Hypnotism - Forel PDF
Hypnotism - Forel PDF
Hypnotism - Forel PDF
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HYPNOTISM
OR
"V
Forensic Aspects).
The wish, which has been expressed to me from many
quarters, that I should place this article, in a short, com-
prehensive form, before the whole medical profession, and
give the chief facts about hypnotism and the up-to-date
theories, impelled me to publish the work in book form,
with a number of supplementary data. My days were
so taken up with other work that I found it exceedingly
difficult to find time for this. Perhaps the imperfections
of the present sketch may be excused on these grounds.
Those who wish to take up this subject ought to read
Bernheim's classical work '
De la suggestion et de ses
application et la therapeutique '
(Paris : 0. Doin).
Like everything else which is brought freshly to the
notice of the public, hypnotism has also been severely
attacked by some, greeted with derision and scepticism
by others, judged with exaggerated sanguinism by others
again, and, lastly, decorated with all sorts of various
exaggerations.
Some regard it as humbug, and call all hypnotized
viii PREFACE TO THE P1RS1 EDI 1 ION
persons malingerers. This view, I may explain in
passing, has been refuted as absurd to the mind of every
unbiassed person by the very number of the so-called
malingerers. Some believe that the world is being turned
upside down and the law endangered, and they wish the
police to interfere, to drive hypnotism away like a plague.
but fully.
£>
HYPNOTISM OR SUGGESTION
AND PSYCHOTHERAPY
CHAPTER I
during the time when they are taking place, but they
can be recalled later. Whole chains of cerebral activity
— e.g., dreams, somnambulism, or double consciousness
I —
4 HYPNOTISM AND PSYCHOTHERAPY
of complicated changes in the susceptible substance of
the living organism.' He calls this altered condition of
the organism, which lasts for the same time as does the
stimulus, the Condition of Excitation. Before the
stimulus has acted, the organism is in a condition of
Primary Indifference toward the stimulus afterwards,;
The sum total, not only of the inherited, but also of the
individually acquired engrams of a living being, he calls
its mneme.' He uses the term
'
ecphoria
'
for the
'
'
ciation,' etc., mneme,' engram,' ecphoria,' etc. It is
' '
of attention
It is
*****
again at least recognised by the help of the concentration
e.g., the details of the formation of letters.
—
sciousness everything which has once been conceived,
notwithstanding that that which is more or less forgotten
is included. Theoretically, this appears to be sound, if
one regards it superficially but in reality there are large
;
1
The author apologizes for this term. He has introduced it for
brevity sake to express each and every psychical unit.
ATTENTION 7
dualism.
The word identity,' or psychophysiological monism,
'
—
out substratum of energy could exist dualism would be
proved.
We understand materialism as being a conception of
this world, in which matter appears as the governing
'
'
—
we only recognise one mind our own. We can only
accept other minds by analogy. But mind and body
are not two separate things they are only two aspects,
;
1
As soon as one employs the term ' soul for inanimate things, a '
souls !' and the like. This is due to the fact that people are kept
captivated in anthropomorphism, and cannot grasp or understand, that
the element of the introspective (psychical) reflex must be just as
simple in relation to a human mind as an atom is in relation to a
living human brain.
HYPOTHESIS OF IDENTITY 17
minutely—
for the most part, according to Ribot— but I made
the one mistake in
calling the consciousness an activity. It is true that no
consciousness
can exist without activity of the brain, but one must not
designate this
activity with the word 'consciousness.' On the other hand in this
lecture I interpreted Henng's ideas on instinct and memory c'orrectlv
although I had not followed this out further, as Semon has done
I
only dimly realized the importance of this.
CONSCIOUSNESS 21
fication (homophonia) —
of the activity which has been
restimulated by the first named (time localization).
Whether consciousness is or is not subjectively demon-
strable in one or other of these processes has actually
nothing at all to do with the subject, even if we are
inclined to be convinced subjectively to the contrary.
The subjective reflections of consciousness can not only
be dismissed and reintroduced into the actual impres-
sions of memory ad libitum (suggested amnesia), but
recognition can be counterfeited by suggestion i.e., a
quite new mental process can produce, by means of sug-
gestion, the erroneous consciousness of a remembrance of
that which has taken place once (falsification of memory).
For example, it is absolutely immaterial for the later
consciousness of an individual whether I render by means
of suggestion a usually painful nerve irritation e.g., the
—
extraction of a tooth painless during the moment in
which it is taking place, or whether, after the pain has
really been perceived during consciousness, I banish the
memory of the perceived pain completely and perma-
nently from the memory by suggestion. In both cases,
as I have been able to prove experimentally, the indi-
vidual retains the same firm conscious conviction, that
the tooth was extracted painlessly.
Ribot (' Memory and its Abnormalities ') believes that
'
recognition, taken as meaning the '
becoming conceived
by the memory, belongs only to consciousness. This is,
however, excluded after what we have seen, since there
is no such thing as the unrecognised in the activity of
Dessoir very rightly and carefully says at the end of this most inter-
esting and instructive study :Human personality consists of at least
'
dog.
Further conclusions arrived at by analogy show that
we must accede various forms of consciousness, corre-
sponding to the complicatedness of their structure and
size, to all the various nerve centres of the animal world.
The chief consciousness i.e., the consciousness of the
guiding, reasoning chief activity or brain activity —must
always be associated with the most complicated, largest
centres. The experiments of Isidor Steiner 1 appear to
prove that the chief activity in fishes takes place in the
mid-brain. The same authors believes that one can
define the brain as the general centre of movement in
'
1
Isidor Steiner, 'On the Cerebrum of Vertebrate Fishes' {Reports
of the Bert. Academy of Phys. Math. Class, January, 1886).
2 Ibid., '
The Function of the Central Nervous System of Inter-
vertebrate Animals '
(ibid., January, 1890).
28 HYPNOTISM AND PSYCHOTHERAPY
developed and the most reasoning activities i.e., pos-
sesses those activities which are capable of fitting all
that is most complicated in the outer world and in the
brains of other beings. In consequence, this activity
takes the general leading part in the alternating action
of the motor centres.
Numerous experiments and comparative biological and
anatomical studies have led me to believe, that I am more
than ever justified in placing the brain of ants in the
corpora pedunculata of the upper oesophageal ganglion. 1
At a later date I expressed my opinion on the question
of comparative psychology more minutely.2
The conception of consciousness, as we define it, is an
elementary conception which cannot be further divided
up. It is only the activity of the brain, which is reflected
by it, which can be divided up. It therefore appears that
we can ascribe generalities to the conception of con-
sciousness, as well as to the conception of energy, in
spite of the fact that on acccount of its subjective exist-
ence it is only possible to prove it by indirect induction
with the required certainty outside the subject in com-
plicated nerve centres. It may appear to be very easy
to disprove my view on this subject by means of syllo-
gisms, but they appeal forcibly to every investigator who
thinks inductively. Otherwise how could an unanalyz-
able subjectivism suddenly be produced which cannot be
compared with any known natural phenomenon, and
which cannot be derived from any phenomenon ? From
what should it be produced ? Should it be produced
with the first neuron, with the first living cell ? Nature
reveals itself to this very subjectivism.
If one wishes to avoid again and again arriving in the
*
vicious circle,' in the empty battle of words conducted
by a sterile scholastic dualism, one has only to study
1
Fourmis de la Suisse,' 1874.
'
2
'The Physical Capabilities of Ants and other Insects,' with an
Appendix on the peculiarities of the sense of smell of these insects
(Munchen E. Rheinhardt, 1901).
:
MIND AND MATTER 29
these arguments deeply. One will then see that one can-
not divide the substratum, which causes the abstract con-
ception of consciousness as we understand it from the
substratum of the conception of energy. As soon as one
attempts such a division, one is drifted in one of two
directions. Either one accepts the haunting of all '
'
1
For further particulars I refer the reader to my lecture on Brain '
§16).
It is well known that illumination of consciousness
ILLUMINATION OF CONSCIOUSNESS 35
3—2
CHAPTER II
'
Observations on the Anatomy of the Brain and their Results {Arch. '
f. Psychiatrie).
38 HYPNOTISM AND PSYCHOTHERAPY
demonstrated especially the fibrilla both in the sheathless
nerve fibres of intervertebrate animals and in ganglion
cells with the help of excellent staining. The last-named
undoubtedly proved the existence of fibrilla anastomosis
in the protoplasm of the ganglion cells of the leech.
Apathy therefore considers that the neurone theory can
be refused, since he propounds the theory that ganglion
cells are not nerve cells, but are only traversed by fibrilla.
The fibrilla are supposed to be the product of other cells,
which he calls nerve cells, and which are distributed
everywhere, even in the white substance. He returns
to Gerlach's fibre network. In his opinion, the fibrillum
is the nerve element, and is anatomically present every-
where in the gray as well as in the white substance. He
considers that the cells of Schwann's sheath and the
corresponding cells of the neuroglia (' intermediate sub-
stance,' regarded previously as connective or epithelial
tissue, and not as nervous) are derived from the nerve
fibrilla. He therefore calls them fibrillogenous nerve
cells. These fibrillogenous nerve cells would thus con-
tinuously be able to form new fibrilla and new anasto-
moses, even in the central nervous system.
One does not dispute, and has never disputed, that a
new formation of peripheral nerve elements and of nerve
elements of lower animals takes place. Without this
assumption it would be impossible for the amputated
tail of a lizard to regenerate. But, on the other hand,
Apathy's theory does not agree with a number of im-
portant facts, and the physiological experiments carried
out by Bethe, on which Apathy bases his opinions, do not
deserve any consideration, since Bethe has revealed his
suspicious unreliability in dealing with other subjects.
Still, Apathy's results and views were warmly welcomed,
1
By this I mean large crossed bundles of fibres which belong to
the neurons of the largest ganglion cells of the cortex (the so-called
central convolutions), and which connect these cells directly with the
large motor ganglion cells of the anterior horns of the spinal cord, etc.
The last named form the muscle neurons.
42 HYPNOTISM AND PSYCHOTHERAPY
same complex collections of sensations
applies to all the
which we call perceptions,no matter by what sort of
stimulation or combination of stimuli they are effected.
All activities of the nervous system leave a trace behind
them after they have taken place, or show a changed
molecular arrangement of the whole co-ordinated com-
plex, which one can call engram or impression of memory.
Many parts of such engrams undoubtedly oscillate (or lie)
in every nerve element. These traces possess, as is well
known, the peculiarity that they can be ecphorized after
a long time by means of an associated stimulus i.e., that
they can be transformed into an activity which is almost
identical with the first stimulus, even if it is mostly less
powerful. We call the subjective reflection (in the con-
sciousness) conception.
Hallucination proves that, under certain circumstances,
the impressions of memory, and even whole complexes
of the same, can be ecphorized again in such a manner,
by pure internal stimuli of the brain, that they are in
all respects equivalent subjectively to a perception i.e.,
4
50 HYPNOTISM AND PSYCHOTHERAPY
of fire to let itself loose on the Ecole Vinet in Lausanne For this
!
'
La disposition a tomber dans ces etats est propor-
men tale de chacun.
tionnelle a la faculte de representation
L'on peut etre sur que l'homme qui, en reportant son
attention sur une idee image, celle d'une perception
tactile, par example, ne tarde pas a la percevoir comme
si elle etait reelle, que cet homme est capable de dormir
cases statistically. Still, we dare say that everyone who has grasped
the Nancy method (Lie"beault, Bernheim, Beaunis, Lie"geois), and has
to some extent practised it, is capable of influencing more or less
strongly between 90 and 96 per cent, of the persons whom he tries to
hypnotize, the insane excepted. The number of practitioners who have
busied themselves with the suggestion treatment, or with the scientific
investigation of the question according to the Nancy method, has
greatly increased since the first edition of this book appeared, and I
know that all of these gentlemen will bear me out in what I have stated.
58 HYPNOTISM AND PSYCHOTHERAPY
What a curious figure the handful of hysterics of the
Salpetriere in Paris cut in comparison with the numbers
quoted above They were not more than a dozen all
!
tion of the vision, (2) raising of the lids, and (3) stroking
of the forehead. The forms of hypnosis corresponding
to these would be lethargy, catalepsy, and somnambulism,
and these would be associated with specific intrinsic re-
actions of the muscles and of sensation e.g., the so-called
hyperexcitabilite
neurotnusculaire. It is important to
emphasize that the Charcot school believed that the
hypnotized in the condition of lethargy were completely
unconscious, and that they could not be influenced by
suggestions, which one imparts to them through the
organs of sense by means of representations. This
school further believed that the hysterical alone were
capable of being hypnotized, and included hypnosis
among the neuroses.
was Bemheim who demonstrated most strikingly
It
what a confusion of ideas had arisen from this theory.
All facts which have been demonstrated year after year
on the few prepared hysterics in the Salpetriere can be
easily explained by long practised suggestions, which had
become in part unconceived and automatic, since, for
example, the alleged lethargist hears and employs psychi-
cally to a great extent all that which is said and done in
his presence. Braid's fixing of a shining object, to which
so much importance has been attached in Paris and in
Germany does not produce hypnosis by itself. When
anyone is hypnotized by this inefficient method, the
result is achieved by the conception that this procedure
must send him to sleep, and not by the procedure itself.
The latter generally only produced a nervous excitement,
and occasionally also hysterical attacks in the hysterical.
At most, in a few cases, tiring and the falling of the lids
might act unconceivedly as a suggestion, just as in very
susceptible persons any means of producing hypnosis
leads to the desired result.
was formerly a common practice to awaken the
It
hypnotized by blowing in the face. I have not em-
ployed this method for a long time, and, on the con-
60 HYPNOTISM AND PSYCHOTHERAPY
trary, have combined blowing with the suggestion that
headache should disappear and the like. In this way,
I can blow in the faces of my hypnotized patients as
2 Ibid., '
Therapeutique Suggestive' (Paris: Doin, 1891).
THE HYSTERICAL 61
she did not feel giddy, as if she were drunk, and imme-
diately she answered in the affirmative, and began to
show signs of drunkenness. One can thus see how a
single insinuating questionmay act suggestively. I need
scarcely mention that have produced all the symptoms
I
'
mesmerism must be handed over to the fluid theory.
'
Suggestion
long for it, and are afraid that it will not succeed with
them.
On the other hand, unprejudiced, uneducated persons
hypnotize by sugges-
are, as a rule, particularly easy to
tion,without that which one intends to do always being
noticed by them. They act and believe all that is sug-
gested to them, and go to sleep in one or two minutes
before they know what is happening, and often even after
they have been of opinion that others who have been
hypnotized a moment before are malingerers and the
doctor a dupe. The majority of the insane are un-
doubtedly the most difficult to hypnotize, because the
pathological permanent condition of irritation of their
brain supports a constant relative tension of the atten-
tion on the impressions of the patient, which robs the sug-
gestion of nearly all the paths of entrance and of all power.
Another important fact is that one can not infrequently
influence by suggestion a normally sleeping person and
transport him into hypnosis without awakening him. It
is still easier, in the reverse direction, to transform hyp-
'
A
few days ago a peasant woman was admitted into
my wards complaining of gastric and abdominal pains,
which I regarded as being of hysterical nature. I was
unable to hypnotize her. She told me, too, that Dr.
Liebeault had attempted to hypnotize her in childhood,
but without success. After two unsuccessful attempts,
I said to her " It is immaterial whether you go to sleep
:
'
A patient has been suffering for a long time from a
hypochondriacal delusion, which is connected with
symptoms of sexual irritation. The patient remains still
hypotactic after a number of sittings. Automatic move-
ments scarcely succeed, and amnesia fails entirely. In
spite of this, I am able to remove his delusion permanently
in a single sitting.
'
Another patient presents himself with the sensations
of traumatic hysteria, the somatic appearances of which
74 HYPNOTISM AND PSYCHOTHERAPY
had already disappeared. This patient was one of the
most suggestible persons whom I have ever hypnotized.
All the complaints disappeared after the first hypnosis.
At the same time, hallucinations for all the senses by
waking suggestion succeeded. The patient did not have
any further symptoms during the remaining fortnight of
his stay here. For prophylactic reasons, he was hypnotized
three times more during this period, and then discharged.
He had a complete recurrence only three days later.
The patient was so suggestible that he reacted to every
influence at once. He had associated the symptoms of
his illness so intimately with the conception of his home
during the months of lying in bed that his return home
recalled the sensually active remembrance of the symp-
toms. This last-mentioned is the psychological definition
of the recurrence.
There is a large number of such cases. I am treating
'
psychotherapy.
I succeeded in removing constipation in persons who
'
'
Anhysteric suffered from attacks during the past fort-
night. Hypnotic treatment only increased the number
of the attacks, inasmuch as during or after each sitting an
attack took place. Later, the patient herself gave me
the
explanation. Her lover had taken advantage her
of
during anaesthesia. Three days later the lover poisoned
himself. On receiving the news of his death, the first
hysterical attack took place. " Hypnotic putting to sleep
always reminded me of the previous narcosis," she said
" it all came back to me, and I became afraid, and so a
fit took place."
'
Another hysteric suffered from periodical conditions
of clouded intelligence. These conditions were preceded
by lively variations of mood. I hypnotized this patient
in this condition, and made the suggestion that she would
have no more attacks. But lo and behold an attack took
!
place. The word " attack " produced it. In spite of this,
the other components of my suggestion made themselves
apparent. The attacks had a much less severe character
than all those which had been formerly observed.
'
The same sort of influence of suggestion, which is
rendered partly favourable and partly unfavourable
through different forms of associative connection, could
be still better observed in the same patient during the
course of the earlier attacks. I had given the patient
76 HYPNOTISM AND PSYCHOTHERAPY
an injection of hyoscine at the beginning of the condi-
tion of mental clouding. This quieted the patient suffi-
ciently, so that I could hypnotize her and free her from the
condition rapidly. The dryness of the throat produced
by the hyoscine had led in the meantime to the auto-
suggestion of an anaesthesia of the oral cavity, with a
paralysis of the tongue in consequence, an ageusia, and
a motor aphasia. Within three days all the symptoms
had been removed by suggestive therapy only an ;
(1) My wife ; (2) the journey; and (3) the box chosen for
the journey. Apparently, and also according to scholastic
teaching, the idea of the journey is awakened by the idea
of my wife, who is to go with me, and the idea of the
box is awakened by the idea of the journey, and is so
Leipzig : —
Abel, 1891 ) considers that one should accept that our natural
sleep and hypnotic sleep are different, because the oxidation products
(tiring products !) are accumulated. He gives as a proof for this,
among others, the impossibility of resisting sleep after great exertion.
But we do not deny the influence of the oxidation products, which
are produced by a prolonged waking activity of the brain, and we,
too, emphasize that the dissociated or relative condition of rest of the
brain in sleep is suitably fitted for the production of the necessary
chemical syntheses i.e., for the reintegration of the brain. We
realize that exhaustion of the brain normally can form the strongest
associative cause of the suggestion of sleep, and when this has reached
a considerable pitch can act irresistibly. When we say that the
suggestive actions are produced by conceptions, we are perfectly
aware that the conceptions in their turn are always dependent on the
physical and chemico-pbysiological (and also pathological) conditions
of the brain elements. The form of the brain changes in the melan-
cholic calls forth, for example, by the means of association, his ideas of
self-accusation. The facts mentioned above prove very clearly that
normal sleep usually takes place rapidly and as a result of suggestion.
One is therefore compelled not to identify it with suggestion, although
one recognises the adaptation of sleep to exhaustion of the brain and
the usual association of sleep with the same. The suggestive action
istherefore just as physical as are the changes in the brain produced
by the products of exhaustion, and one must not deny that the latter
furthers the mechanism of sleep as a rule. That normal sleep without
the hypnotist and without exhaustion can set in in precisely the same
way as it does in hypnosis is certain, and proves that this condition ot
activity of the brain is a thing in itself, and that exhaustion is quite
another thing. There is no doubt that the accumulation of carbonic
acid in the blood produces more extensive respiration, and that in
consequence we cannot hold the breath for any length of time. But
this does not prove that the respiratory movements are alone dependent
on the carbonic acid in the blood, and still less that the accumulation
of the carbonic acid in the blood and respiratory movements are
identical processes. We know that the latter are produced by muscles
and motor nerve centres, and that even our will (our brain) can
accelerate and stop them. The acceleration of the respiratory move-
ments from accumulation of carbonic acid in the blood is a much
more direct, more powerful, and more intimate association than the
production of sleep by exhaustion of the brain. But, nevertheless, it
would never occur to us to regard the voluntarily produced (unneces-
SLEEP CONSCIOUSNESS 83
'
No, this is all dream nonsense I am lying half asleep
;
in bed.'
The three typical characteristics of the dream existence
are, at the same time, the criteria of hypnotic conscious-
ness. They are hallucinations of perception, exagge-
:
ments.
A further peculiarity of the dream life is the ethical
and aesthetic defect or the weakness which is met with
,
noticed this, but we knew that it was so, and it all ap-
peared quite natural to us. I could not see my way any
longer, and asked my friend to lead me. She then lit a
candle with a match, and we were in a room. A strange
old lady came into the room and asked us something,
when I woke up.'
This dream shows very clearly that the reflection of
the consciousness in the cerebral activity during sleep
can be composed of a very variegated mixture of asso-
ciated and dissociated imaginary perceptions of all the
senses — of imaginary perceptions of actions, of feelings,
of abstract ideas, etc. A
continuous deception of the
place and time consciousness arises also from it.
3. On October 25, 1891, I dreamed the following
dream An unknown young man, who up to this time
:
'
parents, who have been dead for more than thirty years.
Their voices and their appearance are a little dim, but
are still quite natural.
The Influence of Dreams on the Waking Condition.
5.
— I dreamed I was engaged to Miss X.
'
During the
marriage ceremony I suddenly remember my children,
and then the fact that I am already married makes
itself felt; and creates a tormenting consternation. I
7. Falsification of Memory. —
Mrs. Z. sets her alarum
each night for a certain hour, so that she may give her
baby the chamber. She hears the alarum go off in her
sleep, and dreams you have sat the child on the
'
although she had never before felt like it. Added to this, her head
began to ache. The patient, after receiving a suggestion that she
should be amnesic and in good spirits, declared that she was happy, and
that she had been sad and anxious during the afternoon on account of
a dream, which she had, however, completely forgotten. The second
suggestion produced complete amnesia (O. Vogt).
LIGHT SLEEP 93
—
Motor Phenomena. I say that the arm is stiff, and
cannot be moved at the same time I raise the arm.
;
I say that the arm is paralyzed, and will fall like a leaden
weight. This takes place at once, and the hypnotized
person cannot move it any more. On the other hand,
I may declare that both hands are to be turned
round one another automatically, and that all efforts
on the part of the hypnotized person to keep them
still will only have the effect of making them turn
man at once.
—
Sensory Phenomena. I say, There is a flea on your
'
he would not feel anything of this. The waking suggestion was com-
pletely realized.
NEGATIVE HALLUCINATIONS 105
1
'One can observe the activity of the hypoconsciousness even in
the insane very frequently if one has experience in hypnotic experi-
ments. An hysteric believes that I am her brother, and refuses to be
convinced to the contrary. But, nevertheless, the fixation of my
person produced a chain of ideas which I could only have caused in
my capacity as doctor. Another hysteric always saw a certain person
whom she hated in her excitement. She went for the supposed
person, but stopped herself short before reaching her, and never
struck at the hallucinated person, although she always attacked
everyone else (O. Vogt).
'
psychological phenomena.
I am of opinion that it would be worth while to in-
vestigate the Mneme theory of Semon further in this
direction.
One need scarcely add that hallucination is a purely
cerebral process, which is just as little influenced by the
laws of optics, etc.,as the area of distribution of a sug-
gested anaesthesia is influenced by the area of distribu-
tion of the peripheral sensory nerves. It is well known
that a man whose finger has been amputated often
hallucinates his removed and that a person whose
finger,
optic nerves are destroyed can have visual hallucinations
for many years after the destruction. I have observed
no HYPNOTISM AND PSYCHOTHERAPY
found that the brown hairs were only shorter, and thus
covered the roots of the long white hairs. The latter
were much longer and also much sparcer, as they had
fallen out considerably six months after they had turned
white. I published this last case in the Zeitschrift fur
Hypnotismus in 1897.
8
ii4 HYPNOTISM AND PSYCHOTHERAPY
Feelings, Impulses, and Disturbances of Mood. It is—
easy to suggest or inhibit appetite, thirst, and sexual
impulse by affirmation. One can increase the action of
the suggestion by palpating the stomach,*or by causing
suggested foodstuffs to be eaten, etc. Fear, happiness,
hatred, anger, jealousy, love for someone or something,
—
produced by suggestion at all events, for
etc., are easily
the time being to these one can add laughing and crying.
;
Onanism and bed- wetting have often been cured in this way.
Thinking processes, memory, consciousness, and will,
can also be influenced. I say : You will forget all that
'
I have told you while you are asleep, and only remember
that you have had a kitten on your lap and have stroked
it.' After the hypnotized person has awakened, he
forgets everything save the kitten episode. Frank said to
a young lady who spoke French well You cannot speak
:
'
—
suggestion. I have induced all the phenomena detailed
and many others, as Liebeault, Bernheim, and others have
done, in my hypnotized.
8—2
n6 HYPNOTISM AND PSYCHOTHERAPY
However, as Bernheim has rightly emphasized, one
need not allow one's self to be blinded by the impression
of these facts, which appear to be almost terrifying and
phantastic. One should, further, not overlook the other
side of the phenomenon —that is, the resistance of the
brain activity of hypnotized person against the
the
interference of a strange person. Blind automatic
obedience of the hypnotized is never complete sugges- ;
tion always has its limits, which are sometimes wider and
sometimes narrower, and may vary considerably in the
same individual.
The hypnotized person protects himself in two ways :
1
In my younger days I used to suffer from diarrhcea on drinking
cafi an lait, but not black coffee. This lasted for many years, but
the action ceased later on. In 1 879-1881, when I took black coffee
most evenings, I began to have diarrhcea after drinking it. I ascribed
it to the coffee, and since then it has become quite impossible for me
'
Why do you do that ?' His answer may vary according
to his temperament, education, and character, and the
124 HYPNOTISM AND PSYCHOTHERAPY
quality of the hypnosis. One person may say :
'
I
told her that there were three. She was fully awake at
the time, and could not distinguish the supposed three
knives from one another, either when she cut with them,
or when she felt them or knocked them against the
window, etc. She cut a piece of paper stretched out for
her quite seriously, with nothing in her hand, and stated
that she saw the cut, which did not exist, which she had
made with the suggested knife. On asking her to pull
the two parts of the paper (imagined only as two) asunder,
she believed that the resistance which she felt was caused
by my hypnotic influence. Later, when other people
laughed at her, she got quite angry, and maintained that
AMNESIA 127
will feel that your feet are cold, and put on your slippers.'
The hypnotized person did not have a suspicion of the
whole thing after he awoke, and during the following
day up to mid-day. Just as he was going to dinner the
suggested thought made its appearance in his conscious-
ness, and the suggestion was completely carried out. I
'
You cannot move it now.' The arm remains in the
condition of cataleptic rigidity. One can suggest anaes-
thesia, hallucinations (including negative hallucinations),
amnesia, mutacisms, deceptions of memory, and anything
elseone pleases, in this way, just as surely as one can do it
in hypnosis. The waking suggestion can very frequently
be achieved even in perfectly healthy persons, and not only
in the hysterical.
Waking suggestibility is mostly gained first in people
who have been put to sleep hypnotically one or more
times previously. Still, it is possible to achieve marked
;
suggestive actions even in awake persons who have
'
3 Revue de V hypnotisms i
ire annee, 1887, p. 166,
* ibid,, 1888.
138 HYPNOTISM AND PSYCHOTHERAPY
also by means of suggestion to remove everything which
ishypnotic, including the intended suggestion, from these
conditions, so that the condition becomes absolutely
identical with the condition of complete wakefulness.
One meets with from the fixed look to a per-
all stages,
fectly clear look from the automatism wanting in sound
;
you will always say Lina for Louisa. And each time you
call the medical officer " Doctor," you will scratch your
right temple with your right hand without being aware
of it.' The suggestion was realized. The nurse made the
mistake, and said Lina C. instead of Louisa C. regularly
in ordinary conversation. It was just like a suggested
paraphasia of a word. She noticed it, tried to correct
herself, but made the same mistake again, and was
astonished at it. Every time that she called the assistant
medical officer Doctor she scratched herself exactly in
'
'
with her such a thing had never in her whole life occurred
;
'
Go to sleep.' She went to sleep at once. I then said to
her After you have been awake for half a minute, you
:
'
ask you for a long time how it is that one goes to sleep so
rapidly when hypnotized. This is not so in ordinary
sleep one takes much longer to go to sleep. How is it ?
;
Here are two witnesses, who have heard that I have sug-
gested it word for word two minutes ago.' The poor
hypnotized girl was quite confounded, and had to ac-
knowledge that she could not recognise every suggestion
as such, but could only recognise those which were so
idiotic that they could not have been the efforts of her
own brain.
A very thorough, intelligent young law student, who
was knew the theory of
close to his final examination,
suggestion well. I was able to put him to sleep deeply,
with total amnesia. I once suggested to him that he
would go to Dr. D., one of our colleagues here, as soon as
he awoke, and ask him his name, where his home is, and
also if he has had any experience of hypnotism. This
was accomplished, but the student added to this I :
'
that one was dealing in such cases with effective hallucinations. This
patient frequently suddenly appeared and explained, or wrote in great
indignation, that the director or the assistant medical officer had
done horrible things to him — had ill-used him, undressed him, etc.- — on
some past occasion (yesterday or early this morning to a stated hour).
—
The important point of this is and it can be proved easily that he —
did not have the hallucination at the time to which he referred it, but
was quietly doing something ordinary, and was in good spirits. He
explained the matter in this way: he had obviously been given some
narcotic, so that the remembrance of the atrocity only returned to him
several hours later. Now, this is the purest form of Bernheim's
'hallucination retroactive,' only it was spontaneous and not suggested,
and depended on a severe mental disturbance.
Another lunatic in the same asylum autosuggested negative
deceptions of memory, which had given rise to the delusion of so-
called 'creative acts.' For example, he said to me: 'Doctor, this
table only appeared this morning it was
; not there before. This
isan act of creation. You may say that I am mistaken, but you may
only speak in that way if you have higher powers,' etc. The table
FALSIFICATION OF MEMORY 147
this gentleman. He
stole your purse at the station a
month ago and ran away with it,' etc. She looked at
him, first somewhat surprised, but was soon convinced.
She remembered it exactly, and even added that there
was a pound in the purse She then demanded that he
should be punished. If I can successfully suggest amnesia
to a person for a certain past time, or for one of his brain
dynamisms e.g., for an acquired language then I can—
just as easily suggest an artificial addition to his recollec-
tions, as long as I bring thecorresponding conceptions into
his brain. say to a hypnotized person, You can speak
If I '
had stood for years in the same place in the recreation-room for the
patients. But was not difficult to prove that this patient had known
it
the table long ago, and had always used it. Thus a real negative
hallucination had not actually been present. This had only lain in
the recollection, and took place at the time when he regarded the
object (in the same way as with genuine deceptions of memory) only ;
the object was blotted out from the past, instead of being again added
to it. The same patient constantly had delusions of similar creative
acts, as the result of this kind of negative deceptions of memory
(retroactive negative hallucinations).
10 —
148 HYPNOTISM AND PSYCHOTHERAPY
made a few minutes before, in spite of the indignant
admonition of the lawyer.
It is greatly to Bernheim's credit that he has explained
these very important facts clearly by means of numerous
examples. Bernheim has even given these retroactive
suggestions collectively, and produced a number of
false witnesses in this way, who gave their evidence with
absolute conviction. He has pointed out that it is par-
ticularly easy to produce such deceptions of memory
during complete wakefulness by means of suggestion,
especially in children. These are instinctively inclined to
accept, more or less, everything which is told them by
grown-up people in a decided tone. Since suggestion
can be successful in many cases in which marked influences
of imagination act without hypnotic sleep ever having
taken place previously, and since this holds good especi-
ally for children and weakly persons, one understands
how great the danger of the suggestion of a false witness
is, and especially of false admissions in response to the
suggestive questions of the examining judge. Bernheim
has called attention to the fact that such cases have not
infrequently taken place in criminal procedures. For
example, this was so in the supposed Tisza-Ezlar ritual
murder case, in which a child, influenced suggestively
in this way, appeared as a witness for the Crown.
Lawyers are no doubt in a position to find many
such cases among the accounts of celebrated trials.
Intimidation and also imitation act similarly in children.
It is certain that there is scarcely a boy or girl who
dares to refuse to submit to Church confirmation,
although most of them would deny all that they had
promised then a short time later. In this an undis-
tinguishable mixture of intimidation, imitation, and
/ suggestion, etc., takes part.
conscious lie.
This is mostly not a
some toy, and made use of some indecent, highly vulgar words, which
I had probably heard in the streets, and which I did not understand.
A woman was sitting with my mother, and was talking to her, when
she heard the words, and called my mother's attention to them. She
asked me very seriously who had taught me such things. The strange
lady especially pressed me, at which I was astonished. I thought for
a moment, and then mentioned the name of a boy whom I was accus-
tomed to meet at school. At the same time I added the names of two
or three others, all of whom were boys of from twelve to thirteen years
old, and with whom I had scarcely ever spoken a word. A few days
later the schoolmaster kept me in after school-time, much to my
surprise, and also the four boys whom I had mentioned. These
boys seemed to me to be almost men, as they were much older and
bigger than I was. A clergyman came in, sat down next to the master,
and told me to sit next to him. This clergyman usually gave religious
instruction in the school, and managed the school generally. The
boys, on the other hand, had to stand in a row in front of the table
and wait for what was about to take place. They were then asked in
solemn tones whether they had uttered certain words in my presence.
They did not know what to answer, and were quite astounded. The
clergyman then turned to me, and said " Where have you heard
:
these boys say these things ?" I had collected myself by this time, and
answered unhesitatingly, with cool determination " In the Briiderlein
:
Wood." This wood is situated about four miles from the town, but I
had never been there in my life, and had only heard people talk of it.
150 HYPNOTISM AND PSYCHOTHERAPY
probable, since it is known that Keller, in the ' Gruene
Heinrich (Heinrich Lee), has incorporated many experi-
'
ences of his own life. Heinrich Lee was seven years old
at the time of the story. I may add that everyone can
easily observe in little children, and especially in children
of from two to four years of age, the boundless suggesti-
bilityand confusion of conception with reality. I have
myself watched a girl between the age of eight and nine
describe how we had collected nuts on the way from the trees how ;
we had lit a fire and baked potatoes, which we had stolen and, ;
out :
" I have got this one
and with this he dealt me several blows.
;"
He then went his way and me where I was. The light was fading.
left
With much difficulty I freed myself from my bonds, and tried to find
my way home in the dark wood. I missed my way and fell into a
deep brook, in which I partly swam and partly waded until I came to
the end of the wood. In this way, after experiencing many difficulties,
I succeeded in finding the right way. I was, however, attacked by a
big billy-goat, and fought him with a pole which I quickly tore from
a hedge, and beat him till he ran away.
Such an amount of eloquence as I had employed in telling this
'
that one or other of the boys had played the truant just about the time
of which I had been speaking was brought up in connection with what
I had been relating. My extreme youth was believed in, as was my
story this was shot unexpectedly and unconstrainedly from the blue
:
denial and their righteous indignation and despair only made matters
worse. They received the most severe punishment the school could
give them, had to take their places on the "shame" bench, and,
besides, they were whipped and locked up by their parents.
'As far as I can dimly remember, I was not only indifferent in
respect to the wrong which I had done, but I rather felt a satisfaction
in myself that my invention had been so prettily and visibly smoothed
by poetic license, and that something of importance had taken place,
had been and had been suffered, and this as a result of my
dealt with,
creative value. did not understand how the ill-used boys could
I
lament so and be so wild with me, as the excellent course of the story
was self-evident, and I was just as little capable of altering anything
of as the old gods were of altering fate.'
it
lated nor yet entirely real. They play with this, add
autosuggestions to it, only obey those suggestions which
appeal to their fancies, and so on. The more phantastic
and dramatic the suggestion is, the better it succeeds with
them, as a rule. But these are extremely unreliable
subjects. Some and especially the Salpetriere
schools,
School, have unfortunately fallen into the error of using
such individuals as the bases for their experiments. One
further meets with some intensely stupid people who
think that one only wants them to pretend to be asleep,
and who simulate just to please the experimenter. Bern-
heim calls attention to this. However, it is very easy to
discover the source of the deception by personal control
and by well-directed questions. Still another class is
represented by those conceitedly stupid people who
become ashamed later on of having been hypnotized,
and declare that they only simulated, although they were
hypnotized quite well in reality. Bernheim paid special
SIMULATION 155
but he did not feel anything of the rest of the pricks, and
denied having felt anything, and the rest of the sugges-
tions succeeded as they had done before. After he awoke
he acknowledged that he had felt two needle-pricks. He
did not know anything of the rest, although many of the
later ones were much deeper than the first. In this way
the hypnotized man was consoled and the doctor taught
a lesson.
Oscar Vogt adds the following •}
'
Such confessions of malingering may naturally depend
on autosuggestion as well. In such a case, it presupposes
a certain degree of influencing, in which a transitory
amnesia at the utmost is present. Two cases may be
cited here :
'(i) The
patient, whose nervous system was healthy,
was somnambulic during the second sitting. He carried
out some commands posthypnotically with promptitude.
Before he left the doctor, amnesia for the commands
which he had carried out was suggested to the patient.
He left the doctor perfectly amnesic. He came again
in three days, and declared that he had not been hypno-
tized. He knew all that had occurred. He had only
carried out the commands of the doctor to please him.
The amnesia had not lasted, and this circumstance had
called forth the conception that he had not been hypno-
tized at all. A renewed hypnosis convinced the patient.
'
(2) A medical man who was much inclined to auto-
suggestions was hypnotized. The patient became
somnambulic. A posthypnotic hallucination and post-
hypnotic carrying out of a command succeeded promptly.
The patient, who suffered from sleeplessness, was to take
a drink of water in the evenings, and then go to sleep at
once. After he awoke, the patient was doubtful whether
he had slept. He was absolutely amnesic. During the
1 Hypnotism,' third edition.
A. Forel, '
MALINGERING 157
of being hypnotized —
if he acts his part too well. If he
does not act well, he will not be able to deceive an ex-
perienced experimenter for long. But, after all, the
whole thing is only done as a rather stupid joke, which
but few people are inclined for, and least of all a patient
who wishes to be cured.
Professor Fr. Fuchs, 1 of Bonn, has written a very
humorous, sarcastic satire on the hypnotic demonstra-
tion of a foreign master,' and believes that he has
'
1
Forel, 'Fourmis de la Suisse,' 1877, p. 314, and 'The Psychical
Capabilities of Ants,' p. 37 (Miinchen, 1901).
2 Professor Otto Stoll, Suggestion and Hypnotism in the Psychology
'
—
especially of the feeling of anger in short, revealing of
—
weaknesses are things which, as is well known, produce
disobedience, the spirit of contradiction, and, in conse-
1 Dr. Josephine Zuercher (Leipzig : Oswald Mutze, 1895).
PEDAGOGIC SUGGESTION 163
points out the way in which one can use hypnotism for
psychological investigation, and throws a luminous light
on to the whole question of the relation of psychology to
the physiology of the brain.
In the third edition of his work Vogt states the follow-
ing in special relation to the mechanism of suggestion :
12
178 HYPNOTISM AND PSYCHOTHERAPY
sponding centre for the sensation of touch by laying my
hand on the forehead. This is then connected with the
corresponding centre for the sensation of warmth through
a track which conducts well as the result of numerous
previous simultaneous excitabilities. The neurokyme
produced by my touching the forehead takes this course,
and acts by opening out a new path.
'
All those inhibitions and the opening out of new
paths to which the course of all nervous processes, and
also the whole phenomena of suggestion, are traceable
are produced in this way. The art of the hypnotist
consists in the suitable application of such inhibitions
and opening out of new paths, and the nature of the
training consists in the reaction of such-like influencing
on the more widely distributed association of ideas.
'
Let us look at the mechanism of catalepsy, for in-
stance. Suppose that I lift the arm of a hypnotized
person. The arm will remain in the position in which
I have put it. I produced a corresponding sensation
12 —
180 HYPNOTISM AND PSYCHOTHERAPY
holding of my arm in this position is the will of the
hypnotist, but must do as he wills." The sight of the
I
catalepsy produced by the hypnotist in the second
subject created a conducting track in the brain of the
first subject leading between the conception of the
hypnotist and the conception of the movement con-
cerned. If the hypnotist now raises the arm of the
first subject, the conception of the hypnotist at once
appears vividly. Stimuli issue from the centre of this
conception to the centre of the movement conception.
The association of ideas can become more complicated
and more similar to the voluntary movement preceding
it in this connection, and one cannot find fault with the
slowly and rigidly about, and did not recognise her sur-
roundings. She was again dumb. I hypnotized her,
and suggested clearness and recollection to her. The
patient then acknowledged that she had believed that
she was lying in the street. The memory of the past
attack had thus been recalled.
We have therefore explained the mechanism of the
'
INHIBITION AND SLEEP 185
hypnotischen Somnambulismus.'
CHAPTER V
Suggestion and Disorders of the Mind — Hysteria
Of all people the insane are the least suggestible, and
those whose mental disturbances are severe are usually
absolutely unsuggestible. All hypnotists of experience
agree in this. This is probably due to the fact that the
diseased inhibitions or conditions of stimulation attain
such an intensity in the brains of the insane, that they are
no longer capable of being dissociated by means of sug-
gestion. And if one should succeed in spite of this in
hypnotizing an insane person, the majority of the curing
suggestions either do not act at all, or only act transi-
torily ; those suggestions which are directed against
delusions act least of all. A lunatic, Mrs. X., for example,
believed that she was Mrs. Y. was able to hypnotize
I
tares hystiriques
! Thank God, the conditions are at all
events not so bad as all that !
de Nivrologie de Paris).
192 HYPNOTISM AND PSYCHOTHERAPY
gestibility, as Moebius has done. He pointed out
correctly that the symptoms in the hysterical are apt to
arise from conceptions. I myself have accentuated the
pathological autosuggestibility, because the majority of
hysterics and the worst cases are more autosuggestible
than suggestible.
Ringier 1 was right when he distinguished two relative
categories of hysterical persons ; the first included those
who possess a very high degree of autosuggestibility, and
are but little influenced by foreign suggestion, and the
second included those who are more easily influenced by
foreign suggestion. I shall return to these categories,
which Ringier introduced on the basis of suggestive
therapy, because they are reflected in other conditions.
There have always been some paradoxical practitioners
who say that all women are more or less hysterical. We
can deduce from this, as well as from Charcot's identifi-
cation of hypnosis with a portion of the picture of hysteria,
that it has always been difficult to differentiate the idea
of hysteria from that of the normal condition.
But it is not easy, either, to differentiate this idea from
that of severe psychoses. This is well shown by the mixed
terms of '
hystero-epilepsy,' '
hysterical madness,' '
hys-
terical mania,' etc. However, Charcot, Breuer, Freund,
Vogt, and also several authors who have reported single
cases, have proved that apparently severe phenomena,
which are extremely like severe neuroses, epilepsy, or
severe psychoses, can be produced by conceptions, and
can be again removed by conceptions. I myself have
observed a number of striking cases of this kind. Such
cases may even last for years, or almost for a lifetime,
and yet finally be cured, as if it were by a miracle. I
have seen such a case of severe paraplegia in Wetter-
strand's practice.
Still, we must not allow ourselves to be blinded by
1 Ringier, '
Results of Hypnotism in Country Practice ' (Miinchen :
Lehmann, 1891).
POLYMORPHISM OF HYSTERIA 193
fact, be normalized.
Hysterical dissociability plays an important part,
socially and historically as well as therapeutically. It
occur also in normal sleep, albeit that they are for the
most part less well developed (see p. 87). And sleep is
certainly not a mental disease.
2. The induced symptoms in hypnotized persons do not
exhibit any tendency towards being spontaneously re-
peated in the waking condition, provided that the operator
understands his subject, and does not intentionally
endeavour to cultivate and fix the disturbing symptoms
by means of suggestions. This brings me to a very
important question. Liebeault, Bernheim, Wetterstrand,
van Eeden, van Renterghem, de Jong, Vogt, Ringier,
Delius, I myself, and the other pupils of the Nancy
school, declare emphatically that we have never met
with a single case of serious or lasting damage to the
mental or bodily health produced by hypnosis, but have
observed very many cures and improvements in illnesses
in persons whom we have treated. And it must be
pointed out that we have had the experience of many
thousand cases of hypnotized persons. Autosuggestions
and hysterical attacks, transitory mild dizziness in the
head, and the like, as well as the occurrence of auto-
hypnosis on a few occasions during our early attempts
and while we were still wanting in practice, were the
198 HYPNOTISM AND PSYCHOTHERAPY
only indications of damage which have been observed.
'
'
O. Vogt, p. 170).
I said, The brain of the hypnotized person is our
have '
for the —
good of the patient at all events, in a number of
—
cases by means of a correct suggestive pedagogic treat-
ment, by introducing the habit of good and healthy
activities, by stimulating the healthy traits of character,
and by suggesting abhorrence and disgust for morbid
and perverse impulses. For this purpose, it is true, the
individual concerned must be reasonably suggestible,
and must possess some good qualities, which is often the
case. The brain in these cases is neither affected by delu-
sions nor continually under the influence of emotions the ;
see me, allowed her to get up, and put on her hat, coat,
and and then I got up too, and said to her, appar-
gloves,
ently without any ulterior motive, Sit down again for
'
14
210 HYPNOTISM AND PSYCHOTHERAPY
must use it and lay emphasis on it, and at times it will
'
First of all, I suggest suggestibility to every patient.
I find it best to deal with the sceptic with the following
littleexperiment I say to him that I am going to press
:
Selected Sketches ': The liar who is most to be pitied is the one who
'
Spontaneous somnambulism.
Pains of all descriptions, especially headache, neuralgia,
sciatica, toothache which does not depend on an abscess.etc.
Sleeplessness.
Functional paralyses and contractures.
Organic paralyses and contractures (as palliative
means).
Chlorosis (extremely favourable).
Disturbances of menstruation (metrorrhagia and amen-
orrhcea).
Loss of appetite, and all nervous digestive disturbances.
Constipation and diarrhoea (provided that the latter
does not depend on catarrh or fermentation). Gastric
and intestinal dyspepsia (including pseudo-dilatation).
Psychical impotence, pollutions, onanism, perverted
sexual appetite, and the like.
Alcoholism and morphinism (only by the suggestion of
total abstinence).
220 HYPNOTISM AND PSYCHOTHERAPY
Chronic muscular and arthritic rheumatism, lumbago.
The so-called neurasthenic disturbances.
Stammering, nervous disturbances of the 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 of coughing (also in emphysema).
Hysterical disturbances of all kinds, including hystero-
epileptic attacks, anaesthesia, '
phobias,' and the like.
Bad habits of all kinds.
All hypochondriacal paraesthesiae, irritable weaknesses,
conceptions of impulse, and the like, are more difficult to
cure.
According to Wetterstrand, epilepsy, haemorrhages,
etc.,can also be influenced.
Suggestion may be tried in all pure functional nervous
disturbances.
Many other illnesses have been enumerated in the
literature of the subject. The reader can read these for
himself in the articles by Liebeault, Bernheim, Wetter-
strand, Ringier, and volumes
others, in the various yearly
of the Zeitschrift fur Hypnotismus (Leipzig Ambrosius :
Per cent. Per cent. Per cent. Per cent. Per cent.
Somnolence I875 6-25 6-25 4375
Hypotaxis 24-45 8-62 3189 14-21 12-07
Somnambulism and
deep sleep 48-05 519 3376 6-49 519
Refractory • 5-43
Somnolence • 7-24
Hypotaxis • 52-49
Somnambulism and deep sleep • 34-84
The duration of the treatment, expressed in the number
of sittings, is given as follows :
THE O.P. CLASS IN ZURICH 225
43 2 sittings.
23 3
12 4
4 5
8 6
1 case 7
4 cases 8
21 more than 8 sittings.
Of the last-named, one case was treated in thirty-five
sittings, one in twenty-one, and one in twenty, while all
the rest were treated in less than twenty sittings.
These tables disprove most conclusively the contention
of our adversaries who try to compare suggestive therapy
with the morphine habit.
The above are only a few summary extracts of some of
the many tables which Dr. Ringier has compiled with the
utmost statistical exactness from all points of view, and
which show the matter in a critical light. His chief aim
was to adhere strictly to objective observation, and not to
allow his results to appear too favourable. These results
confirm those of his predecessors and mine.
I used to teach suggestive therapy in my out-patient
class for medical students in Zurich every Saturday from
2.30 to 4. The patients were derived from the town.
I first examined them, and then, imitating Wetter-
strand's example, made them all sit in armchairs in the
presence of the students. I began with those who had
already been hypnotized previously, and thus I saved
myself from having to prepare the new patients. When
the new patients' turns arrived, they were, as a rule,
already so much influenced that they fell asleep at once.
Like Bernheim, I explained to the apparently refractory
patients that they were already influenced, and that sleep
was not necessary in their cases. I then employed
amulets, pieces of metal, and the like at times, together
with suggested currents in this way nearly all of them
;
15
226 HYPNOTISM AND PSYCHOTHERAPY
became hypnotized after one or two sittings (some of
them, I must admit, however, only became hypotactic).
I have not prepared a statement of the cases and results,
on account of want of time, although I obtained very
good therapeutic results. I may point out that these
results were obtained in this simple way in spite of the
disturbing presence of the students (many of the patients
were embarrassed by this), in spite of the fact that I only
hypnotized once a week (sometimes twice in the more
difficult cases), and in spite of the necessity of giving the
suggestions aloud for teaching purposes, as well as in
spite of the unsuitable quality of the cases.
From the year 1898 to 1905 I have only occasionally
treated a few patients in Chigny, in the country, by sug-
gestion according to Wetterstrand's system. In all, the
number of patients has reached 236. 4 Of these, only
proved themselves to be absolutely refractory (17 per
cent.) 19 (8-0 per cent.) became only more or less som-
;
patience.
In summing up the cases, one finds the following
(c. = cured, i. = improved, u. = uninfluenced) :
appeared.
15—2
228 HYPNOTISM AND PSYCHOTHERAPY
to the subjects in all cases to leave off learning things off '
i. = 4,u. = 3.
35. Paederosis
'
(sexual impulse directed towards
'
1
Lloyd Tuckey, '
The Value of Hypnotism in Chronic Alcoholism
(London : Churchill, 1892).
232 HYPNOTISM AND PSYCHOTHERAPY
'
gold cure ' of alcoholics by Keely is undoubtedly to be
found in this idea. Keely did not suggest moderation for
his patients ; he suggested complete abhorrence for all
spirituous liquors.
One does the same in the treatment of the morphine
habit, except for the belonging to a society. But there
is no tempting sociability, no compulsion to drink in
company for the morphine-takers, as there is for alco-
holists. For this reason the suggestive sociability of the
temperance society, which is devoid of alcohol, is so
important for the latter.
I myself have converted many a drunkard to abstinence
by means of suggestion. Still, as Bonne 1 has justly
said, the abstaining medical practitioner suggests in-
finitely better, since his example and his inward convic-
tion assist the suggestion. I have shown the good results
or on general suspicion.
I wish further to warn one not to cast about general
1
For example, I may quote the following phrase of Dubois'
'
Nervousness, under which term I recognise hysteria, neurasthenia,
and all related mixed forms, is a psychical disorder, an altered con-
dition of mood.' Everything thus is thrown into one bag. no matter
whether it be incurable hypochondriasis or an easily curable case, and
everything is an altered condition of mood.' No more need be said.
'
2 Dubois, '
Les Psychonevroses et leur traitement moral (Masson,
'
nevroses '
(psychoneuroses). known, the word
As is well
'
psychoneuroses had long ago been used by Griesinger
'
'
Quoi de plus absurde que de s'endormir en plein jour ;
this.
It has become fashionable in the modern nerve sana-
240 HYPNOTISM AND PSYCHOTHERAPY
toria to employ a variety of methods of treatment, such
as massage, overfeeding, rest treatment, hydrotherapy,
electricity, and the like. The action of these methods
depends partly on the acceleration of the metabolism,
partly on suggestion, and partly on overfeeding. They
are for the most part very expensive, and can generally be
replaced with advantage by cycling, walking tours,
climbing expeditions into the mountains, bathing in the
open (sea or river), and by sleep. In many cases, it
is true, the compulsion of obeying methodically, and
again with him, and enter into the feelings of the patient.
But one must naturally never lose sight of the sexual
aspect, which differs so enormously according to the
kind of person, and which may form an actual danger.
I need scarcely mention that the doctor has to be on his
with the sexual sphere. When this has been carried out,
one has to map out the proper definite aim in life for the
patient, and start him on his way full of energy and con-
fidence. One will often be surprised to see all the psycho-
pathological disturbances disappear as if by magic, and
to see an active, capable, distinguished, valuable person
develop out of the unhappy, incapable, nervous patient.
He frequently astonishes his colleagues by his capacity
EXAMPLES 243
for work, and remains a true friend to the doctor who has
treated him. Out of an unhappy man a happy one has
arisen ;out of a failure a talented one, or even a genius ;
to her boldly that the result was even more powerful than
would have been expected she would soon recover, only
;
i. A
thoroughly respectable servant girl suffered in
the summer of 1888 from profuse menstruation, which
increased in spite of medicines, until in the autumn the
periods set in every fortnight, and lasted for a whole week.
The girl, who had always been pale, became extremely
anaemic, and looked as pale as a ghost. She lost her
appetite, and slept very badly, mostly only dozing during
the night, and experiencing bad dreams. Her master,
whom I knew personally, told me of this sad condition,
and himself thought that she would have to return to her
parents in the country, and that she would probably
not recover. I requested him to bring the girl to me.
It was evening, and she had been losing excessively, as
usual, for four days. I down in an arm-
told her to sit
chair and to look at me. She had scarcely fixed her eyes
on my finger when her lids closed. I then suggested
249
250 HYPNOTISM AND PSYCHOTHERAPY
catalepsy, anaesthesia, etc., with good result. This en-
couraged me to suggest an immediate cessation of the
menstruation. This suggestion was given in connection
with touching of the abdomen, and declaring that the
blood flowed into the arms and legs from the pelvis, and
it succeeded in a few minutes. Finally, I suggested
good sleep and a good appetite. I gave orders in her
home that the housekeeper was to control her menstrua-
tion. The loss did not recur, and the girl slept fairly
well during the following night. I hypnotized her again
been given up
'
during this illness. She had again
'
years.
Since then I have regulated the menstruation of two
other attendants, who were much weakened by metror-
rhagia (one of them suffered from mitral regurgitation),
in the same way ; the period set in just as punctually as
in the first case, on the twelfth and on the first of the
month respectively, and lasted for three days. The
result was controlled in both cases up to the time when the
individuals left the asylum. In 1903 I treated an educated
lady suffering from profuse menstruation, with equally
good results. The periods have remained regular on a
certain day of the month, and last for three days, up to
the present (two years).
6. The (among others) selected from
following case
the material of my
hypnotic class should be given in this
place Mr. P., an educated business man, stated that he
:
1. Purgatives. —'These
form the most common pre-
scription, but are both a mistaken idea and harmful.
264 HYPNOTISM AND PSYCHOTHERAPY
One person accustoms himself to rhubarb, another to
podophyllin, and a third to salines. The dose has to be
increased, the digestion becomes impaired, and the misery
of the individual grows apace. The intestine ' i.e., the'
—
brain accustoms itself to the mucous membrane stimulus
and to the medicine, which irritates the intestinal secre-
tion and peristalsis artificially. The reaction becomes
more and more sluggish, and the bowel becomes more
and more incapable of performing its functions without
artificial assistance. One keeps on strengthening the
pathological inclination, and one adds to this a patho-
logical irritation or intoxication, the importance of which
isoverlooked. One makes the disorder worse instead of
curing it.
2. Enemata. —
These, at all events, do not produce
changes in the mucous membrane, and do not possess a
toxic action. The same may be said of glycerine sup-
positories. But, on the other hand, they accustom the
intestine (the brain) to artificial assistance, just as
purgatives do. The innervation of the peristalsis is
increasingly diminished by it, and the inclination toward
constipation becomes pari passu greater. However, we
shall never be able to do entirely without these doubtful
remedies. Their application is perfectly justified in
transitory cases, but they are always very pernicious in
habitual constipation.
3. There
remain the following to be mentioned
still :
—
and this was so at least, she has remained cured up to
the present (for several months). In the same way I
266 HYPNOTISM AND PSYCHOTHERAPY
cured an educated man who consulted me early in 1890.
He had from severe constipation for eight
suffered
years. I was only able to produce hypotaxis in him,
but he has remained well up to the present (this was
written in 1902).
I have treated a large number of similar cases with
equal success, and my colleagues of the Nancy school
have done the same. I do not intend to give the details
of cases in this place, and have only quoted these simple
cases as examples to show in which way, how easily and
how rapidly, habitual constipation can usually be cured
by means of suggestion in suggestible persons. At times
one meets with more difficulties, and some autosuggestion-
able persons, especially hypochondriacs, so-called neu-
rasthenics and the like, defy all endeavours.
What I am aiming at is to inquire more closely into
the nature of habitual constipation, with the help of
the facts gleaned, and also into the real mechanism of its
cure.
There is no doubt that constipation is dependent on
various things. Firstly, there is the sluggishness of the
motor innervation of the rectum, or the absence of it.
is then cured —
and really cured. For what has been
reinstated is the normal condition, through the normal
living mechanism of the brain itself. This of itself has
a natural tendency to be retained. How absolutely
different this result is from a motion produced by an
enema or by rhubarb ! The latter strengthens the fatal
suggestion of an illness in the brain by increasing the
conception of the impossibility of a motion being able to
take place without artificial means, and associates and
268 HYPNOTISM AND PSYCHOTHERAPY
fixes this conception more and more. The two are
actually opposites.
How can we interpret the action of suggestion in this
concrete case ? How can we analyze it ?
First, the patient is prepared. One gives him sanguine
hope that he will be cured. Then one brings him into an
atmosphere of cures resulting from suggestion, and his
brain then becomes prepared, surrenders, and is per-
suaded i.e., consents from the first to allow itself to be
dissociated, and not to offer any resistance. He feels
himself prospectively influenced, and, in fact, beneficially
influenced, and in this way
the forces working in
all
opposition to the influence of the hypnotist become
inhibited, and all those which act with it become strength-
ened. It is a very extraordinary condition, this condition
of suggestibility, of belief, of enthusiasm, of subjection to
a psychical influence. One can theorize as one likes
about it, but one thing is certain, that all opposing
psychical aggregate conditions, associations, conceptions,
emotions of the will, or whatever one chooses to call
the whole psychical dynamics in question, suddenly yield,
becoming plastic and weak, and are pierced like butter.
It is the piercing of the resistances of unconceived auto-
matisms, however, which appears to be particularly
important. It does not matter whether this has its seat
unrecognised in the cerebrum, or in the medulla, or in
the spinal cord, or even in the sympathetic. There is
no doubt about this, for it always yields the safest and
most permanent results. If we modify or inhibit only a
conceived associated process for the moment, the
psychical (brain) activity of the patient can always find a
thousand ways later on of reinstating it, of tacking
it on again, of thinking about it, and thus of inter-
fering with the result of the suggestion. In the case of
unconceived automatisms, like defaecation and the
innervation of the intestinal peristalsis, the brain activity
cannot discover the path of association of the conception
ACTION OF THE SUGGESTION 269
Naples for a very short time, perhaps only for one day ;
believe that the note was true until I read the second
first
— —
be meant for me there is no other possibility but I
do not know anything about it," and so on. He then
added " No one will or can believe me. I am in a most
:
swindler."
'
Professor Forel determined the diagnosis already on
A CASE OF HYSTERICAL AMNESIA 279
'
Mr. N. had really applied himself to his studies, which
he had interrupted for divers reasons for a long time in
the autumn of 189-, in A. He had then applied for an
appointment to a responsible official position in Australia,
and had actually obtained the post. After all the neces-
sary preparations had been made, he sailed for Australia
in the beginning of the following year, and entered into
his new position, and remained for several weeks in the
port of Z. Not a single incident from this time could
be elicited which would justify any doubt but that our
patient's mental condition at that time was a perfectly
normal one. Even those persons who came in contact
with him almost daily were not aware of any circumstance
which would lend credence to the supposition that the
reverse was the case. In his correspondence with his
relatives not a single peculiar point could be discovered.
He wrote a letter home fairly regularly once a week
during his journey out and during the first period of his
stay in Australia, but these letters did not contain, either
in form or context, anything suspicious. (We have read
through this correspondence ourselves, and found that
280 HYPNOTISM AND PSYCHOTHERAPY
it was sincere, affectionate, and particularly nice in all
respects.) correspondence suddenly ended on
This
May 6, and from that time his relatives did not receive
any news as to his movements. In his last letter from Z.
he stated that he would undertake an official journey
inland within a few days, and as a matter of fact Mr. N.,
according to the official report, set out on his journey
in good health on the evening of May 6, having carried
out his obligations in a perfectly correct manner, leaving
his accounts, etc., in strict order.
'
We haveon excellent authority that shortly after
it
result. The rest of the letters were kept from him for
the time, so that the remembrance of what he read and
the memories of what he had actually experienced,
which might chance to make their appearance, should not
be hopelessly confused. Besides, he himself requested
that this should be done, for these letters excited and
confused him.
'
By a lucky chance, a certain Mr. D., from Australia,
who had frequently met our patient in Z., was staying in
Zurich at this time for the benefit of his health. Both
doctor and patient looked forward to the visit of this
gentleman, whom the patient had not known before he
went to Australia, with equal interest. Shortly before,
Mr. N. remarked, on being asked, that he could not re-
member the gentleman at all, nor yet form any picture
of him. He, however, believed that he knew that some
gentleman or other had two children, and the name of
one of them was a very striking one, probably Achilles.
This might be the gentleman. Mr. D. greeted the patient
as an old acquaintance, reminded him of this and that
occurrence in Z., and of the time they had spent together,
while not only the personality of Mr. D., but also all that
he said, were absolutely strange and new to the patient.
He felt very awkward in his presence, as if he were
sitting on hot bricks. On the other hand, it turned out
that Mr. D. actually did have two children, and that
one of them was called Alarich, but not Achilles. But
there was not the least agreement between the conception
which the patient attempted to call forth about the ages,
A CASE OF HYSTERICAL AMNESIA 285
the hotel was placed, the duration of his stay, and the
business transacted with the official board. Then he
gradually gained a clear remembrance of the town, which
he had never visited before. The remembrances regained
in this way never extended beyond the time which had
been limited by the suggestion given. When beginning
his account the impressions of memory never appeared
to be very distinct, and Mr. N. generally began with an
" I believe," or " It seems to me as if." It was only in the
course of the following sittings that the pictures gained
in clearness, and united themselves to form a consecutive
story. The patient further succeeded in recalling to mind
his journey back to A., and the preparations for his
journey, which were then beginning. In connection with
this, first of all it occurred to him that he had ordered
two dozen shirts and eighteen pairs of pants then ;
said that he ought to stay in O., and wait until he was quite
well again before he travelled. He was quite incapable
of saying which advice he followed, and what he had done
then.
'
The suggestion, which was given him on the follow-
ing day, that he would now remember the minute
details of his departure from O. and his return to Z., at
19 —
292 HYPNOTISM AND PSYCHOTHERAPY
first remained without result. It was only on repeating
this on the following day that some progress was made.
He was then able to relate that on the evening of his
departure his money had been restored to him at his
request, and that the gentleman who carried this out,
accompanied him to the station on the following day.
Mr. N. was perfectly capable of remembering his whole
journey and the aims of his activities in Australia at this
time (at the time of his departure from 0.), in spite of
the fever. He was quite certain of this, and this is a
very important fact. He remembered then having com-
menced his return journey by train to Z., and having
obviously been half asleep in the railway compartment.
He knew nothing whatsoever of his arrival in Z.
'
I have discussed the manner in which the latter re-
membrances were recalled to his consciousness very fully
for good reasons. As we shall see presently, the exact
knowledge of the occurrences taking place about this
time forms an important landmark for a correct interpre-
tation of the whole case.
'
We then attempted to recall to the patient's memory
the end of this journey to Z., the arrival there, and the
circumstances under which he embarked for Europe, in
repeated hypnoses. These endeavours, however, failed
to elicit any result, and the patient was quite incapable
of remembering a single fact about the commencement of
the journey from O. to Z.
'
But a result could be noted again when Professor
Forel connected the suggestions to the period, which the
patient had spontaneously retained in his memory, thus
carrying out a method corresponding to the one which
had led to favourable results before. This time was the
end of his passage on board the Oroya. The suggestions
therefore took the shape of declaring that Mr. N. would
now remember the first part of his voyage homewards,
and then the embarking, and lastly the reasons which
impelled him to take this step. The patient was con-
A CASE OF HYSTERICAL AMNESIA 293
room was so small that there was not enough room for
all his luggage to be brought in. During a further
hypnosis the patient was given the suggestion that the
further details concerning his stay in L. would occur to
him during the course of the day, and that he would also
have a clear idea about the embarking. On the following
morning Mr. N. reported that the name of the street in
which the hotel was situated had occurred to him the ;
the banister in her chemise, and had gone into the fields
to look at the beloved moon.
It now became quite "clear to me that experimenting
302 HYPNOTISM AND PSYCHOTHERAPY
was only doing the patient harm, however interesting it
might be. I should have liked to have tested her sup-
posed telepathic capabilities, but I had to deny myself this,
for I should have had to have used F. L. for this. But
my duty consisted in the contrary of this i.e., in sup-
pressing F. L. so that M. Z. might regain her health by
means of normal sleep. As a matter of fact, how can
a person remain healthy if he is mentally active during
sleep as well as during waking ? He must become nervous,
incapable of working, irritable, and like an hysterical
plaything in unscrupulous hands, just like this poor
victim of the craving for experiment and the curiosity of
the students, spiritualists, and doctors. My experiments
hitherto, however, had been necessary, since they had
given the key to the double existence of the patient.
I left off giving orders which were unpalatable to her
from this time, did not return again to the homosexual
theme, and tried to win over the somnambulist F. L. by
showing a sympathetic interest.
It may be mentioned here that she was hypnotized
according to Wetterstrand's system in the same room as
other patients, and the suggestions were whispered into
her ear (as I always do). I then flattered F. L., and ex-
plained to her my scientific views in a friendly manner.
She (F. L.) knew of M. Z.'s existence, while M. Z. did not
know anything about her (F. L.). But both were existing
in the same brain, and the poor brain would perish from
this double work. I applied to F. L.'s generosity she ;
did not leave her room again, and in the course of a few
weeks even these attacks ceased. At the same time M. Z.
improved visibly. Her appetite and capability for work
returned. The changing mood (sadness, irritability,
etc.) stopped also. In short, after a few months M. Z. was
in a position to enter into service with an elderly lady.
Since then she appears to be quite cured, and wrote to
the woman with whom she had lived a very happy and
bright letter, saying that she was now cured, after having
been ill for many years. I had given her an amulet as a
precaution in case of a temporary disturbance of her
nervous system, with which she could put herself to sleep
for half an hour and tranquillize herself.
Although this case is not so striking as that of Mr. N.
with his Australian journey, it is nevertheless very
instructive on account of the analysis. It confirms the
rule which I would wish to formulate.
A person does not know anything, or only knows very
little, about his sleep life during the waking condition.
is excluded.'
It is just in these cases that a purely suggestive action
is most probable.
A serious and careful valuation of suggestion must
assist in overthrowing the exuberant and corrupt
therapeutic frauds of the present day.
What right have we to object to the homoeopaths, the
herbalists, the magnetizers, the persons dealing out
mystic treatment or treating by prayer, or to their practice
or results, which really only depend on suggestion and on
remedies stolen from medicine, as long as we allow our-
selves to be led astray so disastrously by suggestion ?
We ought to first clear our own domains of fraud and of
deception by sound investigation; we should then have
an easy task with these gentlemen, for they only gnaw
at the outside of science, and build up their knowledge
out of the scraps which they can pull off.
These very people are the ones who are afraid to have
anything to do with hypnotism, and assume a scornful
tone because the matter appears to them to be unusual,
and because they consider that it has a mysterious and
fraudulent reputation. They are afraid of compromising
themselves. They are entirely influenced by the stuff and
nonsense clothed in scientific expressions of the present
day it would be almost sacrilege to investigate the
;
'
It is a matter of interest to me to be informed as to
the curative value of hypnosis, and also to what extent
and with what results the same is employed by doctors
in the treatment of patients.'
As soon as the author heard of this he took the liberty
of calling his Excellency the Minister's attention to the
fact that hypnotism is almost entirely excluded from the
syllabus of the medical schools, that only a few prac-
titioners have taken up this study of their own initiative,
and have obtained extremely satisfactory results, and
also that medical students are not taught psychology,
and in consequence the majority of practitioners, and
especially the teachers in the schools, have no knowledge
of the whole question. It was therefore to be expected
that his question would receive a negative reply i.e., that
the committee of the Medical Council would express itself
in opposition to hypnosis as a curative method. My
expectations were naturally fulfilled. However, neither
official reports nor the vote of the majority can decide in
scientific matters. For this reason I took upon myself
to subject the Report of the Hypnosis Commission of the
Berlin-Brandenburg Medical Council, issued by Messrs.
Mendel, Gock, D. Munter, and Aschenborn, to a critical
survey in the Miinchener Medicinische Wochenschrift
(No. 32) in 1903. Mr. Mendel is well known as an
aggressive opponent of treatment by suggestion, although
he has obviously never inquired into the matter himself.
I am unacquainted with any special technical knowledge
on the part of the other three gentlemen.
To avoid having to repeat myself, I refer the reader to
this article, and will be content in stating briefly that the
Report of the Hypnosis Commission of the Berlin-
Brandenburg Medical Council is a miserable dogmatic
fabrication, which carefully and consistently ignores the
proofs of the results of suggestive therapy, which have
REPORT OF THE HYPNOSIS COMMISSION 317
titioners, and at the same time does not mention the fact
that it has been proved to be absolutely safe when prac-
tised by experienced men.
I feel that I have said enough about this. Liebeault's
and Bernheim's doctrine of suggestion forms a deeply-
rooted, gradual reform of internal medical treatment, is
in this respect.
A further protection, which is at the same time the
1 This paragraph in the second edition of my book appears not to
have been taken into consideration in the celebrated Czynski trial.
CRIMES ON THE HYPNOTIZED 321
you will drink some water out of this glass,' this sugges-
tion is carried out without any hesitation. If I add to
this, "
You will also place this chair on the table,' some
persons will be puzzled, will look at the chair, be ashamed,
laugh, and in the end some of them will not carry out
this second suggestion, because they consider it too stupid,
too simple. If one asks them what they are thinking
kiss,' or, You will upset this inkpot over your hand,'
'
place.'
Bernheim, Liegeois, and other French authors, have
related some exceedingly interesting cases of criminal
suggestions, some of which were carried out quietly,
without emotion. These included imitation murders,
suggested real thefts, etc.
For the purpose of assisting Mr. Hoefelt, a young
lawyer, who was writing his thesis on this subject, I
carried out two experiments of this kind. I gave an
do it.'
and you will not know that you have been hypnotized.'
Liegeois, it is true, has demonstrated (loc. cit.), with the
help of experiments, which he carried out together with
Bernheim and Liebeault, that one can force a hypno-
tized person to reveal the identity of the wrongdoer indi-
rectly, by means of suggestions of apparent safeguarding
the rogue who has cunningly suggested amnesia, personal
purpose of committing a suggested
initiative, etc., for the
criminal act. However, Liegeois seems to have come
to the conclusion that one must be able to hypnotize
the somnambulist again, and that the wrongdoer was
not able to suggest successfully, No one else in the wide
'
hypnotized persons.
3. He adds a third category criminal acts, induced by
:
'
A certain patient writes in his autobiography that he
rendered a young woman, who was tied to a decrepid old
man, deeply somnambulic, and commanded her during
this condition to perform certain onanistic manipulations
with his genital organs. This she did, but did not re-
member anything about it after awakening. The sexual
intercourse was continued for three months, and was
not discovered. The lady, however, possessed a passion-
ate disposition, and loved her seducer. He would in all
probability have been able to possess her in the waking
condition as well. He chose this peculiar hypnotic way,
as he feared detection.'
Miss von B., daughter of a superior officer, was
'
22 —
340 HYPNOTISM AND PSYCHOTHERAPY
of details of her inmost self, and dictated his will to her
by means of suggestion during the condition of deep
hypnosis, when they had any This
difference of opinion.
mischief was only got rid of after my
medical aid had
been called upon, and an energetic hypnotherapeutic
treatment had been instituted.'
'
Czynski [see above] had hypnotized the Baroness for
medical reasons, and having got her in such a deep
hypnotic condition that she was no longer capable of
evincing her own will, he suggested his love for her, with
the assistance of kisses and caresses. After six or eight
hypnoses of this kind, he succeeded in getting her to
yield herself to him, in spite of the fact that she did not
return his love. Her resistance had been artificially
broken down by hypnotic means, love suggestions in
connection with actual touching of her body, as well
as by influencing her phantasy during waking. Czynski
had therefore obtained the acceptation of his love pro-
posals with the help of easily-carried-out suggestion.
The jury acquitted the accused in respect to this part of
the charge (offence against morality), probably on account
of the legal interpretation of the Act, or possibly because
the Baroness later yielded herself voluntarily to her
seducer. But in spite of this, there can be no doubt
about the crime of the accused, and therefore about the
criminal use which he made of the hypnotic condition
by means of intentional suggestions. In this instructive
case, therefore, the decision of the hypnotic specialist
will differ from that of the lawyer.'
'
Laurent reports a case of this kind in which a medical
student hypnotized a cousin of his, whom he had put in
the family way, and suggested to her the symptoms of
abortion for a definite time (suggestion d echeance). The
abortion set in at the required time.'
'
Johann Berchthold, triple murderer. Since the mys-
terious uncertainty which attached to the deed was not
cleared up after the discovery of the murder, a portion of
THE BERCHTHOLD CASE 341
'
i. Crimes committed on hypnotized persons and
those committed with the help of hypnotized persons
(posthypnosis) are almost entirely limited
'
(a) To sexual misdeeds {e.g., Czynski case, 1894).
'
(b) To the dangerous abuse of hypnotized persons
(public shows, the exhibition of the mysterious).
'
2. Suggestion in waking condition possesses a medico-
forensic importance, which has hitherto not been realized
in its full extent. For
'
(a) It is capable of causing persons who are mentally
perfectly normal to give false bond fide sworn evidence
(e.g., the eighteen false witnesses in the Berchthold trial,
'
telepathy,' evidencing a want of critical spirit, since the
relationship of psychology to the physiology of the brain
appears to them to be a dark, uncanny sphere.' They
'
1 Liebeault, '
Du Somneil et des Etats Analogues' (Paris, 1866'
Masson).
3 Forel, Revue de F Hypnotism, April 1, 1887, p. 318.
353 23
354 HYPNOTISM AND PSYCHOTHERAPY
them fall into a lethargic sleep one after the other in the
month of May. This was contrary to the assertions of
the books, which state that the sleep is the result of the
winter cold. They had got as fat as little bears, their
movements had become slower, and they crept together
into a corner and became completely lethargic. Their
body temperature sank while they were in this condition,
their respiratory movements became slower, and their
lips cyanotic. When put into the open air the animals,
which were more or less rolled up, stretched themselves
partly when turned on their backs. On pricking them
with a'needle, they made a reflex movement, and uttered
a mild"grunt or hiss. I was able to awaken them for an
instant) by stimulating them strongly, but they relapsed
into their lethargy as soon as I left them alone again.
I then made the following experiment : I took one of
the dormice and placed it on the top branch of the fir-tree.
Although it was asleep, to bring the sole of its foot into
contact with the thin branch of the tree was sufficient
to call forth a reflex flexion, by means of which it clung
to the branch with its claws, just as it would have done
had the corresponding instinctive movement taken place
during the waking condition. I then let the dormouse go,
hanging on one branch with one foot. Soon it gradually
sank into a deeper sleep again. The muscles of the
clinging foot slowly relaxed, the polar or plantar surfaces
of the foot extended themselves slowly, and after a short
time only the extremity close to the claws held on to the
branch. I thought that my dormouse would have fallen.
However, as it was beginning to lose its balance, its
nervous system was pervaded by a sort of instinctive
flash, and the other foot grasped that branch which lay
next lowest, so that the animal had thus climbed down
one step. The same scene then began again the dor- :
slowly, until it nearly let go, then the other foot grasped
a branch lying a little lower. In this way the animal
LETHARGIC SLEEP OF DORMICE 355
climbed down the tree from the top to the bottom without
awakening or falling until it arrived at the floor of the
cage,where it continued to sleep. I repeated the experi-
ment several times with both dormice, always with the
same result. Neither of them fell on a single occasion.
The lethargic sleep of my dormice, although interrupted
from time to time for a few hours or even a day by more
or less complete awakening, during which time they took
some food, lasted for the greater part of the summer, and
gradually left off in the month of August. The little
animals had slept through the great heat of June and
July. They were considerably wasted toward the end
of their lethargic sleep — than I had expected.
still, less
the onset must be another (internal) one.' Quincke saw the tempera-
ture sink in the marmot down to y° and even to 6° C. during the winter
sleep.
CATAPLEXY 357
1
Professor Danilewsky, Compte rendu du congres international
'
'
Very few self-observations by hypnotized persons have
so far been published. The following notice may there-
fore be of some interest :
'
After I had often attempted in vain to allow myself
to be hypnotized by other methods (among others by
Hansen), my friend Professor von Speyr succeeded in
placing me in a' hypnotic sleep according to Liebeault's
method (verbal suggestion and fixation). In order to
assist the conception of sleep, I had gone to bed (it was
already somewhat late in the evening). I was quite
my became so
intention, the contraction of the flexors
energetic that the arm, instead of moving outwards as
I had intended, moved backwards on the upper arm.
Then my friend said that my right hand was anaes-
'
to move one leg, then the other, and so on until the act
was accomplished.
I was able to resist the carrying out of a posthypnotic
'
Duval, 39 Hypnotizibility, 66
Dynamic changes, 19, 32, 40, 324 Hypoconsciousness, 2, 25, 77, 105
Hypotaxis, 72, 98
Hysteria, 189, 193, 215, 220, 227,
255. 273
Ecphoria, 4, 157 Hysterical, the, 61, 75, 184
Emotions, 1 14, 201
Energy, law of, 13
Engrams, 4, 107
Evidence in court of law, 341 Identity hypothesis, 1
Exhaustion, 169 Imagination, 32, 167
Exhibition of the hypnotized, 337 Impulse, 31, 114, 201, 227
Exner, 36, 165 Impulsion, 193, 324
Indications for hypnotic treat-
ment, 219
F
Indifference, condition of primary
Faith, 218, 310 and secondary, 4
Fechner-Weber law, 18 Inhibition, 24, 180, 185
Feelings, 174 Instinct, 30
Fluid theory, 49 Intuition, 31
Forel's results, 225 J
Forensic aspect of hypnotism, 318
Jouer au naturel, 33
327
K
Keller, G., 149
Genius and insanity, 241 Kopernik's theory, 10
Grossmann, 210
H
Lactic acid theory of sleep, 169
Habits, 271 Law of preservation of energy, 1
N Safeguards, 320
Nancy school, 47, 54, 63, 131, 321 Sauter case, 343
Nerve activity, 36, 41
Schrenk-Notzing, Von, 57, 82, 338
elements, 36 Seeing, 44
energy, 43 Semon, R., 3, 107, 307
Q Telepathy, 52
Quackery, 304 Termineingebung, 132, 330
37° INDEX
Vogt, O., 57. 71. 97. io 5. ' 22 T 5 6 .
Terminology, 63 -
THE END
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