SUGGESTION IN CHILDREN AND ADULTS--HYPNOTISM.
In an earlier place certain illustrations of Suggestion have been
given. By Suggestion we mean the fact that all sorts of hints from
without disturb and modify the beliefs and actions of the individual.
Certain cases from my own observation may be given which will make the
matter clear.
_Physiological Suggestion._--Observation of an infant for the first
month or six weeks after birth leads to the conviction that his life
is mainly physiological. When the actions which are purely reflex,
together with certain random impulsive movements, are noted, we seem
to exhaust the case.
Yet even at this remarkably early stage H. was found to be in some
degree receptive to certain Suggestions conveyed by repeated
stimulation under uniform conditions. In the first place, the
suggestions of sleep began to tell upon her before the end of the
first month. Her nurse put her to sleep by laying her face down and
patting gently upon the end of her spine. This position soon became
itself not only suggestive to the child of sleep, but sometimes
necessary to sleep, even when she was laid across the nurse's lap in
what seemed to be an uncomfortable position.
This case illustrates what may be called Physiological Suggestion. It
shows the law of physiological habit as it borders on the conscious.
The same sort of phenomena appear also in adult life. Positions given
to the limbs of a sleeper lead to movements ordinarily associated with
these positions. The sleeper defends himself, withdraws himself from
cold, etc. Children learn gradually to react upon conditions of
position, lack of support, etc., of the body, with those actions
necessary to keep from falling, which adults have so perfectly. All
secondary automatic reactions may be classed here; the sensations
coming from one action, as in walking, being suggestions to the next
movement, unconsciously acted upon. The consciousness at any stage in
the chain of movements, if present at all, must be similar to the
baby's in the case above--a mere internal glimmering. The most we can
say of such physiological suggestion is, that there is probably some
consciousness, and that the ordinary reflexes seem to be abbreviated
and improved.
_Subconscious Adult Suggestion._--There are certain phenomena of a
rather striking kind coming under this head whose classification is so
evident that we may enumerate them without discussion of the general
principles which they involve.
_Tune Suggestion._--It has been pointed out recently that dream states
are largely indebted for their visual elements--what we see in our
dreams--to accidental lines, patches, etc., in the field of vision
when the eyes are shut, due to the distended blood vessels of the
cornea and lids, to changes in the external illumination, to the
presence of dust particles of different configuration, etc. The other
senses also undoubtedly contribute to the texture of our dreams by
equally subconscious suggestions. There is no doubt, further, that our
waking life is constantly influenced by such trivial stimulations.
I have tested in detail, for example, the conditions of the rise of
so-called "internal tunes"--we speak of "tunes in our head" or "in our
ears"--and find certain suggestive influences which in most cases
cause these tunes to rise and take their course. Often, when a tune
springs up "in my head," the same tune has been lately sung or
whistled in my hearing, though quite unnoticed at the time. Often the
tunes are those heard in church the previous day or earlier. Such a
tune I am entirely unable to recall voluntarily; yet when it comes
into the mind's ear, so to speak, I readily recognise it as belonging
to an earlier day's experience. Other cases show various accidental
suggestions, such as the tune Mozart suggested by the composer's name,
the tune Gentle Annie suggested by the name Annie, etc. In all these
cases it is only after the tune has taken possession of consciousness
and after much seeking that the suggesting influence is discovered.
Closer analysis reveals certain additional facts: The "time" of such
internal tunes is usually dictated by some rhythmical subconscious
occurrence. After hearty meals it is always the time of the heart
beat, unless there be "in the air" some more impressive stimulus; as,
for example, when on shipboard, the beat is with me invariably that of
the engine throbs. When walking it is the rhythm of the footfall. On
one occasion a knock of four beats on the door started the
Marseillaise in my ear; following up this clew, I found that at any
time different divisions of musical time being struck on the table at
will by another person, tunes would spring up and run on, getting
their cue from the measures suggested. Further, when a tune dies away,
its last notes often suggest, some time after, another having a
similar movement--just as we pass from one tune to another in a
"medley." It may also be noted that in my case the tune memories are
auditive: they run in my head when I have no words for them and have
never sung them--an experience which is consistent with the fact that
these "internal tunes" arise in childhood before the faculty of
speech. They also have distinct pitch. For example, I once found a
tune "in my head" which was perfectly familiar, but for which I could
find no words. Tested on the piano, the pitch was F-sharp and the time
was my heart beat. Finally, after much effort, I got the unworthy
words "Wait till the clouds roll by" by humming the tune over
repeatedly. The pitch is determined probably by the accidental
condition of the auditory centre in the brain or by the pitch of the
external sound which serves as stimulus to the tune.
_Normal Auto-Suggestion._--A further class of Suggestions, which fall
under the general phrase Auto-suggestion, or Self-suggestion of a
normal type, may be illustrated. In experimenting upon the possibility
of suggesting sleep to another I have found certain strong reactive
influences upon my own mental condition. Such an effort, which
involves the picturing of another as asleep, is a strong
Auto-suggestion of sleep, taking effect in my own case in about five
minutes if the conditions be kept constant. The more clearly the
patient's sleep is pictured the stronger becomes the subjective
feeling of drowsiness. After about ten minutes the ability to give
strong concentration seems to disintegrate, attention is renewed only
by fits and starts and in the presence of great, mental inertia, and
the oncoming of sleep is almost overpowering. An unfailing cure for
insomnia, speaking for myself, is the persistent effort to put some
one else asleep by hard thinking of the end in view, with a continued
gentle movement, such as stroking the other with the hand.
On the other hand, it is impossible to bring on a state of drowsiness
by imagining myself asleep. The first effort at this, indeed, is
promising, for it leads to a state of restfulness and ease akin to the
mental composure which is the usual preliminary to sleep; but it goes
no further. It is succeeded by a state of steady wakefulness, which
effort of attention or effort not to attend only intensifies. If the
victim of insomnia could only forget that he is thus afflicted, could
forget himself altogether, his case would be more hopeful. The
contrast between this condition and that already described shows that
it is the Self-idea, with the emotions it awakens,[11] which prevents
the suggestion from realizing itself and probably accounts for many
cases of insomnia.
[Footnote 11: A friend informs me that when he pictures himself dead
he can not help feeling gratified that he makes so handsome a
corpse.]
_Sense Exaltation._--Recent discussions of Hypnotism have shown the
remarkable "exaltation" which the senses may attain in somnambulism,
together with a corresponding refinement in the interpretative
faculty. This is described more fully below. Events, etc., quite
subconscious, usually become suggestions of direct influence upon the
subject. Unintended gestures, habitual with the experimenter, may
suffice to hypnotize his accustomed subject. The possibility of such
training of the senses in the normal state has not had sufficient
emphasis. The young child's subtle discriminations of facial and other
personal indications are remarkable. The prolonged experience of
putting H. to sleep--extending over a period of more than six months,
during which I slept beside her bed--served to make me alive to a
certain class of suggestions otherwise quite beyond notice. It is well
known that mothers are awake to the needs of their infants when they
are asleep to everything else.
In the first place, we may note the intense auto-suggestion of sleep
already pointed out, under the stimulus of repeated nursery rhymes or
other regular devices regularly resorted to in putting the child
asleep. Second, surprising progressive exaltation of the hearing and
interpretation of sounds coming from her in a dark room. At the end of
four or five months, her movements in bed awoke me or not according as
she herself was awake or not. Frequently after awaking I was
distinctly aware of what movements of hers had awaked me.[12] A
movement of her head by which it was held up from the pillow was
readily distinguished from the restless movements of her sleep. It was
not so much, therefore, exaltation of hearing as exaltation of the
function of the recognition of sounds heard and of their
discrimination.
[Footnote 12: This fact is analogous to our common experience of being
awaked by a loud noise and then hearing it after we awake; yet the
explanation is not the same.]
Again, the same phenomenon to an equally marked degree attended the
sound of her breathing. It is well enough known that the smallest
functional bodily changes induce changes in both the rapidity and the
quality of the respiration. In sleep the muscles of inhalation and
exhalation are relaxed, inhalation becomes long and deep, exhalation
short and exhaustive, and the rhythmic intervals of respiration much
lengthened. Now degrees of relative wakefulness are indicated with
surprising delicacy by the slight respiration sounds given forth by
the sleeper. Professional nurses learn to interpret these indications
with great skill. This exaltation of hearing became very pronounced in
my operations with the child. After some experience the peculiar
breathing of advancing or actual wakefulness in her was sufficient to
wake me. And when awake myself the change in the infant's respiration
sounds to those indicative of oncoming sleep was sufficient to suggest
or bring on sleep in myself. In the dark, also, the general character
of her breathing sounds was interpreted with great accuracy in terms
of her varied needs, her comfort or discomfort, etc. The same kind of
suggestion from the respiration sounds now troubles me whenever one of
the children is sleeping within hearing distance.[13]
[Footnote 13: This is an unpleasant result which is confirmed by
professional infants' nurses. They complain of loss of sleep when off
duty. Mrs. James Murray, an infants' nurse in Toronto, informs me
that she finds it impossible to sleep when she has no infant in
hearing distance, and for that reason she never asks for a vacation.
Her normal sleep has evidently come to depend upon continuous
soporific suggestions from a child. In another point, also, her
experience confirms my observations, viz., the child's movements,
preliminary to waking, awake her, when no other movements of the child
do so--the consequence being that she is ready for the infant when it
gets fully awake and cries out.]
The reactions in movement upon these suggestions are very marked and
appropriate, in customary or habitual lines, although the stimulations
are quite subconscious. The clearest illustrations in this body of my
experiences were afforded by my responses in crude songs to the
infant's waking movements and breathing sounds. I have often waked
myself by myself singing one of two nursery rhymes, which by endless
repetition night after night had become so habitual as to follow in an
automatic way upon the stimulus from the child. It is certainly
astonishing that among the things which one may get to do
automatically, we should find singing; but writers on the subject have
claimed that the function of musical or semi-musical expression may be
reflex.
The principle of subconscious suggestion, of which these simple facts
are less important illustrations, has very interesting applications in
the higher reaches of social, moral, and educational theory.
_Inhibitory Suggestion._--An interesting class of phenomena which
figure perhaps at all the levels of nervous action now described, may
be known as Inhibitory Suggestions. The phrase, in its broadest use,
refers to all cases in which the suggesting stimulus tends to
suppress, check, or inhibit movement. We find this in certain cases
just as strongly marked as the positive movement--bringing kind of
suggestion. The facts may be put under certain heads which follow.
_Pain Suggestion._--Of course, the fact that pain inhibits movement
occurs at once to the reader. So far as this is general, and is a
native inherited thing, it is organic, and so falls under the head of
Physiological Suggestion of a negative sort. The child shows
contracting movements, crying movements, starting and jumping
movements, shortly after birth, and so plainly that we need not
hesitate to say that these pain responses belong purely to his nervous
system; and that, in general, they are inhibitory and contrary to
those other native reactions which indicate pleasure.
The influence of pain extends everywhere through mental development,
however. Its general effect is to dampen down or suppress the function
which brings the pain; and in this its action is just the contrary to
that of pleasure, which furthers the pleasurable function.
_Control Suggestion._--This covers all cases which show any kind of
restraint set upon the movements of the body short of that which comes
from voluntary intention. The infant brings the movements of his legs,
arms, head, etc., gradually into some sort of order and system. It is
accomplished by a system of organic checks and counter-checks, by
which associations are formed between muscular sensations on the one
hand and certain other sensations, as of sight, touch, hearing, etc.,
on the other hand. The latter serve as suggestions to the performance
of these movements, and these alone. The infant learns to balance his
head and trunk, to direct his hands, to grasp with thumb opposite the
four fingers--all largely by such control suggestions, aided, of
course, by his native reflexes.
_Contrary Suggestion._--By this is meant a tendency of a very striking
kind observable in many children, no less than in many adults, to do
the contrary when any course is suggested. The very word "contrary" is
used in popular talk to describe an individual who shows this type of
conduct. Such a child or man is rebellious whenever rebellion is
possible; he seems to kick constitutionally against the pricks.
The fact of "contrariness" in older children--especially boys--is so
familiar to all who have observed school children with any care that I
need not cite further details. And men and women often become so
enslaved to suggestions of the contrary that they seem only to wait
for indications of the wishes of others in order to oppose and thwart
them.
Contrary suggestions are to be explained as exaggerated instances of
control. It is easy to see that the checks and counter-checks already
spoken of as constituting the method of control of muscular movement
may themselves become so habitual and intense as to dominate the
reactions which they should only regulate. The associations between
the muscular series and the visual series, let us say, which controls
it, comes to work backward, so that the drift of the organic processes
is toward certain contrary reverse movements.
In the higher reaches of conduct and life we find interesting cases of
very refined contrary suggestion. In the man of ascetic temperament,
the duty of self-denial takes the form of a regular contrary
suggestion in opposition to every invitation to self-indulgence,
however innocent. The over-scrupulous mind, like the over-precise, is
a prey to the eternal remonstrances from the contrary which intrude
their advice into all his decisions. In matters of thought and belief
also cases are common of stubborn opposition to evidence, and
persistence in opinion, which are in no way due to the cogency of the
contrary arguments or to real force of conviction.
_Hypnotic Suggestion._--The facts upon which the current theories of
hypnotism are based may be summed up under a few headings, and the
recital of them will serve to bring this class of phenomena into the
general lines of classification drawn out in this chapter.
_The Facts._--When by any cause the attention is held fixed upon an
object, say a bright button, for a sufficient time without
distraction, the subject begins to lose consciousness in a peculiar
way. Generalizing this simple experiment, we may say that any method
or device which serves to secure undivided and prolonged attention to
any sort of Suggestion--be it object, idea, anything that is clear and
striking--brings on what is called Hypnosis to a person normally
constituted.
The Paris school of interpreters find three stages of progress in the
hypnotic sleep: First, Catalepsy, characterized by rigid fixity of the
muscles in any position in which the limbs may be put by the
experimenter, with great Suggestibility on the side of consciousness,
and Anæsthesia (lack of sensation) in certain areas of the skin and in
certain of the special senses; second, Lethargy, in which
consciousness seems to disappear entirely; the subject not being
sensitive to any stimulations by eye, ear, skin, etc., and the body
being flabby and pliable as in natural sleep; third, Somnambulism, so
called from its analogies to the ordinary sleep-walking condition to
which many persons are subject. This last covers the phenomena of
ordinary mesmeric exhibitions at which travelling mesmerists "control"
persons before audiences and make them obey their commands. While
other scientists properly deny that these three stages are really
distinct, they may yet be taken as representing extreme instances of
the phenomena, and serve as points of departure for further
description.
On the mental side the general characteristics of hypnotic
Somnambulism are as follows:
1. _The impairment of memory_ in a peculiar way. In the hypnotic
condition all affairs of the ordinary life are forgotten; on the other
hand, after waking the events of the hypnotic condition are forgotten.
Further, in any subsequent period of Hypnosis the events of the former
similar periods are remembered. So a person who is frequently
hypnotized has two continuous memories: one for the events of his
normal life, exercised only when he is normal; and one for the events
of his hypnotic periods, exercised only when he is hypnotized.
2. _Suggestibility_ to a remarkable degree. By this is meant the
tendency of the subject to have in reality any mental condition which
is suggested to him. He is subject to Suggestions both on the side of
his sensations and ideas and also on the side of his actions. He will
see, hear, remember, believe, refuse to see, hear, etc., anything,
with some doubtful exceptions, which may be suggested to him by word
or deed, or even by the slightest and perhaps unconscious indications
of those about him. On the side of conduct his suggestibility is
equally remarkable. Not only will he act in harmony with the illusions
of sight, etc., into which he is led, but he will carry out, like an
automaton, the actions suggested to him. Further, pain and pleasure,
with their organic accompaniments may be produced by Suggestion. The
skin may be actually scarred with a lead pencil if the patient be told
that it is red-hot iron. The suggested pain brings about vasomotor and
other bodily changes that prove, as similar tests in the other cases
prove, that simulation is impossible and the phenomena are real. These
truths and those given below are no longer based on the mere reports
of the "mesmerists," but are the recognised property of legitimate
psychology.
Again, such suggestions may be for a future time, and be performed
only when a suggested interval has elapsed; they are then called
Deferred or Post-hypnotic Suggestions. Post-hypnotic Suggestions are
those which include the command not to perform them until a certain
time after the subject has returned to his normal condition; such
suggestions--if of reasonably trifling character--are actually carried
out afterward in the normal state, although the person is conscious of
no reason why he should act in such a way, having no remembrance
whatever that he has received the suggestion when hypnotized. Such
post-hypnotic performances may be deferred by suggestion for many
months.
3. So-called _Exaltation_ of the mental faculties, especially of the
senses: increased acuteness of vision, hearing, touch, memory, and the
mental functions generally. By reason of this great "exaltation,"
hypnotized patients may get suggestions from the experimenters which
are not intended, and discover their intentions when every effort is
made to conceal them. Often emotional changes in expression are
discerned by them; and if it be admitted that their power of logical
and imaginative insight is correspondingly exalted, there is hardly a
limit to the patient's ability to read, simply from physical
indications, the mental states of those who experiment with him.
4. So-called _Rapport_. This term covers all the facts known, before
the subject was scientifically investigated, by such expressions as
"personal magnetism," "will power over the subject", etc. It is true
that one particular operator alone may be able to hypnotize a
particular patient; and in this case the patient is, when hypnotized,
open to suggestions from that person only. He is deaf and blind to
everything enjoined by anyone else. It is easy to see from what has
already been said that this does not involve any occult nerve
influence or mental power. A sensitive patient anybody can hypnotize,
provided only that the patient have the idea or conviction that the
experimenter possesses such power. Now, let a patient get the idea
that only one man can hypnotize him, and that is the beginning of the
hypnotic suggestion itself. It is a part of the suggestion that a
certain personal _Rapport_ is necessary; so the patient must have this
_Rapport_. This is shown by the fact that when such a patient is
hypnotized, the operator _en rapport_ with him can transfer the
so-called control to any one else simply by suggesting to the patient
that this third party can also hypnotize him. _Rapport_, therefore,
and all the amazing claims of charlatans to powers of charming,
stealing another's personality, controlling his will at a
distance--all such claims are explained, so far as they have anything
to rest upon, by suggestion under conditions of mental hyperæsthesia
or exaltation.
I may now add certain practical remarks on the subject.
In general, any method which fixes the attention upon a single stimulus
long enough is probably sufficient to produce Hypnosis; but the result is
quick and profound in proportion as the patient has the idea that it is
going to succeed, i. e., gets the suggestion of sleep. It may be said,
therefore, that the elaborate performances, such as passes, rubbings,
mysterious incantations, etc., often resorted to, have no physiological
effect whatever, and only serve to work in the way of suggestion upon the
mind of the subject. In view of this it is probable that any person in
normal health can be hypnotized, provided he is not too sceptical of the
operator's knowledge and power; and, on the contrary, any one can
hypnotize another, provided he do not arouse too great scepticism, and is
not himself wavering and clumsy. It is probable, however, that
susceptibility varies greatly in degree, and that race exerts an important
influence. Thus in Europe the French seem to be most susceptible, and the
English and Scandinavians least so. The impression that weak-minded
persons are most available is quite mistaken. On the contrary, patients in
the insane asylums, idiots, etc., are the most refractory. This is to be
expected, from the fact that in these cases power of strong, steady
attention is wanting. The only class of pathological cases which seem
peculiarly open to the hypnotic influence is that of the
hystero-epileptics, whose tendencies are toward extreme suggestibility.
Further, one may hypnotize himself--what we have called above
Auto-suggestion--especially after having been put into the trance more
than once by others. When let alone after being hypnotized, the patient
usually passes into a normal sleep and wakes naturally.
It is further evident that frequent hypnotization is very damaging if
done by the same operator, since then the patient contracts a habit of
responding to the same class of suggestions; and this may influence
his normal life. A further danger arises from the possibility that all
suggestions have not been removed from the patient's mind before his
awaking. Competent scientific observers always make it a point to do
this. It is possible also that damaging effects result directly to a
man from frequent hypnotizing; and this is in some degree probable,
simply from the fact that, while it lasts, the state is abnormal.
Consequently, all general exhibitions in public, as well as all
individual hypnotizing by amateurs, should be prohibited by law, and
the whole practical application as well as observation of Hypnosis
should be left in the hands of physicians or experts who have proved
their fitness by an examination and secured a certificate of licence.
In Russia a decree (summer, 1893) permits physicians to practise
hypnotism for purposes of cure under official certificates. In France
public exhibitions are forbidden.
So-called Criminal Suggestions may be made, with more or less effect,
in the hypnotic state. Cases have been tried in the French courts, in
which evidence for and against such influence of a third person over
the criminal has been admitted. The reality of the phenomenon,
however, is in dispute. The Paris school claim that criminal acts may
be suggested to the hypnotized subject, which are just as certain to
be performed by him as any other acts. Such a subject will discharge a
blank-loaded pistol at one, when told to do so, or stab him with a
paper dagger. While admitting the facts, the Nancy theorists claim
that the subject knows the performance to be a farce; gets suggestions
of the unreality of it from the experimenters, and so acquiesces. This
is probably true, as is seen in frequent cases in which patients have
refused, in hypnotic sleep, to perform suggested acts which shocked
their modesty, veracity, etc. This goes to show that the Nancy school
are right in saying that while in Hypnosis suggestibility is
exaggerated to an enormous degree, still it has limits in the more
well-knit habits, moral sentiments, social opinions, etc., of the
subject. And it further shows that Hypnosis is probably, as they
claim, a temporary disturbance, rather than a pathological condition
of mind or body.
There have been many remarkable and sensational cases of cure of
disease by hypnotic suggestion, reported especially in France. That
hysteria in many of its manifestations has been relieved is certainly
true; but that any organic, structural disease has ever been cured by
hypnotism is unproved. It is not regarded by medical authorities as an
agent of much therapeutic value, and is rarely employed; but it is
doubtful, in view of the natural prejudice caused by the pretensions
of charlatans, whether its merits have been fairly tested. On the
European Continent it has been successfully applied in a great variety
of cases; and Bernheim has shown that minor nervous troubles,
insomnia, migraines, drunkenness, lighter cases of rheumatism, sexual
and digestive disorders, together with a host of smaller temporary
causes of pain--corns, cricks in back and side, etc.--may be cured or
very materially alleviated by suggestions conveyed in the hypnotic
state. In many cases such cures are permanently effected with aid from
no other remedies. In a number of great city hospitals patients of
recognised classes are at once hypnotized, and suggestions of cure
made. Liébeault, the founder of the Nancy school, has the credit of
having first made use of hypnosis as a remedial agent. It is also
becoming more and more recognised as a method of controlling
refractory and violent patients in asylums and reformatory
institutions. It must be added, however, that psychological theory
rather than medical practice is seriously concerning itself with this
subject.
_Theory._--Two rival theories are held as to the general character of
Hypnosis. The Paris school already referred to, led by the late Dr.
Charcot, hold that it is a pathological condition which is most
readily induced in patients already mentally diseased or having
neuropathic tendencies. They claim that the three stages described
above are a discovery of great importance. The so-called Nancy school,
on the other hand, led by Bernheim, deny the pathological character of
Hypnosis altogether, claiming that the hypnotic condition is nothing
more than a special form of ordinary sleep brought on artificially by
suggestion. Hypnotic suggestion, say they, is only an exaggeration of
an influence to which all persons are normally subject. All the
variations, stages, curious phenomena, etc., of the Paris school, they
claim, can be explained by this "suggestion" hypothesis. The Nancy
school must be considered completely victorious apart from some facts
which no theory has yet explained.
Hypnotism shows an intimacy of interaction between mind and body to
which current psychology is only beginning to do justice; and it is
this aspect of the whole matter which should be emphasized in this
connection. The hypnotic condition of consciousness may be taken to
represent the working of Suggestion most remarkably.