end of that
application of mesmerism. One year after leaving India, in 1852, James Esdaile
published his pamphlet entitled 'The Introduction of ,mesmerism as an Anaesthetic
and Curative Agent into the Hospitals of India'.
JAMES BRAID - 1795 1860
A Scottish surgeon of high repute. James Braid was to give the phenomena
usually associated with mesmerism a respectable scientific rationale, and
it was he who coined the words: hypnotism, hypnotic, hypnotise, etc. (Greek.
Hypnos sleep).
Braid first witnessed mesmerism in 1841 when it was demonstrated by Lafontaine.
He was not impressed by this, believing mesmeric effects to be due to trickery.
But Braid was present at a second 'seance' when Lafontaine's presentation
of a somnambule was greeted with accusations of trickery, and several members
of the audience, including Braid, went up onto the rostrum to investigate
the 'mesmerised' girl. Braid tested her by forcing a pin beneath a finger
nail and was very impressed that she showed no signs of discomfort. Thereafter,
Braid carried out numerous experiments and became a true convert.
James Braid's classic 'Neurypnology, or the Rationale of Nervous Sleep',
appeared in 1843, and sold eight hundred copies.
Braid's scientific approach to hypnotism, and his new terminology, made
it possible for many influential people to embrace the subject who would
not otherwise have done so. But even more important was Braid's assertion
that hypnotic effects were a subjective phenomenon, and not produced directly
by the hypnotiser.
While it is true that the Abbe Faria, in 1814, had anticipated Braid's important
findings, Braid's total contribution was on a considerable scale.
THE NANCY SCHOOL
Auguste
Ambrose Liebeault (1823 1904), and Hippolyte Bernheim (1840 l919). These two founded the so called Nancy school, which was to
prove to be of very great significance in the establishment of a hypnotherapy
acceptable in many quarters.
Liebeault is often described as a 'simple country doctor', but by offering
to treat without charge the peasants of Nancy he was able to amass a considerable
experience and expertise with hypnosis. His first study of hypnosis began
in 1860. In 1882 he obtained a cure for sciatica in a patient long treated
without success by
Bernheim, a fashionable doctor in Paris. As a consequence of this, Bernheim
began making regular visits to Nancy, and the two men became good friends
and colleagues. Bernheim published the first part of his book, De la Suggestion,
in 1884. The second part, La Therapeutic Suggestive, followed in 1886.
These books by Bernheim established his friend, and Liebeault's own book,
which had been published twenty years before and sold only one copy, were
now quickly bought up.
Liebeault confined himself to working for the poor, refusing to accept any
fee. Bernheim, from 1882, made a practice of hypnotising all hospital patients
who came into his care. After four years, about five thousand hypnotic inductions
yielded a seventy five per cent success rate. Several years later, the number
of inductions had risen to ten thousand and the success rate was eighty
five per cent.
In the same year that Bernhein had discovered Liebeault 1882, Jean
Martin Charcot (1835 1893) presented his findings on hypnotism
to the French Academy of Sciences.
Charcot believed that hypnosis was essentially hysteria, and being an understanding
neurologist of his day he was listened to with great respect. In fact, Charcot
had obtained much of his knowledge of hypnotism from his work with twelve
hysterics at the Saltpetriere, and most of his conclusions on the subject
were based on that tiny sample.
The Nancy school opposed Charcot's conclusion of hysteria, and won acceptance
of hypnosis as an essentially normal consequence of suggestion.
In
1885 Sigmund Freud (1856 1939) spent some time with Charcot,
and was very impressed. He was also to translate into German Bernheim's
De la Suggestion. In Vienna, Freud and his friend Joseph Breuer used hypnosis
successfully in psychotherapy and, in 1895, they produced their classic
Studies in Hysteria.
Freud had visited Nancy in 1889, and this visit had convinced him of the
'powerful mental processes which nevertheless remain hidden from the consciousness
of men'.
Later, he was to abandon hypnosis. He discovered the 'positive transference'
when a female patient he had awakened from hypnosis threw her arms around
his neck. On this Freud wrote 'I was modest enough not to attribute the
event to my own irresistible personal attraction, and I felt that I had
now grasped the nature of the mysterious element that was at work behind
hypnotism'.
He subsequently developed free association and psychoanalysis and was able
to control and use the transference phenomena.
At the end of the nineteenth century Wetterstrand, Kraft Ebing, Albert Moll
and numerous others were adding to the written record. Dr. Oskar Vogt developed
the induction method of fractionation, and one of his students, Johannes
Schultz, was later to introduce Autogenic Training considered by many to
be a form of auto hypnosis.
The first decades of this century produced workers such as Forel, Schilders
and Kauders, Emile Coue, etc.
Coue had studied at Nancy, and is associated with the New Nancy school.
He made a big reputation with his work on Auto Suggestion and gave us, among
other insights into the mind, his 'law of reverse effort'.
Pierre Janet followed on from Charcot; it was Janet who was largely
responsible for the 'dissociation' theory of hypnosis. The great I. Pavlov,
of course, demonstrated the conditional reflex, and put forward his reciprocal
inhibition of the cortex theory to explain hypnosis rather similar to that
of Haidenhain in 1888.
In the thirties, M.H. Erikson contributed massively and C.L. Hull, in 1933,
published Hypnotism and Suggestibility, arguably the most scientific treatment
of hypnotism available, nearly fifty years later.
In recent years thousands more articles and monographs have added to the
mountain of literature on hypnotherapy. Max Dessoir's Bibliography of Modern
Hypnotism (first published in 1888 and its Appendix added in 1890) listed
1,182 works by 774 writers. The list now is truly formidable.
It is certainly worth mentioning Lewis R. Wolberg and the two Hilgards Ernest
R. and Josephine R. whose writings are impressive. And it is worth recalling
the achievement of A.A. Mason who, in the early fifties, used hypnotic suggestion
to cure a fifteen year old boy of his ichthyosiform erythrodermia of Brocq,
a congenital skin disease in which the skin is covered with fishlike scales,
and which was thought previously to be incurable. Andrew Salter's theory
of the conditional reflex to explain hypnotic effects has been followed,
more recently, by the writings of Barber, Sarbin and Orne, whose position
generally is no 'special state' in hypnosis.
What has become known as the 'special state no special state controversy'
is not likely to be resolved until there are major advances in the biological
sciences, and perhaps not even then. Modern hypnotherapy has survived controversies,
mistrust and open hostility to reach its present insecure position among
the. healing arts.
Whatever the particular controversy that happens to rage, perhaps most fair
minded observers would agree: Hypnotherapy has survived because enough determined
men have fought on, and because enough people have benefited from it.
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