[Translated from the German in _Sphinx_, for the JOURNAL OF
MAN.]
The careful study which the school of the medical faculty of
Nancy has devoted to the phenomena of suggestion, and their
actual progress in that department, present the question
whether the time has not arrived for teachers to participate
in this scientific movement.
The numerous observations by Dr. August Voisin of the
Salpetriere have positively proved in his own practice not
only the curability of mental diseases, but the great
assistance which may be given to moral culture, so that we
might successfully introduce hypnotism in educational schools.
Dr. Voisin with great ease cured his first patient in the
trial of hypnotic suggestion--a girl by the name of Johanna
Schaaf, who was not only a thief, but dissolute, lazy, and
unclean. He transformed her into an honest industrious, neat,
and obedient person. For several years she could not be
induced to read a line. Under the control of Dr. Voisin she
was made to read several pages of a moral work, which she
repeated before the class. Then with great facility he roused
her feelings of sympathy, which appeared to have become
extinct. This cure was so thorough that she has since been
appointed a nurse in the hospital, and has given complete
satisfaction, showing herself quite conscientious.
Many other experiments were made quite satisfactorily, and
similar results were produced in his city practice. In one
case, by hypnotic suggestion treatment Dr. Voisin transformed
the character of a quarrelsome woman, making her a mild
affectionate wife to her husband. Voisin's experiments related
principally to adults, but Dr. Liebeault of Nancy made
experiments with children, of which he has mentioned two
cases. Once a child was brought to his clinic with great
suffering from a nervous affection, but would not submit to a
hypnotic treatment till her little brother present offered
himself, not being afraid. When he was put to sleep his mother
told the physician that the boy in school was always in the
lower grades, without making any progress. While in the sleep
he was strongly impressed for diligence and zeal, and the
subsequent result was perfect; within six weeks he became an
example of diligence and perseverance, and soon got promoted.
The second case was that of a young idiot. He was incapable of
intellectual culture, and could not be taught reading or
arithmetic. Dr. Liebeault submitted him to many hypnotic
sittings, making a very great effort to rouse his attention,
though he seemed to have no capacity for being instructed.
Finally he succeeded so well that after two months he could
read, and could cipher in the four rules of arithmetic. A
great number of similar cases were treated by Dr. Dumont at
Nancy with decided success.
In one of his clinics Prof. Bernheim maintained that all
children are receptive of hypnotic suggestion or transference
of thought, and even more so when they enter the age of
reasoning. Not only in sleep, but also in the waking
condition, they may be affected; and the school of Nancy
deserves great credit for presenting this important matter to
the world in its true light.
One of the signs of the hypnotic sleep or state is the
automatic condition of the individual. In consequence of
having for the time an enfeebled will, the individual will
yield to all impressions upon it; and this weakness of will
may take place in a wakeful state, when, if there is no
opposition, the individual will accept all assurances in good
faith. In case there is no exertion of influence by others,
the subject will act by his or her own imagination. Such
auto-suggestion is the result of a tendency to imitation which
seems to be developed in children particularly, and develops
in the waking state in undisciplined minds or in a fatigued
and passive state.
These important principles and facts render it the duty of
every educator to study the efficacy of suggestion and
imitation in children. The experiments made thus far,
authorize us to establish the following rules for practice:
If we have to deal with children of lazy, unintelligent, and
indifferent character, we should confine ourselves to
practicing verbal suggestion in their waking state, and to be
effective it would be best to follow the experiments at Nancy,
especially of Dr. Liebeault, and make great effort to gain the
implicit confidence of the child. Seat it by itself on a
chair, place your hand on its forehead, and enforce the
suggestions by a mild voice and patient manner, but with firm
determination.
When, however, our treatment is to ameliorate the future
destiny of the children,--when their faculty of observation is
deficient, when they have no diligence whatever, and are full
of vicious, headstrong, evil inclinations, it is our opinion
that by all means we should apply hypnotism fully to these
degenerate creatures. The suggestions in the hypnotic sleep
are of greater efficacy, more durable and profound, and
probably in many cases it will be necessary to repeat these
procedures frequently, until the imperfect intellectual
faculties are developed, and the evil inclinations suppressed.
Thus may we guide these young souls to a better and purer
future.
In conclusion, I do not hesitate to assert the importance of
hypnotism, in spite of all objections in its application to
the mental and physical faculties of healthy persons. Its
application as an educational method will be of vast
importance to sick and depraved subjects.
The train of thought in the above essay, which Dr. Berillon has
published in the September number of his _Revue de l'Hypnotisme_,
inspired the contents of a lecture presented at the Scientific
Congress at Nancy (August, 1886), out of which arose a discussion in
which Dr. Liebault observed that the facts mentioned by Dr. Berillon
are entirely true. "My long practice," said he, "has permitted me to
gather a great number of other cases, which will sustain the doctrines
of the speaker. I have never seen a child continue entirely
unreceptive of suggestion treatment. In the persons, children, and
adults, with whom I have experimented, counting by thousands, I have
never observed the least injurious consequences whatever."
* * * * *
The report of the discussion given us above in _Sphinx_ shows that
these important suggestions met with only one unfriendly criticism,
and that of little force. M. Desjardins, Esq., suggested that it was
highly important that other honorable gentlemen, like Dr. Liebault,
Dr. Voisin, and Dr. Dumont, should be officially appointed to carry on
such experiments. He expressed his desire that the Congress should
recommend that hypnotic suggestion for the purpose of moral
improvement should be tried upon the worst class of pupils in the
public schools. The suggestion was seconded with energy by Dr.
Leclerc, who expressed his surprise that any one should object. It may
be said to have met with the general approbation of the Congress.
* * * * *
The _Public Ledger_ of Philadelphia published last year the following
sketch of the progress of the marvellous in France: