Hypnotism: Its History, Practice and Theory

 

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She is highly hysterical. Directly she stares intently at any glittering object, and I at the same time speak to her as I did to X. in the last experiment, she falls into a kind of sleep. Her eyes close, and she sits there in an apparently passive condition. When called upon to open her eyes, she attempts to, but cannot so long as I assure her it is impossible for her so to do. I suggest that she is on board ship. (The suggestion takes effect and she immediately feels unwell; she declares she is sea-sick.) I let her sit still for a few seconds, when she suddenly jumps up and asserts that fire has broken out. She can only be calmed with difficulty. Her breathing is very rapid, and every expression of her features betokens dread of the fire. - It is not possible to explain how she came by this idea, as nothing leading to it was said to her. You will observe that although the patient has hardly recovered from a state of abject fear, her face now assumes a look of contentment ; she begins to laugh, and when asked the cause of her hilarity, explains that a tramcar has just passed, and it was so funny to see an elegantly dressed gentleman stumble in the mud. It is anything but easy to free the patient from auto-suggestive influence, and it has cost me much time and trouble to bring her into a state of quiet, and apparently dreamless, sleep. I now ask her to wake up, but she declares that she is terribly tired and does not want to wake up yet. Further remarks addressed to her lead to her opening her eyes, at first partially, then completely. She was told that on awaking she would be quiet, cheerful, and contented ; nevertheless she gives one the impression of being exhausted and worn out. Her eyes close ; she sleeps again; it takes an hour before she is thoroughly awake and free from lassitude. She only complains that her head troubles her.

GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 37

We have here a case of hypnosis in which auto-suggestion plays an important part. It is true that the woman resembles X. of the previous experiment in that she can be influenced by suggestion; but left to herself, even for only a short time, auto-suggestion exerts itself and produces the scenes we have witnessed. Also, it is to be noticed, that the woman cannot be so speedily and surely awakened as in the case of X. Further, on waking, the woman does not feel quite well, and it takes considerable trouble to efface the phenomena set up by hypnosis.

I interrupt here for a time the description of the experiments; I shall describe others in the course of this work, and shall occasionally return to those already depicted. To sum up, in all these experiments, however different they might

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