Hypnotism: Its History, Practice and Theory |
||
|
latter frequently did so, although the voluntary idea of blushing did not cause
B. to do so. Tickling, also, is a well-known example of the difference in the
results produced when a simple stimulus is self-applied or applied by somebody
else. Let somebody else tickle you, and you laugh ; tickle yourself, and you
do not. A number of other examples could be cited, and all tend to show that
when another person calls up an idea in my mind the result is different from
that which would be produced by the self-same idea voluntarily induced by myself.
Experience shows the same to hold good in hypnosis. Superficial observation
led to the conclusion that objective changes could not be brought about by suggestion,
but a closer study has now shown that conclusion to be erroneous. But, as I
have already shown, there may be other processes at work in hypnosis besides
suggestion. It is possible that the physical symptoms which are sometimes associated
with suggested paralyses, and which I have dealt with in page 72, belong here.
At all events, experience teaches us that suggestion in hypnosis can bring about muscular phenomena which cannot be produced voluntarily. For example, the cessation of the staggering gait in locomotor ataxy, which Berger described, and I also have observed, and other like phenomena. All other abnormalities of the muscular system may be used as arguments against simulation. If a person holds out his arm for a long time without trembling to any extent, this may be held to exclude fraud to a certain extent. It is also possible to produce such abnormalities at times by special methods. A heavy weight placed in a hypnotic's hand will often be held longer and more steadily than it would be possible for a waking man to. As Wilkinson and Braid have pointed out, directly the hypnotic shows signs of giving way, any tremors can be suppressed for some time by suggesting that he has only bits of cork in his hand. Similarly, I have seen a hypnotized person, whose arm was beginning to get tired and trembled, hold it out quite still directly it was suggested that his arm was resting on a cushion or some other support. All these points must be considered when judging of fraud. Binet, Fere, Parinaud, and others have made particular investigations on the sense-delusions of sight. They say that a prism doubles the hallucinatory object as it would a real one; and in hallucinations of colour, the 212 HYPNOTISM. complementary colour is said to be seen afterwards, just as in a normal act of vision. But Charpentier and Bernheim have very properly submitted these statements to criticism. They have shown that the hallucinatory object was only apparently |
|
|
More cool stuff from www.hypnosisschool.org: © 2012 |
||