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of experimenters from obtaining the best results. The gift of individualizing,
which we so often hear of in medicine, is given to few as far as hypnotic treatment
is concerned. But this power is all the more necessary because men are no more
alike mentally than they are physically. Since each of us does not possess this
gift, we have no right to deny the successes of others because of our own failures.
An eminent Swedish alienist—Oedmann—says that he recognizes the good
effects of suggestion in alcoholism, but that as he is unable to produce them
he sends such patients to Wetterstrand (Corval).
328 HYPNOTISM.
In any case, it is a mistake for doctors, who have no aptitude for mental therapeutics
and who moreover lack experience, to deny the successes of others.
But even if every one is not a hypnotic therapeutist by nature, it does not
follow that specialists alone have a right to practise hypnotic treatment. In
simple cases it is not always necessary to call in a specialist; and in addition
to specialists there will, very properly, always be some medical men who occasionally
practise hypnotic treatment. It is much the same here as with other special
branches. A country doctor, or one in a small town, often treats cases or employs
methods, which in a large town would be left entirely to a specialist. But even
in large towns we can hardly desire that all hypnotic treatment should be carried
out exclusively by specialists. Sometimes no advantage whatever would be gained
by the patient leaving the doctor who had been treating him and seeking the
services of a specialist for the purpose of some hypnotic sitting or other.
The patient's circumstances have also to be considered in such a case. In short,
it is quite wrong to assume that only a medical specialist should hypnotize.
Of course a patient has a right to expect that a doctor who undertakes to treat
him hypnotically has had a certain amount of training in the practice.
But I do not think it right that when a patient places himself in the hands
of a specialist for hypnosis the latter should confine his treatment exclusively
to hypnosis. Specialism is not without its dangers. The specialist who only
treats particular diseases, like the specialist who only employs certain methods,
has a tendency to become biassed. The mere fact that we cannot dispense with
these two forms of specialism is no reason why we should shut our eyes to their
dangers. Specialization, especially as regards methods of treatment, should
be carried no farther than is absolutely necessary. For this reason I do not
think it right to consider hypnotic treatment an exclusive speciality. The man
who devotes himself to hypnotic treatment must cultivate psycho-therapeutics
in general as well. There are so many details and so many combinations to be
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