Hypnotism: Its History, Practice and Theory

 

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from the considerations given below.
The classification of hypnogenetic expedients into psychical and physical is merely theoretical (Forel, Levillain), and that for two reasons. In the first place, we cannot regard body and mind as two factors which are independent of one another.


44 HYPNOTISM.

Sense-stimuli, which affect the body, nearly always exercise a certain influence on the mind; the mind, on the other hand, can act upon nothing that has not previously entered it by means of the organs of sense. In the second place, in practice several hypnosigenetic processes are used at the same time. This will become perfectly clear if the hypnotized person is watched; let him be told that he must concentrate his whole attention on the idea of sleep, and he will then, in order to obey the command, look steadily at some point, or at once shut his eyes, in order as much as possible to prevent distraction of thought.

Thus Bernheim occasionally uses fixed attention in addition to the mental methods. Braid, again, who made use of fixation almost entirely, considered a particular mental activity also necessary. This is to be particularly noticed, because some people nowadays believe that they are using the method of Braid when they tell the subject to look steadily at something. In reality, Braid considered a steady attention as well as a steady gaze indispensable if hypnosis were to be attained; the subject must think steadily of the thing he was looking at, and must not allow himself to be diverted from it. According to Braid, one can hypnotize even in the dark.

But even theoretically we cannot always keep these things apart. Closing of the eyes, with perhaps slight pressure upon them, often leads, as Lasegue showed, to hypnotic states. How these come about, whether through the cessation of the sense-stimulation or through the idea of sleep, which the closing of the eyes certainly easily calls up, cannot be decided.
After these details, the much discussed and disputed question must be answered, whether a person can be hypnotized with-out his knowledge; whether any one can be thrown into the hypnotic state merely by sense-stimuli, without these arousing an image of the hypnosis. For a long time such an occurrence was held to be possible, until the Nancy school demonstrated an important source of error—viz., the possibility that suggestion may be used quite inadvertently. At all events

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