MESMERISM AND HYPNOTISM--HISTORY AND THERAPEUTIC EFFECTS.
No department of psychical research is at present exciting so widespread
an interest as that which is known under the name of Hypnotism; and
inquiries are constantly made by those to whom the subject is new,
regarding its nature and effects, and also how, if at all, it differs from
the mesmerism and animal magnetism of many years ago.
Unfortunately, these questions are more easily asked than answered, and
well-informed persons, and even those considered experts in the subject,
would doubtless give different and perhaps opposing answers to them. A
short historical sketch may help in forming an opinion.
From the remotest periods of human history to the present time, certain
peculiar and unusual conditions of mind, sometimes associated with
abnormal conditions of body, have been observed, during which unusual
conditions, words have unconsciously been spoken, sometimes seemingly
meaningless, but sometimes conveying knowledge of events at that moment
taking place at a distance, sometimes foretelling future events, and
sometimes words of warning, instruction, or command.
The Egyptians and Assyrians had their magi, the Greeks and Romans their
oracles, the Hebrews their seers and prophets, every great religion its
inspired teachers, and every savage nation had, under some name, its seer
or medicine-man.
Socrates had his daemon, Joan of Arc her voices and visions, the
Highlanders their second sight, Spiritualists their mediums and
"controls." Even Sitting Bull had his vision in which he foresaw the
approach and destruction of Custer's army.
Until a little more than a hundred years ago all persons affected in any
of these unusual ways were supposed to be endowed with some sort of
supernatural power, or to be under external and supernatural influence,
either divine or satanic.
About 1773 Mesmer, an educated German physician, philosopher, and mystic,
commenced the practice of curing disease by means of magnets passed over
the affected parts and over the body of the patient from head to foot.
Afterward seeing Gassner, a Swabian priest, curing his patients by
command, and applying his hands to the affected parts, he discarded his
magnets, concluding that the healing power or influence was not in them,
but in himself; and he called that influence animal magnetism.
Mesmer also found that a certain proportion of his patients went into a
sleep more or less profound under his manipulations, during which
somnambulism, or sleep-walking, appeared. But Mesmer's chief personal
interest lay in certain theories regarding the nature of the
newly-discovered power or agent, and in its therapeutic effects; his
theories, however, were not understood nor appreciated by the physicians
of his time, and his cures were looked upon by them as being simply
quackery.
Nevertheless, it was he who first took the whole subject of these abnormal
or supranormal conditions out of the domain of the supernatural, and in
attempting to show their relation to natural forces he placed them in the
domain of nature as proper subjects of rational study and investigation;
and for this, at least, Mesmer should be honored.
Under Mesmer's pupil, the Marquis de Puysegur, the facts and methods
relating to the magnetic sleep and magnetic cures were more carefully
observed and more fully published. Then followed Petetin, Husson, and
Dupotet, Elliotson in England and Esdaile in India. So from Mesmer in 1773
to Dupotet and Elliotson in 1838 we have the period of the "early
mesmerists."
During this period the hypnotic sleep was induced by means of passes, the
operators never for a moment doubting that the influence which produced
sleep was a power of some sort proceeding from themselves and producing
its effect upon the patient.
In addition to the condition of sleep or lethargy, the following
conditions were well known to the "early mesmerists"; somnambulism, or
sleep-walking, catalepsy, anaesthesia, and amnesia, or absence of all
knowledge of what transpired during the sleep. Suggestion during sleep was
also made use of, and was even then proposed as an agent in education and
in the cure of vice.
This was the condition of the subject in 1842, when Braid, an English
surgeon, made some new and interesting experiments. He showed that the
so-called mesmeric sleep could be produced in some patients by other
processes than those used by the early mesmerists; especially could this
be accomplished by having the patient gaze steadily at a fixed brilliant
object or point, without resorting to passes or manipulations of any
kind.
He introduced the word hypnotism, which has since been generally adopted;
he also proposed some new theories relating to the nature of the hypnotic
sleep, regarding it as a "profound nervous change," and he still further
developed the idea and use of suggestion. Otherwise no important changes
were made by him in the status of the subject. It was not looked upon with
favor by the profession generally, and its advocates were for the most
part still considered as cranks and persons whose scientific and
professional standing and character were not above suspicion.
The period of twenty-five years from 1850 to 1875, was a sort of
occultation of hypnotism. Braidism suffered nearly the same fate as
mesmerism--it was neglected and tabooed. A few capable and honest men,
like Liebeault of Nancy and Azam of Bordeaux, worked on, and from time to
time published their observations; but for the most part these workers
were neglected and even scorned.
To acknowledge one's belief in animal magnetism or hypnotism was bad form,
and he who did it must be content to suffer a certain degree of both
social and professional ostracism. The field was given over to town-hall
lectures on mesmerism, by "professors" whose titles were printed in
quotation marks even by the local papers which recorded their exploits.
But a change was about to be inaugurated. In 1877 Prof. Charcot, then one
of the most scientific, most widely-known, and most highly-esteemed of
living physicians, not only in France but in all the world, was appointed,
with two colleagues, to investigate the treatment of hysteria by means of
metallic disks--a subject which was then attracting the attention of the
medical profession in France.
So, curiously enough, it happened that Charcot commenced exactly where
Mesmer had commenced a hundred years before. He experimented upon
hysterical patients in his wards at La Salpetriere, and, as a result, he
rediscovered mesmerism under the name of hypnotism, just a century after
it had been discovered by Mesmer and disowned by the French Academy.
But Charcot, after having satisfied himself by his experiments, did not
hesitate to announce his full belief in the facts and phenomena of
hypnotism, and that was sufficient to rehabilitate the long-neglected
subject. The attention of the scientific world was at once turned toward
it, it became a legitimate subject of study, and hypnotism at once became
respectable. From that time to the present it has formed one of the most
conspicuous and interesting subjects of psychical study; it has become to
psychology what determining the value of a single character is to reading
an ancient inscription in a lost or unknown language--it is a bit of the
unknown expressed in terms of the known and helps to furnish clues to
still greater discoveries.
With the scientific interest in hypnotism which was brought about through
the great name and influence of Charcot, all doubt concerning the reality
of the phenomena which it presents disappeared. Hypnotism was a fact and
had come to stay.
Charcot, who conducted his experiments chiefly among nervous or hysterical
patients, looked upon the hypnotic condition as a disease, and considered
the phenomena presented by hypnotic subjects as akin to hysteria. In
addition to the method of producing the hypnotic condition used by Braid,
he used, among others, what he called "massive stimulation," which
consisted in first fully absorbing the subject's attention and then
producing a shock by the loud sounding of a concealed gong, or the sudden
display or sudden withdrawal of an electric light. By this means
hysterical subjects were often thrown into a condition of catalepsy, from
which somnambulism and other hypnotic phenomena were sometimes deduced.
I have myself seen nervous patients thrown into the cataleptic state by
the "massive stimulation" of a huge truck passing by, loaded with clanging
rails or building iron, or by other sudden shock, but I did not consider
the process therapeutic nor in any way useful to the patient. Indeed, I
have considered the present method of transporting those beams and rails
of iron through our streets and past our dwellings, without the slightest
attempt to modify their shocking din and clangor, a piece of savagery
which should at once be made the subject of special legislation looking to
the prompt punishment of the perpetrators of the outrage.
As a matter of fact, neither the methods employed, the psychical
conditions induced, nor the therapeutic effects attained at La
Salpetriere, where most of these experiments were at that time carried on,
were such as to particularly commend themselves to students of psychology.
Nevertheless the great name and approval of Charcot served to command for
hypnotism the attention and the favorable consideration of the scientific
world.
Soon after the experiments of Charcot and his associates in Paris were
published, Prof. Bernheim commenced a most thorough and important study of
the subject in the wards of the hospital at Nancy. These studies were
made, not upon persons who were already subjects of nervous disease, as
was the case with Charcot's patients, but, on the contrary, upon those
whose nervous condition was perfectly normal, and even upon those whose
general health was perfect.
The result of Bernheim's experiments proved that a very large percentage
of all persons, sick or well, could be put into the hypnotic condition. He
claimed that suggestion was the great factor and influence, both in
bringing about the condition, and also in the mental phenomena observed,
and the cures which were accomplished.
He claimed, moreover, that the hypnotic sleep did not differ from ordinary
sleep, and that no magnetism nor other personal element, influence, or
force entered in any way into the process--it was all the power and
influence of suggestion.
Four distinct and important periods then are found in the history of
hypnotism:
First, the period of the early mesmerists, extending from the time of
Mesmer, 1773, until that of Braid, 1842--nearly seventy years--during
which the theory of animal magnetism, or of some actual force or subtle
influence proceeding from the operator to the subject, prevailed.
Second, the period of thirty-five years during which the influence of
Braid's experiments predominated, showing that other methods, and
especially that by the fixed gaze, were efficient in producing the
hypnotic sleep.
Third, the short period during which the influence of Charcot and the
Paris school prevailed.
Fourth, the period since Bernheim began to publish his experiments, and
which may be called the period of suggestion.
With this brief sketch in mind, we are prepared to examine some of the
more important phenomena of hypnotism, both in its early and its later
developments. A simple case would be as follows:--
A patient comes to the physician's office complaining of continual
headaches, general debility, nervousness, and unsatisfactory sleep. She is
willing to be hypnotized, and is accompanied by a friend. The physician
seats her comfortably in a chair, and, seating himself opposite her, he
takes her thumbs lightly between his own thumbs and fingers, asks her to
look steadily at some convenient object--perhaps a shirt-stud or a
specified button upon his coat. Presently her eyelids quiver and then
droop slowly over her eyes; he gently closes them with the tips of his
fingers, holds them lightly for a moment, and she is asleep.
He then makes several slow passes over her face and down the front of her
body from head to foot, also some over her head and away from it, all
without contact and without speaking to her. He lets her sleep ten or
fifteen minutes--longer, if convenient--and then, making two or three
upward passes over her face, he says promptly: "All right; wake up."
She slowly opens her eyes, probably smiles, and looks a little foolish at
having slept. He inquires how she feels. She replies:
"I feel remarkably well--so rested--as though I had slept a whole night."
"How is your head?"
(Looking surprised.) "It is quite well--the pain is all gone."
"Very well," he says. "You will continue to feel better and stronger, and
you will have good sleep at night."
And so it proves. Bernheim or a pupil of his would sit, or perhaps stand,
near his patient, and in a quiet but firm voice talk of sleep.
"Sleep is what you need. Sleep is helpful and will do you good. Already,
while I am talking to you, you are beginning to feel drowsy. Your eyes are
tired; your lids are drooping; you are growing more and more sleepy; your
lids droop more and more."
Then, if the eyelids seem heavy, he presses them down over the eyes, all
the time affirming sleep. If sleep comes, he has succeeded; if not, he
resorts to gestures, passes, the steady gaze, or whatever he thinks likely
to aid his suggestion.
When the patient is asleep he suggests that when she awakes her pains and
nervousness will be gone, and that she will have quiet and refreshing
sleep at night. What is the condition of the patient while under the
influence of this induced sleep? Pulse and respiration are little, if at
all, changed; they may be slightly accelerated at first, and later, if
very deep sleep occurs, they may be slightly retarded. Temperature is
seldom changed at all, though, if abnormally high before the sleep is
induced, it frequently falls during the sleep.
If the hand be raised, or the arm be drawn up high above the head,
generally it will remain elevated until it is touched and replaced, or
the patient is told that he can let it fall, when he slowly lowers it.
In many cases the limbs of the patient may be flexed or the body placed in
any position, and that position will be retained for a longer or shorter
period, sometimes for hours, without change. Sometimes the condition is
one of rigidity so firm that the head may be placed upon one chair and the
heels upon another, and the body will remain stiff like a bridge from one
chair to the other, even when a heavy weight is placed upon the middle of
the patient's body or another person is seated upon it. This is the full
cataleptic condition.
Sometimes the whole body will be in a condition of anaesthesia, so that
needles may be thrust deep into the flesh without evoking any sign of pain
or any sensation whatever. Sometimes, when this condition of anaesthesia
does not appear with the sleep, it may be induced by passes, or by
suggesting that a certain limb or the whole body is without feeling. In
this condition the most serious surgical operations have been performed
without the slightest suffering on the part of the patient.
From the deep sleep the patient often passes of his own accord into a
condition in which he walks, talks, reads, writes, and obeys the slightest
wish or suggestion of the hypnotizer--and yet he is asleep. This is called
the alert stage, or the condition of somnambulism, and is the most
peculiar, interesting, and wonderful of all.
The two chief stages of the hypnotic condition, then, are, first: the
lethargic stage; second, the alert stage.
The stage of lethargy may be very light--a mere drowsiness--or very
deep--a heavy slumber--and it is often accompanied by a cataleptic state,
more or less marked in degree.
The alert stage may also vary and may be characterized by somnambulism,
varying in character from a simple sleepy "yes" or "no" in answer to
questions asked by his hypnotizer, to the most wonderful, even
supranormal, mental activity.
From any of these states the subject may be awakened by his hypnotizer
simply making a few upward passes or by saying in a firm voice, "All
right, wake up," or, again, by affirming to the patient that he will awake
when he (the hypnotizer) has counted up to a certain number, as, for
instance, five.
Generally, upon awakening, the subject has no knowledge or remembrance of
anything which has transpired during his hypnotic condition. This is known
as amnesia. Sometimes, however, a hazy recollection of what has happened
remains, especially if the hypnotic condition has been only slight.
Up to the present time hypnotism has been studied from two separate and
important standpoints and for two well-defined purposes: (1) For its
therapeutic effects, or its use in the treatment of disease and relief of
pain; (2) for the mental or psychical phenomena which it presents.
The following cases will illustrate its study and use from the therapeutic
standpoint--and, first, two cases treated by the old mesmerists, 1843-53.
They are from reports published in The Zoist:--
(1) Q. I. P., a well-known artist, fifty years ago, had been greatly
troubled and distressed by weak and inflamed eyes, accompanied by
ulceration of the cornea, a condition which had lasted more than four
years. He was never free from the disease, and often it was so severe as
to prevent work in his studio, and especially reading, for months at a
time. He had been under the care of the best oculists, both in New York
and London, for long periods and at different times, but with very little
temporary and no permanent relief.
He was urged, as a last resort, to try animal magnetism, as it was then
called. Accordingly, he consulted a mesmeric practitioner in London, and
was treated by passes made over the back of the head and down the spine
and from the centre of the forehead backward and outward over the temples
and down the sides of the head.
All other treatment was discontinued. No mesmeric phenomena of any kind
were produced, not even sleep, but from the first day a degree of comfort
and also improvement was experienced.
The treatment was given one hour daily for one month. The improvement was
decided and uninterrupted, such as had never before been experienced under
any form of medical or surgical treatment, no matter how thoroughly
carried out. The general health was greatly improved, and the eyes were so
much benefited that they could be relied upon constantly, both for
painting and reading, and the cure was permanent.
(2) A case of rheumatism treated by Dr. Elliotson of London. The patient,
G. F., age thirty-five years, was a laborer, and had suffered from
rheumatism seven weeks. When he applied to Dr. Elliotson, the doctor was
sitting in his office, in company with three friends--one a medical
gentleman, and all skeptics regarding mesmerism.
They all, however, expressed a desire to see the treatment, and,
accordingly, the patient was brought in. He came with difficulty, upon
crutches, his face betokening extreme pain. He had never been mesmerized.
The doctor sat down opposite his patient, took his thumbs in his hands,
and gazed steadily in his eyes. In twenty minutes he fell into the
mesmeric sleep. Several of the mesmeric phenomena were then produced in
the presence of his skeptical friends, after which he was allowed to sleep
undisturbed for two hours. No suggestions regarding his disease are
reported as having been made to the patient during his sleep.
He was awakened by reverse passes. Being fairly aroused, he arose from his
chair, walked up and down the room without difficulty, and was perfectly
unconscious of all that had transpired during his sleep; he only knew he
came into the room suffering, and on crutches, and that he was now free
from pain and could walk with ease without them. He left one crutch with
the doctor and went out twirling the other in his hand. He remained
perfectly well.
Dr. Elliotson afterward tried on three different occasions to hypnotize
him but without success. Others also tried, but all attempts in this
direction failed.
I will here introduce one or two cases from my own notebook:--
(1) A. C., a young girl of Irish parentage, fifteen years old, light skin,
dark hair and eyes, and heavy eyebrows. Her father had "fits" for several
years previous to his death. I first saw the patient Dec. 4, 1872; this
was five years before Charcot's experiments, and nearly ten years before
those of Bernheim.
She was then having frequent epileptic attacks, characterized by sudden
loss of consciousness, convulsions, foaming at the mouth, biting the
tongue, and dark color. She had her first attack six months before I saw
her, and they had increased in frequency and in severity until now they
occurred twenty or more times a day, sometimes lasting many minutes, and
sometimes only a few seconds; sometimes they were of very great severity.
She had received many falls, burns, and bruises in consequence of their
sudden accession. They occurred both day and night. On my second visit I
determined to try hypnotism. Patient went to sleep in eight minutes, slept
a short time and awoke without interference. She was immediately put to
sleep again; she slept only a few minutes, and again awoke.
DEC. 7.--Her friends report that the attacks have not been so frequent and
not nearly so violent since my last visit. Hypnotized; patient went into a
profound sleep and remained one hour; she was then awakened by reverse
passes.
DEC. 8.--The attacks have been still less frequent and severe; she has
slept quietly; appetite good. Hypnotized and allowed her to sleep two
hours, and then awoke her by the upward passes.
DEC. 9.--There has been still more marked improvement; the attacks have
been very few, none lasting more than half a minute. Hypnotized and
allowed her to remain asleep three hours. Awoke her with some difficulty,
and she was still somewhat drowsy when I left. She went to sleep in the
afternoon and slept soundly four hours; awoke and ate her supper; went to
sleep again and slept soundly all night.
DEC. 10.--There has been no return of the attacks. A month later she had
had no return of the attacks. She soon after left town, and I have not
heard of her since. In this case no suggestions whatever were made.
(2) B. X., twenty-four years of age, a sporting man; obstinate,
independent, self-willed, a leader in his circle. He had been a hard
drinker from boyhood. He had been injured by a fall three years before,
and had been subject to severe attacks of haematemesis. I had known him for
three or four months previous to June, 1891. At that time he came into my
office one evening somewhat under the influence of alcoholic stimulants.
After talking a few moments, I advised him to lie down on the lounge. I
made no remarks about his drinking, nor about sleep. I simply took his two
thumbs in my hands and sat quietly beside him. Presently I made a few long
passes from head to feet, and in five minutes he was fast asleep.
His hands and arms, outstretched and raised high up, remained exactly as
they were placed. Severe pinching elicited no sign of sensation. He was in
the deep hypnotic sleep.
I then spoke to him in a distinct and decided manner. I told him he was
ruining his life and making his family very unhappy by his habit of
intemperance. I then told him very decidedly that when he awoke he would
have no more desire for alcoholic stimulants of any kind; that he would
look upon them all as his enemies, and he would refuse them under all
circumstances; that even the smell of them would be disagreeable to him.
I repeated the suggestions and then awoke him by making a few passes
upward over his face, I did not inform him that I had hypnotized him, nor
speak to him at all about his habit of drinking. I prescribed for some
ailment for which he had visited me and he went away.
I neither saw nor heard from him again for three months, when I received a
letter from him from a distant city, informing me that he had not drank a
drop of spirituous liquor since he was in my office that night. His health
was perfect, and he had no more vomiting of blood.
June, 1892, one year from the time I had hypnotized him, he came into my
office in splendid condition. He had drank nothing during the whole year.
I have not heard from him since.
The following case illustrates Bernheim's method:--
Mlle. J., teacher, thirty-two years old, came to the clinique, Feb. 17,
1887, for chorea, or St. Vitus's dance. Nearly two weeks previous she had
been roughly reprimanded by her superior which had greatly affected her.
She could scarcely sleep or eat; she had nausea, pricking sensations in
both arms, delirium at times, and now incessant movements, sometimes as
frequent as two every second, in both the right arm and leg.
She can neither write nor attend to her school duties. Bernheim hypnotizes
her by his method. She goes easily into the somnambulic condition. In
three or four minutes, under the influence of suggestion, the movements of
the hand and foot cease; upon waking up, they reappear, but less
frequently. A second hypnotization, with suggestion, checks them
completely.
FEB. 19th.--Says she has been very comfortable; the pricking sensations
have ceased. No nervous movements until nine o'clock this morning, when
they returned, about ten or eleven every minute. New hypnotization and
suggestion, during which the motions cease, and they remain absent when
she wakes.
21st.--Has had slight pains and a few choraic movements.
25th.--Is doing well; has no movements; says she is cured.
She returned a few times during the next four months with slight nervous
movements, which were promptly relieved by hypnotizing and suggestion.
Bernheim, in his book, "Suggestive Therapeutics," gives details of over
one hundred cases, mostly neuralgic and rheumatic, most of which are
described as cured, either quickly or by repeated hypnotization and
suggestion.
The Zoist, a journal devoted to psychology and mesmerism nearly fifty
years ago, gives several hundred cases of treatment and cure by the early
mesmerists, some of them very remarkable, and also many cases of surgical
operations of the most severe or dangerous character painlessly done under
the anaesthetic influence of mesmerism before the benign effects of ether
or chloroform were known. These cases are not often referred to by the
modern student of hypnotism. Nevertheless, they constitute a storehouse of
well-observed facts which have an immense interest and value.
It will thus be seen that throughout the whole history of hypnotism, under
whatever name it has been studied, one of its chief features has been its
power to relieve suffering and cure disease; and at the present day, while
many physicians who are quite ignorant of its uses, in general terms deny
its practicability, few who have any real knowledge of it are so unjust or
regardless of facts as to deny its therapeutic effects.