Hypnotism: Its History, Practice and Theory

 

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effects of hypnotism on this branch of the question ; the second part contains a study of the salient points of psycho-therapeutics. I have done this because psycho-therapeutics seems to me to be a developmental outcome of hypnotic and suggestive therapy, and ought, therefore, to be distinguished from hypnotic therapeutics, which only constitutes a small branch of general psycho-therapeusis. Attention is also drawn to the connection that subsists between hypnotism and the science of psychology, especially with regard to the important part played by suggestion in all psychological investigations. I have also discussed the influence of suggestion on other questions, such as art, superstition, ethnology, etc., much more fully than in the earlier editions of this work. My reason for doing this is the tendency nowadays to overlook the influence of modern hypnotism on the most varied branches of science and the different phenomena they present. The revised chapter on the legal aspect of hypnotism will be found to contain much fuller details than in former editions. I have shown in it the close historical connection that subsists between the psychology of testimony and hypnotism.

The -last section of the book—that dealing with the


PREFACE. ix

most important points connected with occultism—has been considerably enlarged. I felt bound to extend this chapter: first of all, because hypnotism has brought to light many sources of error in this connection, and secondly, because real criticism affords us the best means of stemming the tide of the uncritical advocacy of occultism. It cannot be denied that belief" in occultism has increased in recent times. I do not assume this merely from the increase in the number of occultistic societies and periodicals, but rather because private conversation has convinced me of the fact. I have.also observed an increased tendency on the part of the public to mystery-mongering. I need only recall the epidemic of "faith-healing," the sensation caused by the so-called " sleep-dancers," the way in which many people were upset by the doings of the horse " Clever Hans," the uncritical praise bestowed on the divining-rod, and the medical miracles of such individuals as Kneipp, etc., etc. The fact that so many worthy men of science have taken to this mystery-mongering is not calculated to make future generations have much respect for the present age. That a man like Crookes

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