AnIntroductionToTheStudyOfHypnotismExperimentalAndTherapeutic_1920WingfieldHughEdward

•AN INTRODUCTION .TO

THE STUDY OF

HYPNOTISM EXPERIMENTAL AND THERAPEUTIC BY

H. E.

WINGFIELD

M.A., M.D.. B.C. Cantab. CONSULTI.Vy PHYsICIAX, ROYAL HANTS COUNTY HOSPITAL FORMERLY- DEMONSTRATOR OF PHYSIOLOGY IN CAMBRLDGE UNIVERSITY EX-PRESIDENT, PSYCHO-MEDICAL SOCIETY EX-VICE-PRESIDENT MEDICAL OFFICER OF SCHOOLS ASSOCIATION; FORMERLY MEDICAL OFFICER TO WINCHESTER COLLEGE AUTHOR OF "THE FORMS OF ALCOHOLISM AND THEIR TREATMENT" ;

;

;

;

SECOND

EDITION

LONDON BAILLIERE, TINDALL 8,

AND COX

HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN 1920 [All rights reserved]

4T

t^\OLOt

EDjC. PSYCi.

UBRAfiY

PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION This

little

book

who

intended mainly for those

is

are unacquainted with hypnotism, and aims at pro-

viding the theoretical

with

reader

and

knowledge,

sufficient

him

practical, to enable

to

both

make use

of suggestion in suitable cases.

The

whole

fact that the

of

the

edition

first

was sold

within a short time of publication encourages

hope that

it

fulfilled

its

present edition, which

numerous

requests,

aim

is

;

and

I

me

to

trust that the

published in response to

may meet

with an equally kind

reception.

phenomena

The some is

of

hypnosis

detail, as I believe that a

essential to the practitioner

are

described

knowledge

who

my

disposal, I

them

uses hypnotism,

and though the various theories cannot be in the space at

of

in

have

criticized

tried to

bring

before the reader the chief problems presented by the subject.

To the chapter on treatment

606105

I

have added an

PREFACE

vi

account of cases bearing on Eepressed Memories, and their treatment

which

is

by hypnotism, a part

of the subject

rapidly increasing in importance in view of

Freud's discoveries.

HUGH WINGFIELD. London, June, 1920.

CONTENTS CHAPTER

I

INTRODUCTORY

— The definition of hypnosis The phenomena of suggestion — Hypnosis as a state

First workers

iii

PAGES

hj^notism

CHAPTER

1-11

-

II

THE SUB-CONSCIOUSNESS

— Evidence of existence (Submemory — Influence of sub-consciousness on waking activities — Motor and sensory automatisms— Passive attention — Multiple person-

The sub-consciousness conscious

its

chain of

alities)— Rel^Jiionof sciousness (Its nature

pri mary

and

ser '^^^n^y

— its bearing on hypnosial

CHAPTER

con.

12-31

III

METHODS OF THE INDUCTION OF HYPNOSIS Introductory

— Test suggestions — Manner of conveying sugmode — Personality

gestions (Emphatic v. persuasive

— SusceptibiUty of subjects)— Conditions — Processes of induction (Physical methods — Methods of Nancy School — Personal suggestions — Method of method) — Necessity of treatment (Dubois' Dr. Taplin — Allied forms method — Dr. Bramwell's method) — Awakening of of operator

of

suggestibihty

test

of

the subject

.

.

-

-

.

32-61

CONTENTS

viii

CHAPTER ly THE PHENOMENA OF HYPNOSIS -THE STAGES PAGBS

—

statement Erroneous impressions of Determination of stages of hypnosis Detailed account of stages 1 to 5 Comparison with 62-97 stages of Liebeault and Bernheim

Introductory hypnosis

—

—

CHAPTER V OTHER HYPNOTIC PHENOMENA

— Post-hypnotic suggestion— Negative hallu— Ansesthesia— Other phenomena (Effects of passes — Effects of previous deep hypnotization on experimental subjects — Self-suggestion — Effects on sense of touch and temperature — Light sensory stimuli

Hallucinations cinations

and suggestion)

-

.

-

-

.

98-118

CHAPTER VI TREATMENT BY SUGGESTION

—

Introductory (Liebeault) Repressions (with note on Freud, and examples of repressed complexes) General principles of treatment, ^ith Forel's hst of diseases amen-

—

—

able to suggestion Typical maladies (Hysteria Insomnia Obsessions Nocturnal Neurasthenia enuresis— Alcoholism— Morphinomania Sex disorders such as masturbation Primary vaginismus Spas^ modic dysmenorrhoea Absence of sex feeling Chorea Sea-sickness Insanity Nervousness Constipation Nervous diarrhcea Spasmodic asthma 119-183 Epilepsy)— Ancssthesia Closing note

—

— —

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

CHAPTER

—

—

—

VII

THE CASE AGAINST HYPNOTISM and irresponsible use of hypnotism Moll Question of liberty of subject to 184-191 refuse suggestions— Conclusion

Danger

of unqualified

— Opinion of

Index

—

102-1&O

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF HYPNOTISM CHAPTEK

I

INTRODUCTORY hypnotism— The definition phenomena of suggestion Hypnosis

First workers in

—

of

hypnosis

— The

as a state.

From immemorial times in the history of mankind the phenomena now classed under the name of hypnotism appear to have been known as isolated Clothed in

facts.

the guise

of

the

supernatural,

regarded sometimes as religious manifestations, sometimes as the results of magic spells or as the work of spirits,

they were, of course, unrecognized as a group

of effects

due

to a

common and

natural cause.

That they had a common origin was

first

suggested

Mesmer modern times by the experiments Though he did at the beginning of the last century. not comprehend the real character of the phenomena of

in quite

which he produced, yet to him must be ascribed the merit of perceiving that they were due to some natural cause, and of to the

problem

first

drawing the attention

of their explanation.

Mesmer

of

men

believed 1

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

2

that the plieno.mcna emanated from

" fluid,"

and even

common among

to

ideas

are

of

*'

will-power "

" animal

and

" sue invoked to explain the facts.

Mesmer was Elliotson,

day similar

this

of

the general public, and influences

under the names

magnetism

'

some kind

and

by the

followed

Braid,

surgeons Esdaile,

who were

attacked

by the

majority of the medical profession with that animosity

which invariably greets the discomposing pioneers

any unfamiliar idea. To James Braid, the

last of the three,

having

first

clearly

phenomena were

due,

not

credit

of

belongs the

perceived

that

the

any mysterious or

to

supernormal emanations, but

of

to

the power of

sug-

gestion alone, acting on a subject whose suggestibility

has been

This view, which has

artificially increased.

been abundantly confirmed

by Li6beault and the

now universally accepted. The researches of modern times are mainly attempts to systematize the phenomena, to explain how it is that

Nancy

school,

is

suggestion arrives at such results, and to define the

nature of the condition which

such a marked increase of

these aims has to a

is

characterized by

of suggestibility.

great extent

successfully accomplished, but the others

from complete way via

A )r ]

suggestion

is,

The

first

already been

seem a long

realization. of course,

simply the implantation

the development of an idea in the mind of the

person experimented on.

The suggestion may come

from without or from the subject himself.

IiNTRODUCTORY

3

The Definition of Hypnosis.

I.

Various attempts have been made to define hypnosis, the condition of artificially increased

Some merely

suggestibility ,_

which

express the theories

different

authors hold as to the nature of hypnosis.

Myers regards suggestion as the subliminal self."

**

Thus

a successful appeal to

Sidis defines hypnosis as physio-

" the inhibition of the inhibitory centres,"

logically

and so on. Others convey

description, in

seems

its

the present

open

to be

characteristics as a state in

phenomena occur

certain specified

state

;

and

of

which

this kind of

our knowledge,

to the least objection.

Bernheim says hypnotism

is

the production of a

psychical condition in which the faculty of receiving

impressions by suggestion as Dr. Lloyd

Tuckey

is

greatly increased.

indicates,

this

But,

definition does

not recognize the extraordinary increase of power to carry out accepted suggestions which

is

always found

in hypnosis. If I

might hazard a

hypnosis

definition, I should say that

a psychical condition in ivhich suggestions

is

are not only

much more

realized with

an intensity much greater than

to the

normal

state.

For, however eagerly a

receive a suggestion in his

that

it

Thus,

easily accepted^ hut are also

normal

is

possible

man may

state, it is quite clear

can be realized only within certain restrictions. if

I

that her d

suggest to a lady in her normal condition -ess

is

on

fire,

though she

may

at

once

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

4

when

accept the suggestion and act accordingly, yet

she sees that her dress

is

really not burning at

all,

the suggested idea will be immediately dissipated.

But, as we see

later, if

she be in deep hypnosis, so

vivid will be the realization that she will believe she

actually sees the flames and smoke, and so becomes

subject to a hallucination.

The Phenomena of Suggestion.

11.

The

following

only one I

know which

anyone that /

simple experiment will show the

of a suggestion;

effect

if

because

I select it

he takes a pinch

variably happen

bet

that after taking

may

Perhaps the suggestion

so.

by an ;

offer to bet

Assure

on the

result.

even

of snuff, or

pepper, he will be unable to sneeze, and it

be

it

the

is

it

practically never fails.

will in-

he cannot do

made

stronger

It is quite safe

I have never seen the suggestion

fail.

Yet

it

to is

entirely ineffectual to prevent sneezing in a person

with a cold. It

is,

perhaps, unnecessary to point out that the

subject of the experiment will be quite impervious to

other suggestions. get will

up from

Thus,

his chair,

if

he be told that he must

and cannot help doing

so,

he

merely smile contemptuously and remain seated

where he

But, as we shall see later on, by what

is.

are called hypnotic processes his condition can be so altered that

if

he be

told, for

example, that he must

get up, or that he cannot get up, he will have to

obey the suggestion, even

if

he resist with

all

his power.

INTRODUCTORY We

5

shall find, too, that certain groups of sugges-

tions will act readily, while other groups are difficult

and

to enforce,

that, as the subject is

hypnotized, these more

difficult

and more

it

effective.

the hypnotic state

So

more

—

more deeply more

suggestions are

becomes possible

to divide

/

or less accurately into stages,

each stage being characterized by the particular group of

phenomena which can be

successfully suggested

therein.

One

of the easiest of these suggestions is that the

subject cannot open his eyes. all his

might

;

He may

in spite of his efforts,

struggle with

he cannot do

it.

But here we stumble across a remarkable fact. It not infrequently happens that the subject is quite convinced that he can open his eyes, and it is only when he actually attempts it that he realizes by failure that he cannot do so. effect of the

Now,

it is

obvious that the only

suggestion that he cannot open his eyes

But

will be the creation of a belief to that effect. if

the subject have no conscious conviction that he

cannot open his eyes, exist in his

it is

clear that the idea does not

waking consciousness.

Where, then,

is

the

idea concealed ?

Again, some subjects can be

what

is

known

tion, in the

memory

as

When

hypnosis.

to

pass into

somnambulism, or the deep

state of

they are awakened from this condi-

majority of cases we shall find that the

of all the events

which occurred during

period has vanished completely.

may have

made

this

The somnambulist

been walking about and talking or acting

^

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

6

under the influence hallucination, but

some suggested delusion or on awakening, he will remember

of

still,

absolutely nothing of

this.

all

Yet,

events of his previous sleep.

the sleeping

if

remember

condition be again induced, he will

The

commanded

to

action after he wakes, he will perform

has no conscious recollection

of the

the

ideas, then, still

continued, but where were they stored ?

during his sleep he be

all

Again,

if

perform some it,

though he

command. Where,

one asks again, was concealed the idea that prompted All through the study of hypnotism this

the action ? question

is

the one great problem that constantly

confronts us, and the most fascinating part of the

whole inquiry place

I think, the

is,

hunt

for

the hiding-

apparently lost but really persistent

of these

ideas. III.

It

often

is

hypnosis

is

Hypnosis as a State. after

said,

Bernheim's dictum, that

nothing but suggestion.

But, as Sidis

points out in his admirable work on the Psychology of Suggestion, "If

by what gestion

is it

is

attention

hypnosis be nothing but suggestion,

induced

thus

its

had been

Why, by

?

own

cause."

suggestion.

It

Sug-

seems as though

so concentrated on tne striking

plienomena produced by suggestion that the condition

—or hypnosis, for the terms — without which suggestions are abso-

of increased suggestibility

are

synonymous

lutely ineffectual, has of suggestibility is

been ignored.

merely one

But

this increase

of the characteristics

INTRODUCTORY of a

new psychical

which

this,

condition, which

much

for just as

and

7

must be accounted

as the effects of

suggestions

the

The consome recondite change in

this alone, renders possible.

dition appears to be

due

to

the relations of the different parts of consciousness.

But

this will be better understood

when we come

to

consider the role of the sub-consciousness in a later chapter. Sidis gives the following conditions as essential to

the production

of

hypnosis

^imonotony, limitation

of

:

fixation

voluntary movements,

upon which attention

ideas except those

depend upon other factors besides mere factors are

wonder that

so simple

their presence is often

of fact,

it

is

no

unnoticed and making formal

suggestions almost anyone would quite instinctively Bee that they were respected, without being in the least

aware

of

the fact that he was arranging con-

without which

ditions

his

suggestions .would

be

nullified.

Once hypnosis has been induced

sufficiently

to

enable even the simplest suggestions to be effective, there

is

no doubt the phenomena evoked by the themselves tend to increase sug-

suggestions do of

further

gestibility

still

hypnosis.

Thus,

to lay his

I

—in

I

suggestion.^^J.

and natural that

necessity unrecognized, for in

all

to be con-

So that hypnosis does, as a matter

centrated.

their

is

i/

limita-

the field of consciousness, inhibition of

tion of

The

attention,

of

other words, to deepen

hypnotize a subject and ask him

hand on mine, and suggest that he cannot

8

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

take

it off.

If

fail.

The suggestion may, I try a

fails,

it

of course, succeed or

suggestion which, I

from experience, can be more

know

enforced.

easily

I

make him shut his eyes, and suggest that he cannot open them.

now

tell

repeat

him

my

The suggestion probably

succeeds.

first

experiment, trying to

fix

I succeed.

Now,

it is

more suggestible than he was when first experiment, and it is equally clear

then, has

made him more

away.

it

I

made

that,

the

had

I

have found him as

number

refractory as ever to suggestion

to

quite clear that he

is

failed to seal his eyes, I should

hand

his

mine by suggesting that he cannot take This time

I

that he can open his eyes, and again

suggestible

?

What,

one.

Clearly not

the suggestion that he could not open his eyes in itself, for if it

had

failed

it

would have been powerless

change his condition.

to

It

was the

phenomenon made him more the

of inability to

the

success of

suggestion that increased his suggestibility

:

it

was

open the eyes that

To put the matter

suggestible.

in

another way, successful suggestion will induce hypnotic

phenomena, and the phenomena

in their turn induce

an increased suggestibility.

Many consider that the phenomena memory and its recovery in subsequent not due to suggestion, but

deep hypnotic

is

of

loss

hypnosis

of is

part and parcel of the

state.

This phenomenon occurs almost constantly in good subjects, without

any

direct suggestion of

Biamwell, indeed, states that

'*

amnesia.

with nearly everyone

INTRODUCTORY

9

the idea of hypnosis represents a kind of sleep, with

subsequent loss of memory," so that the very sug-

may

gestion of sleep

amnesia.

But

this does not account for the return of

memory during it

be in these cases followed by

a fresh hypnosis

;

and, while perhaps

might explain why the suggestion

of sleep

should

produce amnesia in those who expected such a result, this

explanation seems hardly applicable to

those

somnambulism appears without any suggestion of sleep whatever. It is well known that__ the production of hallucinations often induces somnambulism, with subsequent amnesia. With many in fact, cases in which

with most

—

of the

Cambridge subjects

whom

I sent

somnambulism I induced it in the first instance by this method, making no suggestion of sleep. I

into

suggested as strongly as

I

could a visual hallucina-

tion, generally of a bright star,

for another,

and then changed

and so on through a succession In almost every case

hallucinations.

it

of different

the

subject

experienced complete amnesia on awaking, followed

by a recovery is difficult

and one has

to

memory seems tions

memory when again hypnotized. It how suggestion could well enter here,

of

to see

account for the fact that the loss

of

to follow the production of hallucina-

with a constancy which

certainly

seems

to

some causal relation between the two. It is merely an assumption that because most of the phenomena of hypnotism are due to suggestion, the

indicate

amnesia and

its

recovery are necessarily also due to

it.

make any assumption

of

But we have no

right to

V

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

10

we must abide by the

this kind;

results of experi-

ment.

According to the Nancy experimenters, anaesthesia also

may

occur spontaneously without suggestion in

This phenomenon,

the deep state.

correctly stated,

if

would be another case in point. Post-hypnotic amnesia and the recovery of

memory during subsequent hypnosis

quence

change

that, whilst

suggestion,

may

it

the

am

is

rather the conse-

of hallucination or of the

induced by the suggestion

condition

seems

which

of statey

phenomena

of the

I

suggestion) would seem

inclined to think, not due to to reveal a

as

(if,

sleep.

of

amnesia can be induced by

It

direct

also occur not as a response to

as a concomitant with,

that, but in response to, or

phenomena occasioned by

suggestion.

But, in any case, the saying that hypnotism

is

nothing but suggestion merely begs the whole question.

us nothing of the

It tells

mechanism

or of the

changes in consciousness which cause the increased

and gives no clue

suggestibility,

dismissing the

subject for

is

saying that

suggestion, that

all

suggestion

is

if

is

it

astounding

realized.

In

may

be

were true that

all

the present,

worth while to say that even

hypnotism

to the

which suggestions are

intensity with

it

not a justification for

hypnotism, an inference

that seems to be sometimes drawn. It

is

undeniable that

intellectually

causes

of

unsatisfying

there in

is

all

still

something

accounts of

the

hypnotism, and that further exploration

INTRODUCTORY may end

in exciting discoveries.

11

It

does seem as

the process were partially involved in of

personality,

and

like

other kinds

of

problem were,

as

if

some

the

if

obscure

factor at least

personal influences

and

impressions, the natural and logical product of the

combination

of certain psychical qualities

which can-

not be determined and discriminated as yet, while the science of psychology

still

stammers

in its infancy.

CHAPTER

II

THE SUB-CONSCIOUSNESS The sub-consciousness chain of

— Evidence of

memory— Influence

of

its

existence (Sub-conscious

sub consciousness on waking

activities— Motor and sensory automatisms tion

— Multiple

personalities)

secondary consciousness

(Its

— Eelation nature —

—Passive atten-

of

primary and on hyp-

Its bearing

nosis).

Though many attempts have been made to explain the phenomena of hypnotism, as yet none of these theories seems completely to cover the facts.

ghjsiolqgical side

numbers

advanced, but nearly

all

of

On

the

hypotheses have been

have been found untenable.

The theory of dissociation, which supposes the formation and breaking of links between the various brain centres by a physiological process, has

much

to be

has been ably discussed in a paper by Dr. McDougall in Brain * said

in

its

favour

:

it

But though there must, logical

side to hypnotism,

of it

course, be a physiois

in the psychological

domain that speculation has been most great result of

the

all

fruitful.

The

investigations has been to emphasize

immense importance

of the role played

by the sub-

consciousness, variously termed the " subliminal " or * "The State

of the

Brain during Hypnosis."

July, 1908.

12

In Brain,

THE SUB-CONSCIOUSNESS " secondary "

self,

consciousness, or personality.

terms secondary or subliminal "self," or are, I think, objectionable, as

normal

the

13

existence

'*

personality,"

they appear to imply

something

of

The

may

which

properly be conceived as a real separate personality

— an

assumption for which

sufficient warrant.

It

is

to

present there

at

is

not

Myers that we owe the

recognition of the supreme importance of the sub-

consciousness, and of the part

takes in producing

it

phenomena of hypnotism."^ What, then, is the evidence for the

the

existence of this

secondary consciousness, and what are

functions

its

and powers ?

I.

Evidence of Existence of Sub-consciousness.

(a)

Sub-conscious

Chain of Memory.

—

If

a

good

hypnotic subject, capable of passing into the somnambulistic

state, is

put to sleep, he

may

be

made

to

^ In

his work on Psychotherapy, the late Professor Munsterberg boldly states that " the sub-conscious " has no existence. This hypothesis compels him to assume that the most complex phetiomena generally ascribed to sub-conscious action, such as automatic writing, even when it plainly confesses an intellectual origin, are in reality simply automatic physiological processes, into which no consciousness of any kind enters. It is of the same nature, he says, as the playing of the piano without thought of the special movements of the hands an automatic reflex. This is strangely like a return to Carpenter's

—

old idea of " unconscious cerebration."

It is unlikely that such

no satisfactory theory hypnotism, which Munsterberg attempts to explain as due to abnormal attention to the operator on the part of the subject. a view will pass unchallenged. of

It leaves

14

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

talk,

walk about, and see any suggested hallucinatory

Except

object.

man

he exhibits as a rule

for the fact that

or no spontaneity, he might be mistaken for a

little

in his

normal condition, speaking and acting as Yet when he

though he were awake. find that he has

was doing during his to sleep again, the

hypnosis

will

sleep.*

memory of the events

have returned, and

aroused we of

what he

however, he be sent

If,

of his previous

will persist as long as

he remains in that condition, only

moment he

is

no recollection whatever

to

vanish again the

More than this, we shall find that during his sleep he remembers the events of his w^aking life just as well as he does when awake.

We

re-awakened.

is

see here one important point of evidence

has two apparently separate chains chain of

actions and events

as well

;

of

— the

the sleeping and normal

familiar to us

is

the events of the waking (/))

memory

life

and, secondly, the chain of the waking state,

that which

ties.

of

he

which comprises the

sleeping state,

the

:

all,

life

and which comprises

alone.

Influence of Suh-consciousness on

— But

we may now make

For -example,

I

told

a lady

a

Waking

fresh

who was

Activi-

experiment. in

somnam-

bulism that after awaking she would turn on the electric lights

in

my

room.

I

then awakened her,

and found that she had no recollection of anything After about a that had passed during her sleep. * This amnesia can be prevented by suggestion during somnambulism, and the recollection can often be revived by suggestion during the waking state.

THE

sub.consciousnp:ss

minute she began

and

"Dr. Wingfield, what is that on the it was merely the electricwhereupon she said: ** Oh, is it? It

I told

light switch,

her that

May

quite different from those in our house.

try it?" it

to look at the electric-light switch,

at last said:

wall?"

is

15

I

her she might, and

told

I >/

turned'^ ^^^'^''^^^^'

she

on.

Or take another case Cambridge

I hypnotized, for

an undergraduate

same

illustrating the

but in a more striking manner.

While

I

experimental purposes,

whom we

will call

X.

summer

he had

I

am

It

was

X,

sorry to say, was not a hard-working person.

past the middle of the

point,

was at

term, and, though

to sit for the theological special

examination at

the end of the term, he had not even procured the

One day

books to read on the subject.

I

hypnotized

him, and told him while he was asleep that the next

day he would begin

to

work

at nine o'clock in

the

morning, and would continue his labours from nine one, or at least four hours every morning and two

till

hours every evening.

On awaking he remembered

absolutely nothing, either

of

Next morning he was early etc.,

and

settled

down

to

this

suggestion or of

made during

other experiments which I

astir,

work

had promised two friends

to

his hypnosis.

buying books, paper, at nine o'clock.

accompany them

He to

Newmarket that morning, and they accordingly came but he absolutely refused to go and to fetch him resisted all persuasion. I had him watched by a friend who lived in the same house, and it was quite ;

J

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

16

curious to observe

how

accurately the suggestion was

He would sometimes

obeyed.

middle of the morning

break

to play the

off

work

piano or

in the

but

rest,

he always on these occasions exactly fulfilled his four hours of work, so far as our observations went. On two occasions he went out to dances, not returning until

twelve,

him

struck

home

but each time on. reaching that he might do a

little

it

work before

going to bed, and he religiously completed his two hours. at the

Now,

We

am

I

end

glad to say he passed his examination

of the term.

in these

two cases we have a new phenomenon.

saw before that the sleeping consciousness and

the waking consciousness differed as to the matter of

their

memory

chains

command, given during

;

but here we find that a

sleep

and apprehended only

by the sleeping consciousness,

is

carried out during

the waking state, and this notwithstanding that the subject

utterly

is

been given.

unaware that any command has

Here, then, we begin to see that the

sleeping consciousness are wide awake, and,

if

may

even when we

affect us

we examine

that the result of such experiments

closely,

is

we

find

usually simply

the creation of a desire or impulse to perform the

^

suggested action, a desire of whose origin the subject is

completely ignorant.

In the

first

experiment the

impulse to turn on the light was produced patient

did

not

command from directly.

know

that

it

;

but the

was originated

myself, and hesitated to carry

Her question was

in a it

clearly a subterfuge

out

by

THE SUB-CONSCIOUSNESS which she hoped

to satisfy

17

her desire without trans-

gressing the rules of politeness. (c)

Intellectual Activities of the Sub-consciousness.

During the

Let us now consider another experiment.

May week of

1886

—

hypnotized G., an undergraduate,

I

me May races, on the On awakening he

one evening, and told him that he would bring a

poem

on the

of three stanzas

following evening at nine o'clock.

did not recollect the suggestion, or any of the occur-

Next day he came to luncheon

rences of his sleep.

with me.

hypnotized him again, and he

I

once into a deep somnambulism.

what

I

he was

had

told

to write

it,

asked whether he had com-

I

and he said he had made the

This, he said, was as follows

verse. •'

at

him to do, and he answered that a poem and bring it to me at nine

o'clock that evening.

posed any of

fell

now asked him

I

first

:

Oh, Trinity, Pembroke, John's, Caius, Soon, soon in your shoes shall you shiver

You may swagger But the Hall

Not very

as

much

will be

brilliant poetry,

awaking he knew nothing at

head

of

nine o'clock he brought

three verses, the told

me

first

as

you

please,

of the river."

perhaps

!

However, on

what had been

said,

me

poem

the whole

being that given above.

that at half-past eight he

but of

He

had suddenly been

seized with the idea that he would write a few verses

on the

May

races,

and

sat

down

to

do

so.

He

said

he had written them straight out as they came into his head,

seemed rather pleased with his performance* 2

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

1^

and was evidently disappointed when

much

I did not think

of

I told

him

that

them.

Here we have the verses composed

in obedience to

a suggestion addressed to the secondary consciousness,

and without the knowledge

The

ness.

last

two verses,

of the

at

waking conscious-

any

rate,

and possibly

first, were composed during hours of wakefulness, and yet unconsciously in the ordinary acceptation of

the

The secondary consciousness, then, appears be capable of intellectual activity, and this activity

the term. to

may

occur while the person concerned

is

wide awake,

though, of course, quite unaware of these processes. I

have given the above experiments out

of

many

hundreds, because they are in themselves so simple and so easily carried out.

make

cult to

So

far as

bulism

it is

suspension.

The reader will not

is

somnam-

see that in

only the waking consciousness which

The

states, so that

but

it diffi-

successful experiments on similar lines.

we have gone, we activity

persists during both the

rests,

find

some

of

is

in

the sub-consciousness

waking and the somnambulic it

never sleeps nor

turn to evidence

other than that

believe that

always active.

We may now

derived simply from hypnotic experiments. (d)

Motor Automatisms

matic Writing).

—Most

called a planchette.

(the Planchette

and Auto-

people have heard of a toy

It consists

merely of a heart-

shaped board, about 8 by 10 inches, with two wheels as supports, the third support being a pencil firmly fixed in a hole in the board.

The planchette

is

placed

THE SUB-CONSCIOUSNESS

19

with the pencil resting on a sheet of paper, and the

one or both hands

operator lays

asking

a question.

it

now

planchette

gently upon

the experiment succeeds, the

If

move

begins to

in obedience to

portant point to notice

written,

may

many

that in

is

un-

The im-

conscious pressure, and writes an answer.

experimenter

it,

cases

the

be utterly unaware of what he has

and the answer

may mention

facts of

which

he believes himself ignorant.

A

simpler plan bids

still

hand and

pencil in his

paper.

lightly

it

a

on a sheet

of

In answ'er to a question, the hand will then

move independently

of

unknown

be entirely

his

will,

and, as

with the

a message the contents of which

write

planchette,

may

rest

hold

operator

the

him

to

until

Only certain persons have the power automatically, as

is called,

it

he has read of

it.

thus writing

but the proportion

is

quite large.

To return will

he be one

sleep, yet

if

when

provided with asked, the

his

a

pencil,

is

give

cognizant of

all

For example,

I

all

the events of his

who can

write auto-

placed on a planchette or

and suitable questions are

intelligence that

writing will

I

of those

hand

hypnotized subject

Though on awakening

have completely forgotten

matically,

bulism

to the

somnambulism.

in the state of

he

moment

for a

governs the automatic

answers which show that

it

is

that took place during that sleep.

hypnotized G., and during somnam-

made him imagine

with the hounds

;

(2)

that he was

(1)

riding

rowing a race in his college boat

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

so

morning he would put a boot on one foot and a shoe on the other. On waking he remembered none of these things. I then made him put his hand (3)

that next

on a planchette, and asked, ''What did you do first?" After a few meaningless scratches it wrote " Hunting." "

What then?"

the answer.

" Eowed in the races," was

I asked.

"Did

I tell

you

to

do anything?"

But

**Boot one, shoe one," said the planchette. particular experiment

is

so easy to

make

this

that I need

not multiply examples.

In making experiments

of this

kind I was struck

The knowledge possessed commensurate with that exactly planchette was the by The possessed by the subject during somnambulism.

with one outstanding

sub-consciousness

is

fact.

therefore identical with the con-

sciousness of the hypnotic sleep, and from this experi-

ment we

see that

collusion of the

when

it

can carry out actions without

waking or primary consciousness even

the subject

is

That

wide awake.

is

to say, both

the primary and the secondary consciousness acting independently, causing muscular at the

same moment

The following case

may

be

movements

of time.

strikingly reveals the action of the

sub-conscious memory, and incidentally shows that the planchette

A

may be

of real use as a

means

of diagnosis.

gentleman, aged thirty, came to consult

cerning the following history.

me

con-

For nine years he

had been oppressed by an indefinable dread of some He had no idea what it was that terrible calamity. he apprehended.

For the

first

two or three years he

THE SUB-CONSCIOUSNESS had managed

2l

to control this terror, but after a rather

severe attack of influenza

increased greatly, until

it

it

became a constant horror, which never left him during his waking hours. His own medical attendant, the

whom

he had confided his trouble, had months before he came to me, and, perhaps because he had since then kept his condition of mind to himself, the obsession had increased to an only person to

died about six

him

extent which threatened to drive

saw him several times and though he was susceptible,

to suicide.

hypnotism

tried

was unable

I

somnambulism, and suggestions seemed on his dread.

effect

might

One day

find out the cause of his terror

writing.

He

could,

planchette

— at

least

a planchette,

he

thought,

his

have no

me

that I

by automatic with

write

he had once done

made him put

to induce

to

struck

it

I

but,

;

a

so.

I

got

hand upon

it,

and

him?" After a few moments the planchette made some scratches. I then said: "Don't make scratches; asked

**

:

write

an

Planchette, what

answer."

let

him

see

that frightens

about

After

pause the planchette wrote not

is it

:

a

half

minute's

" Father's death."

I

did

what he had written, but substituted

a fresh

sheet of paper,

frighten

him?"

"Will

asking

die the

** :

Why

does that

same," was the reply.

On

inquiry I found that his father had died suddenly pulmonary embolism, and that my patient, then a child of twelve, had witnessed the death-agony with of

was the cause

great horror.

This, then,

which

so vainly sought.

I

had

I

now

of panic for

tried direct

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

22

suggestions against the possibility of his dying in this

way, and in less than three weeks the old terror had him. It is worth noticing that even when I made

left

suggestions against this particular idea, he remained quite sceptical as to his having

He

ever.

any such notion what-

had no conscious idea

certainly

It is interesting to

get quite startling revivals of

automatic writing. graduate,

to

I

and covered sheet I

aware

of

found that

secrets

once compelled L., an underautomatically

write

suggestion " Write."

least

of the kind.

may sometimes memory exhibited in

observe that one

He

by

simple

the

immediately began writing,

after sheet, without being in

what he had

much

of the

written.

the

On examination

matter was a revelation of

which he would not willingly have shared

with anyone, so

I

papers and give

me

was obliged

to let

him read the

such parts as he cared to show.

But the remarkable point was that there were a few sentences in a language of which neither he nor I

knew anything.

eventually found that

I

it

was old

Spanish, and the explanation seems to be that in his

childhood he used often to examine books in his father's library, in

old

which

Spanish.

he

had

and that some

of these

were written

Doubtless some of the sentences

under the influence

understanding were

without

read

retained in his sub-conscious

memory, and reproduced

of the suggestion " Write."

Automatic writing

is

called motor automatism

matic action really

an instance

— that

is,

originating

of

what Myers

of apparently auto-

in

the

secondary

THE SUB-CONSCIOUSNESS consciousness.

There

forms

are, of course, other

motor automatism, such

the

as

may

automatic movements in

Motor automatism may

some also

cases

of

and

table-tilting

turning of the spiritualists, and, one

add, certain hysteria.

of

occur quite spontane-

Thus, a lady was just going to throw certain

ously.

papers into the

hand

23

arrested.

fire

On

the papers were

when she suddenly found her down she saw that among

looking

some five-pound

She had

notes.

doubtless unconsciously noticed them, and the impulse

which prevented her from

sacrificing

them

originated

in her secondary consciousness. (e)

itself

Sensory Automatisms.

— But besides manifesting

by automatic movements, the secondary con-

sciousness

is

capable of producing sensory

phenomena

as well.

The most

striking instance of sensory automatism,

apart from hypnotism,

is

to

be found in what has

been termed crystal-gazing, a process with spiritualists,

who

much

in

vogue

believe that the visions

which

they see are due to the influence of departed

spirits.

The experimenter simply gazes into a glass ball, or glass of water, or some similar object, in the expectation of seeing visions

;

and,

if

he

is

successful,

he soon sees pictures

of various kinds in the crystal.

A

people can

large

number

of

do

this,

and

it

is

perhaps mainly to these forms of motor and sensory

automatism that modern spiritualism owes These crystal visions

A

may

its

strength.

occur quite unexpectedly.

short time ago I was trying to hypnotize a lady,

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

24

and made her look crystal

exclaimed is

moments

for a few

held above her eyes. *' :

Oh

!

I see a dog.

running away."

at a cut-glass

Almost

at once

she

turning round

It is

it

;

This was succeeded by the appear-

ance of a nurse wheeling a perambulator, and this again by a horse in a dog-cart.

I

gave up trying to

hypnotize her by this method.

The tendency

for apparently unnoticed facts to be

reproduced by automatism

is

a well-known crystal-gazer,

uncommon.

not

when she was

into her crystal,

Miss

Z.,

was one morning looking startled to see in

it

the printed announcement of the death of a friend.

She immediately went

to look at a

newspaper, and

there she found the identical announcement.

But

she had previously glanced at the column of deaths,

though she had not consciously noticed the paragraph in question.

^

These sub -conscious impressions duced in dreams.

town

lost a cigarette-case

offices (he

had

he saw his cigarette-case. early,

held,

seen

y

at a

in^

meeting at the

really been there that day),

dream he heard something

in his

be repro-

which he valued very highly.

That night he dreamt that he was L.C.C.

may also

Mr. C, a friend of mine, while

fall.

and

Looking down,

Next morning he got up

room where the meeting had been and found the cigarette-case exactly as he had

it

went

to the

in his

dream.

(/) Passive Attention, of attention,

— One

even in ordinary

to a splitting of consciousness,

factor,

life

concentration

induces a tendency

THE SUB-CONSCIOUSNESS

25

Thus a man, walking along the

street engrossed in

will avoid colliding

with other people»

conversation,

though he may not consciously notice them, and may __ every

now and then be

them

at

He

all.

so

much

is

fully

aware

is

times

conscious.

all

;

Of

of the other,

only partially and some-

avoiding passers-by, he at

avoiding

is

doing two things at once.

is

one, the conversation, he

scarcely

absorbed in con-

unaware that he

versing as to be quite

unaware

These

actions are governed by a part of consciousness which

has begun is

to split off

from the

sometimes termed one I

rest.

The

condition

of passive attention.

suppose that this splitting of consciousness when

our attention is fully engaged is a kind of defensive mechanism, which guards us from injuries which we do not avoid consciously when mental interest

is

otherwise absorbed.

As

will

be seen in the next chapter, the methods

for inducing hypnosis,

which

after all is a condition

consciousness, depend upon this limitation

of

split

of

the field

of

consciousness

by concentration

of

attention. ig)

Multiple Personalities.

—I

shall not attempt to

deal with the questions involved in those rare cases in

which the consciousness tion into one or

more

is liable to

apparent disrup-

distinct personalities,

such as in

They are purely pathological, and, though the phenomena of the secondary consciousness do in a measure help to the well-known case of Sally Beauchamp.

elucidate them, the explanation

is still

far

from being

^^

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

26

fully understood, little

and

quite beyond the scope of this

is

book.

Relation of Primary and Secondary

II.

Consciousness. (a)

Nature of

the Relationshij).

—

has been con-

It

tended by some that the primary and the secondary consciousness are really completely separate entities,

properly designated by the term "personalities." if

we look more

that here

—

no sharp

closely,

we

everywhere in Nature

as, indeed,

line of demarcation.

dition of the

memory

If

we

lects

and often very imperfect.

some occurrences, he

is

occurring

shall find that

as he nears the somnambulistic stage such

imperfect,

— there

we examine the con-

of a subject for events

in the different stages of hypnosis,

J

But

conclude

shall, I think,

memory

is

Whilst he recol-

forgets others

happening

apparently in the same stage, though he can generally, but not always, recall these events

The condition

them.

waking and sleeping

of

reminded

memory between

the

states

if

appears to be

one

of

the of

extremely variable equilibrium, oscillating constantly,

tending

now

So much

is

to the waking,

now

to the sleeping state.

this the case that

it

is

difficult to

get

constant results in experiments on Inemory in this

middle phase when

it

begins to approach

somnam-

bulism.

On

the whole, perhaps, one

M)f consciousness as

may

regard the range

analogous to the solar spectrum.

THE SUB-CONSCIOUSNESS

27

The waking consciousness might be represented by the red end of the spectrum, the profound somnambulistic

consciousness by the violet, and the deepest part,

which, we

may

suppose,

functions,

ceral

Clearly,

if

invisible

it

with the

we

violet,

shall find a sharp

demarcation between the two,

of

rays.

we examine the red end of the spectrum,

and compare line

in relation with the vis-

is

by the ultra-violet

we

for

shall

have missed out the orange which bridges them.

But

we look

if

that

is

it

at the

just in the

middle part

that the conditions of

how

consider

consciousness, and

We

we may

infer

is

is

in suspension

secondary consciousness that

waking

from the

is

fact that

of the events

primary

activity of the

during the deep sleep.

still

active,

state the

and from the

during somnambulism the events

life

briefly

the secondary

But we have seen that during the waking fact

is

have seen that the conscious-

somnambulism that the

consciousness

it

condition

—We may now

on awaking the subject has no memory of his

And

are so elusive.

the somnambulistic state

of

obvious

is

the facts in this chapter illuminate the

nature of hypnosis. ness

it

the hypnotic

of

memory

Bearing on Hypnosis.

Its

(b)

whole spectrum,

continuous from end to end.

are remembered,

we may

of

the

infer that all

suggestions given in the waking state reach the second-

ary as well as the primary consciousness. that in istics

somnambulism we can examine of

It is clear

the character-

the secondary consciousness in a state of

complete detachment from the primary.

Unfortu-

28

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

we cannot examine the primary consciousness we have seen, even in the waking state the secondary consciousness is still sufficiently alert to be receptive. If we compare the normal with the somnambulistic state, we find that the most striking point of contrast is the difference in the degrees of suggestibility. The

nately,

in a similar condition of isolation, since, as

most evident characteristic enormously increased reaches the

maximum

of the latter state is its

suggestibility ^

which

Nearly every suggestion

susceptible.

accepted, and

at

once

degree of which the subject

is

immediately

is

each idea so generated seems to be during

translated automatically into action.

In

somnambulism nearly every suggested

idea gives rise

fact,

with almost mechanical certainty to the corresponding cerebral reflex.

Yet while nearly every suggestion, whether inhibitory or imperative, or even

if

may

fail to

act even in

some sugges-

somnambulism.

that, as a rule, the function of criticism,

extinct during

Before

it

somnambulism,

is

be

be a suggestion

it

of hallucination, is effective, occasionally

tion

it

It

appears

though not

practically quiescent.

can be called into action there

is,

one

may

suppose, far more inertia to be overcome than in the

normal

state.

But

if

the suggestion happens to run

counter to some latent but more powerful idea or suggestion already dominating the

and often no amount denial.

field, it

of insistence

may be

refused;

can prevail over the

However, whatever the cause

certain that the power of criticism as

may

be,

it

is

shown by the

THE SUB-CONSCIOUSNESS rejection of a suggestion

is

29

rarely exercised in som-

nambulism.

The most normal

striking

result

return to the

the

of

state is the constant exercise of the

criticism.

Not every idea

now

is

power

translated

of

into

The various suggestions are sifted by the primary consciousness, and only a few are chosen, and allowed to act. The rest are rejected in other action.

—

words, their action

The power

is

inhibited.

of criticism

and subsequent inhibition

appears to be a function of the primary consciousness alone,

and so long as consciousness works

as a whole,

When, however, as in hypnosis, the consciousness is more or less split, the inhibition acts throughout.

exercised by the primary consciousness no longer acts fully

on the now separated sub-consciousness, and the

latter appears to

have

little

or no

power

of criticism.

In deep hypnosis, when the waking consciousness is

for the time practically in abeyance, the

possesses no power of criticism at

To

this fact is

the hypnotic state.

subject

all.

due the increased suggestibility

When we make

of

suggestions to a

hypnotized subject we are in reality taking a some-

what mean advantage

of the

fact that his

sub-consciousness, in consequence of

power

its

split-ofif

lack of the

of criticism, is defenceless.

The condition of total abeyance coexistent with somnambulism is merely the completion of a process of gradual suppression. It commences at the very beginning

of

the

lightest

stage of hypnosis.

The

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

30

suspension of the primary consciousness

initiatory

shows

mere disinclination

as a

The

suggestion. tries,

will

the very earliest condition of hypnosis

itself in

and,

do

eyes,

if

subject can successfully resist

Thus,

so.

told that

if

he makes no attempt

sufficiently to

asked

to if

a

he

induced to try by repeated challenges,

may

repeatedly defied, he

If

opposition

to act in

make

why he

to

he cannot open his

open them

if

the attempt, and will succeed.

did not open

them

say simply that he did not wish to strong disinclination to try.

advanced stage he really

An amusing

but,

;

eventually rouse himself

at first,

—

felt,

At a

feels that

he

will

indeed, a

slightly

more

he cannot even

try.

instance of this condition was afforded

by an undergraduate, M.

I

had on a previous occasion

and one afternoon happened meet him in the rooms of a common friend. He

lightly hypnotized him, to

was standing on the hearthrug, and, soon entered, said he

must

to go to his coach.

You

leave, as *'

But,"

it

was time

I said,

can't get off the hearthrug."

'*

you

He

after I for

him

can't go.

laughed and

protested that he could, but did not do so, and after a minute or two appealed to

me

to let

he would get into trouble with his coach.

him

go, else

I pointed

out that he had just said that he could walk away, and asked why he did not do so if he desired. " Oh yes," he replied, " I could do it if I tried, but I can't try."

This condition indicates a slightly more ad-

vanced stage in the ness, as

it

**

disaggregation " of conscious-

has been termed.

THE SUB-CONSCIOUSNESS However, the various stages

31

will be considered

more

in detail in a later chapter.

The more completely the primary consciousness suppressed, the more does suggestibility increase.

is

In

hypnotism suggestions do not act through the primary or waking consciousness;

it

is

to the sub-conscious-

ness alone that they successfully appeal. the

more the secondary consciousness

from the inhibitory control ness, the

The

final

complete,

of the

Obviously is

liberated

primary conscious-

more suggestible does the subject become. result, when the process of suppression is is,

of course,

The power

of

amnesia.

hypnosis, then, resides in the sup-

pression, partial or complete, of the inhibitory rule of the

waking or primary consciousness over the

sociated sub-consciousness.

dis-

CHAPTER

III

METHODS OF THE INDUCTION OF HYPNOSIS Introductory

— Test

suggestions

— Manner

of

conveying

sug-

—

(Emphatic v. persuasive mode Personality of operator— Susceptibility of subjects)— Conditions of sugProcesses of induction (Physical methods gestibility gestions

—

—

Nancy School Personal method)— Necessity Method of Dr. TapHn Allied forms Dr. Bramwell's method) treatment (Duboir' method Awakening of the subject. Method

of

test suggestions

—

A

KNOWLEDGE

is,

of course, of great

standpoint.

of the

—

—

methods

of inducing

of of

—

hypnosis

importance from the practical

To the mind

of the

beginner the actual

induction of the hypnotic state often appears a for-

midable undertaking, encompassed with apparently insurmountable, though really imaginary,

difficulties.

The very simplicity of the processes employed creates him a feeling that there really must be something more behind them than he sees or reads of and, too, in

;

often without even a trial, he concludes that he, at

any

rate,

could never hypnotize anyone, whatever

others can do.

At heart, in

successful hypnotist does his

fact,

he

feels that

work by virtue

of

the

some

and incommunicable gift. if the principles which underlie the methods But,

peculiar

32

THE INDUCTION OF HYPNOSIS

33

are once grasped, the difficulty of inducing hypnosis will

be found very slight, and, in the case of good

amenable patients

while

non-existent;

absolutely

subjects,

comprehension

this

with

less

enable

will

even the beginner to vary his devices to an extent only

limited

by

his

probably, even with to

hypnotize anyone

ingenuity,

inventive

who

he

practice,

little

is

that

so

will be

able

capable of being hypno-

tized at all.

Test Sugg-estions.

I.

The aim

of all the

methods

is

the same

— to induce

a condition in which the subject shall be partly or

wholly incapable of resisting suggestions.

When

the

attempt to produce this condition has been made, the only criterion of the result

some

it

is

not likely to

much

will

;

and

is

Upon

its

his suggestibility If it

is

a question of

consequences very

depend, since, after the

markedly

increased.

this is

we must choose such a one as

fail.

has been given, the degree patient

effort,

necessary to decide clearly what the

suggestion shall be

real importance, for is

the success or failure of

Before making the

definite suggestion.

therefore, first

is

altered.

of

first

suggestion

suggestibility in the

Should he respond

to

it,

increased, sometimes enormously

be ineffectual, his suggestibiHty

is

diminished, sometimes so gravely that hypnotization

by the

operator

impossible,

who has

failed

while the chances of

becomes

almost

success even 3

for

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

34

The very

others are seriously prejudiced.

fact that

a suggestion has captured the subject leaves a general

impression on his mind quite apart from that involved with the nature of the particular suggestion. creates

or

helps

to

It

strengthen an expectancy that

other suggestions will be also irresistible, or at least

very

difficult to

resist,

and

The sense

frustration

of

mental attitude

this

may undoubtedly deepen

itself

the hypnotic

of

state.

and discouragement con-

sequent on the failure of a suggestion, on the other

hand, naturally develops into an impression exactly the reverse of this.

The phenomena to be 1.

2.

of suggestion found by experience most readily produced are as follows

A A

sense of quietude and repose. sensation

of.

warmth on some

part of the body

on which the operator lays his hand. ^

3. 4.

A A

feeling of somnolence.

sensation of heaviness of the lids

;

inability

to prevent closure of the eyes. 5.

Inability to open the eyes

when

closed by the

previous suggestion. 6.

Inability to open the eyes

when they have been

voluntarily closed. I

have given them roughly in the order

from the operator's point

number number It

three

of view.

can be induced

of facility

In some subjects

more

readily

than

two.

will be

observed that number one

indefinite kind of suggestion,

is

a rather

and that the suggestions

THE INDUCTION OF HYPNOSIS

35

to their place in the

become more precise according sequence.

aids in deepening the hypnotic state, the earlier

As

suggestions are decidedly less effective than the later

Thus, a suggested feeling

ones.

repose, though

susceptible, does so

The

degree.

quietness and

of

indeed makes the subject more

it

only in a comparatively slight

warmth undoubtedly

definite feeling of

produces a greater hypnotic result, while the closure of the eyes, with inability to open them, brings about a

marked

increase

of

suggestibility.

So

that

it

unfortunately happens that the easier the suggestion is to

enforce the less hypnotic effect

it

has, the reason

being that these various phenomena belong really to different stages of the hypnotic state, the first to the earlier

aim

and those subsequent

is to

a condition as

II.

We

to the later stages.

we can reach.

Manner

have

now

of Conveying Suggestions. to

consider the best

conveying the suggestions.

commanding

voice, with as

Are they

manner

of

to be given in a

much emphasis

or are they to be spoken quietly

The

Our

evoke a phenomenon connected with as deep

as possible,

and persuasively

?

chief factors in the strength of a suggestion

are, I think 1.

Emphasis and commanding

2.

Repetition, which greatly increases the effect.

3.

The

tone.

personality of the operator.

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

36

The emphatic and the have

suggestions

methods

quiet

each

of

giving

and

advantages

certain

disadvantages.

and

1

2.

the Repetitive

Comparison of the Emphatic Mode zcith Mode. An emphatic suggestion is liable

—

any

to cause a conscious, or at

rate partly conscious,

resistance on the part of the subject,

may make quently

awakens a deliberate

it

Again, losing all

hypnotization very

it

Not

infre-

conflict of will.

cannot be continuously repeated without so that in using a strong suggestion

its force,

for the first

trial

one

so to speak, carrying all

is,

The suggestion once

given,

must follow immediately, and

failure

one's eggs in one basket.

success or failure

certainly likelier than with the gradual methods.

is

On it

and resistance

difficult.

the other hand,

if

be effective, and especially

it

be effective in spite of an

effort at resistance, it

any milder suggestion can have. Young people from about twelve

has

victory than

more decided and instantaneous

a far

if

to

twenty-two

years of age are very susceptible to strong suggestions

;

and the uneducated

are equally

so.

time

If

even in later

classes,

is of

life,

great importance, and

the patient belongs to one of those two classes,

may

be worth

commanding to

while to try suggestion in the

The most

form.

induce in this way

eyes.

suitable

when they

and, though

it

phenomenon

I think, inability to

I often give this as a first

patients class,

is,

are

open the

suggestion to

young or

of

it

more

my

the hospital

does not invariably take effect,

THE INDUCTION OF HYPNOSIS proportion

the

successes

of

37

outnumbers

far

the

failures.

On

method

to

confidence,

any novice and

it

;

takes a

perhaps as well to defer

is

it

has been acquired.

that

recommend this certain amount of

the whole, however, I do not

When

it

until

given without any

great emphasis, on the other hand, a suggestion

may

be repeated again and again, not only without loss

but with actual gain in power.

It

becomes a per-

command, and should arouse The power which it by the absence of emphasis may be more than

suasion rather than a

no conscious resistance whatever. forgoes

compensated

for

by that accumulated in repetition. In

practice this mild and persistent

method has the

advantage that a considerable time

may

any marked degree

attained.

demand many

of

hypnosis

sittings.

Each

is

dis-

elapse before It

may

of the six suggestions

When number one number two may be tried, and so on, until at last we succeed with all six, and the subject cannot open his eyes when they have been sealed by may

be enforced in their order.

successful,

is

suggestion.

Comparing the two

methods, we

see

that

advantage of the strong and emphatic mode rapidity with which

On

uncertainty.

its

way

it

by frequent

if

it

the

the contrary, the more gradual

very slow, but very sure. suppose,

is

disadvantage being

of giving suggestions persuasively,

their effect

I

acts, the

the

repetition,

is

and increasing comparatively

—

were always possible

to choose, the

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

38

slow method would invariably be regarded as preferable

the

to

rapid one

but in

;

medical

actual

practice the choice not infrequently lies between im.-

mediate hypnosis on the very

Many

all.

first sitting

or not at

patients will not contentedly undergo a

number of sittings with no evident hypnotic effect. They expect immediate results; and I have sometimes had patients sent to me who have been led to

men

believe

by their medical

enough

to induce the condition.

up

town

to

for a

one sitting

that

Some

patients

first

trial

come

day to discover whether they are

suitable subjects for hypnotic treatment,

the

is

conclusively

as

Certainly in these cases

is

it

settling

and regard the point.

generally

wiser

to

decline to attempt treatment under such conditions,

but

many

circumstances

may make

refusal almost

impossible.

do not think that anyone who has successfully attempted to seal the patient's eyes by a single I

emphatic suggestion

method

entirely,

is

ever likely to abandon this

on account

time and the power

it

of the great

economy

of

has of instantly increasing the

suggestibility of the subject, while the extreme precision with

out 3.

is

which the whole process can be carried

eminently satisfactory.

TJie Perso7iaUty of the

a suggestion the

more

Oj^emfor.— The stronger

readily

does

the

subject

respond, so that, granted a fixed degree of suggestibility,

the subject

and yet be

may answer

to a strong suggestion,

quite unaffected by the

same suggestion

if

THE INDUCTION OF HYPNOSIS it

be weakly conveyed.

may

The strength

vary enormously.

It

a9

of a suggestion

depends largely upon the

tone of voice in which

panying

it is given, the gestures accomand the personality, dominHiag or other-

it,

wise, of the operator.

It is natural,

some persons should be much more others in e-nforcing obedience

Those who can impress

suggestions.

their subjects

most readily

A

will be the best hypnotists.

ing though

tolerant

therefore, that

successful than

their

to

temper,

naturally

command-

human

considerable

sympathy, and as much knowledge as possible psychology

the

in

which

qualities

widest

will greatly

sense

of

/ J

of

the word, are

strengthen the worker in

treatment by suggestion. 4Jl_perso^s are, of course, not equally susceptible to

Of healthy persons, however, over

hypnotism.

90 per cent, are probably more or less susceptible. But when w^e use hypnotism for therapeutical purposes we are not dealing with healthy normal subjects

:

unfortunately, the majority of the nervous

disorders

which we are called

suggestion do of themselves susceptibility of the patients.

true, such as dipsomania, seem,

their

But

victims

in a large

concentration

upon

to

by

treat

tend to diminish the^^

Some if

maladies,

anything, to

it

is

make

more rather than less susceptible. number of neurasthenics the power of is

either entirely gone or very

much

weakened, or else self-suggestion presents an almost insuperable obstacle. at

all,

and

Imbeciles cannot be hypnotized

of lunatics all

but a very small proportion

.

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

40

Bramwell

appear to be unimpressionable. out of the

hundred patients he had

first

in

states that

London only

twenty-two were completely refractory.

Thirty-six

passed into light hypnosis, thirteen into deep hypnosis,

and twenty-nine into somnambulism. Sex seems to make no material difference nor, apparently, according to

ceptibility;

and Liebeault, does age.

to sus-

Bramwell

Children from three years

The

age and upwards are readily influenced.

of

youngest patient

I

have had was

five

years old, and

he was readily hypnotized; while Bramwell records a successful case in a child of three.

III.

Conditions of Sug-grestibility.

But with the vast majority

of

employ some preliminary method suggestible

at

all.

gestible in their

we can do

that

1

sufficiently

normal condition. better

I

sug-

do not think

than recall the conditions to induce hypnosis.

them again here 1.

Fixation of attention.

2.

Monotony.

3.

Limitation of muscular movements.

4.

Limitation of consciousness.

5.

Inhibition.

and

clearly

rendering them

of

Very few are

enumerated by Sidis as tending I give

people we must

4.

the

The

really important condition here

limitation

of

conscioiisncssy

being obviously subservient to that end.

the

is

others

The sub-

THE INDUCTION OF HYPNOSIS ject's attention

must not wander

at will, but

41

must be^"^

as far as possible confined to one idea or set of ideas,

may

Thus, he

be made to think of sleep, with

j

its

associated notions of heaviness of the limbs, drowsy

and gradual sealing

feelings,

of the various

channels

of sense.

As was pointed out

in a previous chapter, limitation

of the field of consciousness

by concentration always

tends to"^cr^e a split in consciousness.

_The

condi-

tion of hypnosTs being one of dissociation, concentration of attention

is

the readiest

means

of bringing

it

about.

Sometimes a subject may become hypnotized

2.

a few

moments

;

if

not, the second condition, that of

The

process, what-

Sidis

monotonously

monotony^ must be remembered. ever

it is,

strokes

must be monotonous.

the

in

subject's

forehead,

repeating,

-

" Sleep,

sleep, sleep," in a level tone of voice, until the patient is

subdued 3.

I

to the hypnotic state.

need not emphasize the evident necessity

absence of voluntary muscular movements.

slackening of as

it

seems

all

the muscles

is

to be paralleled

of the

A conscious

desirable in the subject,

by a helpful degree

of

psychical relaxation. 5.

The

last condition, inhihition, or the

of the intrusion of foreign ideas,

is,

to the limitation of consciousness.

prevention

of course, essential

In most

of those

cases that entirely defy hypnosis the absence of this inhibition It

is

by

far the

commonest cause

of failure.

seems certain that these conditions do conduce

to

^

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

42

some measure

suspension of the powers of the

of

waking consciousness

;

in other words, to the induc-

tion of hypnosis, whether of the lightest or the

profound kind.

do not for one

I

most

moment wish

the

reader to suppose that the value of the statement of these conditions

is

necessarily

more than empirical

they seem, however, to indicate the factors which are

common

to all the

known methods, though we

do not know in what their virtue resides. it

is

not too

much

to

really

Perhaps

hope that some more certain

may one day be disPossibly some drug may be found to induce covered. the requisite mental change. Many have already been process of hypnotic induction

tried,

and with occasional

success, but the drug or

method which will invariably succeed still remains Meanwhile we shall see that in all the unknown. various methods used at the present time these conditions do really seem to play a part. IV. Processes of Inducing" Hypnosis. 1.

Phi/sical Methods.

ally recognized

them— are subject at

—the

— The actual processes gener-

classical

mainly two

some small

:

methods, we

may term

prolonged gazing

by the

object (Braid's method),

and

the use of passes, or long, slow movements of the operator's

hands near

to,

the body of the subject.

u

hypnotism, the more one

or in actual contact with,

But the more one is

sees of

convinced that the real

value of these processes consists in the evocation of Sidis's conditions

—

viz., fixation of

the attention,

and

THE INDUCTION OF HYPNOSIS

43

limitation of consciousness, and to the suggestion which

they convey, often vague indeed, but gestion, that the patient in

a sug-

still

some sense

or other

is

being subdued to the influence of the operator.

But many other apparently originate

trifling

notion quite strongly.

this

patient be told

to

lie

may

matters

Thus,

if

the

down and to make his mind sit down and try to think

as blank as possible, or to of

nothing and to slacken

merely asked

them

insignificant

if

he be

down, shut' his eyes, and keep

to lie

shut, each

his muscles, or

all

and

all

ought,

actions

these apparently quite

of

am

I

convinced, to be

regarded as real hypnotic processes, which are often quite as effectual as the better recognized

The

gazing and passes.

each case

methods

of

essential point of value in

the quickening of the patient's knowledge

is

that an attempt

is

being made, or

and

to influence him,

it is

this

is

about to be made,

knowledge which gives

to the simplest procedures their great significance.

While

I

am

not prepared to deny that prolonged

gazing at some small object and the use of passes

may have some hypnotic

other intrinsic power to produce the

state, I

am

sure that their power of doing

so has been greatly exaggerated,

practised value,

for

though

to the

hypnotist they do, I believe, have

un-

some

they tend to impart to the operator a

certain confidence, and a suggestion given with confidence,

which

a very real

it

is

power.

difficult to

simulate,

As means

of

is

in itself

emphasizing a

suggestion, both passes and gazing are undoubtedly

j

/

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

44

The

useful.

steady, concentrated gaze of the operator

can also impress a subject to an extraordinary extent.

Even without any

other preliminary process, a deter-

mined gaze often compels obedience

When

at

when

I

Cambridge,

was collecting subjects

purpose of

for the

On more than one

experiment.

to a suggestion.

used this method

I frequently

occasion I tried

number of undergraduates and simply asking them to look at my eyes. Then I standing before a

gazed steadily at

whom

I considered the best subject,

suggesting that he must get up from his chair and

come

to

In a minute or

me.

his resistance, he

had

so,

notwithstanding

Then, by a similar

to obey.

treatment of the others present,

I

on one occasion

compelled no fewer than eleven out of thirteen to

None

obey the suggestion and approach me.

had been hypnotized mention

I

this

of these

before.

experiment to show that merely

witnessing the hypnotization of others does of

itself

increase the suggestibility of a prospective subject,

and must be included under the general as

a

hypnotic process,

most powerful and

down the principle

his patients,

successes

unfailing

resistance

that

since

of a

to

it

is,

I

method

subject.

Wetjterstrand

and

it

relied

It

definition

believe, of

was on

in

the

breaking this

hypnotizing

his astonishing percentage of

must be regarded as mainly due.

His fresh

patients were present while his old were hypnotized,

and the impression made was overpowering, so that he practically never failed to affect

them

at the first trial.

THE INDUCTION OF HYPNOSIS But

practical

for

when we have

purposes,

hypnotize subjects singly,

45

and not

groups,

in

to

as

^

Wetterstrand did, the one essential factor in rendering the subject suggestible

is

suggestion

beginner must clearly grasp one without an accompanying verbally given

either

patient,

no process

of

or

point

command

viz.,

that

y ^

or persuasion,

understood by the

tacitly

any kind

The

itself.

likely to be of the

is

slightest avail in producing the desired hypnotic state.

Almost

modern

the older investigators, and

all

instance to physical devices.

used a number,

behind

course,

many

of the

ones, have apparently resorted in the first

all

them

Mesmer invented and

^/

equally successful, because, of all

lay

the

and

great,

then

unknown, power of suggestion. Braid, when he first began to hypnotize, used to make patients gaze for

some small bright

a long time at

_

object, held slightly

above the eyes, about a foot distant, at the same time telling

them

to look steadily at

on

their attention

it.

it,

and

to concentrate

Sometimes the eyes

time would close spontaneously

;

not,

if

after a

he repeated

the process, instructing the patient to allow his eyes to close

when

the operator brought his two extended

fingers towards them, Bnd, after his lids were shut, still

to it.

to direct his eyeballs

picture

it,

and keeping

towards the object, trying his

attention riveted on

Usually this process succeeded

noting that his eyes

it is

when

as a rule harder

;

and

it

is

worth

for a patient to

open

the eyeballs are kept in such a position.

Later, however, Braid recognized that verbal sugges-

^

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

46 tion

was the best method

at all could be

of

inducing hypnosis, and

anyone who

stated his belief that

hypnotized by

could be hypnotized

means without any With regard to this

its

recourse to physical methods.

prolonged gazing, as originally advocated by Braid, it

is

interesting

expected,

may

it

even

sometimes,

note that

to

who cannot by any

children

possibility

that the

It is just possible

feeling of heaviness produced by the process

may

of

suggest sleep, and, of course, the monotony and

may

fixation of attention

be expected to induce some

But

degree of hypnosis. is

is

produce deep hypnosis, without any

suggestion of any kind.

itself

in

know what

I

do not think this method

suited for purposes of medical treatment.

tedious

and exhausting

to

the

patient, and,

absorbs more time than more direct methods,

nothing to recommend

Among

it

Card,

successful,

who was,

is it

it

has

who perform on

the

in preference to them.

the public hypnotists

stage a modification of Braid's

Madam

It

as

I

method

is

often used.

think, one of

the most

used to seat her subjects on the stage,

placing in the

was directed

hand

of

each a metal

disc, at

which he

After about ten minutes, which

to gaze.

she occupied by talking to the audience, she went to

each in turn, and, taking away his

disc, told

him

to

at him fixedly for half same time stroking his forehead and brows with rather rapid strokes, and then ]\ade him close his eyes. Finally, placing her hand Oii his

look at her eyes.

She stared

a minute or so, at the

forehead, and pressing strongly against

it,

she said

THE INDUCTION OF HYPNOSIS " Your eyes are fast impossible."

47

you cannot open them

;

—

it

she achieved her end with the

If

is

first

two or three, she was generally successful with most of the others.

If

she failed with the

few, the

first

failure generally acted as a strong counter-suggestion,

and she would then frequently

Her power undoubtedly

lay

fail

with

the

in

all

the rest.

extraordinary

intensity of

expression which she could throw into

her gaze.

She

her

glared

literally

subjects

into

—

submission.

Method of

2.

piifposes"~there to physical

ihr Kancji Schonl'

—But

for practical

absolute^ no necessity to resort

is

methods

at all.

/With limitation

of con-

sciousness, suggestion alone, either rapidly or gradually enforced, is the real

Such

devices, for instance, as the use of a revolving

mirror for the patient to gaze

Luys,

will, I believe,

at,

as advocated

physical device at least

are

may

However, one

accelerate the process.

persons are more readily hypnotized

made

possible

by

hypnotize no one who cannot

be hypnotized by mere suggestion.

Many

.

power which induces hypnosis/

if

they

to extend the head backwards as far as

while

reason seems

hypnotization to

is

carried

out.

The

be that in this position mental

activity is

more

hypnotist

who used

difficult.

to

I

remember one

travelling

take advantage of this.

He

hypnotized his subject by standing behind the chair

on which he was seated, and then, forcibly bending his head backwards, gazed into his eyes for a few

moments, closed them, and suggested that they could

/

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

48

He was

not be opened.

very effective, and I have same method. the Nancy School that we are indebted for

often succeeded with the It is to

the modes of inducing hypnosis by pure sugRe^tipn,

and the methods three of

of Liebeault,

Bernheim, and Beaunis,

chief leaders, resemble each other very

its

closely.

Liebeault and Bernheim used to place the patient in a chair,

and then

operator's

eyes.

spontaneously

but

;

him

tell

to look steadily at the

Sometimes the eyes would if

not,

suggestions

close

were made

The suggestions of both the operators were very similar. *' Your eyelids are getting heavy your at once.

;

eyes feel tired

;

your limbs

Think

are getting drowsy.

eyes are closing,"

etc.

feel

of

heavy and

numb

;

you

nothing but sleep. Your

In most cases this succeeded

immediately.

Beaunis used simply to make the patient gaze steadily at his eyes,

and the

lids

He

few moments in successful cases. suggestion

;

and

its

gave no verbal

must be remembered that the Nancy were so familiar with hypnotism

but

inhabitants of

would close in a

it

general results that the patient shared in the

common knowledge

of the kind of effect

which was

intended, so that the suggestion that the eyes should close

was already

at hypnosis

in

his

mind

before any attempt

was made.

At Nancy everyone had heard

of

hypnotism and

was more or less intimate with it, while immense numbers had been hypnotized, thus creating an attitude

THE INDUCTION OF HYPNOSIS mind which

of

trance.

It is

have heard

of

greatly favours the induction of the

which

its

hypnotism only as something mysterious

name

;

at all about

it,

except

thus we lack the potent auxiliary

Ignorance

exists in France.

hindrance.

Here the majority

not so in England.

and uncanny, or know nothing probably

49

The. idea

distracts the patient

is

strange,

is

certainly a real

and the strangeness

he wonders what

;

will

happen,

and sometimes cannot refrain from an attempt

to

analyze his own feelings, a great and often fatal bar hypnosis.

to

Hence

bewilderment into account, and,

this

v

we must take

in this country

if

possible, try

with the characteristics of the

to familiarize patients

hypnotic state before we

make any

effort to influence

them. Personal Method.

3.

say what it

is

— Though

seems doubtful whether there

can be called the best

which

I

have used

and which appears tages

—

viz.,

cannot pretend to

I

the best method of inducing hypnosis, for is

any method which

for all cases, I state a

method

for the last six or seven years,

me

to

to

offer

two real advan-

extreme rapidity and a very large per-

centage of successes at the

first

trial

(about 92 per

cent)

Like others, I found that one success was

more or

common

less conscious resistance

part of the subject

—a

help exerting even

when he was anxious

Most patients find

and

it

obstacle to

was with a view

oa

the

resistance which he could not

it

difficult to aid

to assist.

the operator,

of preventing conscious resist-

4

/ /

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

50

ance and enlisting the willingness I devised the It

of the subject that

method.

extremely easy, and nearly always induces

is

a condition of suggestibility within a minute. I rarely

more than two minutes, and never

try a patient for for longer

than three.

Before hypnotizing a patient, understand, I always

to

tell

if

him

he be old enough

that

important

it is

that he should understand the principles underlying

hypnotism in order that he may be able

to help to

render himself suggestible.

€

tell

him

that

depends on the

it

fact that,

if

we

concentrate our attention on anything with sufficient

our consciousness always

intensity, in two.

As an

illustration

along the street

tends to

use the

I

man

split

walking

engrossed in conversation, which

be found in the previous chapter.*' C, *Z .^ These unaware actions, I tell him, are governed by a

will

part of consciousness split

oJBf

split-off part possesses so little it

from the

power

rest,

and the

of criticism that

accepts suggestions quite readily since

it

cannot see

that they are really absurd. *'

So," I

tell

him, "

if

you

will

concentrate your

attention on anything for a short time,

and

if

I

then

make any

suggestion such as that you cannot take

your hand

off

mine, you will find that you cannot."

The explanation

is

quite simple. Whilst your

waking

consciousness can criticize the suggestion and say that it

is

nonsense, your

split-off

consciousness, which

exercises a considerable control over your bodily

move-

THE INDUCTION OF HYPNOSIS ments,

such a fool that

is

In

effect all it

off

yours, can't I?

him,

cannot

it

criticize at all.

my hand

" Oh, I can't take

is,

Very

that you

will find tell

can say

well, then, I can't,"

cannot do

51

and you

All suggestion, I

it.

simply a way of taking advantage of the

is

fact that the split-off consciousness, or sub-conscious-

ness, I

such a hopeless

is

fool.

common

then always try to remove some

miscon-

ceptions about hypnotism. I

tell

subject

him

that,

always

is

however deep, the

in hypnosis,

completely

always hear everything

I

and can

conscious,

and

say,

that, except for

the fact that he will be unable to resist suggestions,

he

will I

remain exactly as he normally

now make him

His hand,

if

raised

is.

down and relax all his muscles. and let go, should fall absolutely

lie

dead. I

now

tell

him

that I want

cut-glass crystal for a few

him

him

to look at a small

moments, and explain

that the sole object of this

is to

give

to

him some-

thing on which he can concentrate his attention. I

now

say," Whilst you are looking at

much

to blink as

as ever

you

like

;

let

it,

I

want you

your eyes get

as heavy as ever they can, and let yourself as drowsy

as possible,

whole point

of the

and do not rouse

method

lies in

at

become all." The

these words.

now hold the piece of cut-glass eight or ten inche s away from his eyes and make him concentrate his I

gaze on

it,

and

at the

same time stroke

his forehead

and repeat once more,** Blink as much as you

like," etc.

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

52

now

;

half closed "

;

heavier

at

my

you are becoming drowsy, they are I tc:ke away the glass and he looks

and

more tell him

After about ten seconds

eyes instead.

less the eyes generally close

and stroke the

close them,

Your eyes are getting

**

After ten seconds I say,

and,

;

lids

if

not, I

or to

once or twice.

make no suggestion as to the eyes being sealed until I have made the next test, the reason being that, in many of these nervous cases, the stages As a rule

frequently

I

occur in their normal order.

fail to

both arms, saying they will begin to feel

I stroke

heavy, and then

I

make him grasp my hand, and pull I then stroke his arm and

hard against his grasp.

him

that his

that the

more he

grasp.

He

tell

hand

is

becoming

tries to take

tries to

it

off

fast to

mine, and

the harder he will

take his hand off but cannot.

then seal his eyes, and he

is

I

sufficiently susceptible

most therapeutic purposes. I have given this method in some

for

found

it

so satisfactory.

procedure

due

have

detail as I

In only a few cases does this

fail at first trial,

and the

failure is usually

to lack of concentration.

Sometimes a patient will find it easier to attend to the monotonous beat of a metron^jae, or the sound of running water, than the""gTass of crystal. Another

method which obstinate

cases

I

have is

to

tried with

make

success in a few

the patient breathe, as

nearly as he can, once every three seconds, and

J

him

attend to his breathing.

method often enough

to test it

I

have not

thoroughly

make

tried ;

this

but^from

THE INDUCTION OF HYPNOSIS what

have seen

I

I think

may

it

53

prove a vahiable

device.

People

who

are really musical can

often

render

themselves suggestible by going through a piece of

music mentally.

Whereas

in former days I did not generally try to

hypnotize patients at their, practically always do so, cent, are If,

and

first

interview,

I find that

hypnotized to some degree at a

now

I

over 90 per first trial.

however, the patients be very nervous of hypno-

tell them that I will not hypnotize them, but show them exactly what I shall want them to do when they next come, so that as they will know what is going to happen, they will feel no nervousness on their next visit. Very often they succumb whilst

tism, I will

being shown what they are required to do. I

make no

attempt at suggestion

real

If not,

until,

after

a few trials, they lose their nervousness. It is

amazing what an immense difference concenOne case which I failed to influence on

tration makes.

twenty-two occasions, because he could not attention,

succumbed

he should try

He

at once

when

to centre his attention

I

fix

his

suggested that

on his own home.

could do that, though on previous occasions he had

failed altogether to limit his

In the

case

of

generally repeat

failure,

the

and as a rule the eyes of heaviness.

thought to the idea of sleep.

on

the

second

day,

same process as on the close, or at any rate show

I

first,

signs

Usually, after the patient has fixed his

gaze on some small bright object for a few seconds, I

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

54

make him

mine

fasten his eyes on

for a short time,

repeating again the suggestions as to heaviness, It is quite

astonishing

how suddenly

of the operator will influence a subject.

In

many

causes an almost immediate closure of the eyes.

however,

if

it

Now,

the eyes show no signs of closing or of

heaviness, I think tell

etc.

the steady gaze

it

and mind

best to follow Sidis's plan,

the subject to close his eyes and confine his

as far as possible to one set of ideas.

I

then keep on

repeating the suggestion, ''Sleep, sleep, sleep," at the

same time monotonously stroking

After

his forehead.

a few minutes I generally raise one hand, and very gently

let

placed

it,

it

it

go again.

Often

it

showing some degree

stays w^here I have

Even

of catalepsy.

if

does not, I suggest that the patient will find difficulty

in opening his eyes, that the limbs are getting heavy, etc.

I

then inform him that when I

tell

him

to

open

his eyes he will probably be able to do so, but with

more than normal the prediction

is

quite unable to open tion.

If

When

difficulty.

nearly always

them

at

all,

he remains unaffected,

he

fulfilled.

is

told to try,

He may

be

or only after hesita-

I generally

make him

shut them again, and resume for a short time, suggesting sleep as before, but I

make no more

trials

on that occasion. In the case of failure,

it is

advisable to

can from the patient, with the view cause.

elicit all

one

of discovering the

This almost invariably proves to be lack of

the power of concentration.

In that case, when he

next comes, I try to find something on which he

THE INDUCTION thinks he will be able to

through the same kind there

is

one

fix

HYPNOSIS

his attention, and, going

know

no method which

of

with any certainty overcome this obstacle.

self-suggesting people furnish cases.

But

which sometimes

factor, self-suggestion,

hypnotizable

55

of process, often succeed.

prevents hypnosis, and I will

OP^

most

These

of the really

One can only

try

un-

on

again

another occasion, and keep on repeating the attempt until one either succeeds or concludes that further efforts are useless.

always advisable to get the patient to think of

It is

hypnosis as a gradual process, sometimes satisfactorily

induced only after several

sittings.

And sometimes

with such subjects as require therapeutic treatment, it

does take several trials to arrive at

But

in the vast majority, even of those

show no sign especially

if

of hypnosis,

much who

effect.

at first

repeated trials do succeed,

one can rectify mistakes in the conditions,

such as failure of concentration. It is

made

worth mentioning that, when an attempt

to prevent

a

is

subject from opening his eyes,

firm pressure on the forehead seems to intensify the

suggestion considerably. 4.

Necessity of Test Suggestion.

—

It is, of course,

not

necessary to test the actuality of hypnosis by the suggestion of closure of the eyes.

Many make no

simply on the account

of the experience

tests, relying

given by the patient

when he

is

aroused, such as the

presence or absence of heaviness or somnolence, and the feeling of disinclination to move, etc.

Personally,

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

56

aim

I generally do

at this

one

really satisfied that the subject

degree, even

if

as I then feel

test,

hypnotized to some*

is

be only very slightly; but others

it

try to produce a feeling of

warmth by laying

hand

the

on the patient's body and suggesting the sensation a

warm glow beneath

matters what test

is

I

it.

do not think

applied, so long as

it is

it

of

much

a criterion

show the existence of quite light degrees of hypnosis, and does not exact an advanced stage for that will

its

Testing the presence of hypnosis by an

success.

experimental

suggestion

has

one

advantage

other

besides the reassurance of the operator.

If effectual,

the suggestion will increase suggestibility, and on this

ground also

it

seems

to

me

advisable.

—

Method of Dr. Betts Taplin. Some prefer slower methods as being the most certain. Thus Dr. Betts 5.

Taplin, of Liverpool, who, I believe, rarely fails to

hypnotize

his

methods.

On

patients,

the

first

does

by very gradual

so

day he simply talks

to his

patient, explaining the nature of the treatment.

On

makes lie and quietude. On the next he suggests the sensation of warmth in some

the next he sometimes merely

down, and suggests a feeling

the patient

of rest

part of the body, usually the epigastrium, on which

he lays his hand, then heaviness etc.,

so that

it is

of the eyes, limbs,

only after several sittings that any

attempt at closing the eyes can be made.

Though

very lengthy, this method has the advantage of being

more

certain than

many

others,

and

has proved an exceedingly sure one.

in his

hands

it

THE INDUCTION OF HYPNOSIS But the beginner,

if

he

57

but remember that the

will

chief condition found requisite for the production of

hypnosis

is

limitation of consciousness,

and

bear

will

mind the suggestions which are most readily enforced, must find that the process of induction of

in

hypnosis

far easier

is

he be good

than appears at

first sight.

If

he

will

if

not,

at giving really strong suggestions,

probably generally use the shorter processes

he

that

find

will

;

he succeeds best with the more

Once hypnosis has been induced, can be deepened in susceptible subjects either by

gradual methods. it

the reiterated of

command

the various

to sleep or

phenomena

by the suggestion

the

of

different

states

chapter on the stages of hypnosis. happens not infrequently that the simple methods

described in the It

above

described

will

of

themselves

induce

hypnosis, or even somnambulism, at the

first

deep trial,

without any further procedure. 6.

Allied Methods

of suggestion,

and

their

of Treatment.— Other methods

without hypnosis, are employed by many,

advocates

claim

that the results are as

successful as, or even better than, those obtained

by

hypnotism. (rt)

more to

Dubois Method.

—The method

notice than can be given

many

kinds of neuroses.

it

of

here.

He

Dubois deserves It is

applicable

does not hypnotize

his patients, but, after a searching diagnosis of the

psychical as well as the physical

conditions of the

by reasoning and argument to convince them that they are curable and must get well, and to case,

he

tries

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

58

induce them constantly to reassure themselves that

symptoms

their

will

He

vanish.

them by

helps

encouraging suggestions every time he sees them.

To me

appears to rely mainly on

treatment

his

suggestions of cure

made by

the patient to himself,

and the results,^which are exceedingly good, seem from thisnnduced habit of therapeutical self-

to flow

But the method is inapplicable to some cases, and must require singular powers of persuasion in the physician. Dubois objects to hypnotism, and suggestion.

even

falls foul of

the term " suggestion"; his method,

he says, acts by persuasion.

Still,

work

his

is

of

great value in helping to emphasize the necessity of

comprehending the psychical aspect both

of

nervous

maladies and of their cure.

Dr.

(h)

BmmwelVs Method.

ployed by Dr. Bramwell

—Another

method, em-

— one which he now uses to — demands some considera-

the exclusion of hypnotism

The patient

tion.

some is

restful

sits

down, and

mental picture.

He

is

The nature

instructed

not to observe the sug-

of inattention the success of the

The

Two

to the conditions

told that

and

is

power said to

which the operator is

in the armchair.

each time he comes he will find

easier to rest, to turn his

operator,

his

kinds of suggestion are then made.

first refers

is

upon

procedure

wishes to create while the patient

He

of the picture

be one which can hold his

gestion given by the physician, and

depend.

told to think of

it

unimportant, provided

interest.

is

to

concentrate

it

it

away from the upon some restful

attention

THE INDUCTION OF HYPNOSIS • idea.

59

has been previously explained to him that

It

the physician's aim

is

not to produce sleep, but that

he can get into the drowsy condition that pre-

if

cedes sleep, the curative suggestions are likely to find

response more quickly.

The other suggestions are

curative,

and begin with

Often the panent

unable on

the

first

treatment.

the

first

occasion to divert his attention from these,

but after a few treatments he

and

so,

to

is

is

generally able to do

form some serene imaginary picture, often

passing into a dreamy, drowsy state.

Sometimes he

lapses into a condition of slight natural sleep. difficult to

explain the success of this

to show how it The suggestions given are supposed

absence of experiments "

says

:

the

secondary consciousness and to

into play "

It is

method in the acts. Bramwell call

to

its

reach

powers

— evidently because the primary conscious-

ness, tricked into preoccupation, leaves the secondary

more

easily

accessible.

Probably this

is

since

so,

such suggestions have practically no power over the

method is a process in which limitation of consciousness and monotony have a part, so that we may reasonably suppose that some amount of hypnosis may often occur. As Sidis has, I think, satisfactorily proved, in primary consciousness.

It is clear that

the

the normal condition only indirect suggestions have appreciable

effect,

slight, whilst in

tion the It is

and even then the

effect

is

but

hypnosis the more direct the sugges-

more powerful unnecessary

it is

in producing results.

to point out the great advantage

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

60

of a really successful

method

of enforcing suggestions

without the aid of hypnosis, both as regards economy of

time and also as regards the number

could be treated by

make no

means

its

for

;

of cases it

which

would then

difierence in suggestive treatment whether

the patient were hypnotizable or not, since, after

the only object of inducing hypnosis

more

subject

But value,

is

all,

to render the

suggestible.

it seems possible that both methods have their and that some cases can be more successfully

treated

by one than the other.

have seen, for

I

had been some weeks in

instance, a bad case of dipsomania, which

treated without the slightest result for

a nursing

home by

suggestion without hypnosis, yield

at once to suggestion I

know

under light hypnosis

that the medical

man who

;

and yet

treated the patient

in the first instance has succeeded in

many

similar

cases by his method. I

do not advise anyone to restrict himself to one

method, though at

first it is

doubtless best to practise

becomes familiar.

Eventually he

with one until

it

will be able to

judge for himself which methods suit

him

best in general, for there can be

little

doubt that

each worker will discover some one mode of procedure peculiarly suited to his individuality.

Note on the Awakening* of the Subject.

To arouse a

command

to

subject

**wake"

from the hypnotic sleep the

is all

that

is

necessary.

It is,

THE INDUCTION OF HYPNOSIS however, best to arouse him gradually. suggest that he will wake

when

I

61

I generally

have counted ten,

and then count slowly aloud. In only two instances have ending the sleep.

hypnotized by two different interval,

known

of difficulty in

men

at a few minutes'

and could be awakened by neither.

was

finally

his

face;

ious ruse.

and the other, who had passed into the was eventually wakened by an ingen-

When

I

pass over one of

else for treatment, I

that he will obey his

command.

One

aroused by having cold water dashed in

imitative stage,

anyone

I

In both cases the subject had been

my

patients to

always suggest in hypnosis

new hypnotizer, and wake

at his

This precaution had been omitted in the

two instances mentioned.

CHAPTEK

IV

THE PHENOMENA OF HYPNOSIS— THE STAGES Introductory statement

— Erroneous

impressions of hypnosis

Determination of stages of hypnosis stages 1 to 5

— Comparison

— Detailed

account of

with stages of Liebeault and

Bernheim.

General Statement. If a

number

tions to

of subjects are

hypnotized, the sugges-

which they respond are not the same in

every case.

Thus, in some, closure of the eyes

is

phenomenon that can be evoked. In others we may produce, in addition, inability to carry out a voluntary movement, such as writing or walking, though we cannot compel them to initiate such a Others, again, will show the voluntary movement. phenomena above mentioned, and wdll also yield obedience to some imperative suggestion— for instance, the only

a

command

to

rise

from a seat

—though

cannot be inhibited, even for single If etc.,

find of

we group the

sets of

memory

facts.

phenomena

as A, B, C,

and take a large number of subjects, we shall that some are capable of showing the phenomena

group

A

only;

others, again, of group 62

B

as well

THE PHENOMENA OF HYPNOSIS A

as of group

and others

of

groups

more advanced).

still

may

"We

hypnotic

groups A, B, C, and

condition its

Since, however,

it

some

at

it,

(D representing

into

each

stages,

being

stage

phenomena.

possible to produce in every

is

phenomena

the

of

we can

tell

hypnosis which any subject

of

all

the

the actual stage of

may happen

only by ascertaining what are the most

phenomena

the

divide

particular group of

least

stages preceding

D

experimentally

therefore

characterized by

stage

and C

others, again, of groups A, B,

;

63

to

reach

advanced

that can be elicited; then, by referring

to the group to which they belong, we readily determine the stage of hypnosis which the subject has attained. The different groups of phenomena that become manifest as the subject advances from the

lightest

to

the deepest

states

of

hypnosis

can, of

course, be determined only by actual experiment with

number of subjects. Anyone who intends to make use

a large

of

hypnotism

for

therapeutic purposes will, naturally, be better equipped if

he has some knowledge

the if

of

the general course of

phenomena which may be evoked by

he realizes what, in

which the subject

will

ceptible degrees in

fact,

its

means

are the stages through

pass as he goes, by almost imper-

many

instances, from the lightest

possible condition of slightly increased suggestibility to the state of It

profound somnambulism.

might be supposed from the name

that the

commonest

characteristic

of

**

hypnotism

"

the hypnotic

64

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

state

was the hypnotic

As a matter

sleep.

of fact

comparatively few subjects reach this particular condition; nor, fortunately,

is

necessary for thera-

it

number

peutical purposes, except in a very small cases.

It

cent, ever pass into the deep state at

majority, therefore,

show only the

The great

all.

characteristics of

the light or waking state, in which there in

the

There

continuity is

of

generally held that only about 15 per

is

of

the

memory

of

is

no break

the

subject.

another general, but quite erroneous, impres-

sion that the hypnotic sleep sciousness.

The

subject,

is

a condition of uncon-

even

in

somnambulism,

remains completely conscious, though on awaking he forgets all the experiences of his " sleep." Probably this loss of

idea of

loss

memory has become confused of consciousness. Some rare

do occasionally pass into a condition

of

resembling a very heavy normal sleep;

with the patients

lethargy

but even

these subjects, though too inert to respond to spoken suggestions, are probably certainly not

less

more

conscious

or less conscious

than in deep natural

sleep.

The

stages here described were those defined by

Professor Langley and myself

many

years ago at Cambridge.

when experimenting These early stages

have long become familiar in public exhibitions hypnotism.

Some were mentioned by

of

Braid, and an

account of certain of their phenomena, as produced

by Lewis and Darling in 1851,

and by Gregory.

is

given by Bennett

THE PHENOMENA OF HYPNOSIS The

first

was

object of our experiments

65

to ascertain

whether the different stages of the waking state could be arranged in sequence, so that a subject showing the

phenomena

of

any stage (whether could

succession

in the

phenomena of all the The subjects were graduates,

and

also be

men, nearly

I

number, and the

to

were under-

all

whom

show the

it.

were in good health.

all

dealing with the subjects on

worked together,

made

stages preceding all

earlier or later)

Besides

Langley and

I

experimented by myself on a large as regards the

results,

stages,

I

found to be always, or very nearly always, the same.

The method

of

inducing hypnosis which we adopted

was very simple.

We

gazed at the subject from

thirty to sixty seconds, generally stroking his temples

and forehead

at the

same

time,

and making jitrokes

^orj)asses-over the top of his head.

asked

to

or strokes were generally laid firmly

given:

He was

then

shut his eyes, over which a few more passes

made

;

one hand was then

on his forehead, and the suggestion was

"You

cannot

open

your

eyes."

If

this

— —we went on to try other inhibitory suggestions. and

the

majority of

Thus, in their order, we induced rigidity

of the limbs,

succeeded cases

it

did

succeed

in

obedience to imperative suggestions, loss of particular facts, simple delusions,

and

memory for

loss of sensation.

After this we attempted to produce illusions.

If

these

were evoked, the subject would usually pass into the deep

state.

We

If not,

we

tried the suggestion, " Sleep."

found the subjects hypnotized by this method 5

^

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

66

showed no alteration from their normal appearance in the first three and often in the first four stages, therein differing

from the subjects

who proceeded on

a

of

Liebeault and Bernheim,

different

obtaining by

plan,

gazing, passes, and the suggestion of sleep the maxi-

mum

degree of hypnotization possible.

their first stage

is

owing possibly

marked by more

or less drowsiness,

to the reiterated suggestion of sleep,

which we never used until we wished deep

Thus, even

to

produce the

state.

With regard

to the stages as

we

differentiated them,

two points are to be noted

The

are not sharply marked off from They are due to a loss of voluntary control over some of the muscular movements of the body, others remaining under that control. But the It may show itself loss of power has many degrees. slight the movemere hesitation in performing in a ment affected by the inhibitory suggestion or it may, 1.

stages

each other.

;

indeed, be utterly impossible for the subject to perform

movement so long as the suggestion is maintained. It must be understood that the relations of the

the

stages

1,

2,

3,

number

etc.,

to each

other are such that a

show the phenomena of Others show the phenomena of stages 1 stage 1 only. and 2 only and when the phenomena of stage 2 or

certain

of

subjects

;

stage 3 can be produced, then those of stages 1 and 2 respectively can also be

stage 1 or

made

apparent.

In most cases, when stage 3 can be produced, then the

phenomena

of stage 2

appear more readily, and

THE PHENOMENA OF HYPNOSIS those of stage 1

still

more

are so susceptible that

Some

so.

it

subjects, however,

difficult to

is

67

discriminate

phenomena of the some it is easier produce somnambulism than the phenomena of the

degrees in the ease with which the different stages are evoked, to

waking 2.

of

If

state without

a subject

is

and

in

it.

taken beyond the early stages

hypnotism, so that when at rest his condition

obviously abnormal, and suggestions are then

is

made

to

him, he cannot afterwards be experimented upon

to

determine these early stages unless the suggestions

given

in

made

the deep

For

noted.

state

have been most carefully has been successfully

after a suggestion

in the deep state, the subject's condition

altered that the

same suggestion given

in his

is

so

waking

more readily carried out than it was before. The fact makes such experiments difficult unless one state is

can obtain a great range It

of subjects.

cannot be claimed that the stages are always

exactly the

same

in all subjects, yet variations are

neither remarkable

nor frequent.

depend upon the receptivity and, since this

may

may

of

The phenomena

the nervous system,

be altered in deep hypnosis, we

naturally expect some differences to exist even in

healthy persons, and especially

in

those

still

more

suffering

in unhealthy persons,

from a perversion

of

some one or other function of the nervous system. None of our experiments were made upon hysterical subjects, but the different accounts given of the early

stages in hysterical patients do not

seem surprising;

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

68

close conformity with those found in

indeed, their

healthy people would be

much more

a matter for

wonder.

The

stages observed are as follows

Stage

1.

:

— In this stage the subject can be prevented

from carrying out those voluntary movements which

commonly accomplished

are most

reflex action

;

The

the eyes, face, and respiration.

ment

in ordinary

life

such are those affecting the muscles typical

movements, appears the

easiest

to

prevent.

of

move-

that of opening the eyes, and this, of

is

by

all

This

inhibition has long been the first experiment tried by

public performers on the stage, and Liebeault and

Bernheim

mena

also

mention

to obtain.

it

as one of the easiest pheno-

Other phenomena belonging to this

class are the preventions of shutting the eyes, open-

ing the mouth, swallowing,

taking a deep breath,

breathing.

Both in

this stage

and

in stage 2 the

more com-

monly the movement is carried out by reflex action and the less commonly by volition, the easier it is to inhibit

it

by suggestion.

It is

worth noting in this

connection that one act, at any rate

which

is

practically

an entirely reflex

—

viz.,

act

sneezing,

— can be pre-

vented in almost anyone, even in the normal states,

by a

direct inhibitory suggestion.

infrequently

the case with

regard

This to

is

also not

micturition,

which, however, can generally be prevented only after the

first

stage has been produced.

According to Heidenhain, in a considerable number

THE PHENOMENA OF HYPNOSIS sign of hypnosis

of subjects the only

obtained

is

inability to

my own

with

69 can be

that

open the eyes, and this accords Of these, he says, some

experience.

can be prevented from opening the mouth as In some, other muscles can be affected

well.

after a

e.g.y

few strokes over a strongly flexed arm the subject

may

be unable to extend

He compares

it.

this with

a condition described by Richet, where a voluntary

Whether he thinks mouth is caused in

contraction causes a contracture.

the inabihty to open the eyes and

way

this

In

not clear.

is

obvious sign of hypnosis to

is

open his eyes when

feature

may

first

the inability of the subject

told he

cannot do

be strongly marked, although

so. it

This

may

be

produce any contracture in the

quite impossible to

So far as we have observed, a

rest of the muscles.

stray voluntary contraction

may sometimes

aid the

suggestion, but does not of itself produce

of

effect

however, the

fact,

any contracture.

who have

I

been

am

not here speaking of subjects

deeply

hypnotized

or

who

are

hysterical. It

is

important

opening the eyes

to is

recognize

that

as true a sign of

hesitation

in

commencing

hypnosis as the most absolute inability to open the eyes at

all.

Of course, the subject

notized in the latter case, but he in the former

;

and

it

will

is

is

more deeply hyp-

as truly influenced

almost always be found that

by repeating the process, the

slight hesitation

may

be converted, though often only gradually converted, into

an absolute

disability.

It is

worth while

to

draw

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

70

attention to this point, for by

many

not familiar with

hypnotism a suggestion imperfectly carried out regarded as a failure, although cates a certain degree, at

Stage classes

2.

—In

All

is

unmistakably indi-

rate, of hypnosis.

we

stage

this

phenomena.

of

any

it

three

find

subjects

in

different

this

stage

show the phenomena of the first stage, combined with one or more of the phenomena of the second (ft) The limbs can be made rigid. :

ih)

After suggestion, the subject

movement

the

of his limbs

unable to control

is

— that

is,

he can be pre-

vented from voluntarily carrying out movements not included in stage {a)

'Rigidity.

pas-ses are

1.

— To

produce

made over

is

told his limbs are

to

happen most

rigidity, light strokes or

the limbs of the subject, and he

becoming

This appears

stiff.

easily with the hand, then with the

arms, then with the the body muscles.

legs.

We rarely

In almost

all

tried to influence

these cases passes

aid the effect of verbal suggestion.

ing with the finger

seems equally

In some, pointefficacious,

simple suggestion really does as well.

The

and

rigidity

produced varies greatly in intensity in different subjects.

It

may

appreciates ful,

it,

be so slight that the subject only just

or so extreme as to be

and leave a feeling

more extreme the

of fatigue.

rigidity, the longer

somewhat painIn general, the it

takes for the

subject to relax the muscles after the suggestion has ceased.

In some subjects when, say, the hand has

been made

rigid,

it

can be flexed almost instantly

THE PHENOMENA OF HYPNOSIS when an attempt rigidity

made

is

to

do

71

In others the

so.

produced cannot voluntarily be ended within

a minute or more. external

force

It

back to

leased, flies

be understood

may

move

to

that

require a considerable

when

the limb, which,

its

original position.

in

these

no

cases

It

re-

must

suggestion

has been given to the subject that he cannot move

He

a limb. it

simply asked whether he can bend

is

—his hand, for instance.

It is well

known

the time

taken to perform such a movement is decreased by suggestions like " Now you can close your hand." If this alone does not lead to flexion, a few passes over

the hand in a direction contrary to those stiffening

subject

may

it

often

are

cannot

still

flex his

be produced by the

open the hand.

hand.

made

Occasionally

effective.

in

the

In that case flexion

command

of the operator to

^Yhen, however, the rigidity does not

rapidly disappear, experiment shows that the subject

can be made

phenomena

of

to

show more

stage

3.

In

or

less

markedly the

some cases we

tried

plunging the stiffened hand into hot water, which caused the rigor to vanish

seemed

to

produce the same

instantly. efi'ect

Cold water

as hot, but

more

slowly.

One to

subject

by thinking to

— C. — who

was able by self-suggestion

produce great rigidity in any limb, was also able, of his

arm

as being relaxed, to prevent

a great extent the production of rigidity by us.

we could do by suggestion and by passes produce a stiffness insufficieot to cause any

All that

was

to

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

72

The

appreciable delay in the voluntary movement. subject,

whose hand was relaxed by hot water, even-

tually succeeded in

He

suggestion.

quickly

making

his

hand

rigid

when he held

it

near the

by

self-

more Having re-

found that he could bend fire.

it

peated the experiment several times, he placed his

hand on

his leg,

and then found that as long as he

kept his hand in that position he was unable to it.

We

make

also were unable to

his

stiffen

hand

rigid,

either by suggestion or passes, as long as he kept in contact with his leg, whereas,

an inch or

if

it

were removed

it

we could do so instantly. This is interesting, as showing the way in which a suggestion may work. Before he had experienced the rapid reduction effect of hot water, we could make his hand rigid,

so,

whether he kept

warmth gave

warm

or not

;

but afterwards

rise to the suggestion of laxness in the

muscles to such a degree that neither spoken nor other suggestions of rigidity produced any

most subjects the placing

of the

hand

effect.

In

in hot water

somewhat less easy to reproduce rigidity, but the difference was often very slight. The followrendered

it

ing case, belonging to a stage later than that here dealt with,

shows how hot water

may

annul the

effect

produced by passes A.'s

hands became insensitive under strokes or

passes, the loss of sensation beginning at the tips of

the fingers, and spreading upwards.

He was

asked,

without being told why, to dip his fingers to about tihe first

joint in hot water.

After drying them, he

THE PHENOMENA OF HYPNOSIS was asked

to put his

73

hand through a hole in the screen, hand or what was done

so that he could not see his to

Passes were

it.

made

found that the ends sensitiveness,

sensation

for

over this hand, and

of

the fingers retained

whereas in the all

except

rest

very

the

of

strong

was

it

their

fingers

stimuli

dis-

appeared.

Squeezing the muscles in some cases

whom

in

tion

With C,

by squeezing the muscles. tracture

is

produced

is

whom

in

con-

readily obtained by light stimuli, squeezing

the muscles produces takes

in J.,

contracture from light stimuli and sugges-

only slight, a strong contracture

is

markedly

Thus

increased the strength of contracture.

much

much

greater rigidity, which

it

Probably the strong

longer to remove.

stimuli act by increasing the force of the suggestion.

whether contracture

It is a question

muscles

of the

cannot be produced with an ease which varies

in-

versely with the frequency with which in ordinary life

they are used reflexly— that

is,

without

effort of

will.

Thus, the muscles of the limbs are more easily

made

rigid

than those

whose hand was

rigid

of the face.

tried

to

When

bend

it,

a subject it

always

appeared, as far as our experience went, that the first

and second fingers were the

pletely flexed.

showed that

it

last

to

be com-

Later experiments on these subjects took fewer passes to

fingers rigid than the third

make

and fourth

these two

fingers or the

thumb. It

seems clear that the

primary change in

the

74.

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

nervous system which produces contracture the cortex of the brain, for in nearly

lies in

fresh subjects

all

passes do not produce contracture unless accompanied

The change

by verbal suggestion.

probably an

is

and not an inhibitory process.

active

supposed by some that the condition

It is

has been

due

to the

inhibition of the cortex, the lower centres being so left freer to act

;

but

if

this be the case,

how is

contracture

produced by simple suggestion to be explained?

It

can hardly be supposed that the ordinary stimuli from

and organs

the skin

the body are sufficient to

of

produce strong rigidity of the muscles

of the body,

even supposing that the higher centres are not acting. This

not the case in paralysis from injury to the

is

brain, or in cases of injury to the spinal cord.

quently the contracture

is

Conse-

probably produced by an

activity of certain parts of the cortex of the brain

that

is,

caused by the idea of contracture.

This

disturbance must be restored to quiescence before the contracture can disappear.

In certain prolonged experiments on the hands subjects, partly

through a screen,

it

of

has sometimes

happened that the arms have become more

rigid

than

was due partly to reverse hand, and not over the made the strokes being over arm. In other cases we found the arm more readily the hands.

Perhaps

this

rendered rigid than the hand.

Thus, light strokes

from the shoulder downwards have made the arm quite rigid, and

the

hand only

slightly so.

however,

are

exceptions,

and not the

cases,

These rule.

THE PHENOMENA OF HYPNOSIS would be

It

difference

difficult to

reaction

of

say whether this the

in

is

75

due

to a

muscles,

various

or

simply to the concentration of the subject's attention

upon one

muscles more than the other.

set of

(b) Inhibition

of Movements.

— The next phenomenon

characteristic of the second stage

the subject to

One

cannot.

the inability of

of

the dropping of an object held in the hand.

This

subject to conditions to which I shall return a

little

(1) is

is

movements when told he the easiest movements to prevent is

carry out

The other

later.

were

writing

(2)

moving the arms the

lifting

down

(6)

;

leg;

laterally

(5)

ments

is

together

;

straight out

walking or

(4)

from a chair or object.

sitting

The time during

unable to perform these move-

of course varies.

It is

easy to prevent the dropping of even a light

object held in the hand,

the

when placed

rising

picking up an

which the subject

studied

raising or lowering the arm, and

with the palms

in front

movements we

inhibited (3)

;

first

finger

if

that object be held between

and the thumb.

If

the thing be held

simply by the fingers, without the aid of the thumb, it

is

extremely

dropping kerchief, of the

difficult

unless

it,

so held,

if

hand

;

it is

is

to

more

prevent a subject from or less heavy.

dropped by the gradual opening

more weight, cannot, The period of inhibition,

a book, which has

as a rule, be dropped at

all.

as I said, varies in its duration.

suggestion

is

A hand-

longer

It lasts

continually repeated, and

continues to look at the operator's eyes

if ;

if

the

the subject

and

in

many

AN LNTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

76

resumed

cases the forbidden actions cannot be

unless the suggestion

In

all

contract

removed.

explicitly

these cases of inhibited

early stage,

desired

is

it

movements

not that the subject

is

is

is

muscles necessary to bring about the

the

do

Supposing

bend his arm, then, when he

told that he cannot

tries to

at this

unable to

movement, but that he cannot help contracting

the antagonistic muscles at the same time.

he

at all

he contracts the extensors, and the arm

so,

remains extended.

The degree

of contraction of the

antagonistic muscles depends partly upon the strength of

the suggestion, and partly upon the intensity of

the effort with which the subject tries to overcome

the inhibition of the suggestion, so that the greater

the effort

made by

the subject, the stronger the con-

The suggestion

traction of the antagonistic muscles. affects

the part

o*f

the brain which directly or in-

directly governs the antagonistic muscles, effort to stretch

them

is

and every

at once counteracted.

This seems to be shown by the following experiment

The he

is

subject

is

told he cannot

told this

someone

bend his arm, and whilst bend

tries to

extensors immediately contract.

it

for

him

;

the

Obviously the con-

traction of the extensors is a reflex from the cortex,

brought about by the stimuli stretch them.

The

case,

set

up

no doubt,

in attempting to is

the same

when

he voluntarily contracts his flexors that is, the effort not act directly on the cortical centre ;

of will does

which governs the antagonistic muscles, but only indirectly by stretching

these

muscles.

The same

THE PHENOMENA OF HYPNOSIS suggestion

When

may

differently in

act

77 people.

different

E. holds a light object in his hand, and

he cannot drop

it,

the whole

hand

told

is

grips the object

and

firmly, then slowly relaxes the grip,

so on.

J.,

under similar circumstances, continually passes the object from finger to finger, holding

always between

it

thumb and one or other of his fingers. Often after the first movement or two all the fingers except one get free, but any movement of this from the object is accompanied by a movement of one of the the

other fingers to seize

Thus, the fingers are kept

it.

dancing backwards and forwards, towards the thumb,

and the object Again, laid flat

if

is still

held.

B. be told that he cannot

on the

table, there are

but his hand does not rise suggestion,

lifts

one part

;

whilst

of the

from the table until he touches finger or the

thumb

hand

after the other

by the

tip of

but as soon as this

;

arm,

of his

under the same

J.,

it

his hand,

lift

movements

one

raised

is

another finger darts down, and so keeps up a kind of tattoo. F.,

when

first to

told he could not write his

name,

tried at

do so by moving his fingers, but could

nothing but scratches

;

it

by using his whole arm he might be able

He managed

make

then occurred to him that

to write the first half of his

to write.

name

in this

way, but when he was told that he could not write at all,

movement was rendered more scratches. here give two more examples of this

ineffective,

and

resulted only in I

the

way

in

which

AN INTRODUCTIOxN TO HYPNOTISM

78

a suggestion

may work

itself out.

was

J.

He

could not take a step forward.

he

told that

raised one leg,

and

put his foot out in front laterally, but could not get to

ground excepting alongside the other

the

After

some

trials it struck

lose his balance

in front,

when one

him

made sudden

if

jerks with his

foot

and make the step

it

So with one leg in the

for.

foot.

he could only

was raised with the

leg

he must come down on

he was struggling

that,

it

air

he

body forward, and then

But immediately he

presently did lose his balance.

did so he caught the mantelpiece, which was near

him, so breaking the stumble

;

and he declared that

he could not help thus saving himself.

The following example will show how a subject may devise a way of circumventing a suggestion. So many seem to have an idea that a suggestion given in hypnosis it is

is

always

fulfilled

well to bear in

case.

with inexorable fatality, that

mind

that this

is

by no means the

J.F. was told that he could deal out only twelve

cards from a pack

— no more.

dealt the cards out one three, etc., as

he did

He

took the pack and

by one, counting one, two,

Having

so.

dealt the twelve

cards, he took the thirteenth card in his hand, but

was utterly unable

to

put

it

down on the

repeating the experiment of times,

table.

dealing cards

and being uniformly unsuccessful

out more than twelve, he reflected that dealing one card a time, he took two, and

if,

After several

in dealing

instead of

still

counted

one, two, three, as he dealt each pair, he might be

able to circumvent the suggestion.

He

did so readily,

THE PHENOMENA OF HYPNOSIS

79

dealing out twenty-four cards instead of twelve

when he took saying

that,

;

but

the thirteenth pair and tried to deal

again found himself

he

"thirteen,"

unable to put the cards down.

We

—

did not find that the three kinds of

contracture, inhibition of voluntary

viz.,

not included in stage

1,

and the execution

ments by imperative suggestion in

any regular sequence;

of

any

for,

them show those

of

may show any one without the others.

of

the

This

whilst

all

(1)

move-

subjects capable

of the first stage,

some

stage 2

subdivisions of

happens, however, only Generally speaking,

phenomena can be produced

order

of

—followed one another

with the minority of subjects. the

phenomena movements

following

in the

:

The

subject can be prevented from dropping an

object. (2)

(3) (4)

His arms and hands can be made

He He

rigid.

can be prevented from writing. can be made to carry out

a

movement

these

phenomena

(stage 3).

Further, as I have said before, are obtained in any subject the

phenomena

It

to

is

make

the

at all

markedly

of the third stage.

be noticed that,

when

before an inhibitory suggestion to

all

who shows

is

passes are

made

given, the inability

movement may be due

to the contracture

produced by the passes, and not to the suggestion itself.

be

In some cases the inhibitory suggestion

effective

when

contracture

may

has been produced

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

80

though

was

it

Thus C, when

ineffective before.

told

that he cannot bend his arm, does so without any

but

hesitation

;

arm

rigid,

are

rigid,

that

taken

by

he

if

told that his

is first

hand and

and then, when they have become

he

bend

cannot

him

bend

it

whom

rigidity

to

arm,

his

time

considerably

very

is

the

prolonged.

In a

is

subjects in

all

marked tendency

attention

asked a

to

little

is

on

fixed

hold his

arm

limb to

for a it

thus,

;

and

out,

if if

is

produced there

stiffen as

soon as

such a subject be

he be told that after

time he will be unable to lower

it, it

will

become

move it. There is one phenomenon viz., the production of suggested automatic muscular movement of which I even before he

rigid

tries to

—

—

My attention was first called

may

speak at this point.

to

by the Hon. E. Feilding quite

it

to obtain these

lately.

movements only with

have tried

eight subjects.

In one case I was unable to produce the

whom

I

effect

with a

movements voluntarily begun. In four I succeeded when I could not compel the subjects to continue such movements. With the others both sets of phenomena could be induced. It appears on the whole to be a phenomenon which lies between the second and third stages, and subject

is,

I think,

I could

compel

to continue

conveniently classed as belonging to the

earliest part of the third stage.

So form.

far

I

The

have

tried the

subject,

tion, lays his right

experiment only in one

whose eyes are closed by sugges-

hand on mine.

He

is

then asked

to

THE PHENOMENA OF HYPNOSIS

81

remove his hand voluntarily from mine, and

to

replace

again every time I count three.

it

I

then

and each time I " or two from inch his hand an say "three he moves mine and then replaces it. After this has been done begin counting, one, two, three,

him no longer

three or four times, I ask

hand

voluntarily, but to

etc.,

let

to

move

his

quite passively in

lie

it

move it nor to prevent it from him that I shall endeavour to

mine, trying neither to

moving.

make

it

I

then

move

tell

automatically, and I begin counting

again as before, one, two, three, a long pause at the

*'

three."

soon begin to move of a

mere gentle touch,

of his

hand

hand is

is

itself,

with rather

etc.,

the hand does not

If

a very

little

made each time

or wrist in the direction in

intended to move, and he

is

pressure,

at the side

which his

assured that the

motion will come in time. After a few trials slight movements begin, and as the experiment goes on they three," the become stronger, until at last, at each hand is automatically moved completely away from mine and back again. As a rule, one can then go straight on, telling him to try to keep his hand quite still, since he must **

move is

it

with or without his

If

will.

the experiment

continued in the same way as before, his hand soon

begins to move, notwithstanding his efforts to keep it

stationary.

Here, of course,

is

a response to an

imperative suggestion, and the phenomenon, therefore,

belongs to the third stage

;

but there can be no doubt

that the previous training in

making him move 6

his

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

82

hand, it

first

voluntarily and then automatically, renders

much more Stage

3.

easy to secure this response.

—The

waking

third stage of the

often rather sharply

marked from the

first

state is

two by the

One

possibility of enforcing imperative suggestions.

finds a very large

readily

whom effect

amenable

number

of subjects

who

are quite

to inhibitory suggestions, but

no imperative suggestions appear

to

on

have any

whatever.

The

inhibitory suggestion merely confirms the state

of action or inaction

during which

it

was made

;

the

imperative has to change inaction to action or vice versa,

and

this,

perhaps,

which one

difficulty

commands. To the third stage

loss of

subject

a

voluntarily begun

memory

enforcing imperative

in

also belongs the class of sug-

gestions which prevent

movement

the cause of the greater

is

finds

;

and

later in this stage

for particular facts

induced, so that a subject

may

be

from stopping a can sometimes be

made

to forget his

own name. To compel a subject to execute a movement, the command must be repeated over and over again, often for a minute or two in difficult cases, before

any perceptible

effect is

produced.

helps matters considerably

if

It certainly often

the subject continues to

look at the operator's eyes while the suggestions are

made.

This, however,

is

not a necessary concomitant,

as success can often be obtained while the eyes are closed.

In imperative as in inhibitory suggestions,

THE PHENOMENA OF HYPNOSIS every grade of intensity of effect exists.

who is

83

In subjects

are only in the second stage no effect whatever

produced.

ject feels

In a slightly deeper condition the sub-

an inclination

to

perform the suggested

but can resist without any appreciable

effort.

act,

As the

condition deepens, the effort required to resist the

suggestion becomes greater and greater. subject be told to get

up from

Thus,

from getting up.

cannot successfully resist at effort

a

his chair, he will, after

hands

a short time, actually hold his chair with both in order to prevent himself

if

all,

Others

however great the

they make, and some are quite incapable of

even attempting to resist in the slightest degree.

As the suggestion

repeated^ and the idea gains in

is

strength, the aspect of the subject usually changes

completely.

amused

At

becomes more all,

it

is

attitude

first

indifference

;

he

may wear an

expression of

but gradually his countenance

serious, as

he begins

to feel that, after

not easy to resist, and at last his whole

becomes

of striking,

almost strenuously

fixed,

attention.

The following were the were tried

The

principal

movements which

during the experiments

subject was (1)

(2) (3) (4)

(5) (6)

made

at

:

Tolaugh; To walk to the operator To rise from his chair To flex his arm To close his eyes To open his eyes.

Cambridge.

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

84 At

in these cases all the muscles are quiescent,

first

then the muscles antagonistic to the movement come

and

into play,

finally the

muscles required to bring

it

about.

The readiness with which a

com-

subject can be

much in different cases, temperament. Some people never or

pelled to laugh varies very

according to

and

scarcely ever laugh,

in these, naturally, laughter

cannot be excited during hj^pnosis. suggestion of laughter the operator

When

grave as he pleases.

times impossible for the told

until

do

to

Habits

of laughter.

after

Thus,

to

it

stop

is

some-

laughing

the

suggestion

is

given,

renewed.

it is

of life tell

he succeeds,

subject

as

In some the laughter ceases

so.

soon

spontaneously

unless, of course,

In making the

may remain

on other suggestions besides that I

have often suggested

to a subject

that he shall strike a false chord while playing the

This

piano.

found

it

subjects,

who

may

succeed with anyone, but I have

impossible in the case of two really musical

though always easy in the case

of

those

could merely strum.

In the third stage we can also prevent a subject

from stopping a movement voluntarily begun can often be done before he can be made

;

this

to initiate a

The most usual movements thus continued were laughing, moving thumbs or hands round movement.

one another, repeating words or phrases, beating time with the hands or

The

subject

is

feet.

asked to

make some continuous

THE PHENOMExNA OF HYPNOSIS movement, and, he cannot

when

It is a

"You must

gestion

I

"You

cannot stop" acts quite

have noted this very frequently, and

" is in a distinctly

have never once

the suggestion

though

who responds

to

**

form

of

the imperative has succeeded,

have frequently failed with *'Xou must"

I

after success with

*'You cannot."

It

seems

to be a

law almost without exception that the inhibitory

more powerful than the imperative form tion.

I

You

You cannot."

failed with the negative

when

**

deeper condition than the

one who merely responds to I

that

often quite ineffective

is

always consider that a subject

must

so, is told

remarkable fact that the sug-

on"

go

the suggestion

readily.

minute or

after half a

stop.

85

Only

of

is

sugges-

fairly susceptible subjects pass into this

stage without prolonged hypnotic processes.

Suggested loss of

phenomenon which tion.

In general

phenomena

it

memory

for particular facts is a

is liable

to a

good deal

of varia-

appears easier to induce than the

of stage 4, but often

could be realized

it

only in a later state of hypnosis.

The

subject

may

try hard to

remember, and

fail

and not infrequently he may present the curious condition of being unable to try to

Stage

These

4.

—In this we can produce (1)

Loss

(2)

Imperfect delusions.

latter are

remember

at

all.

:

of sensation in the skin.

most easily evoked in relation

touch and temperature

;

thus, a light body

to

may seem may be

heavy, or a cold body hot, and the subject

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

86

made

to feel hot or cold.

heavy enough the ground. it

is

odd

Again, see a

to

A

paper-knife

weigh the hand

to

it

may seem

may become

of the

subject to

too hot to hold,

subject fling

and

down, instantly

it

regarding his hand, as though expecting to find the

mark

burning.

of

In the

memory

visual illusions,

stage

fifth

we

also

get

afterwards being sometimes

imperfect.

So of

far there is

the subject

no marked change in the appearance the face shows neither drowsiness

:

nor heaviness, and the only noticeable change

is

a

certain intentness of attention towards the operator,

and possibly

dilatation of the pupils.

suggestion has been made,

whether

it

be

will

it

successful

is

Still,

until a

impossible to

say

When

the

or

not.

hypnotic processes are further prolonged, the appear-

ance of the subject will often give an indication,

though not an will

infallible one, of the suggestions that

be effective

(1)

More

by an

thus there

;

is

:

or less drowsiness, which

almost

subject remaining quiescent except to

is

complete absence of

accompanied

initiative,

the

when he means

obey a suggestion. (2)

A

(3)

Disposition towards catalepsy.

It is

disinclination to

effort.

not easy to divide the later states of hypnotism

into stages.

perhaps,

some

make any voluntary

In

that

of

the different deeper states, except,

somnambulism (our

can be induced

illusions

with difficulty

all

;

and we found,

easily,

final

stage),

others

as, indeed,

only

has been

THE PHENOMENA OF HYPNOSIS

87*

almost universally noticed, that in different subjects there

great variation on awaking in the degree of

is

memory

what had happened

of

In both of

state.

in the hypnotized

matters,

these

there

really,

is

every possible variation. After hypnotic passes have been continued for a

varying time, illusions can be induced, and the subject

may

Sometimes

act in accordance with them.

one could

from the appearance

tell

the subject

of

We

whether the attempt would be successful or not. generally tried t^ells,

first to

make

then to see an illusory

the subject hear illusory light,

were successful,

and kept

his

put in that position.

arms raised If

make

a

of the previous

if

subject

was

they had been

open his eyes, he

to

told

to

these illusions

The

could be readily obtained.

states

cataleptic,

still

phenomena

the

all

and then

When

speech to an illusory audience.

They remained

could not put his arms down.

fixed, the

muscles being apparently in a state of con-

tracture

if

closed; tracted.

;

if

an object was swept over his

eyes, they

a light was brought near, the pupils con-

When

a suggestion requiring action

is

given,

the catalepsy ceases at once, and the appearance of the subject becomes very nearly, tinguishable

ended

—

from

normal.

if

When

not quite, indisthe

illusion

is

and in some cases this can be done by simply

closing the eyes

—the cataleptic

illusion be concluded

state returns.

If

the

by closing the eyes, the limbs

often remain in the position of the

moment.

If it is

ended by verbal suggestion, the muscles return

to

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

88 their

normal

Taste can be dulled, but not

state.

The

abolished.

readiest class of illusions, after those

mentioned above, are those connected with the touch for instance, contact with flies, or fleas, or a snake

—

or with the sight of objects which lead to action or

strong emotion, such as a snake on the ground.

When

an

object

illusive

paper, the subject sees object

there

is first

is

it

shown him.

shown on a

is

piece of

more quickly if the For instance, if he is

real

told

a drawing of a rabbit on a blank piece of

more readily if a drawing of a rabbit is first shown him and a copy of it is asserted to be on the blank paper. As an instance of the

paper, he will see

it

difference in the ease with

which

illusions can

be

may mention M. Being hypnotized, he was shown a blank card, and told that there was a drawing of a fly upon it but, though the suggestion

induced, I

;

was repeated several times, he did not see

escaped; flies

it.

it

is

Then

it

replied that he

still

was suggested

energy.

The

and

strike at

them

So also a subject

illusory picture of

to

many

brush them

in the air with great

will

more

His memory

an

readily see

someone familiar than that

unfamiliar object.

has

fly

buzzing about you; there are

round your head," when he began

off his face,

*' :

of the actions

performed during the day seems more or

of

an

he has

less dulled,

but reflection or slight suggestion soon recalls them. After any suggestion has taken

what he

is

state varies

thinking

of,

effect,

and he

is

he answers "Nothing."

somewhat, so that

at one time the

asked

His

same

THE PHENOMENA OF HYPNOSIS may

suggestion

than

to be effective

to

require

more

acts partially

waking him, or when he

long pause between two suggestions,

becomes a

more deeply hypnotized.

trifle

action, such as swinging the arms, be

subject,

he

will

continue

it

an

If

for the

begun

himself.

All our subjects in this stage, on

and

and insistence is due

Possibly this

at another.

some suggestions or

to a

repetition

89

whom

Langley

experimented together, would take suggestions

I

from either

of us

;

often,

however, subjects

will take

no suggestion in the deep state except from

the

hypnotizer, and I found this frequently to be the case in

those

on

subjects

whom

I

was

experimenting

On

myself when others tried to make suggestions.

awaking, the subject would remember more or less accurately

all

had taken

that

The above stage they remain in L.

is

a distinct state of hypnosis in

They can

certain subjects.

place.

easily be sent into

it,

and

almost indefinitely.

it

passed into this state in from ten to twenty

seconds.

In his case the most

production was to

upon them.

effective

means

for its

close his eyes and press gently

The readiness with which he accepted

suggestions was increased by lightly stroking the top of his head.

Thus, after making one or two experi-

ments, he was shown a blank card, and told that

it

Asked

if

was a photograph he recognized

it,

of a friend in

he said

'*

No

";

the room.

and when again

was a photograph and that he must

that

it

still

answered

*'

No."

His eyes were

see

told

it,

he

closed, half a

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

90

dozen strokes were made backwards over the top head, and he was then told to open his eyes.

then shown a card with a circle on at this

photograph

graph."

of F.

is

it

;

and

it,

He was

told,

"Look

an excellent photo-

This was repeated several times, during

which he looked in a rather puzzled way " Don't you think

matter with thing like

When

of his

? "

it

good

it

" It

him?"

is

?

" No."

"

"

it is

at the card.

What

is

the

But

it is

some-

something

like

him."

misty."

"Yes,

"

awakened, and asked what he remembered, he

said he

had been shown a card with a

told

it

was a photograph

not

see

any photograph.

of

F.,

circle

on

it,

and

but that he did

Here, then, the subject,

although not seeing the object suggested, behaves

and that

talks

as

if

he did

;

and when asked why, says

he could not help himself.

That he had not

shown by his it, and also by the fact that when passes were made for some time longer, and the experiment was tried again, he remembered when awake having been shown a blank merely forgotten having seen

it

ability to recall the conversation

about

card,

and then

Stage

5.

senses become

more

later a

—When

is

photograph on

it.

passes are continued longer, the

more

dulled,

readily produced.

and

illusions

are

still

Anaesthesia can be produced

by suggestion.

The memory often

is

recollect

is

very imperfect on awakening, and

entirely gone.

some

of

Even when our

subjects did

the events during hypnosis, they

would always underrate the time the experiment had

THE PHENOMENA OF HYPNOSIS

91

and would say, perhaps, ten minutes or a

taken,

quarter of an hour, instead of one hour or one and a half hours. If a visual

changed on,

it

to another,

will generally

this again to another,

first

more or

hallucination

memory

so

when

succeeding

of the

uncertain or even completely absent.

is

illusion

and

be found that the subject,

but that

perfectly,

hallucinations

One

and

remembers the

aroused, less

hallucination be induced, and afterwards

which

I generally

produced was that

The

of seeing a bright star or light in the ceiling.

subject would stand in front of me,

and look

at

my

made light strokes Then I would look up, over his brows and temples. " Look at that star isn't it point upwards, and say eyes for about a minute, while I

:

Look,

bright ?

The

it

;

getting

is

for

asked whether the star sees is

it,

made

answers "Yes." that

it is

watch

;

upwards with a

subject usually stares

and remains immobile

brighter

fixed gaze,

an indefinite time

is

it."

;

and

if

bright, and whether he

After a time the suggestion

getting darker, and that the star

is

Almost

fading away, and at last that it is gone. any other hallucination can then be readily induced. f(t

Thus, he can be made that he

is

to believe that

in a boat, that

he

is

he sees a snake,

on horseback,

but,

when

aroused, though he will as a rule

the

first

hallucination of

etc.

remember

the star perfectly, those

succeeding will be confusedly recollected or entirely

%

forgotten.

In both

the

fourth

and

fifth

stages

mimicry

of

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

92

actions occurs

—more

the former.

In the fourth stage the attention of the

perfectly in the latter than in

must be directed to the act in order to produce mimicry. It seems most probable that mimicry is subject

due

We

to suggestion.

the cortex of the brain subject

gives

rise

:

take

(unconscious) of the

to the idea

movement, which leads movement.

from

to be a reflex

it

the act performed before the

to the imitation of the said

Heidenhain attributes mimicry

to reflex actions not

involving the cortex, apparently because in his subjects auditory suggestions

were

ineffective.

marked by somnambulism, suggested anaesthesia, anosmia, etc. The subject attends to the hypnotizer only, is suggestible only by him, and has Stage

6

is

no memory on awaking. Effect of Telling to Sleep.

some

subjects

— This varies greatly.

produces the outward sign

it

to sleep, but does not

— in a

an astounding

effect,

In others

it

has

producing almost instantly deep

with

sleep,

going

short time, at any rate

otherwise alter the hypnotic state.

hypnotic

of

In

complete loss of

memory on

awaking. It

of

has generally been considered that hyperesthesia

one or more

signs of

it

is

among

the earliest

somnambulism. Braid, Bernheim, and Gurney

so record ever,

of the senses

it.

As

far as

our experiments went, how-

did not appear that the hypnotic processes of

gazing, passes, and suggestion of sleep ever hypersesthesia,

j

produced^

but that this stage required special

THE PHENOMENA OF HYPNOSIS excitation for its production. in stage 5,

It

93

readily produced

is

and can be brought about by

direct sug-

gestion or by continued conversation.

Summary

of the Stages as found in our

Experiments. Stage

monly

— Those

1.

voluntary movements can be in-

by direct suggestion which are most com-

hibited

carried out by reflex action in ordinary

Stage

— Contracture can be produced.

2.

life.

Voluntary

movements not included in stage 1 can be inhibited. Stage 3. The subject can be prevented from stopping a movement voluntarily begun, and made to initiate a movement. Loss of memory for particular

—

facts

can be suggested.

Stage

4.

— Loss

of

cutaneous sensation can be pro-

Imperfect delusions can be suggested.

duced.

Memory

afterwards nearly or quite perfect. Stage

5.

— Senses

more

dulled.

Visual and other

Memory

can be induced.

illusions

afterwards

im-

perfect.

Stage etc.,

6.

can

— Somnambulism. be

suggested.

hypnotizer only.

Anaesthesia,

The

subject

anosmia,

attends

to

No memory on awaking. stages when hypnosis is induced by

Such are the the method described above, without any suggestion of sleep being made at the commencement.

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

94

Comparison with Stages of Li^beault and Bernheim. I

have mentioned before that Liebeault and Bern-

heim have

classified the stages of

to the maximum

hypnosis according

degree of hypnotization to be obtained It will

in different individuals in successive trials.

be convenient to consider at once

how

far their stages

agree with those that are given above. First

eyes,

Liebeault and Bernheim

degree of

more

subjects feel

and drowsiness.

A

;

The the

torpor, heaviness of

or less

variety of

the

first

degree

they consider to be the state in which the subject **

in

n'ont pas de somnolence a proprement parler," but

which he

is

unable to open his eyes when told that

This variety we took to be a typical

he cannot.

characteristic, for

longed, there

is

the hypnotic processes are pro-

if

no one who would not probably

feel

some heaviness and drowsiness. In the second degree of Liebeault and Bernheim (light

sleep)

the subject

is

more

or less cataleptic.

So long as nothing is done the muscles remain flaccid, but when a limb is gently moved it stays in the position in which

it

second or two, sink it falls,

but

if

The limb

down.

If

the whole

is

catalepsy

may,

raised

the forearm be raised

while the forearm

The

has been placed.

has various degrees.

arm

it is

after a

be raised

kept up

kept raised the fingers

may

;

or

not

retain the position in which they are placed, or the

THE PHENOMENA OF HYPNOSIS limb

may

be kept raised only

held there for a

is

if it

95

second or two. The intermediate stages between the first and second degree occur when the subject keeps the cataleptic position, unless he

help

it,

is

when he moves

he cannot

told that

when

the limb, and

a subject

does not leave his limbs in any position unless defined to

him by

there

three

are

cataleptic

when

once or twice

before is

in

;

but

if

so.

though

told

it

simultaneous

cataleptic, as before

a limb

which

is

but

;

more

here

or less

is

cataleptic, as

he cannot move a limb which a time in con-

for

contracture

if

told that

he

in catalepsy,

is

of

the

In the third he

muscles antagonistic to the action. is

states

and gently stroked he cannot move it, he

In the second he

told that

the

is

it is

likely that

raised

is

catalepsy, he cannot do

sequence of

seems

the subject

first

a limb

but,

;

can always do

It

consecutive

constantly

In the

confused.

suggestion.

he cannot move

unable to do

so,

although the antagonistic muscles do not contract. This is

is

quite a different

state

from the second

ment

of these stages

development

without drowsiness.

first

make movements

of contraction of the antagonistic

division 2 of our second stage, but

developed '*

than when

the

The

and second degree appears

to correspond to the inability to

in

it

does not follow very closely the

of the stages

catalepsy between their

consequence

—

The develop-

paresis, or paralysis of the muscles.

subject

is

is

much

not

in

muscles less

drowsy.

Paresis and paralysis occur between stages 2 and 3.

In this condition there

may

be slight loss of memory,

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

96

may

but only such as

be seen in an

inattentive

person.

In Li^beault and Bernheim's third degree (deep

unable to stop a movement which

sleep) the subject is

he has begun when told he cannot do division

1

of

our third stage, but in

degree tactile sensibility

may

This

so.

be dulled or abolished.

This we never observed except as the result suggestion.

Lastly,

suggestive."

This

they

is

can obtain

**

of direct

cf)ntracture

We

division 1 of our stage 2.

have always been able

is

fourth

their

we could

to obtain this before

prevent a subject from stopping a movement already

begun.

Their

fourth

deep

(their very

stage

characterized by the subjects

state)

is

hearing the operator

them into relation with other persons. Excepting when the subject was in a state of somnambulism, either of us had no difficulty in alone, unless he puts

producing

all

by the other.

the illusions which could be produced Possibly this was because our subjects

regarded both of

When

us

in

the

experimenting apart

light

of

hypnotizers.

from Langley,

I

often

found that the subject would not obey suggestions

from strangers, but only from myself.

But Langley

and I could produce this condition in our If either of

fifth stage.

us told the subject that he could hear no

one but himself, the

other would

then

speak

in

vain.

The fifth degree of Liebeault and Bernheim (light somnambulism) corresponds with our fifth stage as

THE PHENOMENA OF HYPNOSIS

97

given before, except that we found the subjects some-

times obeyed others as well as the hypnotizer, and that sensation was not abolished except by suggestion.

Their sixth degree

is

one in which the subject

himself has no recollection of what he has done while

hypnotized.

CHAPTER V OTHER HYPNOTIC PHENOMENA

— Post-hypnotic — Anaesthesia — Other

Hallucinations tions

Effects

of

suggestion

— Negative

phenomena

hallucina-

(Effects of passes

previous deep hypnotization on experimental

— Self-suggestion — Effects on sense of touch temperature — Light sensory stimuli and suggestion). subjects

I.

Hallucinations.

As the previous chapter

indicated,

to induce the condition of

direct suggestion of sleep,

nations.

It

and

it is

often possible

somnambulism without any merely by evoking halluci-

frequently happens,

therefore,

that a

subject in stage 5 will spontaneously pass into stage 6, if

illusions are induced.

Some

subjects

may

lapse

suddenly into somnambulism while they are in quite

an early

stage, but this rarely occurs unless they

have

been hypnotized on former occasions, and experienced

somnambulism

then.

of sleep induces

somnambulism, and

In other cases the suggestion

most commonly employed.

But

it

this is the

method

must be remem-

bered that the proportion of subjects susceptible of

somnambulism

is

not great

per cent. 98

— something

under 20

OTHER HYPNOTIC PHENOMENA have

experiments

Numberless

It is certain that

hallucinations.

made

wifeh

subjects,

when

been

some

99

they act as though hallucinated, are not really

so,

but

are compelled to act as though they were, as in the

But

case of L., mentioned above. subjects

who remembered

have often had

whom

to

with visual hallucinations

is

and

the rule.

is

in connection

most interesting studies

of the

and

appeared real experiences;

the hallucinations

probably in somnambulism this

One

I

their illusions,

the behaviour of the

subject as regards a suggested illusory picture

on a

blank sheet of paper. We made a number of experiments in this at Cambridge. The subject was made to see shell,

some

illusion of a small picture, say of a

pink

on a perfectly circular disc of white cardboard,

and asked

to

copy

He would

it.

begin to

make a

drawing, glancing every few seconds at the illusory picture which he was supposed to be copying.

attention

was

distracted

for

a

If hia

moment, and

the

circular disc turned out of its original position without his being

aware

of

it,

he at once recognized the

fact

when he resumed

the drawing of his copy, and would

rearrange

was

it

as

it

at

first.

When

he looked at

the imaginary shell through Iceland spar

doubled, and

if

while he looked through to revolve

it,

appeared

the two images appeared

round each other, just as

image were

it

the Iceland spar was slowly revolved

actual.

experiments that

It

was quite

subjects

marks, and attach them

notice

if

the original

clear

from the

extremely small

to the hallucinatory

images.

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

100

many

In

cases they recognize a blank card, which,

they have been pick

it

number L.,

told, is a picture of

out quite easily of

when

it

is

some kind, and mixed with a

apparently exactly similar ones.

mentioned above, could do

this,

and could

also

remember that he recognized the card by minute marks, but in his normal state he was totally unable to distinguish

it.

Post-Hypnotic Sug-gestions.

II.

But the most bulism

is

that

striking of

hypnotic suggestions

and even

phenomenon

post-hypnotic

may

earlier, before

of

somnam-

suggestion.

Post-

succeed in the deep state,

somnambulism

is

reached,

but those given during somnambulism work out most strikingly

and

way

act

in a

measure

perfectly.

Suggestions

more powerfully than

given in this

others, owing, perhaps,

to the fact that the patient carries

them

out without knowing consciously that they are due to suggestion, so that deliberate resistance It is still a

matter

of dispute

is

absent.

whether the subject

is

in a normal condition during the performance in his waking state of an action which has been suggested during his sleep. Some subjects certainly are in an

abnormal act,

that

state, for,

they forget it

all

having carried out the suggested about

it,

and are quite unaware

has been accomphshed.

For the moment

they appear to have returned to the state of bulism.

somnam-

But a large number remember their action and their condition is not distinguish-

perfectly well,

OTHER HYPNOTIC PHENOMExNA able

from the normal.

If; hvAfcVdr,

101

hallircinations

are thus induced, I have observed that during their persistence the subject often presents an appearance of

abstraction which

is

not natural to his normal state.

The experimental enforcement patient

may

action either on

some

I

making

such as

of

Some twenty

my

I look at

very considerable length of time

elapse between the

have often told

trivial action,

when

ight or blow out a candle,

to a subject

difficulty.

awakening, or at some particular

a subject that he will do

accomplishment.

little

be told that he will perform the

hour, or after some specified event.

A

a post-hypnotic

but

suggestion, as a rule, presents

The

of

may

be

watch.

made

a suggestion and

years ago

I

to its

suggested

who was deeply hypnotized that exactly see me come into his room

a year after he should

while he was at breakfast, that I should say

morning," and then vanish even that lapse ever,

;

and

But though suggestions,

it

Good-

this succeeded after

The person concerned, how-

of time.

was extraordinarily suggestible

I think, that I

**

— the best subject,

have ever seen. generally easy to enforce these

it

is

is

not always

so,

even in subjects who

carry out other than post-hypnotic suggestions readily.

Occasionally one meets subjects to

who

will

not respond

even the simplest post-hypnotic suggestion, but

such resistance

is

not

common.

cases I have found that,

if

And

in

many

of these

the subject be instructed to

do something on awakening, he he be made during his sleep

will generally

to state

obey

what he has

if

to

102

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM For

do, so B£f to eiism:iB'th'ath« really understands.

he

is

sometiraes so lethargic that he cannot assimilate

a suggestion unless he

is

partly roused

;

making him

repeat the suggestion, and so ascertaining that he has

comprehended

The

it,

overcomes this

difficulty.

hallucinations and anaes-

subject of negative

thesia properly belongs to the deep state and

somnam-

bulism, though anaesthesia can sometimes be induced in the earlier stages.

Increased Powers of Memory.

III.

of memory may extend much farther than it normal condition, and a subject may be

In the deep stage the range farther

does in the

very

often

back,

able to recall events of his earliest childhood.

extension of

memory

though

then more marked.

it is

stages a subject

may

long forgotten past. next chapter,

I

made

is

This

not limited to the deep state,

be able

Even

in the earlier

memories

to recall

of a

In one case, mentioned in the a lady aged thirty-two

remem-

ber herself in long clothes, and some of the incidents

which she recalled were afterwards This increased power of

memory

verified. is of

tance from a therapeutical standpoint. its

great impor-

Instances of

use will be found in the next chapter. IV. Negative Hallucinations.

A

negative

hallucination

is

that

sensation of a real nerve stimulus

have often suggested

to

is

in

which the

unperceived.

somnambulic subjects that

I I,

OTHER HYPNOTIC PHENOMENA or

some other person

in the

room,

103

am invisible. They

then cease to notice the invisible person, and

even

sit

down on

they imagine

his lap instead of the chair,

their behaviour

But

be empty.

to

that

is

it

clear

may

which from

they generally do realize the

supposedly invisible person or thing, though perhaps not in the same vivid see other people,

manner

seeming

to be

as that in which they

aware

of the cancelled

presence in a dreamy kind of way, as

and not the whole,

if

only a part,

of the consciousness perceived

That such a subject actually may

it.

realize the invisible

shown by the following experiment, which I often made with some of my Cambridge subjects. I could hypnotize many whom I had hypnotized on previous occasions by suddenly gazing intensely at them. They would often pass instantly into deep person

is

sleep, with catalepsy.

invisible

them that

to

those

I

have frequently made myself

subjects,

but

even when one of

acted as though he could not see me, I found I

if

at him,

caught his eye, and suddenly gazed intently

he always immediately passed into catalepsy,

thus showing conclusively that he had really perceived me.

The

subject

colours,

and

may

be

made

experiments

colour-blind to different

on

the

complementary

colours of invisible, as well as of suggested hallucinatory, colours

were made on our Cambridge subjects,

but these are beyond the province of this book. is

It

possible to induce negative hallucinations of the

other

senses

as

well.

Thus the

subject

may

be

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

104

rendered incapable of hearing a particular person speak, or of tasting sweet or bitter, though the sense

more

of taste is

difficult to influence.

V. Anaesthesia.

But

most

the

hallucinations

is

interesting

of

all

negative

the

certainly the cutaneous anaesthesia

and analgesia which can be evoked by suggestion. Suggested anaesthesia, as seen during hypnosis,

is

simply the non-perception of the particular sensation

which the subject has been

he cannot

told that

feel,

the other cutaneous sensations remaining intact. is

It

easier to abolish or diminish sensations of touch

than the sensations

heat and cold, and the abolition

of

the sense of touch

of

rigidity of the limb

generally accompanied by

is

experimented on.

But the condition

is

one

of great complexity.

the following simple experiment, which

Having concealed the

several people.

from his view by means I suggested that

of a

Take on

tried

I

subject's

hand

simply-arranged screen,

he would be unable

to feel a prick

with one point of a pair of compasses, but that he

would

feel

found that flinch

if

rebelled points. soft

I

at once

if

pricked with both points.

could draw blood without making

I

pricked

immediately

him with one if

I

Also, he could be

pricked

made

point

;

but

I

him he

him with both

to feel the

touch of

cotton-wool, and yet be quite impervious to a

sharp

needle

prick,

and

scorch of a burning match.

in

one case even to the

OTHER HYPNOTIC PHENOMENA Here the subject both sensations

;

clearly

must

some way perceive he must mentally

in

but, in addition,

between the two, and reject one, while

differentiate

he accepts the other, and allows himself It

very

is

complex

105

act,

to feel

it.

form any lucid idea

of

this

but I believe that the result

is

due,

to

difficult

not merely to a failure to perceive, but also to an inhibition

his

of

power

This theory

sensation.

experiment, which

I

subject,

occasions,

whom

and who,

I

I

the following

or two subjects at

I left there.

had hypnotized on previous

knew, could be readily rendered

was asked

anaesthetic,

explain

made on one

Cambridge, and on one since

The

conceive the forbidden

to

may

an arm-chair.

to sit in

I

then

placed his hands on the arms of the chair, but in

doing so passed his palm lightly over the bristles of a brush which I had fixed to the outside of one of the

arms, so that he could not see

next

I

asked him what

rendering

When

it

I

anaesthetic,

I

it.

suggested that the hand could

then immediately nothing.

feel

had done

to his

he could not

When

hand before

recall anything.

sensation was restored, however, he immediately

remembered that his hand had been passed over a brush or some similar surface. By rendering him anaesthetic immediately after the stimulus had been applied,

I

gave no time for the sensations to be

linked up with other ideas by association.

he could not of

recall the stimulus,

conceiving

inhibited,

but

such I

a

have

sensation

not

Probably

because the power

made

was the

temporarily

experiment

106

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

often

enough

was entirely

to be sure that suggestion

eliminated.

The

rest of this chapter is devoted to the effects of

and

light stimuli

to the brief consideration of certain

phenomena which have not been mentioned in chapter. The experiments described were made by Professor Langley and myself on

other

the previous

Cambridge undergraduates.

Phenomena.

VI. Other 1.

— During

Certain Effects of Passes.

state, contracture, as

mentioned

before,

the waking

can often be

produced by passes, each downward stroke causing a little

further contraction, and each upward stroke or

pass a decrease of contraction. 0., for instance,

when

his fingers are stroked

down-

wards, gets his hand more and more extended until the fingers

become

direction over in

rigid.

Stroking in the opposite

any one finger causes

slight relaxation

Thus, according to the number

it.

strokes,

degree of

of

up-and-down

be brought into any

fingers can

different stiffness.

effect of reverse passes and strokes is The following experiments will show

This general well

known.

certain

further details

waking

subject,

strokes

the fingers,

;

they were

After

A.

a

first

variable

or any one

of

tried

on a

number

them,

of

became

insensitive to needle-pricks, or to induction currents of

moderate

strength,

operating finger

itself.

and

to

the

strokes

of

A. sat clown and passed

the his.

OTHER HYPNOTIC PHENOMENA hand through a hole

in a screen, resting

downwards, on a table on the other

was unable w^hat

hand

to see his

we were doing

to

or us,

He was

it.

side.

107

palm Thus he it,

and could not

asked to say

**

tell

Yes

"

when he felt anything touch his hand. When a stroke was made downwards, he said nothing when a stroke was made upwards, he said '* Yes." This was perfectly constant, so that with up and down strokes he felt those made upwards but not those made downwards. ;

the upwards were repeated several times in suc-

If

down

cession, the next following

stroke would be

felt,

but the subsequent ones were not.

This state of insensibility stimuli, starting in the

progressing downwards. state

is

associated with sensory

upper part

The

of the finger

restoration to the

and

normal

has thus become associated with sensory stimuli

The ordinary

progressing in the opposite direction. reverse passes

effect of

normal condition. sensibility,

which

In I

restore the part to its

to

is

the

have

stage

moderate

of

mentioned

upward stroke produces a temporary return normal, but

is

in-

each

above,

to the

insufficient to destroy the effect of the

more numerous downward

strokes.

This phenomenon can also be produced in the fourth

and

fifth

insensitive by **

Yes,"

the

S.

In S. the second and third

were after some time

fingers

downward

when he

first

This we verified in

stages of hypnotism.

two subjects, B. and

felt

and fourth

rendered

strokes.

S.

was

rigid

anything touch his hand. fingers or

thumb were

and

told to say

When

touched, he

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

108 ''

said

When

Yes."

the second and third fingers were

The second

touched, he said nothing.

finger

was then

stroked upwards half a dozen times without producing

any **

It

effect.

upwards

was bent and unbent, and stroked he said

for about half a minute, until at last

Then the slightest movement upwards was but stroking downwards was not. It was sufficient

Yes."

felt,

even lightly to drag a needle, laid

upwards, without moving

on the finger

flat,

over the surface of the

it

skin. 2. Persistence

in

when

a

subject

great care

Earlier Stages

the

induced in Beep Stages.

—As

has once been

must be taken This

is

any deductions light stages of

necessary, because

phenomena formerly induced

said,

deeply hypnotized

in drawing

from his subsequent behaviour in the hypnotism.

of Changes

has already been

some

of the

in the deep stages

can

afterwards be obtained in the light stages. Apparently

Bernheim's observations on the waking phenomena were made only on subjects who had previously been deeply hypnotized.

Although possibly

of impression

may

post-hypnotic

suggestion,

with of

it.

A

this persistence

be related to the phenomena of

good example

it

is

producing anaesthesia in

must not be confused shown by the possibility the waking stage if this

has once been produced in the deeper

state.

Thus, in

S. neither passes, stroking, nor suggestion produced

contracture or anaesthesia in the waking state

we could produce the waking state;

;

in B.

contracture, but not anaesthesia, in but, after they

had been deeply

OTHER HYPNOTIC PHENOMENA

109

hypnotized, and ansesthesia induced in the deep state

by suggestion, we could subsequently induce anaesthesia in the

waking

The

state.

effects of suggestion

fre-

quently persist long after the suggestion has been

Thus,

removed.

dynamometer.

He

gested.

strength

M.'s

was tested with a

arm was then

Paralysis of the

did not recover his strength

time after he had been told that his

normal

to its

the trial was

state

;

and the

result

made during deep

arm was

sug-

some

for

restored

was the same when

hypnosis, or imme-

diately after waking. 3.

Self- Suggestion.

— Many subjects can

to a certain

extent bring themselves into the states induced by the Practice increases this power.

hypnotizer.

L. could

readily send himself into a condition in which delusions

could occur; D., by stroking his eyes and thinking of

being unable to open them, soon found himself unable to do so

he could do the same with one eye, leaving

;

the other in

its

normal

state.

The power

the

of

subject to induce contracture in himself has various stages.

For instance,

in

making the hand

rigid these

are: {a)

The

subject thinks of contracture

and makes

passes over his hand. {h)

He

looks

at

his

hand and

thinks

of

con-

tracture. (c)

He

thinks of contracture without looking at his

hand.

Thus, B. was able to do hand was put through a

(a),

but not

screen, he

(c).

When

was unable

his to

no AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM stiffen

head on the

when

first

make

gradually

power

C. developed great

himself.

it

direction, and,

and his heels on the whole body

his

he could

last,

so that the

rigid,

middle chair could be taken away, while he his position without

was entirely unable

any

to

this case contracture

kept

still

which he

strain, a position

maintain unless he caused his

muscles thus to pass into contracture.

made

in this

laid across three chairs, with his

came on more

He was

passes over his body.

Still,

readily

if

even in

someone

also able, to a

considerable degree, to prevent contracture coming on

when arm

— so

became

much

their

hands

and then, thinking

them, found that they were so.

tried.

in front of of being

force required to part

that required

when

effort

separated.

F.

at

them seemed

them, palm

unable to part

for a time

In these cases the arms became

voluntary

hand or

though the hand or arm

moving them when he

and H. put

to palm,

that,

so

over his

he had not more than a momentary

stiff,

hesitation in

F.

made

passes or strokes were

unable to do

rigid,

the subject exerted his

to

prevent

first

could

his

and the

to be greater

than

maximum

arms from being

prevent himself from

separating his hands only by closing his eyes and

imagining the operator looking at him could do

it

phenomena is

possible,

without

this.

Apparently

are due to contracture.

J.

all

;

later

he

the above

states that

it

by imagining himself unable to remember

some simple thing, to prevent himself for a time from remembering it. It is noteworthy that the power of

OTHER HYPNOTIC PHENOMENA

111

self-suggestion has no direct relation to the degree of

hypnotism

susceptibility to

self-suggestion

of

subject did in

in

;

the occurrence

fact,

good

previously

a

in

some cases decrease

hypnotic

his susceptibility

to hypnotic suggestion to a very considerable extent.

On

the other hand, a large

number

of

good hypnotic

subjects appeared to be unable to produce the slightest effect 4.

upon themselves by

self-suggestion.

Effects on the Senses of

Touch and Temperature.

Heidenhain has mentioned that

may

catalepsy which

the

head, the

cataleptic

arm

result

when

area of

certain

the

skin

in

subjects

We

:

any hypnotic process having

been performed on him, was asked

hands through a screen on a to say

We

strokes or passes

degree of anassthesia.

generally experimented as follows subject, without

of

touch disappears from the

sense of

susceptible of a

felt

one-sided

before the sense of temperature.

were made over an

he

the

from striking the top

also found this to be the case

The

in

—

table,

to

and

put both his to say

when

anything touching or near his hands, and also

what he

or a prick,

and

felt

—whether warmth or

so on.

the fingers were next

chill,

a touch

Passes or strokes over one of

made

then at short intervals

;

and the other parts

hand as well were touched with a needle, or a weight was placed on them, the temperature of which was noted. In this way we

this finger

of his

found that, while the subject parts of his

hand except the

this the sensation of touch,

felt

normally in

all

finger operated upon, in

and

of

moderately severe

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

112

pricks with the needle, disappeared at a time

could

Thus of

his

a

warm

recognize at once

still

20-gramme brass weight hand was not felt when

when he

or cold objects.

temperature

at the laid

on the finger

operated upon, while similar weights, either hotter or

were readily

colder,

Thus,

felt.

operated upon and that next to

too,

the finger

if

were simultaneously

would say: **You are passing something

stroked, he

warm

it

over

and

one finger

Strokes or passes

made

stroking

the anaesthesia

the

other."

more

definite,

so that only very strong induction shocks were

felt,

while at the same time the sense of temperature was dulled, so that the hot or cold

once, as of

it

body was not

was elsewhere, but only

two or three seconds.

clearly exactly at

what point the sense

do away with the anaesthesia.

at

an interval

It is difficult to

disappears, since the application of a to

after

felt

make out warmth

of

warm body

tends

Thus, after the

application of a hot weight to an insensitive area of

skin for a very short period,

the prick of a needle.

it

becomes

sensitive to

This does not occur after the

application of a cold weight;

but our experiments

were too few to prove more than the main fact

of the

disappearance of the tactile sense, and the slight loss of the

sense of pain before there

diminution 5.

of the sense of

is

any appreciable

temperature.

Light Sensory Stimuli and Suggestion.

—

It is

not

easy to separate the effects of suggestion from those of

light sensory stimuli.

observers have attributed

Braid and most subsequent

an

effect to both.

Bernheim

OTHER HYPNOTIC PHENOMENA

113

considers that, though passes and such light sensory stimuli

may have

results,

to aiding suggestion,

they owe this

much

effect

mainly

as an energetic gesture or

an impressive demeanour increases the same power.

The

here concerns the meaning of the word

difficulty

" suggestion."

and obvious meaning implies conscious of the prompting, and

Its first

that the subject

is

that he has a conscious idea of the result which the

hypnotizer attempts to obtain. the term

sense that

"suggestion" should be limited; but the

meaning may be extended of

It is to this

an unconscious idea

to include the formation

i.e.,

the production of those

changes in the brain which occur in the formation of

an idea without those changes which cause the idea to

become conscious.

no

Since, however, probably

sensory stimuli can affect the cortex of the brain

without giving rise to those changes which are funda-

mental to the formation *'

of

an

idea, the extended

suggestion " would seem merely a

way

of

term

saying

that the light sensory stimuli which cause hypnotic

phenomena do This, at

any

so

rate,

by acting on the cerebral cortex. appears to be the case in

phenomena we observed ments on the deepest in these stages

some

;

but, as

stages,

of the

it

we made few

may

all

the

experi-

be possible that

phenomena may be due

to

reflex actions from the lower centres of the brain or

from the spinal cord, without any change in the cortex. At any rate, there appears to be no doubt that

(a)

sensory stimuli

phenomenon without the

may

give rise to a hypnotic

subject's having a conscious 8

114

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

idea of the

phenomenon

before

it

occurs

sensory stimuli of which the subject

may produce hypnotic phenomena. Many effects produced by sensory

is

stimuli

deeper hypnotic stages appeared to show this in these stages

was impossible

it

that

(b)

;

not conscious

to prove

;

the

in

but, as

whether the

subject was unconscious or not, the conclusions are

based on the observations

made

in the early stages, in

which the subject could say whether he did or did not feel.

It

may

be suggested that we were completely

when

at the mercy of the subject, and that, except

we

applied

strong

induction

deceive us as he liked.

If

appear to be necessary to show states differ in that in (a)

currents,

(a)

the subject

is

being done, whilst in

conscious of

it

may,

deal with

them

;

may

is (b)

conscious

he

is

un-

therefore, be worth while to

With regard

separately.

the hand of the subject rigidity,

could it

as well, as the two

that something it

he

can be shown,

(6)

is

to (a),

when

stroked, producing first

then loss of sensation, even supposing that

was suspected that loss of sensation might follow (and some subjects averred they had no expectation of that), it is, we think, certain that none

it

rigidity

of

them had any

idea that the sense of touch would

disappear before the sense of temperature.

one or more fingers screen are left

made

of the

insensitive, they recover sensation,

alone, in a minute or two

stroked,

and very

rest of the

When

hand passed through a

;

but

if

if

continuously

lightly, so as to avoid a pull

on the

hand, the fingers remain insensitive. With

OTHER HYPNOTIC PHENOMENA regard to

{h)^

the difficulty with

when

many

of

115

our subjects

was made over any part of the hand hand, the whole and also the whole arm became was

that,

Besides this,

rigid.

a

a pass

screen,

become

after

rigid,

when

a

hand was extended behind

few experiments

a

it

would often

even when nothing was done to

it.

The

simple expectation that something was to be done

was quite cases,

sufficient to

cause contracture.

when the hand became

the subject declared that he had not

near that hand, the

stiffness

In such

rigid after passes, felt

and

anything

might have been caused

by self-suggestion, and not by unfelt passes, so that no reliable conclusion could be drawn, except after a long series of experiments, comparing the number of

when spontaneous rigidity occurred with the number of times stiffness occurred after unfelt passes

times

or other similar light stimuli.

Such a method at the best is imperfect. Cases, which spontaneous rigidity occurred are

therefore, in

here omitted, except the following example, in which there

was a movement

unfelt

movement

his

simultaneously with

of the operator's

hand through a

screen,

hand.

each

H. placed

and passes were made

The hand gradually closed, a slight closing movement occurring at each pass. Eighteen passes were made before the hand was completely shut. During twelve, which were made at irregular intervals, the hand shut only when a pass was made, but after these a movement sometimes took place between the passes. H. declared three or four inches above

it.

116

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

that he

nothing, except that his

felt

Of course,

is

it

hand was

closing.

possible that the passes coincided in

time with the spontaneous movements of the hands, but this

chance

not become

spontaneously

fingers can be

made

Gurney recorded

The most

extremely unlikely.

is

which the hands do

satisfactory cases are those in

rigid

rigid,

and

in

which the

and insensitive separately.

a case which very nearly fulfilled

when the

these conditions, and he found,

fingers of

the operator were held above one of the fingers of

the subject, that nearly always that finger, and that alone,

became

any case

insensitive.

We

so satisfactory as his.

not meet with

did

With

A., however,

there was considerable, but not complete, insensibility,

which was

for a time, at

part operated upon

;

any

rate, confined to the

and during an experiment

an

of

hour's duration spontaneous rigidity or insensibility did not occur once.

The

following experiment was the

on A., and to

know our

first to

be

made

given here, since he was then least likely

is

object

:

the screen, placing

He

extended both hands through

them palm downwards on a table, We made passes at about

with the fingers separated.

an inch distance over the his left hand.

first

and second fingers

After about a dozen passes the fingers

and various parts

of the

hand were

lightly pricked

with a needle, and he was asked to say

he

felt it.

He

said

joints of the first

were pricked.

of

''

**

Yes

Yes" except when the

and second fingers

"

when

last

of the left

two

hand

These were then pricked hard without

j

OTHER HYPNOTIC PHENOMENA his taking

any

A

notice.

117

made

few passes were next

over the same two fingers, and a 20- gramme brass

weight at the temperature of the room, producing a distinctly cold feeling

when touching

the skin, was

As soon as

placed on one or other of the fingers.

it

touched any part of the hand, except the two end

and second

joints of the first

When

fingers,

he said "Yes."

was placed on these he said

it

'*

Yes, some-

thing cold," in time varying from three to ten seconds according to the different joints. We asked him " Do :

you know whether any passes have been made?"

"Are any

'*No."

began

to

lift

his

of

hand

A. then

your fingers stiff?"

from the table as a preliminary " Stop

Cannot you "No; both moving your hands?" "Well, try to shut them." The hands are cold." right hand closed at once, the left slowly, the first

to closing

them.

Langley said

:

!

without

tell

and second fingers remaining stretched out

after the

others.

In such cases there can be of

sent

into

aids,

if,

unfelt

little

some contracture and made

indeed,

passes.

it

doubt that a state

part of the

expectation that

is

will

be

insensitive greatly

not necessary

The following

hand

to,

the effect of

case shows

that

the

sometimes essential to success had previously hypnotized, and whose hands could readily be made insensitive, was asked I tried, to put his hands through a screen, as above. state of expectation is

C3,

whom

I

by passes and by pointing

them

insensitive, without

at his fingers, to render

making any suggestion

as

118 to

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

what

was going

I

then said

from the

** :

I

am

to do, but failed

I

going to try to take away sensation

jomy hand without your

different parts of

knowledge."

entirely.

After this I succeeded perfectly.

As the hand passes from contracture

to insensitive-

ness in the early states, the following changes usually take place

:

hand

First, the

is

in contracture

is

no change in temperature and no

A

little later,

however, the hand

is

;

there

loss of sensation.

contracted without,

or sometimes with, change of temperature (becoming cool),

and with

tactile sensation

sense.

just ;

an appreciable dulling

there

also a slight loss of

is

In a further state the hand

becomes

distinctly cold,

dulling of sensation. considerable.

None

loss of

the

in contracture,

and experiences more or

The of

is

of

muscular

less

muscular sense

is

our subjects showed loss of

who either be deeply hypnotized. Even in

sensation without contracture, except those

had been or could the fourth and

fifth

loss of sensation

induced.

if

stages

it

was

easier to produce

contracture had previously been

CHAPTER

VI

TREATMENT BY SUGGESTION Introductory (Liebeault)

and examples

— Repressions

treatment, with Forels'

of

(with note on Freud,

complexes)

of repressed

list

of

— General

principles

amenable to Neurasthenia

diseases

— Typical maladies (Hysteria — — Insomnia — Nocturnal enuresis — Alcoholism Morphinomania — Sex disorders, such as masturbation Primary vaginismus — Spasmodic dysmenorrhoea — Absence of sex feeling — Nervousness — Sea sickness — Chorea — Insanity — Constipation — Nervous Diarrhoea — Spasmodic asthma — Epilepsy) — Anaesthesia — Closing Note.

suggestion

Obsessions

-

I.

The

Introductory.

chief practical interest of

drew the attention

and that

it

is

we

practical

to the

of the

Nancy

hypnotism

lies in its

Liebeault of Nancy

use as a therapeutic agent.

school, created

by his work,

what we know of its applications, as well as the most widely

really

owe most

of

accepted theoretical views of

Few men, as the once

I think,

its

nature.

have shown such

humble doctor

of

Nancy.

real

heroism

He commenced

his professional career as a country practitioner, in

first

medical world to the subject,

1860 began to study hypnotism and 1864 he removed

to use

and it

in

Nancy, and

his practice.

In

specialized in

hypnotism, giving his services quite 119

to

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

120

and

gratuitously to the poor,

years he worked hard at his

be rewarded by the

to

But

in 1882

of sciatica

which had

possessed.

first

book on the subject,

sale of only a

he happened to

on the For two

living himself

means which he

small private

single copy.

cure in a case

effect a

baffled Professor

Bernheim

for

This brought Bernheim to see his practice, and what he saw made him a warm admirer and an

years.

enthusiastic

pioneer that

follower.

It

speaks wonders for the

those years he never faltered, but went

all

on quietly with his work, unrecognized, unrewarded, regarded half-contemptuously by other members of his profession as a kind of crank.

But Li^beault worked

not for himself, but for his beloved poor, and their gratitude and affection were his sufficient and only

From

reward.

the

began Li^beault's

date

rise to

name was added

his

to

of

Bernheim's conversion

fame, and after his death the roll of honour of his

most distinguished countrymen by the Government of

He was

France.

a

great

man, the

nobility

whose character surpassed even the value

of

of

his

work.

Though viously,

it

had studied hypnotism some years prewas at his clinic that I first saw it employed I

therapeutically. to

him

to learn,

Medical

and

all

men

of

every nation went

were welcomed.

Among

Dr. Lloyd Tuckey went to see the famous

others.

clinic,

and,

impressed by his experience, he commenced treatment

by suggestion in London. well,

Later on, Dr. Milne Bram-

who had used hypnotism with

great success in

TREATMENT BY SUGGESTION

town and devoted But the treatment met with strong opposition in this country, and

his practice at Goole,

came up

himself to this kind of

work alone.

at first still

1^1

many

has

to

adversaries here.

Of these, however,

few seem to have really studied the subject, and

have never even seen a patient hypnotized.

many

It is to

Lloyd Tuckey's perseverance and Bramwell's determination and courage in advocating the claims

new treatment

its

England as a legitimate addition

nition in

armoury

that hypnotism chiefly owes

of the

recogto

our

of healing.

it is impossible in a work like this to give more than a mere sketch of the results of treatment by suggestion, and altogether impossible to give a complete list of the different kinds of ailments which

Of course,

are

said

and

to

have

been benefited in this way.

we do not know the

present

seems probable that

it

may

it

yet be found to

influence maladies to which at present

been applied. it,

and

But one may

so bring

medicine which

it

is

it

has not even

easily claim too

into discredit.

It is

because

it

much

an adjunct

influenced at

all

to

it

that can

by other means, and

can reinforce other more usual remedies

by creating and maintaining a healthy condition mind.

for

highly important, because certain

types of disease appear to be amenable to scarcely be

At

limits of its usefulness,

of

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

122

II.

Repressions.

Since the days of Liebeault there have been great

changes in the practice of dealing with mental cases,

due

to the

mund

advent

of the discoveries of Professor Sig-

Freud, of Vienna.

It is

much

not too

to say

that the theories which he evolved have revolutionized

almost every branch

of psychotherapeutics.

Originally

the aim of treatment was the removal of symptoms.

Nowadays we can often remove the actual cause of symptoms and so ensure their disappearance. Whereas a cure directed to the removal of symptoms was only too apt to be transient, one directed

the

towards the eradication of the underlying cause

is

permanent.

Freud that we owe our knowledge of these concealed phenomena. He it was who first pointed It is to

out that

many

symptoms owe

nervous, mental, and even physical their origin to

pressed memories.

what

is

is

re-

important to understand

meant by a repressed memory, and perhaps

an experience Like

It

what are termed

many

of

my own may make

others, a friend of

it

clear.

mine received during

the war a tremendous shock, so painful that he could

not bear to think of

it.

He

soon found that

thing tended to remind him of

it,

was anything

any-

he experienced an

intense emotion of horror before the actual event

if

memory

like realized,

and

of the

at once

he voluntarily turned his thoughts away and refused to

think of the subject.

Soon

this

turning away

TREATMENT BY SUGGESTION became

and the

instinctive,

reminded

of the event

123

then of being

result

was an immediate emotion

of

horror, followed at once by an instinctive, half-conscious withholding from all thought of the incident. It

was much

and refusing horror

like

knowing that a picture was there

to look at

when aroused

He seemed

Eventually the emotion

it.

acted as a kind of danger signal.

to feel rather

than know what was coming,

that the incident which gave rise to

verge of being fully remembered repressed struck

and drove

it,

me

chiefly

tion

of the

it

life

completely, in child easy.

but he instantly

;

What

The emo-

the

memory

of the event

easily.

memory

very few can repress a

life

I

;

of the

extreme

with the

of the incident.

he could not prevent

he could repress quite

much more

was on the

out of his mind.

compared

memory

Whilst in adult

it

was the enormous strength

remembered emotion weakness

of

the experience appears to be

imagine that a child who has

passed through some really painful experience reacts in

much

reminded

my

same way as

the of

it

friend

did.

When

he experiences at once the emotion,

and pushes the incident out

of his

mind.

But with

constant repetition this process may, in the child,

become completely automatic.

If

anything tends

recollection of the incident, the emotion arises

and, instantly and automatically, the

occurrence

The to

is

result

memory

to

first,

of the

repressed. is

remind him

that in after

life,

of the incident,

should anything tend

he

will

at once

be

iU AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM seized by the emotion (which he cannot repress), but will

remain in complete ignorance

the

memory

of its cause, since

of the latter is automatically repressed.

The emotion will constitute a symptom we see that the symptoms induced by

memory

and hence

;

a repressed

are simply the recalled emotions, sensations,

or impulses which occurred with the original incident.

In the case of a simple, uncomplicated repression, the

sufferer

can be

made

to

recall

to

ness the original event, the whole of the

caused by

it

a

symptoms

vanish, and, as the examples which I

give below show, vanish immediately

moment

if

conscious-

— practically

in

of time.

memory, which is often intensely its place among the ordinary painful memories, and behaves like them in that they The newly

vivid,

recalled

at once takes

produce no unpleasant symptoms. begins gradually to fade away,

remains

a

mere

dim

Like these,

too, it

until eventually

it

harmless, and

recollection,

scarcely even painful, as the lapse of time gradually

weakens

it.

Other cases are not so simple. in which these repressed

memories

In the unconscious, exist, there is

clusive evidence that mental processes go on of

we are absolutely unaware, and new

con-

which

associations and

may cause new symptoms apart from those caused by the simple

grouping

of ideas

may

arise,

which

repression of individual incidents.

So

it

often happens

symptoms do not correspond with the original experience, but with some new idea or system of ideas that the

TREATMENT BY SUGGESTION

125

which, though connected with the incident, have begun entirely in the unconscious. It will

be convenient here to remind the reader of

Freud's three divisions of consciousness, mentioned in a former chapter,

firstly,

the conscious^ the ordinary

consciousness of everyday conscious,

wherein

normally revived

and

;

secondly,

life;

memories

the

lie

the pre-

can be

that

which

thirdly, the unconscious,

contains those memories which cannot be recalled by

normal means. In order to unravel these obscure memories the

by Freud

process of psycho-analysis invented

means we

present the only

possess.

It

on dream analysis, and free association refer the reader to the

many works

subject for further information

methods.

Unfortunately,

it is

but I would

;

published on the

as to

—often

necessarily a

ment which can be indulged must, in

it

a

more method of

the

The

— and treat-

vast majority of

present

knowledge, be content to bear their as best they

takes to

in only by comparatively

wealthy and leisured people. sufferers

cumbrous

it

a year, or even two or

the concomitant expense, render

these

scope and

its

and tedious process, and the time which carry out

at

is

depends largely

state ills

of

our

unrelieved

may.

Happily, in

many

instances, repressed

memories

can be recovered by mere suggestion under hypnosis.

Freud himself

at

purpose, but gave

one time used hypnotisia for this it

up, partly, at

any

rate,

on the

ground that so few patients could be hypnotized.

I

126

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

presume he meant deeply hypnotized,

for over

90 per

can be readily hypnotized to some

cent, of persons

degree.

With the exception of some cases of shell shock treated most successfully by Professor Brown, of '

King's

College,

can find no

I

record

repression treated by hypnotism. to

It is

cases

of

of

perhaps owing

the introduction of psycho-analysis that so

little

attention seems to have been paid of late years to the possibilities

repression

made

;

the use of hypnotism for

of

and no

No doubt

of years.

advance seems

real

in the practice of

hypnotism

to

have been

for quite a

due

this is partly

treating

number

to the years of

the Great War.

Yet

if

the knowledge of hypnotism

stagnant,

it

clear

is

fresh

that

methods must be pursued, and

much

it

seems a pity that so

no centre connected with the London medi-

cal schools,

mine how

where studies

far suggestion

tance, for,

if

a

may

be carried on to deter-

of use as a substitute for

is

The question

psycho-analysis.

method

of dealing

is

psycho-analysis

might be

a

is

extreme impor-

of

with repression under

hypnotism were discovered, hundreds

of sufferers, for

practical

impossibility,

relieved.

Some seven these

not to remain

material should be wasted owing to there being

at present

whom

is

investigation as to

years ago

I

determined to try whether

repressions could not be recalled under light

hypnotism, and

I

possible in quite a

found to

number

my

surprise that this

of cases.

was

TREATMENT BY SUGGESTION The method beHeve

it

is

very simple.

to be true) that the

the patient

suffering

is

I

127

assume (and

I

symptom from which

identical in nature (though

is

not in intensity) with an emotion, sensation, or impulse,

which occurred

event.

mental

rise to

clearly realized that the intensity of the

symptom may

far exceed that of the original counter-

part which gave rise to

no limit

Thus, there seems

it.

to the intensity of pain caused

memory.

to be

by a repressed

In one of the cases cited below, a blow on

the head inflicted by a four,

time of .the original

distress.

must be

It

at the

assume that the occurrence gave

I also

who happened

girl

little

on her brother

cut.

at the time to be in a state of

great mental distress, caused

agonizing pain some

twenty-four years later, though

the pain

vanished

immediately and permanently when the incident was

memory.

recalled to his

Acting on these assumptions,

under hypnosis that he

I

suggest to the patient

will recall

an incident which

aroused sensations exactly corresponding with those

from which he

same degree

suffers,

of

though not necessarily

intensity,

and that

suffered real mental distress.

cases

of

symptoms I

memory

the

associated with

do not for one

cases,

is

where

it

he

In a large proportion

then

recalled,

and

the

vanish immediately.

moment pretend

intricate

of the

at the time

that in complicated

changes in association have

occurred in the unconscious, that the mere unearthing of a repressed

memory

as here described

is sufficient

:

128

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM In such cases, psycho-analysis

to effect a cure.

only procedure likely to give

The use

of the

is

the

relief.

method described above

is

confined

simple repression, where no very com-

to cases of

plicated changes have taken place in the unconscious

But

realm.

unearthing

number

in quite a

of

patients the

of a repression is followed

and apparently permanent

mere

by immediate

cure.

Occasionally I have comeacross cases who, under the influence of hypnotism, seem to be able not merely to

remember the repression, but also to analyse for themAn instance of selves their own mental condition. this is recorded in case 9. I

may

point out that the Freudian school would

regard the original incident, of which the repressed

memory

is

recovered, as symbolic of something else,

generally of this

is

some sex complex.

possibly the case

once told

psychologists

facts with the

me

that

made merely

assumjition was

I

do not deny that

— although one

of

he

our greatest

believed

in order to

Freudian theory.

But

I

fit

am

this

in the

not com-

petent myself to express an opinion on the point.

"What I wish to emphasize

may

is

that,

whatever theory we

why and wherefore, repressed memory may, and

hold as to the

recalling of a effect a

The

permanent cure

of the

the simple often does,

symptoms.

symptoms repressed memories which

following ten cases are examples of

cured by the recovery of

had caused them 1.

A

lady,

cet.

32.

She was a woman the reverse

of

TREATMENT BY SUGGESTION hysterical, life,

and

129 All her

of quite exceptional intellect.

ever since she could remember, she

intense fear on meeting other people.

walking in the

street,

had

suffered

Even when

she was attacked by this fear,

The

caused by others coming towards her.

fear

was

always accompanied by a feeling of strong pressure on

She was,

the back of her head. this, quite

had a

in consequence of

unable to go into society.

In addition she

any big building, though

terror of going into

small buildings did not affect her.

Besides these two

symptoms, she constantly fancied that she people saying

unpleasant

things

heard

about her.

The

terror of big buildings appeared to have arisen later

than the other

The

fear of

fears.

saw her about ten times.

I

meeting people and the hearing

of people

talking about her originated at such an early age that I

had

to get

her to recall the events of her babyhood,

and she eventually remembered herself

We

in long clothes.

were able to verify one or two of the incidents

which she recollected

at

that

early

age as having

actually occurred.

The

fear of meeting people

back of the head was due

and the pressure on the

to repressed

having her face washed as a baby. process

terrified

memory

of

Apparently the

her very much, and at

last

she

became afraid that anyone who approached her was going to wash her face.

Of course, she had really

been most ungently handled at this early period of her life.

The pressure on the back

of

her head was caused by 9

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

130

the hand of the nurse holding her head during the

washing. **

When

she

Now I know what

It is the

the pain

is

at the

my

soapsuds getting into

back

of

my

nostrils."

:

nose. I

had

symptom.

not been told previously of this

The

she exclaimed

realised this,

origin of her fear of big buildings

was explained

Her mother was fond of playing on the church organ, and one day, when between three and

in this way.

She was per-

four years old, she accompanied her. fectly

happy

until the people

began

to

come

in for

service, but was then seized with terror and the feeling of pressure on her head. The incident alarmed

much

her so

that she repressed the

memory

of

it.

So

that in this instance the event which was repressed

was actually caused by the

earlier repression of

having

The moment she recollected these the symptoms due to them vanished, and

her face washed. repressions,

have now ceased

The

third

for nearly a year.

symptom, that

of

hearing people talking

about her, I have not yet removed, as she was obliged

However,

to leave town.

more know to what

I

have no doubt that two or

trials will suffice to get rid of

three

it

was due, only the exact

as yet unrevealed.

an account

But

I

am

it,

for

we

details being

precluded from giving

of the fact of the repression,

which has

already been unearthed, for reasons which would be of

no

interest to the reader. 2.

A

lady,

cet.

31.

Highly educated.

Engaged

in

educational work.

For ten years she had suffered from an intense

TREATMENT BY SUGGESTION

131

craving for alcohol, which, however, she had always

At

successfully resisted.

teristics it

saw her

to

but

On

that I thought

it,

first

occasion I hypnotized

She was only

just in the first stage

the

and could not open her recall

might be

it

presented charac-

it

some repressed memory.

twice.

her very lightly.

would

;

which were so much unlike

might be due I

thought

first I

a form of true dipsomania

I suggested that

eyes.

some incident

she

childhood which was

of

connected with drink or drunkenness, and which had distressed her greatly.

her

I told

had probably

it

occurred between the ages of three and

However, she could

and

told her to

minutes

recall

nothing

five.

so I roused her

;

come again the next morning.

me

later she returned, to tell

recalled the incident.

It

Five

that she

had

appeared that, when she was

man had told woman who had

about three years old, a

her mother in

her presence about a

got

murdered her own

child.

The

story

drunk and

had distressed

her intensely for some days, and then seems to have

been repressed.

The craving was

really not a craving

at all, but a fear lest she should take alcohol

tragic result should follow.

what she remembered, feel afraid of injuring

*'Yes of

— and

I can't

course due to

symptoms

left

her,

When

and some

she had told

me

''

Don't you ever

your pupils?"

She replied:

I said to

her

think why." the murder

:

This symptom was of

the

child.

and she has been well

for

The some

four years. 3.

A

little

girl,

cEt.

about 14.

She had been at

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

132

various boarding-schools, but was unable to remain in

them owing

to constant vomiting,

moment

quite well the

She was fond

home.

although she was

she got into the train to go

of

her school

life

and

distressed

at being unable to remain.

She had been in the hands of various medical men, and had amongst other things undergone a course of Weir Mitchell treatment in a nursing home, but no

improvement whatever that I

resulted.

It

seemed probable

was repressed memory of nausea or vomiting. saw her only once. Under light hypnosis I

it

suggested that she would recall some forgotten inci-

dent of early childhood, probably between the ages of three and

which had caused her great distress

five,

and made her to retch; and

very sick.

feel

I asked her

She immediately began

whether she remembered.

She said "Yes," and

I hurriedly

was apparently about

to vomit.

The repressed memory was

aroused her, as she

as follows.

was an antiquarian, and among other

mummy in

kept a

persuaded

to see,

afraid to look at

One

day,

the house.

rather

sister said to her

old,

her

mummy," and

incident, however,

he

to

have been really

more than three years ** Come and look at :

she refused. it

This part of the

afterwards transpired, was not

had remembered it in her ordinary The rest of the incident was repressed. Her then said: "If I give you sixpence will you

repressed, as she

sister

curiosities

it.

the

life.

father

This she could never be

and she seems

when she was

little

Her

TREATMENT BY SUGGESTION come?" and

Having

she assented.

this

to

obtained possession of the

sixpence,

183 safely

she promptly

refused to go, to the natural indignation of her sister,

who

insisted that, as she had taken the sixpence, she must come. She then did go and looked at the mummy, and was sick when she saw it. No symptoms, however, appeared until she went to school. Then after a time vomiting commenced, and if,

as usually happened,

continued more or less

On one

afternoon

began in the morning,

it

it

day.

all

when she had been

free all day,

she was compelled against her will to take part in a

game

think

(I

it

was

cricket),

at

game she

pelled to look attacks,

at

to play,

and

Probably being compelled

once began vomiting.

to play a

which she dreaded and

However, she had

did her best to evade.

feared reminded her of being com-

mummy.

the

I

found that the

which began when she woke in the morning

and lasted

all

—

day,

mummies often From that day to

of

were preceded by dreams of

by a

chased

being

this,

though she

is

mummy.

at a boarding-

school, she has never again vomited, or even once suffered 4.

from nausea.

In the case following

repression was.

The

I

was aware

of

what the

patient w^as totally unable to

although he had been informed of the

recall

it

dent,

and

I therefore set

the concealed memory.

inci-

myself to the task of reviving

The

result

was a complete

cure.

Mr.

S,, cet, 37.

He bad

suffered

from

fits

from the

— AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

134 age of fits

five until

he was twelve years

appear to have been

old.

Some

of the

nature of petit mal

of the

but some were clearly grand mal, several happening

during the week sometimes,

occasionally occurring

At the

during his sleep with involuntary enuresis. age of twelve they ceased entirely.

Eventually the patient got work in India, and there suffered

Two but

much from

intense domestic worries.

years before he came to

me

his

fits

returned,

He would changed in character. become unconscious, and would remain

they had

suddenly

unconscious sometimes for as long as two hours.

have no doubt they were cataleptic. I found from what his mother told me that at the age of five he had been much terrified by a dog watching over her puppies, which had run out of a house as he was passing

I

and barked furiously him.

at

him, though

Twenty minutes

it

did not attack

he was said

later

become suddenly unconscious

;

to

have

but I could get no

reliable data as to the duration of this first attack,

and about a week have resembled This

attack

made

to

of

he had a

petit mal, as

well

(as

recall

" thinking

later

as

it

fit

— which seems to

lasted for

several

some minutes. he was

others)

under hypnosis, and he recollected

nothing " as he stood in the

being led up to his nursery in that condition.

hall, I

and

found

that though he could recall events both previous

to,

and immediately subsequently to, the dog incident, of this he had no recollection whatever; nor could he recall it by any effort of memory.

I

TREATMENT BY SUGGESTION seemed

It

probable

so

symptoms were due

that

some way

in

memory

to a repressed

event that I determined to try to recover

Another

made

fact

it

still

more

135 his

of the

it.

certain that the

incident was repressed, and not forgotten.

Though

town where the episode took

place, the

he

lives in the

houses in the street where

it

happened were always

unfamiliar to him, though he frequently passed them.

The

following extracts from an account of his case

written by himself will give an idea of his condition

when

I

:

saw Dr. Wingfield in 1918 on the following

**I

dates

saw him

:

July 11th and

September 16th,

17th,

October 2nd and 3rd. " Before seeing him

I

17th,

August 6th and 7th,

18th,

19th, 20th, 21st,

and

was suffering from depression,

nearly continuous, but at times becoming more severe. "Whilst

under his treatment the

became gradually more marked severe,

between

but

Before seeing out

of

alone. or a

him

I

It

few feet shoulder.

I

and was

more

was a sense

of

only), especially

very

normal.

if

I

was

some impalpable presence,

black devil following

me

at a distance of a

behind me, and at about the height of After

my

first

visit to

marked nervous,

ness in streets, especially at crossings,

towards

became very

September

slight.

my

Dr. Wingfield this

did not recur, but was replaced by a

intense

depression

latterly

used to have a haunted feeling ton

doors (in

little

times

of

fits

16th,

which was very after

which

it

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

136

" I had from time to time suffered from unexplained attacks of vomiting, which

quent at the beginning

became particularly

fre-

of

September, but ceased in

the middle of that month.

This was always in the

evening before bedtime.

my first My first

since *'

produced very

visit to

two

I

to

visits

little effect

to hypnotize.

—as

On August

I noticed that in

have had no cataleptic

Dr. Wingfield.

my

Dr.

.

.

fit

.

Wingfield in

July

was a

difficult subject

6th, whilst

under hypnosis,

I

recollection of the houses near

where the dog was, there was a misty gap, extending some three houses before the dog-house, and double that number beyond. During the period between

my

August 6th and 27th,

became gradually

recollection of the houses

gap consisting only

clearer, the

of

the dog's house and three houses beyond.

"On facts of

August 27th, under hypnosis,

my first

fit

as a child,

I

remembered

and the iron

railings in

front of the dog's house. '*

Between August 27 and September 16th, I got a and the white mist

clearer recollection of the houses,

became

lighter with

more substantial

a

also recollected further details of

my

first

centre.

I

attack as a

child. **

On September

16th,

under hypnosis, the pre-

viously recollected incidents became clearer, and on

the following day, under hypnosis, I father running towards

and subsequently clearly,

me when

I recollected

first

the dog

saw

came

at

my me,

the house extremely

but with only a faint mist where the dog

TREATMENT BY SUGGESTION should have been.

After this at night I used to get

short glimpses of the dog, usually

sometimes a

bit

On September of

of its flank.

most

recollected

137

my

of

first

its

hindquarters,

During

this period I

attack except

vomiting as a child with

suffered considerably

from

start.

its

my

19th, I clearly associated

attacks

For some nights

fear.

On

fear.

I

the 27th I heard

one or two faint barks under hypnosis. *'

On September

fear just as I

had

I

experienced considerable

was not repeated when

lived, but this

house on October October 2nd,

28th,

was passing the house where the dog 1st.

I got

I

passed the

Between September 21st and

an extremely foggy impression

the outline of the dog standing in the doorway.

October 2nd,

hypnosis wards.

I felt

intense fear for the

first

of

On

time under

and the fear lasted an hour or two afterWhilst under hypnosis I very clearly saw the ;

of my attack in India in 1914, my first attack in England, and last attack

dog on the occasion

and then in

in

England

in the order

named.

Any

sign of recollec-

tion of the

dog in the house was at once obliterated by

the dog as

it

appeared in

my attack

On the night

a few distinct faint barks. I felt fear,

which

at times

in India. of

I

heard

October 2nd

became very acute

for a

few

minutes. " On October 3rd, I clearly recollected, under hypnosis, the child.

I

dog as the cause

of

my

first

attack

when

a

then clearly recollected the dog standing in

the doorway, and heard her bark."

At

this last trial

he told

me

that

1)6

had seen thQ

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

138

On

dog precisely, barking and running out at him.

me

October 2nd, he told

doorway, and

seemed running

outside

During

out.

memory seemed and

nosis,

at

to

at night

the

gate

him from

prevent

to

saw the dog

that he

—but

in the

that fear

her actually

seeing

he

treatment

I

adds

"

:

My

advance only when under hyp-

between going to bed and going to

sleep."

On

October 14th, he writes

** :

have suffered

I

from depression, and what depression enced during the

now

have

I

class.

The memory

of the

memory

altogether in a different

and

it is

dog incident has now become

memory

two or three days

as a

less

normal.

quite an ordinary for

fact,

much

lost all fear in crossing a street,

feel perfectly

"

—in

less

have experi-

few days has been

last

intense than formerly

I

it

of a distant event,

though

was continually with me, only

true, but a

memory

of

something

recent.

" I have been thinking over

my

continual failure to

remember what my thoughts were during any and

wonder whether

I

and subconscious I really

seem on

feet,

was that both

my

were paralyzed by the

had no thoughts

to explain

my

self

it

to

remember.

why, in some attacks,

attack,

conscious fear,

and

This would

I could

remain

and even walk away, when the stimulus to the muscles by someone leading me,

was provided as in

my

first

attack."

In a further note the patient says *'

I

:

have recollected seeing the dog in four

of

my

r

TREATMF.NT BY SUGGESTION had as

a child,

an

attack in

England

in

attacks, namely, the first attack I

attack in India in 1914,

1917, and *'

my

my

last attack in

first

1S9

England

in 1918.

In each case the dog appeared at exactly the same

During the

angle to me.

1917

it

which

I

was

appeared on

which

my

appeared on

possible place for

to

it

my

in

right-hand side, the only

all

the other cases

it

left-hand side, which was the side on

was when

it

England

appear from the position in

but in

sitting,

attack in

first

it

actually attacked me.

In the

Indian attack the dog stood out more clearly than in the other attacks, which

is

only natural from the

position at the edge of the circle of firelight in the

dark forest at night.

In each attack the dog appeared

motionless, not in the position of a stationary dog,

but in a position of action, such as might be registered

by an instantaneous photograph. dog in these attacks,

I

jumped

the activity indicated was the

because

had

I

knew

terrified

that

me.

it

On

position

that the position

she rushed

of the

barking,

of

I

have made further I

am

convinced

dog in the attacks

had jumped

forward

seeing the

was by barking that the dog

But since

progress in seeing the actual attack,

instant after she

first

to the conclusion that

barking

to her feet,

— that

immediately before she uttered the

is,

first

is

the

and before

the

instant

bark, and

immediately before the point where the most intense terror arose."

Since then the patient has been free from terrors.

It is

fits

and

unfortunate that he had no more time

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

140

at his disposal, for I do not

know what the connection

was between the dog and the phobia

—

of crossing the street

As these symptoms suggestion being

made

black devil and the

little if

there was any.

disappeared without any

all

that they would do so,

it

seems

most probable that they were connected with the dog and more searching shown what it was. The only suggestions made at any time were that he should remember the attacks made by the dog, and secondly, incident;

but

only a longer

analysis would have

that he should recollect his

A

5.

schoolboy,

cet,

two years before

terror

from intense

suffered

had commenced about

saw him, and had become

Not only were the nights

able. also,

I

He

12 J.

The

terror of the dark.

fits.

terrible,

but the days

because he knew the night was coming.

been quite unable to

new

had

slept for a

governess,

He had

sleep in a room by himself.

There was a history that when he was old he

intoler-

week

who was then

in the

five

years

same room with a

discovered to be insane.

His parents became aware at the time that something

him during that week, but they could never get from him any account of what had occurred, and when he came to me I found him quite unable to had

terrified

recollect

looked

anything about

like.

As

fear of the dark

it

it,

or even

what

seemed more than

was due

make him

recall

likely that his

to a repressed

something which had then occurred, try to

his governess

I

memory

of

determined to

it.

His parents had some time before taken the boy

to

TREATMENT BY SUGGESTIOxN see

141

an eminent physician, who pronounced the cheer-

ful verdict that the

boy was injured

for

and that

life,

nothing whatever could be done for him. I

treated

him

five times,

and on the

trial

fifth

he

recalled the cause of his terrors.

The governess, who was a Eoman Catholic, used to wake him in the night, put a crucifix into his hands, and tell him to hold it tight, as the whole room was full of devils, who were going to attack them. She prayed hysterically, and every now and then would point to the shadows, saying she saw some terrible

being or other, which she used apparently to describe

more

or less, one being a

Naturally, the

man

like a

Chinaman.

unfortunate child passed through

extremities of terror.

His memories revived a the

first,

suffered

and the night from

was

it

mother he would

trial after

after the fourth treatment

frightful

remember what

with each

little

it

he

could not

morning, but told his

in the

recall

He

nightmare.

when

I

saw him

and

;

it

turned out that the nightmare was a recollection of

When

his

week

his

memory had been

different,

of terror.

I

revived

and no longer

felt

saw him the day ;

he said he

felt

after,

quite

the old fear.

In cases of this kind, however, when the fear destroyed, there almost always arises a is, it

a fear lest the old fear should arise.

was a fear

lest,

if

new

fear

is

—that

In this case,

he went into the dark, the old

terror should recur.

This " fear

of a

fear" which

is,

after

all,

quite a

"

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

142

reasonable one,

destroyed by time, and by

is

the

constantly repeated discovery that even in the dark

the old fear does not recur, however that

"With this boy the

may.

it

much he

dreads

" fear of a fear

weeks and then vanished entirely. To use his own words, he now " likes the night as

lasted a few

much

as the day."

Schoolboy,

6.

Boarded

14.

cBt,

at a public school.

He had

been suffering

two years from great home-sickness, which had

for

become school

so severe, life,

and interfered

so seriously with his

that the question of removing

him was

raised. I

found on questioning him that two years pre-

had been slightly bullied, and ever since had experienced an almost constant feeling of apprehensive dread. He felt that something terrible was

viously he

threatening him, though he had no idea as to

its

nature.

The repression was unearthed at the fifth attempt. When twenty-two months old he had eaten orange punish him, his nurse had shut

peel, and, in order to

him up This

either behind a dark curtain or in a cupboard.

terrified

should do

memory bullied

it

him, and he was frightened

again,

of the incident.

had tended

When

and appears to

he recalled

you were afraid of?" is."

"

Why

'

I

she

have no doubt that being

remind him

of

I said to

him

it

lest

have repressed the

to

this incident. :

" Is that what

"Yes," he replied, "of course

of course

'

?" I asked.

it

" You only knew

TREATMENT BY SUGGESTION of

it first

that

moment."

this

what

is

*'

asked him whether he

I

school,

know

that

but

;

it

felt

is

know

his apprehension,

was entirely gone.

He

and

returned to

but has been ever since perfectly well of his

me

home-sickness, and his house-master has told

he

I

was," was the answer.

it

he said that

I

143

He

quite a different boy.

that

has been well for

about twenty months. 7.

the

A soldier, (Et. 27. He had Army on account of extreme

terrified of the dark,

and then

been invalided out

He was

phobia.

terrified of

of

first

being alone

even during the day, and was unable to go about

him only once. Under hypnosis I suggested that he would remember an incident of his childhood when he was terrified and in darkness. He at once had a kind of nightmare, and I roused him. He recollected, when he was, he unless accompanied.

I treated

thought, about two or four, that he was accidentally locked in a cellar, and he remembered his frantic

attempts at escape and

how he made

his

hands raw

by beating at the door. Instantly he right

all

came

felt

alone.

alone,

and

well

and

said he

knew he would be

saw him eight days

I

said that the phobia

later.

had

left

He him

entirely. 8.

Another soldier suffered from nearly identical

symptoms.

He was

did not appear that it

it

terrified of

had made any

was night or day.

as he

being alone; but

was quite unable

He, to

too,

had

difference to

it

whether

have an escort,

go about by himself.

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

144

Under hypnosis he

recalled how, as a small child,

he had got separated from his parents

at

one

of the

great exhibitions, and had been lost for three hours.

As I

in the previous case, the phobia vanished at once.

saw him about a week

later,

and he

the evening of the day on which

had been able the

first

to

home by

go

know how he went on

A

9.

first I

me

that on

saw him he

himself quite happily,

time he had been able to do so since his

Unfortunately

ness.

told

professional

had been obliged

I lost sight of

him, and do not

afterwards.

man, about 30 years

to get leave

he came

to

When

me.

saw him he was dangerously depressed,

had begun

to believe that

if

for

he

he would never recover.

His malady began as follows he noticed that,

He

of age.

from his work on account

of his illness three years before I first

ill-

:

Three years before

he put on a loose

over the region of his appendix.

collar,

he got pain

Eventually he was

unable to wear his collars tight enough, the pain got higher up, and he began to suffer from vomiting, intense

shame.

depression, and a feeling of overwhelming

When

getting well. ago,

and

I

I

saw him he was in despair

of

ever

The case occurred some seven years

had had but little experience of this method which I was first beginning to studyo

of treatment,

At recall

first I

found that under light hypnosis he could

nothing in connection with his trouble.

suggested under hypnosis of

** :

Dream.

You

will

something connected with your condition."

asking him what he saw, he said,

"A

I

then

dream

On my

big mirror."

TREATMENT BY SUGGESTION For some days

145

got no further, and then he recol-

I

lected that the mirror in question used to stand in the

bathroom

of his old

track, for in a

home.

This put

me on

the right

bathroom he would see himself naked.

Eventually, after

many

nearly three

lasting

trials,

weeks, he unravelled the enigma.

seems that as a small boy he thought he was

It

malformed, and the idea became repressed.

An

incident tended to remind

him

When

of this.

he put on a loose collar and went out into the neck

air,

This had given

and uncovered.

cold

felt

When

a subconscious feeling of absolute nakedness.

asked under hypnosis what he loose collar, he exclaimed:

Everyone can

see I

am

felt

"Oh,

I

when he had on

am

malformed."

a

quite naked.

The pain was

During an attack

quite a secondary affair.

his

rise to

of

naked-

ness-horror he seems to have suffered real pain over

the arm, owing, I suppose, to some transient ailment,

and ever

after

recurred as a

with each attack of

memory

depression

it

pain.

There had been no improvement in his condition the

until

final

trial

;

but

then

became

he

well

immediately, went straight back to his work, and

has

had no recurrence

of

any kind

of

distress

of interest as

showing

since.

10.

The

that in

following case

certain

cases

is

a repressed

memory can

recovered and the symptoms caused by

it

be

stopped and

then re-repressed, with the result that the symptoms

immediately recur.

I

am

unfortunately precluded 10

;

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISIM'

146

from giving

the details of this extraordinary case

all

but must content myself with an outline.

Mr.

F., cet 28,

came

I discovered

later

to

me

him

desiring help to enable

for excessive

to give

it

smoking,

up.

had twice previously

that he

(once six years and once six months before) nearly killed himself

by taking an overdose

He returned

I shall call chloral.

interview.

He had

now complained shoulders.

a

of a poison

week

I

it

which

my

first

largely reduced his smoking, but

agonizing

of

between

pain

found I could remove

suggestion, but

after

it

at

his

once by

always recurred within twenty-four

me

that he felt he must do know what it was. Clearly was an impulse probably due to some unconscious

hours.

One day he

told

something, but he did not this

repression. I

hypnotized him, and he passed at once into deep

hypnosis. lightly, I

In

fact, I

was never able

to hypnotize

him

deep hypnosis always appearing immediately.

then

asked him what

it

was he had

to

do.

Sums," was the answer. When I inquired why he had to do sums, I found he had now passed back to his childhood days, and he told me why he was so I then asked him what caused the pain, distressed. **

and he

replied

*' :

Oh, Mary has hit

with a croquet mallet." this

I told

me

in the back

him he would

recollect

on awakening, roused him, and found that he

remembered

perfectly.

It

appears that at the age of

four when he was in great distress over his sums, his little sister Mary had indeed hit him in the back with a

TREATMENT BY SUGGESTION

147

The pain was gone, and never The patient had many repressed memories, each having its own peculiar symptom,

croquet

mallet.

recurred again.

and with recovery ing

symptom

But I

I

each repression the correspond-

of

disappeared.

soon discovered that he had a dual personality.

found eventually that, during

blanks of memory, and that, really called

I

many

when

had

years, he

hypnotized him,

I

up this second personality.

Under

hypnosis his behaviour was quite different from that of

He

a normal individual.

would not accept any sugges-

and would argue

tions unless he approved of them,

the point all

I

when

I tried to get

him

to

do

could do was to use persuasion

so.

In

fact,

when he was

hypnotized.

The hypnotic personality, unlike that of the normal man, had assumed the power of criticism, and this always seems to me one of the main differences between the ordinary unconsciousness of the normal man and a true

second personality.

assumes the power

of

Once the subconscious

criticism,

it

takes

on

the

function of a real second personality.

One symptom from which he was vomiting.

This

having been made to as mentioned above.

I

suffered frequently

found was due to a

memory

of

vomit when he had taken chloral, Then came the question why

—

did he take the chloral ? incident of childhood,

This was due to a

when he was about

trifling

four years

and one which was completely repressed and very difficult to recover. He had a cold, and his old,

148

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

mother gave him some medicine. It made him feel better, and he asked for more but his mother had said, ;

" No, you can't have any more

:

its

poison."

The only poison which he knew of was chloral. conflict was then set up between his desire to take

A his

medicine, which he identified as chloral, and his fear of doing so.

This became painful, and he repressed

Even now he

it.

represses the memories of recent

events with extraordinary ease.

Some conflict

twenty-two

years

later

unconscious

the

seems to have re-awakened, and this time the

idea that he would take his medicine (chloral) got the

upper hand.

He was

seized

with an

impulse, bought some chloral, and took

with difliculty saved from death. half

Some

irresistible

and was

it,

five-and-a-

years later the same thing occurred.

I

had

discovered that frequently his second personality had

an intense desire to possess chloral, and I found that he had occasional blanks of memory, and that, during the period which was obliterated from his mind, he almost always

had managed

though he did not take

it.

periods of longing to get

it

to I

purchase chloral,

found, too, that the

were always marked by

vomiting; but that so long as he remembered the incident about

the medicine neither vomiting nor

desire for chloral occurred.

not recall the incident

:

it

But frequently he could was re-repressed, and the

vomiting at once recurred. I

asked his second personality

why he had

the incident one day, and the reply was

:

forgotten

" Because I

TREATMENT BY SUGGESTION wanted

he said

it,

Asked why he wanted

to forget it."

remember

:

and

re-repressed, it

poison

at

I

was one day

recalled,

symptom

the

if

rise to

once

recurred,

vanished permanently when I made him second time.

recall the repression for the

I

my

get

I can't

to forget

Another repression, giving

it."

symptoms, which was

different

though

Because

*'

149

have never met with or heard

of

any other case

where a recovered repressed memory was re-repressed,

and the instance

is

very striking one

a

;

the

re-

repression always resulting immediately in a return

corresponding symptoms.

of the

What

I tried to

personalities.

do in this case was to fuse his two

used to try to persuade him, whilst

I

remember when he was awake all he remembered under hypnosis, but was always

under hypnosis, that

to

met with a point-blank

refusal,

him

to consent to do so

case

is

nor do

;

personality

had been ;

I

never could get

The

therefore, so far as the dual personality goes,

uncured

him

and

under any conditions.

may

I see

any way by which the second

in existence for

but

I

The dual personality many years when I first saw

be conquered.

have reason

hoping that

for

it

will

never

again wish to take chloral. 11.

In only one case have

case was that of a lady, suffered

I

known a relapse. The who had for six years

21,

cet.

from terror in church, and,

if

alone, in the

street.

She

recalled an incident

She had read a story

in

when she was

a child.

which the heroine went

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

150

suddenly mad, and was hurried

had

this

horrified her greatly.

off to

an asylum, and

found that she often

I

dreamed that she had gone mad, and was seized by attendants to be carried off to an asylum. Her terror in the street which vanished at once was probably

—

due

—

an idea that she would go mad, and that people

to

in the street were ready to hurry her off in the

But the

way.

She afterwards married, and when, three years she had her second child, she nursed quite unlit to do so,

The I

same

terror of church I could not remove.

it

later,

when she was

and became exceedingly run down.

fear of being alone in the street again recurred.

saw her, but on that occasion

mental cause

of

failed to discover the

her relapse, and since then

I

have

not heard of her. I think

it is

likely that the

memory of

the story was

not the original repression, but I do not know.

Sometimes when

I

recall the repression

making him, of

could not directly,

make

something connected with

what

it,

I sought.

and

in this

way even-

Thus, in case 9 the

dreamed that he saw a big mirror, and it had stood in the bathroom of

recalled that

home.

the patient

have succeeded in

or her, dream, under actual hypnosis,

tually discovered

patient

I

at last

his old

In another, a lady who suffered from intense

pain in the

left side of

her face, dreamt under hypnosis

that she saw a glass of water standing on a table.

This enabled her a few days later to recall the whole experience

whom

— an unfortunate love

affair.

The man

to

she was attached had drunk half a tumblerful

:

TREATMENT BY SUGGESTION when she was

of water, and,

alone, she

151

had drunk the

In another case, of which I have unfortunately

rest.

lost the notes, the patient

She had frequently hysterical

from three symptoms. clenching of her

was a lady who suffered

hand, due to her having crushed

left

a letter, which caused her great distress, in her left

She

hand.

from great depression and

also suffered

a longing for death,

and when

this

was most marked,

she would often hear a voice saying, " Kill yourself, kill

and she fancied she smelt a strong

yourself,"

odour

The

of

smoke.

incident of the clenched

can

far as I

recollect,

not arouse the

memory

the other two.

I

hand she

on the second

trial,

of the incidents

recalled, so

but

I

could

which caused

therefore suggested that she would

dream of some incident connected with the symptoms, and she dreamt she saw the name of a theatre (I think

On '*

it

the

was

Prince's) in red letters,

fourth

or

fifth

Prince's Theatre."

trial

on a white ground.

she

saw

the

words

This resulted in her recalling a

few days later the following incident

A

few days after getting news of the death in action,

man

during the South African War, of a young

whom

she was

London

much

She came

street.

luckily, there

to

attached, she was crossing a

happened

to a street refuge

to be a policeman,

going to walk straight on.

The policeman

where,

and was

seized her

by the arm, and dragged her back, saying rather angrily,

"You'll

kill

yourself one day."

She then

saw that she had only just avoided being run over by

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

152

an omnibus, which was emitting a good deal

of

smoke,

and on which was an advertisement with the words **

of

Prince's Theatre "

upon it. She pneumonia two years later.

I

recovered, but died

have, I fear, tired the reader by treating of these

cases at such length

but I regard them as the most

;

important that we have to strations that there

is

and

the methods used,

They are demon-

treat.

great scope for improvement in I

able successfully to treat

hope that one day we

may be

many

who

of the patients

at

present could be treated by psycho-analysis alone,

but

who

precluded by practical considerations

are

from ever attempting the process. Professor

Brown

of King's College

has used hypno-

tism most successfully in cases of so-called war shock, to enable the patients to recall the horrors

came them, and the

which over-

have been most striking.

results

General Principles of Treatment.

III.

Until a few years ago, most physicians

use of

hypnotism aimed

But of

possible.

late

who made

at inducing as deep a stage as

few do

so,

the lighter stages being

as a rule quite sufficient for therapeutic purposes.

Moll long ago pointed out that the real dangers are

two in number nosis,

in the

:

viz.,

the increased tendency to hyp-

and the heightened waking

avoidable.

Many

insisted that

hypnosis

—

state,

susceptibility to suggestion

both

critics of

of

which he believes are

hypnotism, however, have

repeated hypnosis

has these drawbacks.

—

at

any

rate,

deep

TREATMENT BY SUGGESTION

153

Fortunately, in the vast majority of cases which

come

for treatment,

my own

In

deep hypnosis

practice

have,

I

is

quite unnecessary.

on very rare

except

occasions for special reasons, never induced the deep state for I

many

years.

sometimes make suggestions under quite light

hypnosis, or else use Bramwell's method, which, acts,

it

seems

much

to be

the same thing

frequently I combine both methods, by light hypnosis,

he

will

and then suggesting

not attend to me, but

restful train of

I

make

I

first

inducing

mind on some suggestions.

I

more rapidly than I use Bramwell's method alone. Even if the

find in this

do when

thought whilst

way

when

but most

to the patient that

his

fix

;

that I get results

patient cannot help attending to me, I find that the effect of a

suggestion

of treatment.

is

apparent even on the

During the war

cases of insomnia

amongst

soldiers,

they slept on the night after the

first

day

saw a good many

I

and

first

in every case

suggestion had

been made. Moll, though

he advised as deep a hypnosis as

possible, points out that

it

is

a mistake to suppose

that the light stages have no value, and Liebeault,

though he insisted that the best results were obtained in deep sleep, says bility of

"much

the subject."

depended on the suggesti-

A may be as B is in convinced me of the

For example,

susceptible to suggestion in the light state as

the deep one, and experience has

truth of this. I

may

say here that, though in years gone by I

:

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

154

make

frequently did

use of deep hypnosis, I have

never seen any sign of

Bramwell

harm produced thereby

and

;

he

states that Forel asserted that neither

nor Li6beault, Bernheim, Wetherstrand, Van Eeden, Jung, Moll,

the

or

other

followers

of

the

Nancy

school had ever seen a single instance in which mental or

physical

harm had been caused by

suggestion in therapeutics.

As the

total

their cases certainly exceeds fifty thousand,

the use of

number

of

hypnotism

obviously cannot be a very dangerous procedure.

Many complaints are amenable gives the following

found

list of

Forel

to suggestion.

diseases in which

it

has been

afifectual

ForeVs List of Diseases Amenable

to

Suggestion.

Spontaneous somnambulism. Pains of

all

description, especially headache, tooth-

ache which does not depend on abscess,

etc.

Sleeplessness.

Functional paralyses and contractures.

Organic paralyses and contractures (as palliative means). Chlorosis (results extremely favourable).

Disturbance

of

menstruation

(metrorrhagia

and

amenorrhcea).

Loss

of appetite

and

all

nervous digestive distur-

bances.

Constipation and diarrhoea (provided that

it

does

not depend on catarrh or fermentation). Gastric and intestinal dyspepsia (including pseudodilatation).

TREATMENT BY SUGGESTION

155

Psychical impotence, pollutions, onanism, perverted sexual appetite and the like.

Alcoholism and morphinism (only by the suggestion of total abstinence).

Chronic muscular and arthritic rheumatism.

Lumbago. The so-called neurasthenic disturbances. Stammering nervous disturbances of vision. ;

Blepharospasm.

Pavor nocturnus

of children.

Sickness and sea-sickness, the vomiting of pregnancy.

Enuresis nocturna (often very

difficult

on account of

the depth of the normal sleep).

Chorea.

Nervous attacks

coughing

disturbances

Hysterical

hystero-epileptic

the

of

attacks,

of

(also in all

emphysema).

kinds,

ansesthesia,

including

and

phobias,

like.

Bad

habits of

kinds.

all

-

All hypochondriacal parsesthesias, irritable weak-

nesses, conceptions of impulse

and the

like,

are

more

difficult to cure.

Other

amenable

authors to

give

many

hypnotic suggestion, but

useful purpose to extend the

above give a

sufficient

complaints

other

list.

it

as

would serve no

Those enumerated

indication of the classes of

maladies in which the treatment has been found successful.

Most

of these

appear to be examples of

functional neuroses in which no organic lesion can

be found.

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

156

But of the

to

unnecessary to give detailed accounts

is

it

treatment

treatment.

of

every kind of disease amenable therefore confine

shall

I

those maladies which most

everyone

who

myself to

commonly occur, and which form

practises this

of

treatment

most

is

likely to meet.

IV. Typical Maladies. 1.

Hysteria.

—Bramwell

records several cures, and

Forel counts fifteen cures out of twenty-eight. these patients can be hypnotized, especially

if

When

they pass

into the deep sleep, prognosis as regards the removal of the

symptoms

is

generally favourable.

But often

the patient relapses sometimes, as Tuckey points out,

even during treatment after a temporary improvement. It

me

appears to

relieve

that

symptoms,

the

cannot

For

real underlying condition.

analysis

reasonable hope

may

cure

the

of

itself

this

purpose psycho-

only treatment which offers

the

is

it

mere suggestion, though

;

and

it

is

to

the majority of these sufferers

much

be regretted that for it is,

in practice, out of

the question.

On

this

ground

I

do not advise hypnotism alone in

means symptoms. But

a generalized hysterical condition, except as a of

alleviating the

symptoms

I

most distressing

have often succeeded in removing.

cases are worth recording deafness,

— one

and the other a case

confined to the

of

Two

a case of hysterical hysterical blindness

left eye.

Mrs. X., the wife of a sergeant-major, had become

TREATMENT BY SUGGESTION

157

stone deaf after her confinement four years before I

saw

She was sent

her.

When

I first

to

me by

Mr. Yearsley.

saw her she could hear no sound

whatever, however loud, and her husband informed

me

that since the onset of her deafness she had become

extremely I

irritable.

wrote out the directions which

I

wished her to

follow, tolling her that I should ask her to lie

down,

make a few should then make sug-

that I should then close her eyes and strokes over them, and that I

gestions which she would hear, though possibly not consciously,

and that when

I

roused her she would hear.

But she did not hear when I awakened her. Howwhen her husband brought her again he told me

ever,

that half an hour after I had seen her, her hearing

had suddenly returned, and that she had complained of the noise of the whistle of the engines during her

homeward journey, and had understood what he to her.

said

Within an hour or two, however, the old

condition returned.

Unfortunately, circumstances

made

it

impossible for

her to come to town more than once a week, except

during one week when she came twice.

She gradually improved, and on the next occasion

on which bility of

I

saw her could hear

temper, too,

occasion she told

me

fairly well.

was much that

less.

On

Her

irrita-

the third

though she could hear

every word I said, she forgot

it

before I could utter

the next, a rather interesting mental condition.

was remarkable,

too, that for a

It

long time after she

:

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

158

could hear, she Beemed afraid to trust herself, evidently sense was a

uncertain whether her newly restored correct reporter.

She returned

to

India, and

I

was disappointed,

though not surprised, to hear that her old condition had gradually returned, and that at the end of four months she was as deaf as before. It was unfortunate that she could be treated so seldom (I saw her only seven times), for one may fairly suppose that, had the treatment been given a fair chance, the result might have been more

lasting.

The second case was

He

that of a

man

47

cet.

— a clerk.

was a patient at Moorfields Ophthalmic Hospital,

and was sent

to

me

by Mr. Grimsdale.

For twenty-

three years he had been almost totally blind in the left eye.

He

suffered great supra-orbital pain as well.

Nothing wrong could be discovered by the ophthalmoscope, but as the eye caused so

much

apparently useless, the question of

He had had

been raised.

its

pain and was

removal had

a rather severe injury to

his forehead previous to the onset of blindness, but

there was nothing to account for his condition. I

saw him only four times

;

but the result was

satisfactory.

When became

to

me he

could just distinguish light

from darkness when the right eye was covered. The vision of the right eye was defective owing to errors of refraction.

which

I

I

hypnotized him on the

first

occasion on

saw him, and he passed immediately into Placing my hand over his left eye, I said

deep sleep.

TREATMENT BY SUGGESTION *•

When you

wake you

count ten you will wake, and when you

will see."

I

counted ten and he awoke and " I can see ;

at once exclaimed in tones of excitement

—

I

can see

on the

!"

and

him

told

but

it,

it

was

to look at

misty.

all

men

" seeing

hand on

moment.

getting clearer every

He

said

:

was

Another

when

all

still

life like

knew

to tell

later, his

me

had

She now

for ten years

once to suggestion of the real origin

an unfortunate love

of this six trials

affair,

though

failed to effect

any

and drinks and enjoys

eats

other people.

Neurasthenia.

of the

who had

solid food, yielded at

improvement.

2.

a lady

case, that of

of the mischief,

before I

month

perfectly clear.

had persuaded her

I

now."

then see quite clearly, and on the last

could

refused

me

miracle

It is quite clear

occasion on which he came, about a vision

said

Then I put my " Watch. It is

as trees walking."

forehead and

his

He

it.

reminded

It

New Testament

forcibly of the account of the

—

:

then took him to a picture hanging

I

wall,

he could see

159

—

It is

unfortunate that the meaning

term neurasthenia has not been more exactly

defined.

Whatever

its

as a rule, presents a few

There gerated,

is

nature,

more

it is

a condition which,

or less constant features.

generally wasting, the reflexes are exag-

and the pulse-rate

the power of concentration

is

is

increased.

Mentally,

impaired, depression

is

nearly always present, and the patient's thoughts usually run in

coming round

to

a

small and vicious

circle,

always

himself and his illness; and this

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

160

inability to take his thoughts off himself

the most distressing feature

of

is,

perhaps,

the condition.

The physical symptoms point

to

an increased kata-

bolism, and the increased reflexes to a lowering of the resistances

of

the nervous

system.

I

wondered whether the whole condition physical, due simply

nerve resistances.

an

expect

to

is

the breaking

have

down

to this.

of

the

In such a condition one would

increase of

efferent

impulses,

and the

wasting and possibly the increased pulse-rate

due

often

not mainly

may

be

Again, the constantly reiterated depres-

sing thoughts point to a lowered resistance in the tracts concerned in their production.

One would expect too, that, with the abnormal flow of neurokyme the reserves of nerve force would be much depleted, and perhaps its pressure or potential, to use an analogy, may be much diminished. Possibly ideas caused by cerebral currents of low pressure tend to be depressing ones. It is at

any rate certain that bromide

in small doses

does great good in these cases, and the chief action of

bromide

is to

increase the resistances, and bring

them

more nearly to normal. Rest, too, by diminishing the flow of neurokyme may give time for the resistances to re-form, and a combination of rest with small doses of

bromide

may

result

in

accumulating a certain

reserve of nerve energy. I find it difficult to believe that

can cure the condition, though

some

of

the

symptoms,

it

suggestion by

may

itself

help to alleviate

Others, however, consider

TREATMENT BY SUGGESTION that

may

suggestion

advocates

its

much.

do

use, but personally I

161

Crichton

now

Miller

trust in these

more usual treatment by rest, bromides, and overfeeding, and use suggestion only to combat individual symptoms such as insomnia. Bramwell concludes, as the results 3. Obsessions. cases to the

—

of his great experience, that suggestion yields better

results in cases of obsession than in of functional

any other

class

nerve disorder.

In the majority of these patients, Bramwell says, the predominant element

dread that something

such as sudden

is

fear.

''

Generally they

going to happen to them,

is

illness, death, or suicide, or

that they have actually injured others or

an impulse

to do so in

Not a few

of

they fear

may yield

to

one way or another."

these cases are really suffering from

the effects of repression, and these cannot be supposed to be really well until the irritating incident

has been

unrepressed.

In two cases of fear lest

my

own, who suffered from morbid

something should happen

to

near relatives,

the real cause was an unconscious desire for their

cleared

symptoms away when the repression was unearthed.

Many of

the cases which

death, which had been repressed, and the

I

have seen appeared

to

have

commenced by a sudden idea implanted at a moment when the patients were suffering from acute mental Thus, a lady who exhaustion, produced by worry. was intensely worried owing to circumstances induced by the war, took up a mat from the floor, and three 11

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

162

cockroaches ran out.

Ever

was obsessed by

after she

the fear that there were blackbeetles inhabiting every

room that she

entered,

and

by the same fear

later

with regard to spiders as well.

A common

obsession

the fear that the patient

is

either has cancer or will get

it.

Most people suffer from some obsessional impulse, such as an inclination to avoid the cracks between the paving-stones, or to touch the iron railings with a stick.

Sir

George Savage, who notes

he has himself this obsession

Many

certain

a

to

of these cases recover rapidly

but some are very

this, states that

extent.

under treatment,

difficult to cure.

Thus, one patient had for a year an obsessional fear

He had

that the police were seeking him.

one day

passed his water in the garden, and had then observed a maid at the

window

of a

house overlooking

it.

The

obsession increased to such an extent that he thought

he heard everyone saying, " The police are

man," and

his

became

life

week's treatment dispelled

all

utterly his

I

believe that

is

have had many cases

but two were cured.

that of travelling of this,

and

In every case of obsession

hypnotism

due to a repression,

A

symptoms.

Another common obsessional fear in a train.

after that

miserable.

it

is

worth a

trial

may sometimes

;

and

if

it

all

I

be

be discovered

and the patient cured. 4.

Insomnia.

induce sleep at

— Though

it

a moment's

is

usually impossible to

notice, unless the patient

can be deeply hypnotized, a great

many

cases can be

TREATMExNT BY SUGGESTION

163

induced to sleep by suggestions made under light hypnosis some hours before gestion given in the

in this way,

and

sug-

morning or the afternoon that the During

patient will sleep that night usually succeeds.

the war I treated

A

to take effect.

it is

many soldiers

suffering

from insomnia

in practically every case the suggestion

was followed by sleep the same night. It is

that, to

very important to impress on these patients

when bedtime comes, they Their

sleep.

auto-suggestion

they

that

are not to try to go

merely produce a counter

efforts

remain

will

usually suggest that the patient will

minutes after bedtime, and

wake

fall

awake.

I

asleep five

be quite unable to

will

For some reason

until the night has passed.

the suggestion seems to gain in strength in the time

which elapses before the hour 5.

Nocturnal Emwesis.

for its fulfilment.

— This

can usually be cured

by suggestion, and, curiously enough, sometimes by suggestion without any hypnosis whatever.

own

experience

it

has seemed to

which the suggestion able difference. is

made

is

The most

me

From my

that the form in

causes a very consider-

effective suggestion I find

that the patient will not experience any desire to

pass his water from the time he goes to bed until he gets

up

made

in the

that

if,

morning

;

his water, he will always

actually 6.

a second suggestion

by any accident, he should want

commenced

to

wake

do

at once before

so.

Frequent Micturition hy Bay,

— This

is

may

be

to pass

he has a very

ordinary complaint, the patients being compelled to

:

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

164

pass their water at short intervals.

is

fail

to get well.

In most cases improvement

seen at once, after the very

In one case sent

Thomson Walker,

have never seen

by hypnotism in the slightest

a case which could

degree

I

first trial.

me some

five

years ago by Mr.

the patient was a lady,

cet.

which had persisted

tion,

eight years,

for

quite impossible for her to go into

22,

The

was compelled to pass water every hour.

who

condi-

made

it

After

society.

a single treatment she could retain her water for hours,

five

and has remained perfectly well ever

since. 7. Alcoholism.

ism

of

— The aim

whatever type

is first to

patient be actually taking

become to

do

treatment in alcohol-

of all

it,

cut off alcohol

if

the

and then induce him

a total abstainer, and,

if

possible, help

to

him

so.

This can be done partly by drugs, which induce a

temporary

memory

dislike

of alcohol, in

the hope that the'

of the disgust of alcohol so

become a permanent one

;

engendered

may

and secondly, by moral

treatment, including suggestion.

There are four principal

forms

of

alcoholism

pseudo-dipsomania, chronic sober alcoholism, chronic inebriate alcoholism,

and true dipsomania.

The pseudo-dipsomaniac has no craving until he alcohol, when craving recurs,

has actually taken

usually within a few minutes.

He

then drinks in

great excess for several days, until he becomes too to take

more.

The chronic sober

alcoholic

ill

drinks

TREATMENT BY SUGGESTION regularly every day to excess, but sufficiently to

does not

drink

produce intoxication.

The chronic

inebriate

alcoholic

from the

differs

more

last-mentioned, in that he always intoxicated.

165

or less

is

In the chronic alcoholic, craving occurs

when alcohol is partially or completely withheld. The true dipsomaniac gets recurrent attacks of craving whether he takes alcohol or not. Between the attacks, many of these people can drink in moderaonly

tion,

but

during the attacks they always drink

to

excess.

Whilst one can often successfully transform the

pseudo-dipsomaniac or chronic alcoholic into a total abstainer,

usually quite impossible to do this in

it is

Some

a case of true dipsomania. to

and

I

have seen

Contrexeville fortnight,

six

such cases in

Water

for

me

cases appear to

have their origin in the form

of repressed gout,

whom

the taking of

days running every

three

and a saline purgative once a week, has

effectually stopped the attacks

the majority

fortunately in

from recurring.

of

cases

Un-

the cause

is

undiscoverable.

Two

other forms of alcoholism, one occurring at

menstruation insomnia,

in

may

women, and be

the

mentioned here.

often amenable to suggestion,

and

other

The

due

to

first

is

in the latter the

curing of the insomnia usually puts an end to the alcoholism.

In one case a lady of over

fifty

had had persistent

insomnia for seven years, and had drunk greatly in

;

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

166

excess

A

during the whole of that period.

single

suggestion that she should sleep nine hours that night

proved

and

effective,

both the insomnia and

the

excessive drinking ceased at once, nor has there been

any recurrence

for seven years.

The cutting off of alcohol in cases of chronic alcoholism must be done gradually otherwise there But is a very real risk of inducing delirium tremens. for the medical side of treatment I must refer the ;

reader to the literature on that subject.

Almost

all

the alcoholic patients

have been susceptible

whom

have seen

I

hypnotism, and in their

to

case I certainly think that suggestion under hypnosis is

more

effectual

than

suggestion

by Bramwell's

method. day

I usually treat these patients every

for eight

days, two or three times on the few following weeks

once or twice in the week following that. if

if

them

possible, I see

definite term,

After that,

an

at longer intervals for

and always enjoin them

to

come

at

in-

once

they feel in the slightest degree that they are

becoming

Some

less sure of themselves.

of

my

well for years,

worst cases, I

or ten days of treatment. are,

I

think,

remained well

first

But these periodic

week visits

always advisable as a precautionary

Some when they begin measure.

who have now remained

have never seen after the

patients

come

at

intervals

One,

to distrust themselves.

for over twenty-five years, used to

about once in two years for this reason.

If

only

who come

a patient

TREATMENT BY SUGGESTION begins to

come

feel

167

uncertain of himself, and does not then

Out

he usually does relapse.

for treatment,

of

over 300 patients treated about one-third remained well for a year or more, while just over one-fifth re-

Of the remainder

lapsed within a year.

trace the further history, of these

and

it is

The following

is

was unable

may

have relapsed, though one

hope that some are permanently

I

to

probable that some

reasonably

well.

a case of long standing, cured by

suggestion.

Mr.

J., (Et. 52,

had been a victim

of chronic

for over thirty years.

He

usually whisky, and

had recurrent

with marked

excess

ordinary times he

alcoholism

habitually drank too

intoxication

;

though

much, greater

of

fits

even

was mildly intoxicated.

I

at

was

asked by his medical attendant to see him while he

was recovering from a

made him Normyl

cure, but

alcohol only for a

He had

specially

exceedingly

bad attack which had

Ho had

ill.

twice tried the

on both occasions abstained from

week or two

after leaving

extremely advanced cirrhosis of his

him

it

olBf,

liver.

I

and suggested that he treated would have no more craving, would dislike even the ten times in

all,

smell of liquor, and that his resolution and will power

would increase

sufficiently to enable

him

to resist

any

temptation to which he could possibly be subjected.

He

died

some seven years

later,

but since his treat-

ment he never again once touched alcohol. More than

much

that

if

this,

he disliked the smell

of

whisky so

whisky and hot water were brought near

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

168

him he

room

actually been obliged to leave the I

and had

could hardly endure the odour,

in consequence.

never treated him again after the

that the result suggestions.

must have been due

may

This

cure.

be

One very

some are not incurable.

has now been well

another for over

so

among women

comparatively few cases

of over fifty,

to the original

women

It is often said that

to

difficult

But

five years.

month, so

first

:

;

are

more

have had

I

but certainly

severe case, a lady

for eight years,

and

have had a

I certainly

women than in men. had enough cases in women to

less proportion of successes in

However, form a

have not

I

fair

judgment.

Morphinomania.

8.

— Suggestion

successful in this complaint, but

said to have been

is

use

its

helping the patients to abstain entirely.

appear to have any marked

habit this

it

it

may

the patient

it

seen, almost impossible to ward

any other means.

may

once free from the

In cases of cocaine,

cannot do.

cocaine

being gradually

it is

is

the

or in

help to prevent relapse, but more than

be a confirmed cocaine taker,

tion or

does not

the drug,

off

diminishing the time taken whilst

When

It

effect in relieving

symptoms induced by leaving discontinued.

confined to

is

be cut

off

if

the patient

so far as I

is,

off relapse

have

by sugges-

Unlike morphia, however,

completely at once, and need

not be gradually diminished. 9.

as a

Sex Disorders habit

in

—

(a)

quite

several cases in which

Masturbation.

young it

— This may occur

children.

commenced

I

have seen

as early as

five,

TREATMENT BY SUGGESTION and some

of these

vided that

full sex

probably began even

extraordinarily easy.

a

more

difficult,

Pro-

earlier.

development has not taken place, break the habit, cure

is

In later years, however, cure

is

and that the patient wishes

Except in one

169

to

and often a very gradual, process. boy of ten, with a marked

case, of a

family history of insanity, cured, I have never failed

under thirteen years

who did not wish to be when the patients were

of age.

In every one of these

cases, with a single exception, the habit ceased at

once

after the first treatment.

The exception was the case of a girl (Bt. who had developed sexually at that early

7 J,

age,

having suffered for over a year from very excessive

She was

masturbation.

abnormally developed

every way, and weighed nearly

in

The

seven stone.

habit had been taught her by another child.

On

the second

she passed into a light sleep,

trial

followed by amnesia.

saw her every day

I

greatly,

remaining well

had a bad of

whom

and

relapse.

I

a few days

all

week,

month, and then

for nearly a

then instructed her governess,

she was very fond,

told her to do so

for a

She improved

then twice a week for a fortnight.

when the

how

to

hypnotize her,

child went to bed.

traces of the habit ceased, and,

In

though

there were some slight relapses, she was immensely

improved, and might. of

I

of herself

avoided the

evil

heard of her eight months later

with ;

all

all

her

traces

her former failing had absolutely disappeared, and

she was perfectly well.

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

170

Both

and adults

in children

it

is

of the greatest

importance that they should understand clearly how they can cure themselves. not of any use simply telling them to fight, for

It is

many have been If it,

unsuccessfully for years.

fighting

the temptation occurs, and the patient thinks about

and simply says

One has

yields.

many

" I won't do

:

it,"

to recognize that the

he invariably

prime cause

one's whole efforts

Sex ideas,

of this.

terrific rapidity,

result

in

patient

must be if

and

irresistible

directed to the prevention

dwelt upon, gain in force with in almost

impulse.

The only way the

which always results in

run away from thing else

it,

and

may

a few seconds

can meet the temptation

resistance,

not by direct

is

defeat.

He must

direct his thoughts to

some-

—and this he must do instantly, within

seconds of

of

and

failures is the formation of a sex phantasy,

the occurrence of the sex idea.

ten

It

is

wonderful how very soon patients, even quite young children, learn to do this. I

never

make any

suggestion, ei^cept that they will

be able to turn their thoughts away at once, and that

they will find they have sufficient control to do

In this way the actual origin of the

evil

— can be prevented from developing. more

difficult for adults,

this.

— sex phantasy Naturally,

it is

and one must be prepared

for slow progress, interrupted

by

many

failures.

But

generally in these cases treatment will destroy the vice as a hahit, even lapses.

though there may be occasional

TREATMENT BY SUGGESTION I

have had considerable experience

of

171

boys at the

time when they are most tempted, and I have very often found that, owing to the idea that they have

done themselves really serious and irreparable injury, they have got into a condition of such despair that they are quite incapable of making any This appears to

themselves. view,

and not only

false,

have never been able

me

effort to

cure

to be quite a false

but very mischievous.

to trace

any physical

I

results,

except in cases of very great excess, and the mental

and nervous condition fact that intense

I believe, entirely

is,

worry

is

But

the subjects cannot help themselves.

every case I believe that the fault

with the boy as with those education. failing

A

— without

perfectly

not so

much of this

many

In

cases

any reservations

legitimate

in the battle

was begun

it

in

complete knowledge of the meaning of

— not

curiosity,

shield with which a parent can

{h)

lies

are responsible for his

where sex instruction had been given before

ignorance. sex

who

in nearly

have hardly ever met a case

I

development.

its

due to the

produced by the feeling that

which they

but

only satisfies a is

arm

the only real

his sons to win

will certainly

have

— Anyone

who

Psychical Impotence.

to fight.

practises

come across numbers of cases Almost invariably the patients are of this complaint. men who have married, and have then discovered to The result is their horror that they are impotent. only too often extreme unhappiness, and I know of suggestion

is

bound

to

scarcely any other condition which gives rise to so

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

172

much

misery to both the husband and

whom

patient

I treated, fortunately

One

wife.

with success, had

actually attempted suicide.

The mental cause fear

reason

;

in the vast majority of cases,

is,

But

non-success.

of

with any hope of success,

should be

difficulty,

exceedingly puzzling at

—

it is

As a

diagnosed.

without any great

few

this

is

the

essential that the cause

though some cases are In some

first.

fear.

may

It

In two cases which

— fortunately where the

discover

The underlying cause

condition originates.

done

rule this can be

psycho-analysis alone can

always

not always

and, before a case of this kind can be treated

is

not

be some form of sex perversion.

I saw, fetichism,

which

I could do

nothing to remove, was the cause.

The

fact that the condition

a long time

treatment.

another

Most for

may have

persisted for

is

not necessarily a bar to successful

One

case of seven-and-a-half years', and

of six years' duration, recovered completely.

of the patients

from one

whom

I

In a certain number of

to three years.

cases suggestion

is

have seen had suffered

unnecessary.

It is a

strange and

almost incredible fact that some patients were over thirty,

who had no

idea of the

Explanation in such cases effect a cure.

was the same. the

first

But

may

meaning

of itself

men

of

of sex.

sometimes

in the majority of cases the cause

Failure from natural nervousness at

attempt produced a fear

sufficient to render further

cases I have found

of failure

which was

attempts useless.

Yohimbin

of use,

though

In these it

often

TREATMENT BY SUGGESTION The condition

fails.

very obstinate, but

often

is

where some insur-

practically all cases (except those

mountable well

difficulty,

such as perversion,

exists) get

treated rationally.

if

Primary Vaginismus,

(c)

173

complaint

—

—

I

which got

of

all

have had cases

of this

probably because

well,

they happened to be particularly suitable cases for In

suggestion.

cause

the

before

discovered

as

this,

often

is

a

in

many

so

mental

treatment

can

complaints,

and must

one,

be

be

successfully

applied. (d)

Spasmodic Dysmenorrhcea

One

curable.

is

sometimes readily

patient, a lady of 23,

had always been

compelled to remain in bed during the whole periods to

;

remain up and follow her ordinary

became I

life.

of

her

was able

but, after being treated three times,

The pain

so slight as not to worry her.

have not succeeded in relieving congestive dys-

menorrhoea. (e)

Absence of Sex Feeling in

women some

readily curable, unless there is either genital

failing,

cause for I liave

or else

is

usually

real con-

some insuperable emotional

it.

had four cases in which treatment succeeded

rapidly, but two, in

which there was a feeling

of

repulsion towards the husband, failed to benefit. 10. Stammering.

—At one time, owing

of successful cases, I believed that this

often be cured by suggestion.

however, has convinced

me

that

to a succession

complaint could

Further experience, it is

in general

some-

174

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

what

difficult to

improvement

cure permanently, though a transient not

is

uncommon.

In this complaint

to be cured

teach

and those

himself lightly;

more

make the patient use him how to hypnotize who can learn this seem

I generally

and

self-suggestion,

easily

than others.

In the case of a well-known I

saw before the war,

persisted

early

since

est.

German surgeon, whom stammering had

35, the

childhood.

I

taught him to

hypnotize himself, and in three weeks his stammering

had vanished. Occasionally these patients recover and remain well after a single suggestion. 11. Nervousness.

— The

two cases following seem

The patient was a man, cet. 28, who had failed at every examination owing to nervousness when the examination took place. I suggested worth recording.

first

that he would feel no nervousness whatever, and that

when he looked all

that he

at the questions

he would at once

had read about them.

examination, and told

me

He

that the suggestion with

regard to remembering the facts had taken that he was lected.

I

much

recall

passed his

surprised at the

effect,

amount he

have sometimes wondered whether

and

recolI

did

wrong in making the experiment. At Cambridge I once made a similar experiment on a man who was in for the Natural Science Tripos. The result of his examination was satisfactory, and he took 12.

first-class

honours.

Sea- Sickness,

— Sea -sickness

can

often

be

;

TREATMENT BY SUGGESTION successfully treated. soldiers

who had

who had always Four were

to

I

had during the war seven

go various distances by sea, and

suffered intensely

quite free from

I

from

this complaint.

after treatment, but of

it

the result on the other three three lost their

I

know nothing,

for all

lives..

have tried suggestion only in very few instances In one, which

of sea-sickness.

the effect was very marked.

I

saw some years ago,

The patient had

severely every time she went to sea. six

175

I

suffered

treated her

times just before she sailed for Cuba.

She had no

sickness during the whole journey, and never even

though the sea was occasionally very rough

felt sick,

but she suffered severely from headache.

She also

complained that she was awakened from sleep by the slightest sound, but this

She reached only the Suggestion

is

symptom

first

I failed to relieve.

stage of hypnosis.

also said to relieve the vomiting of

pregnancy, and cases have been published concerning this

;

but

I

have no experience in this matter

myself.

—Chorea has been successfully treated.

13. Chorea.

Bramwell records seven instances

of

covery, and other observers report

numerous cases

complete re-

of cure.

In the three cases which I have treated, recovery took

place

suggestion

in is

and

there

sometimes

very

all;

is

no

doubt

efficacious

in

that this

complaint. 14. Insaniti/.

— The

results in

insanity are disap-

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

176

pointing.

Personally, I usually refuse such cases,

but some observers record successes.

Woods, in 1907, reported several cases prising melancholia, puerperal mania,

of cure,

com-

and ordinary

mania. 15. Constipation.

—

suppose that everyone

I

who has

used suggestion for this complaint has found

So far as

cessful.

condition of chronic constipation

is

no bar

through treatment by suggestion.

I

The great majority do

well,

sucof

a

to recovery

have seen cases

which have recovered which had suffered years.

it

have seen, the duration

I

for over forty

and

failures are

wonderfully few. Forel names constipation as the typical functional disorder lending

many

Probably for

medical

disorder

this

in

may

men have

the

described as aperient.

the chief agent in

treatment by suggestion.

itself to

much

It

form

of

used suggestion inert

medicine

seems quite possible that

of the

homoeopathic pharmacy

be the labelling on the bottles.

But we can often

cure even chronic constipation quite readily by of direct

means

hypnotic suggestion.

The following case shows how very definite the results of a suggestion controlling the movements of Mrs. R., aged thirty-five, came the bowels may be :

to consult

me

for intractable

insomnia arising from

mental anxiety, which had been very distressing several weeks.

been

I

constipated,

found that

and

for

acted without an aperient.

all

many I did

her

life

for

she had

years had never

not hypnotize her,

I

TREATMENT BY SUGGESTION but

suggested

that

would sleep

she

177

moment

the

she put her head on the pillow, and that her bowels

would act next day and every day

at ten o'clock in

me

the morning, and requested her to come to see

again in three or four

days'

saw her, she said that

all

suggested bed,

—that

When

time.

had happened as

she slept the

moment

and that her bowels acted each day

Then she added half-past

next

I

had

I

she went to

at ten o'clock.

" But would you mind making

:

ten

nine instead of

Ten

o'clock.

it

so

is

inconvenient."

In

many

other cases the effect has been immediate

and permanent.

One

had

over

suffered for

patient, a lady of fifty-three,

thirty

and had been

years,

obliged to take medicine every night during the whole Yet, after the first suggestion, the

of that period.

constipation vanished, and she has remained cured

now

for

seven

treatment temporary.

It is

however,

Sometimes,

years.

or else the

fails,

sometimes best not

the

is

merely

to try at

once to

improvement

obtain a regular daily action, but to suggest an action

every second or third day, and gradually to decrease the interval. to get

in

In some cases the most one can do

hypnotism, and 16.

This

an action every other day. but long

several cases, I

have no

Nervous Diarrhoea.

before

notes of

—This

I

I

is

have done

specialized

in

them.

complaint

is

often

confused with lientery, and no fewer than five cases

which this.

came

me

to

For these

I

did

were

really

not use

suffering

suggestion, as 12

from liq.

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

1T8

arsenicalis in

three-minim doses

once cured the

at

condition.

As might be expected, diarrhoea

nervous

of a purely

kind usually yields readily to suggestion.

Many patients

get attacks only

when some

particular

One such

patient, a

surgeon,

circumstance arises.

always got an attack before performing an abdominal operation, though operations on other regions did not

him.

affect

to

if

he had

was

always

Another patient was attacked

make long

journeys,

and another

obliged to refuse invitations to dinner, because,

when

the hour drew near, he invariably got acute diarrhcea. All these recovered after very few treatments.

Mr. of

A.,

a

clerk,

cet.

28,

was

subject

to

fits

had

diarrhoea from extremely slight causes, and

suffered in this

had

to interview

attack, life,

this

way

and the

ever since his school-days.

If

he

one of his chiefs he always had an slightest deviation

from his normal

even the prospect of a journey, was sure to have result.

He was

obviously of

temperament, and the idea

very nervous

a

of his visit to

me

on a severe paroxysm, his bowels acting that morning before I saw him.

and his nervous diarrhoea

The causes which used

to

agitate

times

Hypnotized four

times in June, 1898, he passed into deep bulism,

brought

five

somnam-

at once

him

ceased.

in this

way

were annulled, but slight exposure to cold seems to

have been

still

followed by an attack.

South Africa shortly afterwards, and

I

He

left

hear from

that he remains well, though cold yet affects him.

for

him

TREATMENT BY SUGGESTION

179

Lloyd Tuckey records a striking instance

of cure

of chronic

two,

nervous diarrhoea in a patient aged seventy-

who had been

afflicted for

many years,

the disease

dating from the time of the Crimean War. 17.

Spasmodic Asthma.

complaint, gives

— In

many

cases

of

this

even of very long standing, suggestion

immediate

relief,

and prevents the onset

of

attacks during sleep. If

how

the patient be taught

to use self-suggestion

he can generally cut short any threatened attack with the greatest ease.

This applies only to purely spasmodic asthma.

he attack be due to bronchitis or any air

tracts,

suggestion

comparatively alleviate

it

to

some

18. Epilepsy,

that

it is

—

I

though

use,

little

irritation of the

so far as I

is,

it

If

have seen,

of

may sometimes

extent.

always refuse to treat

it,

believing

Three cases, however,

useless in such cases.

are w^orth mention, one of epilepsy and the other two of

**

petit

One

mal."

had one or more

fits

epileptic

was a young

nearly every day.

I

man who

found that

he had nocturnal emissions every night. These ceased at once

under the influence

of suggestion,

and

his fits

disappeared also, but recurred again as badly as ever

some three months

later,

though the emissions did

not return.

In two cases

of " petit

mal," in which the attacks

occurred several times a day, I found that emissions took place every night. One was a

and the other

forty.

man

aged thirty-two,

I stopped the emissions, and, to

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

180

my

surprise, the

**

petit

recurred in either case.

mal" ceased, and has not One has now been well for What for nearly four years.

five years, and the other makes the case more curious

is

that the two patients

were brothers. In the only case of true epilepsy that the patient, the

cet.

had

26,

have

I

tried,

suffered for twelve years,

and

diminished from about one in eight days to

fits

about one a month after treatment.

;

but

I

I lost sight of

am

inclined

improvement must have been due

him

six

months

to think that the

to

some cause other

than the treatment.

V. Anaesthesia.

Suggested anaesthesia has been applied to various conditions.

It

has played the part of an anaesthetic

in surgical operations,

and has

some

of

them

of great severity,

also been used to relieve pain, such as that

of neuralgia,

headache, and toothache, and even the

agony caused by cancer.

Confinements

may

also be

rendered painless, without any of the disadvantages attendant on the use of chloroform.

As a

rule,

one cannot remove pain unless the patient

has been trained by hypnotizations on previous occa-

But

sions.

years

ago,

evening

this

while

to call

is

at

not

always necessary.

Cambridge,

I

Many

happened

one

He

me

on Dr. W. H. Gaskell.

told

that his children's nurse was suffering from raging

toothache, which had kept her awake for two nights,

TREATMENT BY SUGGESTION

181

and he suggested that I should try to relieve her. She had been crying with pain, and the left side of her face was much swollen. I made her sit down, and told her that she was to look at my eyes, when she would fall asleep. She passed immediately into somnambulism, and I suggested the cessation of the pain, and awoke her. The pain had gone, but it

came back never

an hour, this time, however, on

in about I

removed

She

slept

the opposite side. returned.

Dr. Gaskell told

me

that next

it

well

as

before,

that

and

it

and

night,

morning the swelling

of

her face had subsided. Dr. Betts Taplin, of Liverpool, records a case in

which he has succeeded in relieving the pain

The diagnosis

cancer in the stomach.

of cancer

of

was

Under treatment by hypnosis, not only has the pain ceased, but the patient has put on flesh and eats well. Such a confirmed by an exploratory operation.

result

truly amazing.

is

As an

anaesthetic during dental extraction

has been successfully employed, but

and the necessity

of

its

hypnotism

uncertainty

the previous training of the

can never

patient are great disadvantages, so that

it

take the place of chloroform and ether.

It has, how^-

ever, as I said, frequently for confinements,

employed

it

been used as an anaesthetic

and Dr. Bryan,

most successfully

has

of Leicester,

He

for that purpose.

has also succeeded in regulating the supply

by means

of suggestion, increasing or

and even

totally suppressing

of

milk

diminishing

it at will.

it,

Employed

183

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

thus, hypnotism

hands

might be extremely useful in the

of those in general practice, since

from the dangers

is

it

free

of chloroform.

Conclusion,

Although hypnotism may do much in beginning a cure, yet in

many

cases, especially in those

which are

somewhat vaguely classed as neurasthenias, much more is often required to make the regeneration comOnly too many their name plete and permanent.

—

is

legion

manner

— owe

troubles

to

Work they regard as an evil to be much as possible, and when they are

as

sufficiently of

wealthy to be independent

pastime which

kind except

lies If

in

their condition only

self,

they can

by a complete change

and their one hope

work and contact with the

of others.

start a

new

may

Until life

forget their

realities

own sorrows

we have persuaded these our work

is

our duty not only to open

it

it

through to the other

against bis return.

of

of lasting cure of

life.

human in those

patients to

only half finished.

the Valley of Achor be indeed a door of hope,

to pass

so

no regular

they can engender in themselves some

interest, they

as

apt to pall as the years pass by.

is

life,

it,

pleasure-seeking, a

Distracted by ennui and imprisoned in

outlook on

of

patients are, they have

these

occupation of any

remedy

unhealthy

their

of life.

avoided

many

their

If it

is

and compel the dweller side,

but to lock and bar

In a word, we must,

if

possible,

"

TREATMENT BY SUGGESTION

183

induce him to take up some absorbing form of labour,

and work

for in work,

salvation.

*' *

cultiver notre jardin.' ner,' dit Martin,

supportable.'

alone, will

he find permanent

Je sais aussi,' dit Candide,

'

.

.

.

'

*

qu'il faut

Travaillons sans raison-

c'est le seul

moyen de rendre

la vie

—

CHAPTEK

VII

THE CASE AGAINST HYPNOTISM Danger

unqualified and irresponsible use

of

Opinion of Moll suggestions

Hypnotism,

like nearly every other

be mischievously used

and authority

direction

mode

It

is

said,

may

hypnotism refuse

remedy powerful but under the

;

are qualified by

I believe,

it is,

an absolutely

of treatment.

true that after hypnosis

complain is

who

of those

knowledge and training, safe

of

of liberty of subject to

— Conclusion.

may

for good,

— Question

of of

some patients may

heaviness and drowsiness, sometimes, slight

depression

but these symptoms

;

always be prevented by care in thoroughly

pelling the hypnosis at the time of awakening.

there

is

no doubt

that,

when

this reason,

if

for

may

phenomena

the

by travelling hypnotists merely purposes, the results

it

is

much

to

;

Yet

show

and

for

be desired

that such exhibitions should

be prohibited

in this country, as they are

in

State in Europe.

dis-

are used

for sensational

be more harmful

no other,

it

by law

almost every other

These people impose upon their 184

THE CASE AGAINST HYPNOTISM

185

subjects a succession of hallucinations of an exciting

and sometimes do not thoroughly arouse

character,

them

at the

end

a distance, and,

Some

performances.

of the

subjects to believe that they

may

allow the

be influenced from

they are giving performances for

if

several nights in succession, often compel those

whom

they find to be highly impressionable on the

first

occasion to attend the other displays by post-hypnotic suggestion.

Madam

Card, who frequently performed in

Cam-

bridge, used to compel her undergraduate subjects to

come

to her seances in this

way

;

and

I believe that

she herself had an idea that she could call them from afar

—

at least, I

know

that

many thought

she possessed

this power.

The following instance exposes the harm which Mr.

ensued on her proceedings.

S.,

an undergraduate,

attended one of her performances, was readily hypnotized by her, and actions, while tions,

some

of

made

to

do

all

kinds of absurd

he also underwent a series

them of a more

The next day Madam Card

of hallucina-

or less disturbing nature. left

Cambridge.

In the

evening of that day the unfortunate victim was seized with the idea that she was staying at the Grosvenor

Hotel in London, and was irresistibly calling for him.

Go he

would, but his friends forcibly detained

until the last train

that he

must walk.

had I

left.

He

was asked

to see

a counter-suggestion cancelled the idea so

much shaken by

him

then, however, said

him, and by ;

his experience that he

but he was

was unable

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

186

undergo his examination on the following day.

to

Presently he was well again, but the case impressed

me

very

when

much

carried

cases, too,

and

by ignorant persons.

out

Madam

excitable for

The

hypnotism

as to the possible danger of

Card's subjects were

some hours

men and

to

qualified scientific investigators.

to

wrought by those itinerant J.

and

well-

potent an

Dr. Lloyd Tuckey

harm has been

gives in his book several cases in which **

be confined

serious It is too

agent to be used as a plaything.

case he quotes Dr. M.

other

after her performance.

hypnotism ought

practice of

entirely to medical

In

made nervous

In one

professors."

Nolan's relation of a case of

stuperose insanity, which he believes was caused by

the ignorant employment of hypnotism, the patient,

a drunken and dissipated soldier, broken in health by his excesses,

operator.

having been hypnotized by a travelling

In another case which came under Dr.

Tuckey's notice the patient had, after hypnotization, frequent cataleptic of hysteria

observed after the

But

I

In France serious epidemics

fits.

and other nervous

know

of

affections are said to be

visits of these itinerant

no instance in which any

showmen. evil

con-

sequence has followed the use of hypnotism by a properly qualified is

open

man

to exactly the

of treatment,

and

to

for therapeutic purposes.

same objections

no more, in that

and uncomprehending use

is

as other forms its

real dangers of

irresponsible

likely to be followed

unpleasant and, in some cases, serious

The

It

by

effects.

hypnotism, says Moll, are two

THE CASE AGAINST HYPNOTISM in

number—the

increased tendency to hypnosis, and

the heightened

waking

susceptibility

The

state.

by the use

187

it

he says,

first,

method

of Braid's

hypnosis, which,

to

the

suggestion in is

usually caused

for the induction

of

remembered, consists in

will be

making the subject fix his gaze for a time on some bright object. For this reason, if for no other, it The other can be is ill-suited for medical hypnosis. guarded against by suggesting to the patient during hypnosis that nobody can hypnotize him against his will,

and that nobody can enforce suggestions upon

him while he

awake

is

—the

surest way, says Moll, to

avoid this danger.

The question has been

raised whether

it

may

not

be possible by suggestion to compel a subject to carry out some criminal act. a real danger only

if

Clearly this would constitute

the hypnotizer were of such a

character as to be capable of suggesting a crime, and, as I imagine that

no one would willingly be hypnotized

by a person

doubtful

of

reputation, this

does

not

appear to be a very valid objection to the medical use of hypnotic suggestion. interesting

one,

as

it

is

But the question

possible that the

hypnotic influence might be

accused

in

a

criminal

trial.

raised

to

is

plea

shield

Authorities

are

an of

the

not

agreed as to whether this might be a real defence or not.

Bramwell

states that even in

somnambulism

he has never known a patient accept suggestions

which would not have been accepted in normal

and he gives instances where subjects have

life,

refusecl

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

188

even

apparently because

suggestions,

trivial

they

conflicted with their ideas of propriety.

who has

Forel,

tried

experimental crimes,

is

could be accomplished

make

to

commit

subjects

inclined to think that these in

waking

Thus one

life.

subject was made, by suggestion, to fire twice at a

man, the revolver being loaded, unknown blank

him, with

to

These experiments, however, are

cartridge.

not conclusive, for

it is

impossible to be sure that the

subject does not realize that they are only experiments,

from which the operator has taken good

care

to

eliminate any possibility of wrongdoing. It is of interest to

note that in no recorded case,

as far as I know, has a subject

in

somnambulism

ever refused an inhibitory suggestion, such as paralysis of a

limb or the inability

Personally, I doubt very

and, until

so,

not regard

it

is

to carry out a given action.

much whether one

certain

is

it

that

subjects can resist

all

will.

do

And even

some subjects can

certain imperative suggestions, all

I

as proved that patients can accept or

it

reject every kind of suggestion at

though

could do

demonstrated that one can,

it

resist

does not follow that

repugnant suggestions.

Everyone with much experience

of

hypnotism must

be familiar with the great variations in the degree of suggestibility in different subjects

bulism.

It is

during somnam-

scarcely surprising that

some should

be able to resist suggestions, whilst others cannot.

The vary

particular suggestions which are easily enforced

much

with

different

subjects,

as

also

those

THE CASE AGAINST HYPNOTISM

189

suggestions which can be enforced only with difficulty or not at

all.

But even if we assume, for the purpose of argument, that some people could be made to commit crimes has been asserted, to allow themselves to be

(or, as

criminally assaulted),

the

number

may

of

must be remembered that

it

such subjects must be very small.

It

be safely asserted that such events could, under

no circumstances, be possible unless the subject were somnambulistic, and this condition. at least

under 20 per cent, pass into

Even

very few would not

of these,

try to resist such suggestions, and, as has

already been shown, some,

not

if

would do so

all,

successfully.

The question deny

is

an open one.

at present

the

altogether

existence

any

of

Many

danger

of

criminal suggestions, but other equally good authorities

consider that the peril

inclined to agree with Moll,

not impossible.

is

who

says

admit the possibility that a crime in this

On

may

There

subjects.

may

be

it

is

I

am

"Yet we must be committed

way, as Eulenburg, Dalley and Forel

theoretical grounds I believe

some

:

insist.

possible with

much

exaggeration.

For example, few people are so susceptible as

to

accept the suggestion of a criminal act without re-

peated hypnotization.

would refuse even Liegeois also

It

is

also

true

that

many

after a long hypnotic training."

believed

that

criminal

suggestions

were not an impossibility.

But

so long as they are recognized, even the slightest

190

AN INTRODUCTION TO

risks of

hypnotism

essential

that

can

be

HYPNOTISJVi

readily avoided.

It

is

hypnotism should be employed with

the same care and the quired

in

anaesthetics.

same precautions as are remore dangerous process of giving In each case some scientific knowledge

the

and previous training are the only guarantees

of

and so long as similar sureties are provided there can be no valid objection to the use of hypnotism safety,

The

as a remedial agent.

veniences

dipsomania,

risks are few, the incon-

some

and

trifling;

can often be

cured

maladies,

such

as

no other way

in

whatever. Indeed, hypnotism, allied with a certain degree of psycho-analysis, seems the only kind of therapeutic

power that can penetrate a certain obscure province of pathology at

all.

Only

ing suggestions, and dissolve

its

its

relieving

and strengthen-

penetrative discoveries, can

away the mortal matter when the mysterious

nexus where the physical and psychical forces intercross becomes a core of anguish

and corruption, can

unravel the twisted knots of insubstantial yet intolerable pain in the dangerous net of the nerves,

harmonize those discords between bodily and life

and

spiritual

that beset a highly artificial and complicated state

of civilization.

When

the

senses

practise

tyrannies over the emotions and the

will,

strange or

when

the imaginative and intellectual powers maltreat the

body into suppressed treacheries and

revolts,

psycho-

analytic suggestion alone seems able to interpose in

the confusion of consequent suffering.

The dualism

THE CASE AGAINST HYPNOTISM

remedy matches the dualism of the malady it an instrument of which the peculiar nature and the

of the is

191

full

;

consolatory virtues are not yet completely realized.

The physician

in

hypnotic

suggestion,

or

trained

psycho-analysis, at least, need not altogether recoil

from the

bitter outcry of

Macbeth

:

"Canst thou not minister to a mind diseas'd, Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow, Baze out the written troubles of the brain, And with some sweet oblivious antidote Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of that perilous stuff Which weighs upon the heart ?"

INDEX Absence

Brown, Professor, 152 Bryan, Dr., 182

of sex feeling, 173

Agoraphobia, 143 Alcoholism, 155, 164, 168 Amnesia, relation to the hypnotic state, 8-10, 31, 88, 97

Aniesthesia, 10, 90, 106, 106

— experiments 104-106, 111118 — suggested to relieve pain, 181in,

182 Analgesia, 104-106

Anosmia, 92 Asthma, spasmodic, 179 Attention, abnormal to, 13

— limitation 40-41, 51 — passive, 24-25 of,

Automatic muscular movement, 80-83

— writing, 18-22 Automatism, motor, 18-23 — sensory, 23-24 13,

Awakening

of subject, 60

B Beauchamp,

Sally, 25 Beaunis, Professor, 48

Bennett, 64 Bernheim, Professor, 68, 92,

108,

112,

3, 6, 48. 66,

120,

94-97,

154

— stages of Liebeault and, 94-97 Blepharos])asm, 121 Braid, James, 2, 42, 45, 46, 64, 92. 112, 167 method of. 45-46 Brain, Dr. McDougall in, 12 Brarawell, Dr. Milne, 8. 40, 120,

Cambridge experiments,

44, 64-

97 Cancer, 181-182 Carpenter's theory of unconscious cerebration, 13 Cases of repression, 128-156 Catalejisy, hypnotic, 52, 85, 86, 92-93, 101. 108 Choice, power of, during somnambulism and waking state, 28-29 Chorea, 122. 175 Claustrophobia in complexes, 143 Cocaine, 168-169 for Concentration, points of, patient. 52-53 Conditions of suggestibility, 4057 Confinements, hypnosis as an anpesthetic during, 181 See DisaggregaConsciousness. tion of consciousness. Limitation of consciousness, Primary Sub -consciousconsciousness, ness, Freud's divisions Constipation, 154. 176-178 Contracture, 69-75. 106, 109-111 Cortex, changes in, of brain during contracture, 74-113 Criminal suggestion, question of,

187-189 Crystal-gazing, 23-24

—

121, 150, 154, 156

— method

of,

58-60

192

D Dalley, 189 Darling, experiments and, 64

of

Lewis

INDEX Deafness, hysteric, 156-158 hypnotism operations, and, 182 Diarrhoea, 121, 178-179 Dipsomania, 39, 58, 155, 165168 case of, 167-168 conditions of cnre in, 166-168 forms of craving in, 165-168 suggestions for, 166 Disaggregation of consciousness, 30 Dissociation theory of physiology of hypnosis, 12 Dubois, Dr., method of, 57-58 Dysmenorrhcea, spasmodic. 173 Dyspepsia, gastric and intestinal,

Dental

— —

—

—

154

E EUiotson, Dr., 2 Emissions, 180

Emphasis

in suggestion, 36-38

Enuresis nocturna, 155 Epilepsy, 180 Esdaile. Dr.. 2 Eulenberg, 189

193

Hyperesthesia, 92

Hypnosis as a

state, 6-11

— definition 3-4 — methods of induction, 32-61 — phenomena 62-118 — question of prolonged 126 — conditions, 40 — treatment by. 119-183 of,

of,

sleep,

Sidis'

7,

Hypnotisation of groups, 44 Hyi-notism, case against, 184-191

— pioneers 1-2 — therapeutic force of,

of,

119-183

Hysteria, 155-159 Hysterical subjects, 67 I

Illusions, 65, 86

Imperative suggestions, 35 Impotence, psychical, 154, 171173 Induction of hypnosis, 32-40 Inhibition of ideas, 41-42 of movements, 68-82 Insanity, 176 Insomnia, 154, 163, 177

—

Experiments in differentiation of statjes and other phenomena, 64-97

F Fear of a foar, 141, 142 " Fluid," Mesmer's, 2 154-155-176, Professor, Forel, 188, 189 amenable to diseases list of suggestion as given by, 154-155 Freud, Professor, 122, 125

—

Langley, Professor, 64-93 Lewis, 64 Lieboault, Dr.. 2, 40, 43. 6C\ 68, 94-97, 119-120. 153, 154 Liegois, Dr., 189 Limitation of consciousness, 4041, 57

— of muscular movement, 41 Luys, 47 II

McDougall, Dr., 12

Gazing as a mode of induction, 43, 45

Gregory, 64

Gurney,

E., 92,

116

H -104 Hallucination?, negative, 102-104 visual, 99-100 Heidenhain, Professor 111

— —

.Masturbation, 169-171 Melancholia, 176 ilemory, increased powers

— 65, 85 — repressions 122-152 — sub-conscious chain

of,

102

loss of, 8,

of,

of,

13-14,

20 Menstruation, 154, 166 Mesraer,

1,

Methods

of induction of hypnosis,

45

32-59

13

194

AN INTRODUCTION TO HYPNOTISM

Metiiods of induction of hypnosis, Dr. Taplin's, 56 Nancy School, 47-49 other psychotherapeutic (Dr. Bramwell's, 58-60, Dr. Dubois',

— —

Professor Freud's, 125) personal, 49-55 physical, 42-47 Micturition, 68, 154 Miller, Dr. Creighton, 161, 57-58,

122,

— —

Mimicry, 59, 91-92 Moll,

Dr..

152,

Phenomena

of hypnosis,

ments iu determining

experistages,

64-97 other experiments, 98-118 Physical methods of induction, 42-47 Physiology of hypnosis, 12 Planchette, 18-22 Post-hypnotic suggestion, 14-16,

—

100-102 Pre-conscious, 125

Pregnancy, 175 153,

186-187,

189

Monotony in method, 40-41, 52 Motor automatisms, 18-23 Multiple personality, 25 Munsterberg, Professor, 13 Myers, F. W. H., 3, 13, 22

Primary consciousness,

relation

secondary, 26-31 vaginismus, 173 Processes of induction, 42, 60 Psycho-analysis, method of. 125126 Psychology of suggestion, Sidis',

—

of, -with

6

N Nancy

School. 2, 10, 47-49, 119 Negative hallucinations. 102-104 Nervousness, 174 Neuralgia, 166 Neurasthenia, 39, 154, 159-161 Nocturnal enuresis, 163 Nolan, Dr., 186

Obsessions. 161-162

Paralysis, functional, 154

— muscular, 95

Parasthesias, 122 Passes as a method of induction,

42-43

— certain 106-108 — rigidity induced by. 79 effects of,

Passive attention, 24-25 Pavor nocturnus, 155 Personality in hypnotism, 11 multiple, 25 of operator, 38-39 subliminal, 13 Personal method of induction, 49-55 Petit mal, 180 Phenomena of hypnosis, 02-97

— — —

Psychotherapv, Munsterberg on, 13

R Refiex action, 68-75 Repetition as a factor in suggestion, 36-38 Repressions of memory, 122-156 Richet, Professor, 69 Rigidity, muscular, as a hypnotic phenomenon, 65, 70-75, 114-

118

Savage, Sir George, 162 Seasickness, 155, 175 Secondary or subliminal self, 3 13, 20, 59 Self-suggestion, 58, 109-111, 174 Sensory automatisms, 23-24 effects of light, stimuli, 112118 Sexual disorders, 154, 169-173

—

Sidis, Professor, 3, 6,

7,

40,

42,

59 conditions of suggestibility. 40, 41, 42 daring Slackening, muscular,

—

54,

induction, 41 Sleep, nature of hypnotic, 64 Sleeplessness. See Insomnia

INDEX Somnambulism, hypnotic,

9,

5,

14, 19. 26, 28, 64, 92, 96, 98

— spontaneous, 154

Spectrum, analogy of range of consciousness with solar, 27, 28 Spiritualism, 23 Stages of hypnosis as determined by experiment, 64-97 Stages of hypnosis, comparison with, ;of Liebeault and Bernheim, 94-97 summary of, 93 Stammering, 155, 174

—

Stimuli, effects of light sensory,

112-118 Sub-conscious memory, 13-14, 20 Sub-consciousness, the, bearing on hypnosis, 27-31 evidence for existence of, 13-

— —

relation of, to primary sciousness, 26, 27

Subliminal

con-

195

Suggestion, test, 33-35, 55-56 treatment by, 119-183 Suggestions of induction during experiments, 65 Susceptibility of neurasthenics,

—

—

159-161 of subjects in general, 39-40

123

T Taplin, Dr. Betts, 56,181 Temperature, delusions

of,

Test suggestions, 33-35, 55-56 Toothache, cure of, 181 Touch, delusions of, 85-80, 111112

Treatment

by suggestion, 119-

183 Tuckey, Dr. Lloyd, 3, 120, 121 156, 186 Typical maladies for suggestive treatment, 122-182

59 conditions

self. 3, 13, 20,

Suggestibility, of, 40, 42

Sidis'

— — — — — — relation with state of hypnosis, 8 — sensory stimuli and, 112-118 — conditions successful, of,

Sidis'

U Unconscious, the, 124, 125

Suggestion, effect of pre\'ious, on subsequent hypnosis, 33-34, 67, 108-109 imperative, 65, 82-85 manner of conveying, 35-40 nature of, 2-3 post-hypnotic, 100-102 readily induced phenomena of, 4-6, 34

of

V Vaginismus, primary, 173 Visual hallucinations, 9, 99

W of patients, 60-61 Wetterstrand, Dr., 45, 154

Wakening

"Woods, Dr., 176

Y Yearsley, Mr., 156

Yohimbe, 173

40-42

ILLIXG

AXD

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