The term
"Hypnosis" originated with the work of the Scotch surgeon
James Braid who worked in 1840. The term comes from the
Greek word hypnosis (that means sleep). He refers to the
state of conscience that is similar to sleep, but allows a
variety of behavioral and mental reactions that can be
manipulated by stimulation.
In answer
to the suggestions of the unconscious mind, the conscious
memory can also be changed. When a person is hypnotized it
seems as if the he/she stops being his usual "normal" self,
because in accordance with the given suggestions he sees,
feels, smells and tastes things in a different manner.
Depending on the depth of the hypnotic state and the force
of the suggestions, this person can accept as real certain
distortions of memory and perception offered by the
hypnotist.
Hypnotic
skills have been used for over hundreds of years, and
certain curative therapies led by priests in ancient Egypt,
Greece, and China, were very similar to the current hypnotic
skills. The modern rediscovery of hypnosis is attributed to
Dr. Franz Mesmer (1734-1815) an Australian doctor who worked
in Vienna and Paris. At the end of 1700 he discovered that
many sick people were obtaining progress when magnets were
placed close to their bodies.
The
patients were ordered to sit down in group near a container
filled with water in which magnetized metal bars were at
placed. Occasionally it was possible to see that a patient
was entering a sleepy state, and after recovering
consciousness, he was much better and even cured.
Later
Mesmer discovered that the magnets were unnecessary. He also
thought that the results could be obtained, in some cases,
simply by touching the patient or by touching the water. In
his mind by touching the water "it was magnetized".
Mesmer
theorized that he and another people had "animal magnetism".
Since they had access to certain mysterious energy stored as
"fluid" and it could be transferred to others, so he started
to use this power as a remedy for cures. Later more than a
hundred groups arose in France that realized similar
remedies; they were called "The society of the harmony".
Benjamin
Franklin and Dr. Joseph Guillotin were some of those who
took part in this committee. His conclusion was that the
mysterious magnetic "Fluid" did not exist and although any
of the renowned remedies carried out by Mesmer and his
followers could not be disputed, the committee attributed
the remedies as "Mere imagination".
Soon after
the science of hypnosis fell down in bad reputation and the
later scientific investigations were deemed useless. In the
early decades of the 19th century the skills of Mesmer were
still being practiced.
It was Dr.
James Braid who gave us the modern term "hypnosis" and also
contributed in the hospital with which he produced some
critical ideas about the nature of the hypnotic skill. While
he was remembering that the magnetic fluid was not involved
in the process, he was reaffirming that a slightly
significantly therapeutic value was involved. In an effort
to separate this phenomenon of the theory from animal
magnetism, he imposed that the concentration and the
attention in only one approach was the principal factor in
the stimulation of the hypnotic effect. At the end of the
century we saw another big interest in hypnosis.
The
Austrian psychologist Sigmund Freud learned of the skills
during his visits to France and remained impressed by the
possibilities of hypnosis to treat neurotic disorders.
He used
hypnosis to help some of his patients to remember annoying
events of their past. Nevertheless, since his psychoanalysis
system began to take form, he pushed the state of deep
hypnosis back in favor of the skill of the level of
relaxation of free association.
This could
be partly for the difficulties that he found in certain
hypnotized patients. In the 20th century there was an
impressive quantity of experimental investigation on this
hypnotic phenomena, nevertheless, a theory universally
accepted by the practitioners did not exist.
The
demonstrated reality of post hypnotic suggestions (for
example conduct behaviors when the hypnotist can neither
know nor be interested in the later behavior of the subject)
also indicates how the interpersonal relation can influence
the work of hypnosis .
The
readings of Edgar Cayce can turn in accordance with hypnosis
that involves the different shaken states of conscience
which can be induced in an interpersonal relation by a
trained therapist.
Who
discovered hypnosis?
Basic
Hypnosis was discovered in its most primitive form by Franz
Anton Mesmer, in 1778. Mesmer's method of inducing a trance
was based on animal magnetism, the belief that living
creatures had magnetic fields that influenced unseen forces.
A patient would be immersed in a vat filled with chemicals,
Mesmer believed he could alter their magnetism and clean
them of whatever ailment they suffered. Franz Anton Mesmer,
doctorate in medicine and philosophy living 35 years in
Vienna, wrote his doctoral thesis entitled "From Inlfuxu
Planetarium," influenced by the theories of Paracelsus on
interrelation between celestial bodies and human beings.
Mesmer made the famous Theory of Animal Magnetism we came to
say that every living being radiates a similar type of
energy like magnetism or other physical bodies, and that can
be passed around to other beings, to have a therapeutic
application.
The
Austrian doctor settled in Paris and with the passage of
time, his influence was so great and so widespread his fame,
he became a doctor of both the poor and the rich and
powerful, including the king of France. The issue came to
the French Academy of Medicine, which found that there was
no kind of influence or power in magnetic healing called
mesmerism. What actually occurred was that the subject had
been hypnotized?
The
disciples of Mesmer and later researchers who determined
that the "miraculous" cures in hypnotic trances, called
magnetism or mesmerism until then, were produced by a
condition called suggestion. A Scottish surgeon named James
Braid (1795-1860) was the first to coin the term hypnosis a
form stating: "the steady fixed gaze paralyzes the nerve
centers of the eyes and alters the balance of the nervous
system"
FREUD
AND HYPNOSIS
Sigmund
Freud, as a medical hypnotherapist investigated this science
in depth, being a disciple of the famous schools of La
Salpêtrière with Dr. Charcot and the School of
Nancy, with Dr. Bernheim. At first Freud used hypnosis in
the treatment of neurosis, but later, decided to formulate
his theory of psychoanalysis. Then Dr. Sigmund Freud
discovered more efficient ways to use the mind to overcome
physical symptoms. Freud used hypnosis to discover traumas
from the past and tried to change those old messages with
some success.
Later a
well know doctor Milton Erickson expanded work of
Freud to create new methods of achieving trance and opening
the door to the subconscious using psychoanalysis. Erickson
pioneered the use of verbal techniques and hypnotic
suggestions. His works stands as the most popular text book,
and his induction techniques are still widely used, like
cognitive therapy. While there are historical precedents for
the use of techniques similar to hypnosis used by the
Egyptians in the so-called Dream Temple, it would not be
until the middle of the eighteenth century when we had the
first systematic study of what was a psycho-physiological
state that subsequently became known as' hypnosis.