Hypnotism | by Dr. Albert Moll
I have endeavoured to bring it into line with our present-day knowledge, and have laid special stress on the universal importance which has become attached to hypnotism and suggestion during the last ten years. I have given the narrowest limits possible to the concept suggestion, with the view of better differentiating suggestion from other psychic process than was formerly done. Relatively speaking, the fewest alterations have been made in the chapters on symptomatology and post-hypnotic suggestion. Very little has been added to our knowledge of these questions during the last few years, and it would appear that this branch of hypnotic research is fairly exhausted, though, of course, it may one day happen that it will have to go through a searching revision which will prove instructive.
| Title | Hypnotism |
| Author | Dr. Albert Moll |
| Publisher | Walter Scott Publishing Co. |
| Year | 1909 |
| Copyright | 1909, Walter Scott Publishing Co. |
| Amazon | Hypnotism |
Including A Study Of The Chief Points Of Psycho-Therapeutics And Occultism.
The Contemporary Science Series.
Edited By Havelock Ellis.
Preface To The Fourth Edition- My numerous other duties have, unfortunately, delayed the appearance of this edition of my book, in spite of the fact that the third has long been sold out. In the present, fourth edition, I have comp...
- Chapter I. The History Of Hypnotism
- In order to understand the gradual development of modern hypnotism from animal magnetism, we must distinguish two points: firstly, the belief that there are human beings endowed with a power not actin...
- The History Of Hypnotism. Part 2
- I do not wish to join the contemptible group of Mesmer's professional slanderers. He is dead, and can no longer defend himself from those who disparage him without taking into consideration the circum...
- The History Of Hypnotism. Part 3
- In the year 1812 the Government sent Wolfart from Berlin to Mesmer at Frauenfeld, in order that he might there make himself acquainted with the subject. Wolfart came back a thorough adherent of Mesmer...
- The History Of Hypnotism. Part 4
- The Commission worked for six years, and pronounced a favourable opinion in 1831; but the Academy was evidently not convinced. In spite of several further experiments - for example, those of Berna - n...
- The History Of Hypnotism. Part 5
- Braid now set to work to investigate the symptomatology of hypnosis, and in 1843 published his Neurypnology, a treatise on the subject. He was acquainted with the cataleptic phenomena and certain sugg...
- The History Of Hypnotism. Part 6
- Independently of Lie'beault, Charles Richet came forward in Paris in 1875 to contend for the real existence of hypnosis, which he called Somnambulisme provoque. In the year 1878 Charcot began his de...
- The History Of Hypnotism. Part 7
- Hypnotism found an entrance to many other countries. In Switzerland it gained numerous adherents, among whom I may mention Bleuler, Ringier, Bonjour, Liengme, but more particularly Forel, who, as the ...
- The History Of Hypnotism. Part 8
- In various universities and colleges of the United States the study of hypnotism has been carried on; for example, at Wellesley College, as Whiton Calkins reports. A scientific association, the Americ...
- The History Of Hypnotism. Part 9
- Occasionally we find hypnosis thoroughly discussed in other medical works; for example, in Eulenburg and Samuel's comprehensive treatise, Allgemeine Therapie, in which the section on psycho-therapeuti...
- The History Of Hypnotism. Part 10
- I must here again mention the American investigator, Boris Sidis, whose work, The Psychology of Suggestion, is directed to the elucidation, not only of hypnotic, but more especially of non-hypnotic su...
- The History Of Hypnotism. Part 11
- Hypnotism has, moreover, been frequently made the study of medical students; from 1888 to 1890 lectures were delivered about it in Berlin by the late Professor Preyer, and in Freiburg-in-Baden by Miin...
- The History Of Hypnotism. Part 12
- In art, also, hypnotism has played a certain part. Charcot and Richer in their work, Les Demoniaques dans l'Art, have given illustrations depicting attacks of hysteria, and considering the close conne...
- Chapter II. General Considerations
- In order to give the reader an idea of the phenomena of hypnotism, it will be best, first of all, to describe a few experiments. The phenomena will in this way be made more comprehensible than by mean...
- General Considerations. Part 2
- Fifth Experiment The woman seated on the chair is thirty years of age. She is highly hysterical. Directly she stares intently at any glittering object, and I at the same time speak to her as I did ...
- General Considerations. Part 3
- The mental methods induce hypnosis by giving a particular direction to the subject's imagination; this is done either by concentrating the attention on an arbitrary point (Braid), or by raising an ima...
- General Considerations. Part 4
- Some have also sought to induce hypnosis by the stimulus of heat - e.g., warm plates of metal (Berger). I here mention in particular the so-called mesmeric, mesmerizing, or magnetic passes, upon wh...
- General Considerations. Part 5
- All these details of the procedure - the enforced rest, relaxation of the muscles, the closing of the eyes, the monotonous tapping of the induction hammer, but more particularly the deep inspirations ...
- General Considerations. Part 6
- I have myself often produced hypnotic phenomena with post-hypnotic suggestions by the use of chloral hydrate. Stoll has given detailed accounts of the connection between drugs and suggestion as use...
- General Considerations. Part 7
- The old mesmerists (du Potet, Lafontaine) describe as a rare occurrence in hypnotic experiments a state of lethargy in which artificial awakening was impossible. After some time there was a spontaneou...
- General Considerations. Part 8
- The old mesmerists attempted to fix on certain signs as indicative of susceptibility to magnetic influence. Any lack in this respect was explained on various grounds. Dechambre tells us how Prince Hen...
- General Considerations. Part 9
- We find the same in life, in the relation of teacher to pupil, and of pupil to teacher, in the reciprocal relations of friends, or lovers. That there exists an individual aptitude for hypnotization...
- General Considerations. Part 10
- It is doubtful whether such experiments would succeed with persons who had never heard of hypnotism. Schrenck-Notzing reports a case in which hypnosis was produced from post-epileptic coma. Cases in w...
- General Considerations. Part 11
- A well-known classification is that of Charcot, who supposes three stages - the cataleptic, lethargic, and somnambulic. I shall go into more details as to these later, but will remark here that this c...
- General Considerations. Part 12
- Max Hirsch has proposed for such superficial conditions the term Captivation. Hirschlaff also would like to see the aforesaid conditions distinguished from hypnosis, and terms them pseudo-hypnotic. We...
- General Considerations. Part 13
- Naturally, the juggler takes great care not to direct the spectators to look in any particular direction. If he were to do this the spectators would discover his object, and would not look at the spot...
- General Considerations. Part 14
- Many other attempts have been made to define suggestion, but in some instances theory and definition have been confused. To a certain extent this objection applies to those definitions in which the as...
- Chapter III. The Symptoms Of Hypnosis
- I now come to the symptomatology of hypnosis. In order to make as complete a survey as possible, and only for that reason, I must arrange the subject-matter under the headings of Physiology and Psycho...
- The Symptoms Of Hypnosis. Part 2
- It is further possible to generate by suggeslion the idea of a paralysis of one of the extremities. These isolated paralyses have a great resemblance to the psychical paralyses arising without hypnosi...
- The Symptoms Of Hypnosis. Part 3
- It is not necessary to look steadily in the eyes of the hypnotic, as in fascination. The operator looks at the subject's leg - it at once becomes powerless to move. The hypnotic is going away - the ex...
- The Symptoms Of Hypnosis. Part 4
- These cases, in which the action of the original suggestion cannot be easily inhibited, recall certain forms of insanity, such as melancholia cum stupore. Bancroft has shown that the disturbances of m...
- The Symptoms Of Hypnosis. Part 5
- While the eyes are closed the lids not unseldom have a vibratory movement; but this symptom is of no real importance for diagnosis, as on the one hand it is sometimes wanting, and on the other hand of...
- The Symptoms Of Hypnosis. Part 6
- According to Charcot, the motor regions of the cerebral cortex can be stimulated through the cranium by means of the galvanic current, so that the muscles in connection with them contract. 3. The somn...
- The Symptoms Of Hypnosis. Part 7
- But we may conclude from a statement of Vigouroux, who excludes the deltoid muscle from the law of neuro-muscular activity, that the thing is not so plain. Gilles de la Tourette also states that the r...
- The Symptoms Of Hypnosis. Part 8
- The mental reflexes are extremely common; stooping at the whistling of a bullet, laughing at the sight of a clown, sickness produced by a disgusting smell, are mental reflexes. The involuntary muscula...
- The Symptoms Of Hypnosis. Part 9
- Dynamometric investigations - that is, measurements of the muscular force - -have often been undertaken during hypnosis. I myself have made a number of such experiments, which for the most part agreed...
- The Symptoms Of Hypnosis. Part 10
- Of course this increase must not be regarded as a phenomenon peculiar to hypnosis, since apart from hypnosis the tendon reflexes are more perceptible when the muscles are relaxed than when they are co...
- The Symptoms Of Hypnosis. Part 11
- At about the same time I became no longer able to detect the smell of a medicament which permeated the room. Finally the noise in the street appeared less loud. Dollken also investigated the phenomen...
- The Symptoms Of Hypnosis. Part 12
- To persist in calling this a case of suggestion because the hypnosis was produced by suggestion, would be to attribute to the word suggestion a meaning far beyond permissible limits. In what we call s...
- The Symptoms Of Hypnosis. Part 13
- An increased sensitiveness to touch has often been observed. The two points of a compass are used for measuring the least distance between them at which they may be felt as two separate points. In thi...
- The Symptoms Of Hypnosis. Part 14
- Naturally, I do 1 not contend that a hypnotic cannot find a paper in such a case better than a waking man. I only wish to point out that although this experiment is often used to demonstrate the prese...
- The Symptoms Of Hypnosis. Part 15
- Sense-delusions can be suggested in various ways. We tell a subject that he sees a bird, and he does. We can suggest the same thing by gesture - for example, by pretending to hold a bird in the hand -...
- The Symptoms Of Hypnosis. Part 16
- An entire cessation of the functions of any sense organ can be induced in the same way as a negative hallucination. You can no longer hear, You are deaf, or You are blind: these words suffice to...
- The Symptoms Of Hypnosis. Part 17
- A great acceleration of the pulse and of the respiration has been often observed when the method of Braid, or fascination (Bremaud), or mesmeric passes were employed (Ochorowicz), the respiration, whi...
- The Symptoms Of Hypnosis. Part 18
- He has seen the pulse fall from 98 beats to 92, and then rise to 115 beats. He infers a direct action on the inhibitory centre of the heart, and thinks himself also obliged to exclude ideas which affe...
- The Symptoms Of Hypnosis. Part 19
- Krafft-Ebing draws conclusions as to the increase of intestinal secretions from one experiment. He suggested to his subject a profuse watery evacuation of the bowels, which followed. As the bladder ha...
- The Symptoms Of Hypnosis. Part 20
- The experiments of Delbceuf, who worked in common with Winiwarter and Henrijean, also belong to the class of organic lesions. Delbceuf produced symmetrical burns, and made one of the wounds painless b...
- The Symptoms Of Hypnosis. Part 21
- The experiments were made on a nurse, twenty-three years old, who was not in the least hysterical. She was the daughter of plain country people, and had been for a long time an attendant in the Zurich...
- The Symptoms Of Hypnosis. Part 22
- The hand also became cyanotic and hard, and the temperature fell about three degrees. At all events, no matter how sceptical we may be, we are not justified in straightway denying the possibility that...
- The Symptoms Of Hypnosis. Part 23
- Delbceuf draws attention to one method of making the memory last: he thinks that subjects remember any hypnotic event if they are awakened in the middle of it; but this is certainly not universally tr...
- The Symptoms Of Hypnosis. Part 24
- It sometimes happens that the hypnotic does not remember all that occurred during the hypnosis. Thus matters of no interest to him escape his notice just as they would if he were awake. In some cases ...
- The Symptoms Of Hypnosis. Part 25
- I say to a subject: Of course you remember that we went to Potsdam yesterday, and took a' drive on the Havel ? The suggestion takes effect, and he at once begins to relate all that he believes we d...
- The Symptoms Of Hypnosis. Part 26
- By placing a subject back in some earlier period of life - childhood, for example - Krafft-Ebing endeavoured to obtain an experimental solution of the question as to whether events which have disappea...
- The Symptoms Of Hypnosis. Part 27
- Nuel's statement that in hypnosis the writing always differs from the subject's normal hand, and that consequently hypnotic signatures may always be distinguished from others, seems to me too general....
- The Symptoms Of Hypnosis. Part 28
- It may of course be objected that in such cases auto-suggestion plays a part, because the hypnotic thinks of the experimenter when falling asleep, and so, by auto-suggestion, isolates himself from the...
- The Symptoms Of Hypnosis. Part 29
- The subject looks till he finds the points of recognition, which at once recall the suggested picture to his memory. This search may be united with a dim consciousness that the whole thing is a delusi...
- The Symptoms Of Hypnosis. Part 30
- I have often observed that it was easier to induce sense-delusion by accompanying movements than by verbal suggestion alone, and I would recommend this as a means of deepening the hypnosis in suitable...
- The Symptoms Of Hypnosis. Part 31
- I shall enter into a criticism of the whole question later on in the section dealing with Art in relation to Hypnosis. From all the phenomena hitherto discussed it must have been gathered that ther...
- The Symptoms Of Hypnosis. Part 32
- All the phenomena which I have just described may be observed both in hypnotic and post-hypnotic suggestion. I ask a man before I hypnotize him to tell me of something which, in his opinion, would nev...
- The Symptoms Of Hypnosis. Part 33
- I wished merely to describe the more incomplete and by far the most common cases, because they are often mistaken for simulation. The cases detailed above provide us with noteworthy instances of th...
- The Symptoms Of Hypnosis. Part 34
- We shall see later on that the assumption that the truth can be extracted from a hypnotic has induced some people to advocate the use of hypnosis for forensic purposes. I will only mention here that a...
- The Symptoms Of Hypnosis. Part 35
- Similar cases have been reported by other authors, and Vogt specially points out that sexual feeling often occurs spontaneously in hypnosis. I take this opportunity of mentioning that dentists are wel...
- The Symptoms Of Hypnosis. Part 36
- Sufferers from ordinary neurasthenia exhibit similar phenomena when being hypnotized; this is accounted for by the excitement which the act of hypnotizing sets up in such persons. In dealing with a...
- The Symptoms Of Hypnosis. Part 37
- A long training is not at all necessary; Delbceuf artificially induced the stages of Charcot in one of his own subjects in a very few hours. My object in making these remarks is to warn against attrib...
- Chapter IV. Post-Hypnotic Suggestion
- A post-hypnotic suggestion will be more readily fulfilled when the moment for its execution is determined by an external sign; but successful cases in which no such sign has been employed are anything...
- Post-Hypnotic Suggestion. Part 2
- This case is characterized by loss of memory of all that happened during the post-hypnotic state, and further by susceptibility to suggestion. I do not know how this state is to be distinguished psych...
- Post-Hypnotic Suggestion. Part 3
- Gurney has directed attention to certain devices for estimating the mental state at the moment a post-hypnotic suggestion begins to act. We have seen that the renewed suggestibility is of great import...
- Post-Hypnotic Suggestion. Part 4
- I certainly do not think we are justified in exclusively attributing all the various states observed to the influence of the experimenter, or to training. In what precedes I have discussed the stat...
- Post-Hypnotic Suggestion. Part 5
- We have here a hypnotized subject to whom I say that when he wakes he is to take a flower-pot from the window-sill, wrap it in a cloth, put it on the sofa, and bow to it three times. All of which he d...
- Chapter V. Cognate States
- We can often advance the study of a state which has hitherto been little known and examined, by comparing it with other states with whose symptoms we are better acquainted. We will, therefore, try to ...
- Cognate States. Part 2
- In some of his experiments, Sante de Sanctis placed a musical clock under the pillow of his sleeping subjects - the latter his son, a girl, and an imbecile. Pleasant dreams resulted, and the subjects ...
- Cognate States. Part 3
- Consequently, the purport of dreams, as well as the way they originate, is alike in sleep and hypnosis. But, as in sleep we believe ourselves in another situation, and encounter all sorts of sense-del...
- Cognate States. Part 4
- Such movements are much more frequently caused by dreams. It is well known that children often laugh in pleasant dreams. A lady I know dreamed that she was blowing out a lamp; she made the correspondi...
- Cognate States. Part 5
- She grew daily more exhausted, and the weakness in her legs increased until a hysterical paraplegia of both legs declared itself. Nacke insists on the legal significance of dreams. Hysterical girls ha...
- Cognate States. Part 6
- What has already been said should suffice to show the close connection between sleep and hypnosis, a subject upon which no mean light is thrown by the close resemblance of posthypnotic suggestions to ...
- Cognate States. Part 7
- I should raise no objection to our calling hypnosis a mental disorder if we also regarded sleep and dreams as such. And we find that when alienists wish to discover analogies to mental disorder they a...
- Cognate States. Part 8
- The various phenomena of hypnosis have also been observed in normal waking life, and this makes a comparison of the hypnotic states with other abnormal states considerably more difficult. For example,...
- Cognate States. Part 9
- The many transitional states between waking life and hypnosis will often make the question difficult to decide; none of the points above mentioned will alone suffice to settle it. The cases of fascina...
- Cognate States. Part 10
- The latter phenomenon is brought about by the excitement produced by the experimenter's manipulations, and is also made manifest by acceleration of the respiration and heart-beat. This view, therefore...
- Chapter VI. Simulation
- As is well known, hypnosis has only lately been generally recognized as such. Sinnett has pointed out for how long a time the most childish objections were raised against it. For instance, when Clocqu...
- Simulation. Part 2
- We are told that in this case the power of sight was restored by indirect and not direct suggestion, the sense of feeling being first of all rendered normal by suggestion. The whole process was probab...
- Simulation. Part 3
- According to Charpentier and Bernheim, the experiments with complementary colours were not more exact; and the same is the case with other experiments of Binet and Fere in colours, from which they dre...
- Simulation. Part 4
- From two points of view, the somatic and psychic signs of hypnosis which have so far been mentioned have only a relative value in deciding the question of fraud. In the first place, we are never justi...
- Simulation. Part 5
- A series of similar phenomena must be included here. I say to a hypnotized subject, X., You are a rope-dancer, and are on the rope. He believes it, and I pretend to cut the rope, on which he falls d...
- Simulation. Part 6
- In other cases the patient is only too ready to do all he is told, and this easily leads to simulation being suspected. It is sometimes difficult to distinguish whether the subject is acting from comp...
- Chapter VII. The Theory Of Hypnotism
- We have learned in the preceding* chapters that the phenomena of hypnosis are extremely complex, and the question now is, Can these phenomena be explained? We must not demand too much in this connec...
- The Theory Of Hypnotism. Part 2
- We shall understand the different symptoms of hypnosis much more easily if we recognize certain facts in the mental life of human beings. They are of immense importance to psychology, physiology, medi...
- The Theory Of Hypnotism. Part 3
- No patient wishes to be impotent, but he becomes so because he expects the calamity; it is the same with stammering. We can readily understand that the fulfilment of an expectation may be hindered,...
- The Theory Of Hypnotism. Part 4
- I now come to the third fact in the mental life of man - viz, the susceptibility which an individual may evince to the influence of some particular person. The latter need not be an all-round authorit...
- The Theory Of Hypnotism. Part 5
- I shall be silent here on the physiological theories, as I shall come to them later on; they may be looked upon as most unsatisfactory hypotheses. At all events, if we are to understand the phenomena ...
- The Theory Of Hypnotism. Part 6
- (Jodi). A further condition necessary for the distinct development of hallucinations in a hypnotic subject is a complete change in his state of consciousness. Here the fifth fact of human mental life ...
- The Theory Of Hypnotism. Part 7
- Of course a careful study of the negative hallucinations will help us to understand rapport, as will be seen from my remarks on those hallucinations; but the most essential consideration in respect to...
- The Theory Of Hypnotism. Part 8
- I go back and hunt for it in every nook and corner in vain; suddenly I put my hand in my pocket, and there is the key. This shows that an action which is quite intelligible can be performed unconscio...
- The Theory Of Hypnotism. Part 9
- Max Dessoir also makes use of automatic writing to prove his theory that two mental processes can go on simultaneously in the one individual in such a manner that we might almost refer them to two dis...
- The Theory Of Hypnotism. Part 10
- If we suggest to a hypnotic subject, first of all, that he is Napoleon, then, shortly afterwards, Frederick the Great, and, finally, restore his own personality, also by suggestion, we find that each ...
- The Theory Of Hypnotism. Part 11
- The foregoing explanations show, firstly, why a post-hypnotic suggestion is carried out without the will, or in spite of it; and secondly, why this happens in spite of the apparent loss of memory. A s...
- The Theory Of Hypnotism. Part 12
- The preceding explanations are chiefly intended to approximate as much as possible post-hypnotic suggestion to certain habitual occurrences. There is no question of a complete identification of them. ...
- The Theory Of Hypnotism. Part 13
- Moreover, we find that something similar happens in the case of animals. Indeed, it is mainly on this that the training of animals is based. Smugglers train their dogs to avoid frontier-guards by havi...
- The Theory Of Hypnotism. Part 14
- Several attempts have been made to explain hypnosis from the point of view of psychology; but they are generally marred by two defects; (1) the assumption that more has to be explained than is really ...
- The Theory Of Hypnotism. Part 15
- Unfortunately our knowledge of the physiology of the central nervous system is so incomplete that we cannot expect much from it. In spite of the great progress which physiology has made, we must admit...
- The Theory Of Hypnotism. Part 16
- Dollken has put forward a theory based on the condition of the blood and the state of the nerve elements. According to him arbitrary reduction of the activity of the sense-organs accompanied by reduct...
- The Theory Of Hypnotism. Part 17
- A further part of Vogt's theory bears on the origin of sleep, ordinary and hypnotic. He attempts to prove that sleep is caused by the stimulation of certain centres, more especially the reflex centre ...
- Chapter VIII. The Medical Aspects Of Hypnosis
- It is certain that the present interest in hypnosis depends upon its therapeutic utility. According to the generally accepted view, hypnosis is a state of increased susceptibility to suggestion, altho...
- The Medical Aspects Of Hypnosis. Part 2
- We are now, therefore, able to dispense with hypnosis in many cases in which it formerly appeared indicated. Still, I think that in the present day it will be found an essential adjunct to other menta...
- The Medical Aspects Of Hypnosis. Part 3
- We will now consider singly the objections made to hypnotic treatment or to suggestive therapeutics. A chief objection was made by Ewald of Berlin, who decidedly protested against calling suggesti...
- The Medical Aspects Of Hypnosis. Part 4
- But a far more important objection than any of the above is the danger of hypnosis. Even if we cannot consider hypnosis absolutely safe, the dangers should not be exaggerated. The best assertion that...
- The Medical Aspects Of Hypnosis. Part 5
- It cannot be doubted that the exercises and suggestions employed to induce movements in cases of muscular dystrophy may prove extremely exhausting. Instead of supposing hypnosis to be a cause of pe...
- The Medical Aspects Of Hypnosis. Part 6
- Lloyd Tuckey has published a case of this kind; and the somnambulists employed as clairvoyants by so-called mes-merizers would about come in here. I firmly believe these dangers are much more serious ...
- The Medical Aspects Of Hypnosis. Part 7
- Or does Binswanger perhaps think that treatment in. an institution, as recommended by him for cases of hysteria, cures the disease? We know, on the contrary, that although in numberless cases some dis...
- The Medical Aspects Of Hypnosis. Part 8
- Another factor to be mentioned is the heightening of memory, to which Vogt and Brodmann, but Breuer and Freud specially, have called attention. I shall return to this when I come to deal with the cath...
- The Medical Aspects Of Hypnosis. Part 9
- What we do not know is why a warm bath is beneficial in one case and a cold one in another, why static electricity succeeds in one case and the galvanic current in another, quite apart from the questi...
- The Medical Aspects Of Hypnosis. Part 10
- These points have to be taken into consideration when discussing the connection between hysteria and hypnosis. I have already (p. 49) spoken of the supposed connection between hysteria and hypnotizabi...
- The Medical Aspects Of Hypnosis. Part 11
- Writer's cramp, nervous tremors. Here, also, belong those affections which Berillon designates by the name bigaiement graphique, in which the patient is only unable to write when he thinks he is being...
- The Medical Aspects Of Hypnosis. Part 12
- Hirst recommends hypnotism in the neuroses of traumatism and emotion. Whether suggestion can be of any essential use in neurasthenia is a question that has often been raised, but the views expresse...
- The Medical Aspects Of Hypnosis. Part 13
- Hypnotic treatment has also often been successfully used in cases of organic1 disease. Liebeault and Bernheim, the earliest investigators, and others who have studied the therapeutic value of hypnotic...
- The Medical Aspects Of Hypnosis. Part 14
- Charcot also thought he could detect the exciting cause of hysteria in many nervous diseases. The symptoms of organic nervous disease and of hysteria may become associated in many ways, partly because...
- The Medical Aspects Of Hypnosis. Part 15
- But there are further considerations that elucidate the influence of mental processes on the symptoms of organic diseases. We know that pain often disappears, or becomes less appreciable, when the pat...
- The Medical Aspects Of Hypnosis. Part 16
- As a matter of fact, if we are to satisfy the indicatio causa/is when treating progressive paralysis we must insist on absolute mental rest from the moment premonitory symptoms of the disease appear, ...
- The Medical Aspects Of Hypnosis. Part 17
- Case 5. Hysterical aphonia X., at. 17, is a member of a nervous family and has suffered from aphonia for four months. He cannot speak out loud, only in a whisper. The history of the case mentions c...
- The Medical Aspects Of Hypnosis. Part 18
- Case 11. Enuresis nocturna The patient is a well-developed boy aged ten; has always suffered from enuresis nocturna, and wets the bed nearly every night. Electricity, drugs, and the sound have no e...
- The Medical Aspects Of Hypnosis. Part 19
- Case 18. Ischuria of mental origin X., at. 25, of a generally nervous disposition, but free from any organic disease, had long experienced difficulty in passing water. He found it difficult to make...
- The Medical Aspects Of Hypnosis. Part 20
- An eminent Swedish alienist - Oedmann - says that he recognizes the good effects of suggestion in alcoholism, but that as he is unable to produce them he sends such patients to Wetterstrand (Corval). ...
- The Medical Aspects Of Hypnosis. Part 21
- Just as people can be made ill by constantly telling them how poorly they look, so a cure may be prevented by making the patient believe that it is impossible or by putting him in constant dread of th...
- The Medical Aspects Of Hypnosis. Part 22
- Seeing that a degree of analgesia sufficient to render the prick of a needle or some otherwise painful operation painless may be induced by suggestion, it follows that the beneficial influence of sugg...
- 1. Theoretical Considerations Of Hypnotism
- Theoretical Considerations. In the foregoing chapter I (The History Of Hypnotism) have discussed the medical importance of hypnosis, but only as far as its practical application is concerned. But the ...
- 1. Theoretical Considerations Of Hypnotism. Part 2
- It is very interesting to observe how often the would-be discoverer of some particular, method thinks he can put aside the possibility of suggestive influence without producing even a trace of proof f...
- 1. Theoretical Considerations Of Hypnotism. Part 3
- Karl Gerster, a physician intimately acquainted with homoeopathy, gave a scientific demonstration in a discussion he had with the homoeopaths that homoeopathy requires revision from the standpoint of ...
- 1. Theoretical Considerations Of Hypnotism. Part 4
- Although there are many points on which we must still remain in doubt, hypnotism has put a check on exaggerated notions of morbid anatomy as a cause of disease and given freer scope to the neglected s...
- 1. Theoretical Considerations Of Hypnotism. Part 5
- When we take the foregoing considerations into account, hypnotism acquires great significance in its bearing on the history of medical culture. For there have at all times been just such miraculous pl...
- 2. Psycho-Therapeutics
- Psycho-Therapeutics. I have shown in the foregoing that, apart from the practical uses to which it may be put, hypnotism has become of importance to medicine, inasmuch as it has shed light on many bra...
- 2. Psycho-Therapeutics. Part 2
- Throughout the whole of the nineteenth century, and down to the present day when the study of hypnotism has directed general attention to psycho-therapeutics, there have always been able individual in...
- 2. Psycho-Therapeutics. Part 3
- As Max Dessoir has shown, perversion appears in the earliest days of puberty and often leads to perverse tendencies, but tine latter disappear altogether when taken in time and properly treated. It ...
- 2. Psycho-Therapeutics. Part 4
- The pain exists in both cases, and is not imaginary. If in the latter case the patient were to refer it to an external stimulus he would be wrong. But the doctor must take the pain the patient says he...
- 2. Psycho-Therapeutics. Part 5
- Of course we must make all possible use of every psychotherapeutic factor, especially of the explanatory method as I have described it. The last remarks I made on this subject were merely intended as ...
- 2. Psycho-Therapeutics. Part 6
- But as the patient has frequently no tendency to do this, his doctor must guide him. In many cases of imperative ideas, either with or without a feeling of dread, the evil may be combated by gradually...
- 2. Psycho-Therapeutics. Part 7
- I have often found it of great assistance that the patient should form sexually normal ideas shortly before going to sleep. This frequently appears to act beneficially in bringing about dreams that ar...
- 2. Psycho-Therapeutics. Part 8
- Volitional therapeutics and diversion of the attention have already given us an opportunity of mentioning treatment by occupation. Although we occasionally find mention made of it earlier, it is only ...
- 2. Psycho-Therapeutics. Part 9
- Muscular activity must also be included in treatment by occupation. It as frequently satisfies the indications of psycho-therapeutics as it does those of physical therapeutics. Here also the individua...
- 2. Psycho-Therapeutics. Part 10
- Treatment by occupation is also of great economical importance to many patients, as it enables them to be trained once more for professional work. To practice a profession has a very salutary effect o...
- 2. Psycho-Therapeutics. Part 11
- Many establishments possess the advantage of a good position, the opportunities they afford for excursions, for enjoying the pleasures of nature and indulging in sports and harmless games. Work-cures,...
- 2. Psycho-Therapeutics. Part 12
- Finally, I must mention religion as the most effective psycho-therapeutic remedy we possess. I do not mean those forms of religion that involve superstitious practices, because they may prove injuriou...
- 2. Psycho-Therapeutics. Part 13
- We can well understand that such a family doctor is often able to exert the very strongest influence on such patients. On the other hand, a doctor who is a family doctor in name only, but who in reali...
- 2. Psycho-Therapeutics. Part 14
- Instead of so doing, some of them are much too addicted to giving the greatest publicity to the results of laboratory-research, with the result that the public is thrown into an unhealthy state of con...
- Chapter X. The Legal Aspects Of Hypnotism
- Some of the old adherents of animal magnetism - Kieser, for instance, and later on Charpignon - already recognized the legal importance of the subject. Thus the commission which investigated the matte...
- The Legal Aspects Of Hypnotism. Part 2
- I was once called in as an expert in the case of a charlatan who advertised that he treated disease by suggestion and hypnosis. He was accused of having forced several women to sleep with him. In one ...
- The Legal Aspects Of Hypnotism. Part 3
- All I want to warn against is the tendency to lend too ready an ear to such reports. When the facts of any such case are clear, the legal decision to be arrived at should present no difficulties. H...
- The Legal Aspects Of Hypnotism. Part 4
- Although Embacher, Meschede, and Weinbaum, the experts called in, came to the conclusion, with which the Court concurred unconditionally, that there was a causal connection between the experiments and...
- The Legal Aspects Of Hypnotism. Part 5
- The hypnotic state might be used to get possession of property illegally. People can be induced hypnotically and post-hypnotically to sign promissory notes, deeds of gift, etc. I reported to the Socie...
- The Legal Aspects Of Hypnotism. Part 6
- Another case of this kind was reported in 1890: a well-known English author was said to have filched a work from a brother literary man whom he had hypnotized, and then published it as his own. The...
- The Legal Aspects Of Hypnotism. Part 7
- The question as to whether hypnotic suggestion can play a part in the commission of a crime has frequently been before the courts in recent years. To these belongs the case of Eyraud and Bompard, who ...
- The Legal Aspects Of Hypnotism. Part 8
- Since we cannot unconditionally deny the possibility of a crime being brought about by hypnotic or post-hypnotic suggestion, it behoves us to consider what the legal position would be in such cases; a...
- The Legal Aspects Of Hypnotism. Part 9
- Let us suppose that X. is a peaceful man and not ill-disposed towards A.; then the motive of X.'s act would be inexplicable from his normal disposition; consequently, according to Bentivegni, his post...
- The Legal Aspects Of Hypnotism. Part 10
- Liability for damages means that degree of freedom of will which causes responsibility for unlawful acts. Responsibility in business is dealt with in 105 sec. 2 of the Civil Code: - A dec...
- The Legal Aspects Of Hypnotism. Part 11
- The conclusions drawn above consequently hold good for acts entailing liability for damages, but, naturally, all the special provisions of the code have to be considered as well. For instance, ...
- The Legal Aspects Of Hypnotism. Part 12
- He goes still further and says: - This problem of testimony is, as we see, first and foremost a question for the jurist and the historian, and Stern was the first to point this out thoroughly. L. W....
- The Legal Aspects Of Hypnotism. Part 13
- Interested by Max Dessoir's experiments in automatic writing, 1 tried to arrive at results in the same way with a subject whose consent I had previously obtained. I put a pencil into his hand with the...
- The Legal Aspects Of Hypnotism. Part 14
- Now, if the statements of witnesses were insufficient, the accused could be hypnotized. Very little, however, would be gained by that; but the hypnosis might be employed in further endeavours to ascer...
- The Legal Aspects Of Hypnotism. Part 15
- Public exhibitions of hypnotism are, however, forbidden by law in Belgium. In other ways also the representatives of science have generally opposed such exhibitions. They ought to be prohibited on bot...
- The Legal Aspects Of Hypnotism. Part 16
- They are accompanied by danger to health, as I have often explained. And it must be added that, from the moral point of view, there is no justification for putting people into a condition which depriv...
- Chapter XI. Hypnosis And Psychology
- Vogt has certainly gone much farther. He perceives in hypnotic experiments a possible means of arriving at psycho-logical results of a more universal character. Two conditions are necessary for a hypn...
- Hypnosis And Psychology. Part 2
- Hirschlaff certainly denies the existence of hypermnesia in hypnosis in toto, and considers the results as more probably due to unintentional suggestion. Other investigations of hypermnesia in hypnoti...
- Hypnosis And Psychology. Part 3
- He wakes, and I now tell him to do anything he pleases, but that he is to act entirely of his own free-will; at the same time I give him a folded paper on which I have written what he is to do. X. doe...
- Hypnosis And Psychology. Part 4
- There is, indeed, much to be said in favour of Michel-son's point of view, although his contention may not repose on an entirely sound basis. We must also admit that the experimenter is frequently in ...
- Hypnosis And Psychology. Part 5
- Anybody who has been engaged in training hypnotized subjects knows that these insignificant signs constitute one of the chief sources of error. Some of the leading modern investigators in the domain o...
- Hypnosis And Psychology. Part 6
- Similarly, the suggestibility of crowds throws light on many phenomena recorded in universal history and the history of civilization, no matter whether we take the Crusades or those mental epidemics k...
- Chapter XII. Some Further Aspects Of Hypnotism
- It is evident from explanations given in the earlier parts of this book, but more particularly from the last chapter, in which I spoke about the effect of suggestion on masses of people, that hypnotis...
- Some Further Aspects Of Hypnotism. Part 2
- The literature of the question shows that the miraculous mental performances of somnambulists were hardly ever submitted to real scientific control. Such control is often quite out, of the question - ...
- Some Further Aspects Of Hypnotism. Part 3
- Such a standpoint, which is in itself thoroughly logical, Gombault considers mistaken; he thinks that if stigmatization cannot be explained in the present day, for that very reason the view that it is...
- Some Further Aspects Of Hypnotism. Part 4
- Long ago, Stoll had supposed that ethnological psychology would be furthered in a twofold respect by hypnotism and the study of suggestion; (1) suggested sense-delusions in the waking state would be e...
- Some Further Aspects Of Hypnotism. Part 5
- Only, we must avoid all exaggeration. Some people have even imagined that the hypnotic state could be used to learn a language quickly, because the accompanying hypermnesia would prove of great assist...
- Some Further Aspects Of Hypnotism. Part 6
- For a long time I thought that it was only possible for the subject to represent the most diverse characters and emotions when in hypnosis; but one day it turned out that the subject possessed an extr...
- Chapter XIII. Occultism
- In this chapter I (The History Of Hypnotism) shall treat of the so-called phenomena of occultism, which, notwithstanding the absence of all internal affinity, are constantly mentioned in connection wi...
- Occultism. Part 2
- The mere fact of overlooking so important a point as the horse's complete knowledge of the German language is a characteristic example of the ease with which scientists may be deceived, directly they ...
- Occultism. Part 3
- It must, however, be conceded that the occultists themselves hardly ever allow their phenomena to be subjected to impartial observation, and that notwithstanding their loudly proclaimed readiness to c...
- Occultism. Part 4
- That in these experiments on children wrong conclusions are often drawn may surely in a great measure arise from the fact that the frequency of spontaneous cures is so constantly overlooked. I have al...
- Occultism. Part 5
- We are constantly assured that such experiments have been successfully carried out, but for my own part, I have been quite unable to find any that afforded exact proof of that which was to be demonstr...
- Occultism. Part 6
- Contenting myself with mere reference to the fact that certain mesmerists (Nasse, Barbarin, and others) do not believe in the existence of the magnetic fluid, I pass over various theories, practically...
- Occultism. Part 7
- The principle had been admitted with regard to man by Fludd, Heller, Mesmer, and a little later by Scoresby, and has been defended in our day by Chazarain, Decle, Durville, Rochas and Barety. But they...
- Occultism. Part 8
- Magnetopaths certainly assert that they can prove their magnetic powers in another way. As a rule, the proof is supposed to be in the results they say they have obtained. As I have already mentioned, ...
- Occultism. Part 9
- Therefore it may also be obvious to you that it is very much better to reason with the Prince of Darkness than with stupidity i.e. poverty of mind and supper-cleverness with which the world of to-day ...
- Occultism. Part 10
- The needle literally ran after his hand. On using the fingers of his left hand the needle was deflected to the left. But since Breitung himself states that he cannot deflect the needle of a compass by...
- Occultism. Part 11
- Moreover, Harnack's great confidence in the veracity of the lady and her husband is merely subjective, and does not fully prove their truthfulness. I have good authority for stating that this lady,...
- Occultism. Part 12
- Binet and Fere think they have discovered laws governing the course of the transference in each particular hypnotic state. When lethargy on one side of the body and catalepsy on the other have been in...
- Occultism. Part 13
- The phenomena of supersensual thought-transference, suggestion mentale, or, as Mayerhofer fittingly calls it, telaesthesia, are closely related to animal magnetism. Telepathy means the transference of...
- Occultism. Part 14
- The inquiry showed that the number was much too small to admit of any coincidence being accepted. Parish, however, has criticized all the available material, and thinks that all the results admit o...
- Occultism. Part 15
- This is particularly the case with hypnotics; their whole attention is so fixed - possibly subconsciously - on these signs, that they are able to perceive signs of the existence of which the spectator...
- Occultism. Part 16
- We will certainly take this source of error into consideration in all cases of telepathy and also of clairvoyance. Benoit's supposition that delicacy of the sense of smell is of importance in thoug...
- Occultism. Part 17
- Gilles de la Tourette has given a number of details concerning the treatment of the sick through the agency of Parisian somnambulists in his work on the forensic importance of hypnotism. However, it i...
- Occultism. Part 18
- Moreover, I have never obtained a positive result in my other experiments in clairvoyance, although my investigations were frequently made with that object, especially during the earlier years of my r...
- Occultism. Part 19
- It is an old experience that, if one unimportant point in an event fits into a prophecy, people who have a mania for the miraculous straightway take everything else to be correct, and that, too, witho...
- Occultism. Part 20
- Heim himself relates, that it sometimes happens that a person whose knowledge of the ground enables him to detect the presence of water will use the divining-rod, because of the greater impression the...
- Occultism. Part 21
- This will not surprise any one who has watched spiritists and occultists when close to them, more especially when they are joining hands at some stance held by one of their circles. It is the peculi...
- Occultism. Part 22
- The way in which he intervened in the case of Mme. Magdeleine G., the sleep-dancer, was calculated to make the public think there was something occultistic about her performances, and was very reprehe...
- Occultism. Part 23
- 4. Increased power of the intellectual faculties - e.g., the memory - may also prove misleading. I recall the cases of people who spoke in languages they had never learned (cf. p. 466). We must also h...
- Occultism. Part 24
- Hatred of science and the joy of opposing it, combined with an uncritical tendency to mysticism, explain how it is that occultists acknowledge a belief in such heterogeneous domains of the the phenome...
- Occultism. Part 25
- Nevertheless, I do not think that it is necessary to appeal to occultism for an explanation of the case. In the first place, the theory of fraud was not actually disproved by the investigators. They s...
- Occultism. Part 26
- Whoever wishes to prove the reality of telepathy gives any interpretation he likes to a drawing. A book by an anonymous writer, H., that appeared in 1848, contains much interesting information on prop...
- Occultism. Part 27
- But to pick out arbitrarily some point that favours clairvoyance, and at the same time to pass over unsuitable elements, cannot give a correct picture of the probability that the clairvoyant was accur...
- Occultism. Part 28
- When much conversation goes on at such seances, only an extremely expert and persevering stenographer can follow the proceedings. But even such a one is quite unable to reproduce mimetic signs in writ...
- Occultism. Part 29
- In short, we observe how in each of these cases the wish to see a thing happen misguided the judgment, and the same thing occurs in spiritistic seances, but more especially with respect to the way in ...
- Bibliography
- As I have read nearly all the authors I have quoted, in the original, it would take too much space to mention them in detail. There are catalogues for certain periods - those of Mobius in Schmidt's Ja...
- Corrections
- Page 32, line 19, before Epheyre insert Maupassant. 130. 19, after mamma insert Kurella mentions an analogous phenomenon observed in certain pathological states-the photographic similarity of ...
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