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As regards post-hypnotic suggestion, which is a very important phenomenon of
hypnosis, we find that sleep presents
186 HYPNOTISM.
not only many points of resemblance but even apparently identical phenomena
(Liebeault, Exner, Sante de Sanctis). Of course the effect of night-dreams upon
the organism is not so easy to observe as the effect of suggestion, as most
dreams are forgotten. Still there are exceptions. People who dream of a shot,
and wake in consequence, continue to hear the reverberation clearly after they
wake (Max Simon). Others after waking feel a pain of which they have been dreaming
(Charpignon). Aristotle maintained long ago that many of our actions have their
origin in dreams. To this class belongs a case reported by Sauvet and Moreau
de Tours in 1844, in which a man in ordinary sleep had visions which gradually
influenced him in waking, and induced him to abandon his home. Tonnini mentions
a rather inconclusive case of a woman who was induced by a dream to do something.
Of course, such phenomena are very difficult to observe, but it is very probable
that dreams have an after-effect on even thoroughly healthy people. I will merely
mention certain phenomena which resemble these — the dreams that are continued
into waking life, which may be compared to continuative post-hypnotic suggestions.
There are well-known vivid dream-images which are not recognized as dreams,
and which are taken for reality even after waking (Brierre de Boismont). It
is certain that even the most enlightened persons are influenced by dreams.
Many are out of humour after having been annoyed by unpleasant dreams. The experiments
lately made by Heerwagen have proved that persons who have dreamed much are
in an unpleasant frame of mind the next day. I know of patients who are much
worse after dreaming of their complaints; a stammerer will stammer more after
dreaming about it. It is probable that erotic dreams belong to this class, because
even when they terminate with the emission of semen, they stimulate, rather
than inhibit, sexual desire. We find analogies with post-hypnotic suggestion
everywhere. There are well-known cases in which persons have dreamed of taking
an aperient with effect. Perhaps a case mentioned by Ferre may also he referred
to here. A girl dreamed for several nights that men were running after her.
She grew daily more exhausted, and the weakness in her legs increased until
a hysterical paraplegia of both legs declared itself. Nacke insists on the legal
significance of dreams. Hysterical girls have often declared that they had been
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