Hypnosis is a human condition involving focused
attention
Attention or focus, is the concentration of awareness on some phenomenon to the exclusion of other stimuli. It is the selective concentration on discrete information, either subjectively or objectively. William James (1890) wrote that "Atte ...
(the selective attention/selective inattention hypothesis, SASI),
reduced peripheral awareness, and an enhanced capacity to respond to
suggestion
Suggestion is the psychological process by which a person guides their own or another person's desired thoughts, feelings, and behaviors by presenting stimuli that may elicit them as reflexes instead of relying on conscious effort.
Nineteenth-cent ...
.
[In 2015, the ]American Psychological Association
The American Psychological Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychologists in the United States, and the largest psychological association in the world. It has over 170,000 members, including scientists, educators, clin ...
Division 30 defined hypnosis as a "state of consciousness involving focused attention and reduced peripheral awareness characterized by an enhanced capacity for response to suggestion". For critical commentary on this definition, see:
There are competing theories explaining hypnosis and related phenomena. ''Altered state'' theories see hypnosis as an
altered state of mind
An altered state of consciousness (ASC), also called an altered state of mind, altered mental status (AMS) or mind alteration, is any condition which is significantly different from a normal waking state. It describes induced changes in one's me ...
or
trance
Trance is a state of semi-consciousness in which a person is not self-aware and is either altogether unresponsive to external stimuli (but nevertheless capable of pursuing and realizing an aim) or is selectively responsive in following the dir ...
, marked by a level of awareness different from the ordinary
state of consciousness
Consciousness, at its simplest, is awareness of a state or object, either internal to oneself or in one's external environment. However, its nature has led to millennia of analyses, explanations, and debate among philosophers, scientists, an ...
. In contrast, ''non-state'' theories see hypnosis as, variously, a type of placebo effect,
[Kirsch, I., "Clinical Hypnosis as a Nondeceptive Placebo", pp. 211–25 in Kirsch, I., Capafons, A., Cardeña-Buelna, E., Amigó, S. (eds.), ''Clinical Hypnosis and Self-Regulation: Cognitive-Behavioral Perspectives'', American Psychological Association, (Washington), 1999 ] a redefinition of an interaction with a therapist or a form of imaginative
role enactment.
During hypnosis, a person is said to have heightened focus and
concentration
In chemistry, concentration is the abundance of a constituent divided by the total volume of a mixture. Several types of mathematical description can be distinguished: '' mass concentration'', '' molar concentration'', '' number concentration'', ...
and an increased response to suggestions.
Hypnosis usually begins with a
hypnotic induction
Hypnotic induction is the process undertaken by a hypnotist to establish the state or conditions required for hypnosis to occur.
Self-hypnosis is also possible, in which a subject listens to a recorded induction or plays the roles of both hypnot ...
involving a series of preliminary instructions and suggestions. The use of hypnosis for therapeutic purposes is referred to as "
hypnotherapy
Hypnotherapy, also known as hypnotic medicine, is the use of hypnosis in psychotherapy. Hypnotherapy is generally not considered to be based on scientific evidence, and is rarely recommended in clinical practice guidelines. However, several p ...
", while its use as a form of entertainment for an audience is known as "
stage hypnosis
Stage hypnosis is hypnosis performed in front of an audience for the purposes of entertainment, usually in a theater or club. A modern stage hypnosis performance typically delivers a comedic show rather than simply a demonstration to impress an au ...
", a form of
mentalism
Mentalism is a performing art in which its practitioners, known as mentalists, appear to demonstrate highly developed mental or intuitive abilities. Mentalists perform a theatrical act that includes special effects that may appear to employ ...
.
The use of hypnosis as a form of therapy to retrieve and integrate early trauma is controversial within the scientific mainstream. Research indicates that hypnotising an individual may aid the formation of false memories, and that hypnosis "does not help people recall events more accurately". Medical hypnosis is often considered
pseudoscience
Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or unfalsifiable cl ...
or
quackery
Quackery, often synonymous with health fraud, is the promotion of fraudulent or Ignorance, ignorant medicine, medical practices. A quack is a "fraudulent or ignorant pretender to medical skill" or "a person who pretends, professionally or public ...
.
Etymology
The words ''hypnosis'' and ''hypnotism'' both derive from the term ''neuro-hypnotism'' (nervous sleep), all of which were coined by
Étienne Félix d'Henin de Cuvillers
Étienne Félix d'Henin de Cuvillers (1755–1841) was a French magnetizer and an early practitioner of mesmerism as a scientific discipline. He's best known for coining the term hypnotism.
Hénin de Cuvillers was a follower of Franz Anton Mesmer ...
in the 1820s. The term ''hypnosis'' is derived from the
ancient Greek
Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...
ὑπνος ''hypnos'', "sleep", and the
suffix
In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns and adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can ca ...
-ωσις -''osis'', or from ὑπνόω ''hypnoō'', "put to sleep" (
stem
Stem or STEM most commonly refers to:
* Plant stem, a structural axis of a vascular plant
* Stem group
* Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics
Stem or STEM can also refer to:
Language and writing
* Word stem, part of a word respon ...
of
aorist
Aorist ( ; abbreviated ) verb forms usually express perfective aspect and refer to past events, similar to a preterite. Ancient Greek grammar had the aorist form, and the grammars of other Indo-European languages and languages influenced by the ...
''hypnōs''-) and the suffix -''is''. These words were popularised in
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Culture, language and peoples
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
* ''English'', an Amish ter ...
by the
Scottish
Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including:
*Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland
*Scottish English
*Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...
surgeon
James Braid (to whom they are sometimes wrongly attributed) around 1841. Braid based his practice on that developed by
Franz Mesmer
Franz Anton Mesmer ( ; ; 23 May 1734 – 5 March 1815) was a German physician with an interest in astronomy. He theorized the existence of a process of natural Energy (esotericism), energy transference occurring between all animate and inanimat ...
and his followers (which was called "Mesmerism" or "
animal magnetism
Animal magnetism, also known as mesmerism, is a theory invented by German doctor Franz Mesmer in the 18th century. It posits the existence of an invisible natural force (''Lebensmagnetismus'') possessed by all living things, including humans ...
"), but differed in his theory as to how the procedure worked.
Definition and classification
A person in a state of hypnosis has focused attention, deeply relaxed physical and mental state and has increased
suggestibility
Suggestibility is the quality of being inclined to accept and act on the suggestions of others. One may fill in gaps in certain memories with false information given by another when recalling a scenario or moment. Suggestibility uses cues to disto ...
.
It could be said that hypnotic suggestion is explicitly intended to make use of the
placebo
A placebo ( ) can be roughly defined as a sham medical treatment. Common placebos include inert tablets (like sugar pills), inert injections (like saline), sham surgery, and other procedures.
Placebos are used in randomized clinical trials ...
effect. For example, in 1994,
Irving Kirsch
Irving Kirsch (born March 7, 1943) is an American psychologist and academic. He is the Associate Director of the Program in Placebo Studies and a lecturer in medicine at the Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He is ...
characterized hypnosis as a "non-deceptive placebo", i.e., a method that openly makes use of suggestion and employs methods to amplify its effects.
A definition of hypnosis, derived from academic
psychology
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...
, was provided in 2005, when the Society for Psychological Hypnosis, Division 30 of the
American Psychological Association
The American Psychological Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychologists in the United States, and the largest psychological association in the world. It has over 170,000 members, including scientists, educators, clin ...
(APA), published the following formal definition:
Michael Nash provides a list of eight definitions of hypnosis by different authors, in addition to his own view that hypnosis is "a special case of psychological
regression
Regression or regressions may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Regression'' (film), a 2015 horror film by Alejandro Amenábar, starring Ethan Hawke and Emma Watson
* ''Regression'' (magazine), an Australian punk rock fanzine (1982–1984)
* ...
":
#
Janet
Janet may refer to:
Names
* Janet (given name)
Surname
* Charles Janet (1849–1932), French engineer, inventor and biologist, known for the Left Step periodic table
* Jules Janet (1861–1945), French psychologist and psychotherapist
* Maur ...
, near the turn of the century, and more recently
Ernest Hilgard
Ernest Ropiequet "Jack" Hilgard (July 25, 1904 – October 22, 2001) was an American psychologist and professor at Stanford University. He became famous in the 1950s for his research on hypnosis, especially with regard to pain control. Along wi ...
..., have defined hypnosis in terms of
dissociation.
#
Social psychologist
Social psychology is the methodical study of how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others. Although studying many of the same substantive topics as its counterpart in the field of ...
s
Sarbin and Coe ... have described hypnosis in terms of
role theory
Role theory is a concept in sociology and in social psychology that considers most of everyday activity to be the acting-out of socially defined categories (e.g., mother, manager, teacher). Each role is a set of rights, duties, expectations, norm ...
. Hypnosis is a role that people play; they act "as if" they were hypnotised.
#
T. X. Barber
Theodore Xenophon Barber (1927–2005) was an American psychologist who researched and wrote on the subject of hypnosis, publishing over 200 articles and eight books on that and related topics. He was the chief psychologist at Cushing Hospital, ...
... defined hypnosis in terms of nonhypnotic behavioural parameters, such as task motivation and the act of labeling the situation as hypnosis.
# In his early writings,
Weitzenhoffer ... conceptualised hypnosis as a state of enhanced suggestibility. Most recently ... he has defined hypnotism as "a form of influence by one person exerted on another through the medium or agency of suggestion."
#
Psychoanalyst
PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: and is a set of theories and techniques of research to discover unconscious processes and their influence on conscious thought, emotion and behaviour. Based on dream interpretation, psychoanalysis is also a talk th ...
s Gill and
Brenman ... described hypnosis by using the psychoanalytic concept of "regression in the service of the ego".
# Edmonston ... has assessed hypnosis as being merely a state of relaxation.
#
Spiegel
Spiegel is German, Yiddish, and Dutch for "mirror". More specifically, it may refer to:
Publications
* ''Der Spiegel'', a weekly German magazine
* ''Der Spiegel'' (website), the online sibling of ''Der Spiegel''
Political
* Spiegel scandal, a 1 ...
and
Spiegel
Spiegel is German, Yiddish, and Dutch for "mirror". More specifically, it may refer to:
Publications
* ''Der Spiegel'', a weekly German magazine
* ''Der Spiegel'' (website), the online sibling of ''Der Spiegel''
Political
* Spiegel scandal, a 1 ...
... have implied that hypnosis is a biological capacity.
#
Erickson Erickson may refer to:
Places Canada
* Erickson, British Columbia, an unincorporated area
*Erickson, Manitoba
Erickson is an unincorporated urban community in the Municipality of Clanwilliam – Erickson within the Canadian province of Manitoba ...
... is considered the leading exponent of the position that hypnosis is a special, inner-directed, altered state of functioning.
Joe Griffin and
Ivan Tyrrell (the originators of the
human givens approach) define hypnosis as "any artificial way of accessing the
REM
Rem or REM may refer to:
Music
* R.E.M., an American rock band
* ''R.E.M.'' (EP), by the band Green
* "R.E.M." (song), by Ariana Grande
Science and technology
* Rapid eye movement sleep, a phase of sleep
* Roentgen equivalent man (rem), a unit ...
state, the same brain state in which dreaming occurs" and suggest that this definition, when properly understood, resolves "many of the mysteries and controversies surrounding hypnosis". They see the REM state as being vitally important for life itself, for programming in our instinctive knowledge initially (after Dement and Jouvet) and then for adding to this throughout life. They attempt to explain this by asserting that, in a sense, all learning is post-hypnotic, which they say explains why the number of ways people can be put into a hypnotic state are so varied: according to them, anything that focuses a person's attention, inward or outward, puts them into a trance.
Induction
Hypnosis is normally preceded by a "hypnotic induction" technique. Traditionally, this was interpreted as a method of putting the subject into a "hypnotic trance"; however, subsequent "nonstate" theorists have viewed it differently, seeing it as a means of heightening client expectation, defining their role, focusing attention, etc. The induction techniques and methods are dependent on the depth of hypnotic trance level and for each stage of trance, the number of which in some sources ranges from 30 stages to 50 stages, there are different types of inductions. There are several different induction techniques. One of the most influential methods was Braid's "eye-fixation" technique, also known as "Braidism". Many variations of the eye-fixation approach exist, including the induction used in the
Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale (SHSS), the most widely used research tool in the field of hypnotism.
Braid's original description of his induction is as follows:
Braid later acknowledged that the hypnotic induction technique was not necessary in every case, and subsequent researchers have generally found that on average it contributes less than previously expected to the effect of hypnotic suggestions.
[Barber, TX, Spanos, NP. & Chaves, JF., ''Hypnosis, imagination, and human potentialities''. Pergamon Press, 1974.](_blank)
. Variations and alternatives to the original hypnotic induction techniques were subsequently developed. However, this method is still considered authoritative. In 1941, Robert White wrote: "It can be safely stated that nine out of ten hypnotic techniques call for reclining posture, muscular relaxation, and optical fixation followed by eye closure."
Suggestion
When
James Braid first described hypnotism, he did not use the term "suggestion" but referred instead to the act of focusing the conscious mind of the subject upon a single dominant idea. Braid's main therapeutic strategy involved stimulating or reducing physiological functioning in different regions of the body. In his later works, however, Braid placed increasing emphasis upon the use of a variety of different verbal and non-verbal forms of suggestion, including the use of "waking suggestion" and self-hypnosis. Subsequently,
Hippolyte Bernheim
Hippolyte Bernheim (17 April 1840, in Mulhouse – 2 February 1919, in Paris) was a French physician and neurologist. He is chiefly known for his theory of suggestibility in relation to hypnotism.
Life
Born into a Jewish family, Bernheim receiv ...
shifted the emphasis from the physical state of hypnosis on to the psychological process of verbal suggestion:
Bernheim's conception of the primacy of verbal suggestion in hypnotism dominated the subject throughout the 20th century, leading some authorities to declare him the father of modern hypnotism.
Contemporary hypnotism uses a variety of suggestion forms including direct verbal suggestions, "indirect" verbal suggestions such as requests or insinuations, metaphors and other rhetorical figures of speech, and non-verbal suggestion in the form of mental imagery, voice tonality, and physical manipulation. A distinction is commonly made between suggestions delivered "permissively" and those delivered in a more "authoritarian" manner. Harvard hypnotherapist
Deirdre Barrett
Deirdre Barrett is an American author and psychologist known for her research on dreams, hypnosis and imagery, and has written on evolutionary psychology. Barrett is a teacher at Harvard Medical School, and a past president of the International ...
writes that most modern research suggestions are designed to bring about immediate responses, whereas hypnotherapeutic suggestions are usually post-hypnotic ones that are intended to trigger responses affecting behaviour for periods ranging from days to a lifetime in duration. The hypnotherapeutic ones are often repeated in multiple sessions before they achieve peak effectiveness.
Conscious and unconscious mind
Some hypnotists view suggestion as a form of communication that is directed primarily to the subject's conscious mind,
whereas others view it as a means of communicating with the "
unconscious
Unconscious may refer to:
Physiology
* Unconsciousness, the lack of consciousness or responsiveness to people and other environmental stimuli
Psychology
* Unconscious mind, the mind operating well outside the attention of the conscious mind a ...
" or "
subconscious
In psychology, the subconscious is the part of the mind that is not currently of focal awareness. The term was already popularized in the early 20th century in areas ranging from psychology, religion and spirituality. The concept was heavily popu ...
" mind.
These concepts were introduced into hypnotism at the end of the 19th century by
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud ( ; ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies seen as originating fro ...
and
Pierre Janet
Pierre Marie Félix Janet (; ; 30 May 1859 – 24 February 1947) was a pioneering French psychologist, physician, philosopher, and psychotherapist in the field of dissociation and traumatic memory.
He is ranked alongside William James ...
. Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory describes conscious thoughts as being at the surface of the mind and unconscious processes as being deeper in the mind. Braid, Bernheim, and other Victorian pioneers of hypnotism did not refer to the unconscious mind but saw hypnotic suggestions as being addressed to the subject's ''conscious'' mind. Indeed, Braid actually defines hypnotism as focused (conscious) attention upon a dominant idea (or suggestion). Different views regarding the nature of the mind have led to different conceptions of suggestion. Hypnotists who believe that responses are mediated primarily by an "unconscious mind", like
Milton Erickson
Milton Hyland Erickson (5 December 1901 – 25 March 1980) was an American psychiatrist and psychologist specializing in medical hypnosis and family therapy. He was the founding president of the American Society for Clinical Hypnosis. He is not ...
, make use of indirect suggestions such as metaphors or stories whose intended meaning may be concealed from the subject's conscious mind. The concept of
subliminal suggestion depends upon this view of the mind. By contrast, hypnotists who believe that responses to suggestion are primarily mediated by the conscious mind, such as
Theodore Barber and
Nicholas Spanos
Nicholas Peter Spanos (1942 – June 6, 1994), was professor of psychology and director of the Laboratory for Experimental Hypnosis at Carleton University from 1975 to his death in a single engine plane crash on June 6, 1994. Spanos conducte ...
, have tended to make more use of direct verbal suggestions and instructions.
Ideo-dynamic reflex
The first neuropsychological theory of hypnotic suggestion was introduced early by James Braid who adopted his friend and colleague
William Carpenter's theory of the
ideo-motor reflex response to account for the phenomenon of hypnotism. Carpenter had observed from close examination of everyday experience that, under certain circumstances, the mere idea of a muscular movement could be sufficient to produce a reflexive, or automatic, contraction or movement of the muscles involved, albeit in a very small degree. Braid extended Carpenter's theory to encompass the observation that a wide variety of bodily responses besides muscular movement can be thus affected, for example, the idea of sucking a lemon can automatically stimulate salivation, a secretory response. Braid, therefore, adopted the term "ideo-dynamic", meaning "by the power of an idea", to explain a broad range of "psycho-physiological" (mind–body) phenomena. Braid coined the term "mono-ideodynamic" to refer to the theory that hypnotism operates by concentrating attention on a single idea in order to amplify the ideo-dynamic reflex response. Variations of the basic ideo-motor, or ideo-dynamic, theory of suggestion have continued to exercise considerable influence over subsequent theories of hypnosis, including those of
Clark L. Hull,
Hans Eysenck
Hans Jürgen Eysenck ( ; 4 March 1916 – 4 September 1997) was a German-born British psychologist. He is best remembered for his work on intelligence and personality psychology, personality, although he worked on other issues in psychology. At t ...
, and Ernest Rossi.
In Victorian psychology the word "idea" encompasses any mental representation, including mental imagery, memories, etc.
Susceptibility
Braid made a rough distinction between different stages of hypnosis, which he termed the first and second conscious stage of hypnotism;
he later replaced this with a distinction between "sub-hypnotic", "full hypnotic", and "hypnotic coma" stages.
Jean-Martin Charcot
Jean-Martin Charcot (; 29 November 1825 – 16 August 1893) was a French neurology, neurologist and professor of anatomical pathology. He worked on groundbreaking work about hypnosis and hysteria, in particular with his hysteria patient Louise A ...
made a similar distinction between stages which he named somnambulism, lethargy, and catalepsy. However,
Ambroise-Auguste Liébeault
Ambroise-Auguste Liébeault (; 1823–1904) was a French physician and is considered the father of modern hypnotherapy. Ambroise-Auguste Liébeault was born in Favières, a small town in the Lorraine region of France, on September 16, 1823. He com ...
and Hippolyte Bernheim introduced more complex hypnotic "depth" scales based on a combination of behavioural, physiological, and subjective responses, some of which were due to direct suggestion and some of which were not. In the first few decades of the 20th century, these early clinical "depth" scales were superseded by more sophisticated "hypnotic susceptibility" scales based on experimental research. The most influential were the Davis–Husband and Friedlander–Sarbin scales developed in the 1930s.
André Weitzenhoffer and
Ernest R. Hilgard developed the Stanford Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility in 1959, consisting of 12 suggestion test items following a standardised hypnotic eye-fixation induction script, and this has become one of the most widely referenced research tools in the field of hypnosis. Soon after, in 1962, Ronald Shor and Emily Carota Orne developed a similar group scale called the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility (HGSHS).
Whereas the older "depth scales" tried to infer the level of "hypnotic trance" from supposed observable signs such as spontaneous amnesia, most subsequent scales have measured the degree of observed or self-evaluated ''responsiveness'' to specific suggestion tests such as direct suggestions of arm rigidity (catalepsy). The Stanford, Harvard, HIP, and most other susceptibility scales convert numbers into an assessment of a person's susceptibility as "high", "medium", or "low". Approximately 80% of the population are medium, 10% are high, and 10% are low. There is some controversy as to whether this is distributed on a "normal" bell-shaped curve or whether it is bi-modal with a small "blip" of people at the high end. Hypnotisability scores are highly stable over a person's lifetime. Research by Deirdre Barrett has found that there are two distinct types of highly susceptible subjects, which she terms fantasisers and dissociaters. Fantasisers score high on absorption scales, find it easy to block out real-world stimuli without hypnosis, spend much time daydreaming, report imaginary companions as a child, and grew up with parents who encouraged imaginary play. Dissociaters often have a history of childhood abuse or other trauma, learned to escape into numbness, and to forget unpleasant events. Their association to "daydreaming" was often going blank rather than creating vividly recalled fantasies. Both score equally high on formal scales of hypnotic susceptibility.
Individuals with
dissociative identity disorder have the highest hypnotisability of any
clinic
A clinic (or outpatient clinic or ambulatory care clinic) is a health facility that is primarily focused on the care of outpatients. Clinics can be privately operated or publicly managed and funded. They typically cover the primary care needs ...
al group, followed by those with
post-traumatic stress disorder
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental disorder that develops from experiencing a Psychological trauma, traumatic event, such as sexual assault, domestic violence, child abuse, warfare and its associated traumas, natural disaster ...
.
Applications
There are numerous applications for hypnosis across multiple fields of interest, including medical/psychotherapeutic uses, military uses, self-improvement, and entertainment. The
American Medical Association
The American Medical Association (AMA) is an American professional association and lobbying group of physicians and medical students. This medical association was founded in 1847 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Membership was 271,660 ...
currently has no official stance on the medical use of hypnosis.
Hypnosis has been used as a supplemental approach to
cognitive behavioral therapy
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a form of psychotherapy that aims to reduce symptoms of various mental health conditions, primarily depression, PTSD, and anxiety disorders.
Cognitive behavioral therapy focuses on challenging and chang ...
since as early as 1949. Hypnosis was defined in relation to
classical conditioning
Classical conditioning (also respondent conditioning and Pavlovian conditioning) is a behavioral procedure in which a biologically potent Stimulus (physiology), stimulus (e.g. food, a puff of air on the eye, a potential rival) is paired with a n ...
; where the words of the therapist were the stimuli and the hypnosis would be the conditioned response. Some traditional cognitive behavioral therapy methods were based in classical conditioning. It would include inducing a
relaxed state and introducing a feared stimulus. One way of inducing the relaxed state was through hypnosis.
Hypnotism has also been used in
forensics
Forensic science combines principles of law and science to investigate criminal activity. Through crime scene investigations and laboratory analysis, forensic scientists are able to link suspects to evidence. An example is determining the time and ...
,
sports
Sport is a physical activity or game, often competitive and organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The number of participants in ...
, education,
physical therapy
Physical therapy (PT), also known as physiotherapy, is a healthcare profession, as well as the care provided by physical therapists who promote, maintain, or restore health through patient education, physical intervention, disease preventio ...
, and
rehabilitation.
[André M. Weitzenbhoffer. ''The Practice of Hypnotism'' 2nd ed, Toronto, John Wiley & Son Inc., Chapter 16, pp. 583–87, 2000 ] Hypnotism has also been employed by artists for creative purposes, most notably the surrealist circle of
André Breton
André Robert Breton (; ; 19 February 1896 – 28 September 1966) was a French writer and poet, the co-founder, leader, and principal theorist of surrealism. His writings include the first ''Surrealist Manifesto'' (''Manifeste du surréalisme'') ...
who employed hypnosis,
automatic writing
Automatic writing, also called psychography, is a claimed psychic ability allowing a person to produce written words without consciously writing. Practitioners engage in automatic writing by holding a writing instrument and allowing alleged sp ...
, and sketches for creative purposes. Hypnotic methods have been used to re-experience drug states and mystical experiences. Self-hypnosis is popularly used to
quit smoking
Smoking cessation, usually called quitting smoking or stopping smoking, is the process of discontinuing tobacco smoking. Tobacco smoke contains nicotine, which is addictive and can cause dependence. As a result, nicotine withdrawal often m ...
, alleviate stress and anxiety, promote
weight loss
Weight loss, in the context of medicine, health, or physical fitness, refers to a reduction of the total body mass, by a mean loss of fluid, body fat (adipose tissue), or lean mass (namely bone mineral deposits, muscle, tendon, and other conn ...
, and induce sleep hypnosis. Stage hypnosis can persuade people to perform unusual public feats.
Some people have drawn analogies between certain aspects of hypnotism and areas such as
crowd psychology
Crowd psychology (or mob psychology) is a subfield of social psychology which examines how the psychology of a group of people differs from the psychology of any one person within the group. The study of crowd psychology looks into the actions ...
, religious hysteria, and ritual trances in preliterate tribal cultures.
Hypnotherapy
Hypnotherapy is a use of hypnosis in psychotherapy. It is used by licensed physicians, psychologists, and others. Physicians and psychologists may use hypnosis to treat depression, anxiety,
eating disorder
An eating disorder is a mental disorder defined by abnormal eating behaviors that adversely affect a person's health, physical or mental health, mental health. These behaviors may include eating too much food or too little food. Types of eatin ...
s,
sleep disorder
A sleep disorder, or somnipathy, is a medical disorder affecting an individual's sleep patterns, sometimes impacting physical, mental, social, and emotional functioning. Polysomnography and actigraphy are tests commonly ordered for diagnosing sle ...
s,
compulsive gambling
Problem gambling, ludopathy, or ludomania is repetitive gambling behavior despite harm and negative consequences. Problem gambling may be diagnosed as a mental disorder according to DSM-5 if certain diagnostic criteria are met. Pathological ga ...
,
phobias
The English language, English suffixes -phobia, -phobic, -phobe (from Ancient Greek, Greek φόβος ''phobos'', "fear") occur in technical usage in psychiatry to construct words that describe irrational, abnormal, unwarranted, persistent, o ...
and
post-traumatic stress
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental disorder that develops from experiencing a traumatic event, such as sexual assault, domestic violence, child abuse, warfare and its associated traumas, natural disaster, traffic collision, ...
,
while certified hypnotherapists who are not physicians or psychologists often treat smoking and weight management. Hypnotherapy was historically used in psychiatric and legal settings to enhance the recall of repressed or degraded memories, but this application of the technique has declined as scientific evidence accumulated that hypnotherapy can increase confidence in
false memories
In psychology, a false memory is a phenomenon where someone recalls something that did not actually happen or recalls it differently from the way it actually happened. Suggestibility, activation of associated information, the incorporation ...
.
Hypnotherapy is viewed as a helpful adjunct by proponents, having additive effects when treating psychological disorders, such as these, along with scientifically proven
cognitive therapies. The effectiveness of hypnotherapy has not yet been accurately assessed, and, due to the lack of evidence indicating any level of efficiency,
it is regarded as a type of
alternative medicine
Alternative medicine refers to practices that aim to achieve the healing effects of conventional medicine, but that typically lack biological plausibility, testability, repeatability, or supporting evidence of effectiveness. Such practices are ...
by numerous reputable medical organisations, such as the
National Health Service
The National Health Service (NHS) is the term for the publicly funded health care, publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom: the National Health Service (England), NHS Scotland, NHS Wales, and Health and Social Care (Northern ...
.
Preliminary research has expressed brief hypnosis interventions as possibly being a useful tool for managing painful HIV-DSP because of its history of usefulness in
pain management
Pain management is an aspect of medicine and health care involving relief of pain (pain relief, analgesia, pain control) in various dimensions, from acute (medicine), acute and simple to chronic condition, chronic and challenging. Most physici ...
, its long-term effectiveness of brief interventions, the ability to teach self-hypnosis to patients, the cost-effectiveness of the intervention, and the advantage of using such an intervention as opposed to the use of pharmaceutical drugs.
Modern hypnotherapy has been used, with varying success, in a variety of forms, such as:
*
Addiction
Addiction is a neuropsychological disorder characterized by a persistent and intense urge to use a drug or engage in a behavior that produces natural reward, despite substantial harm and other negative consequences. Repetitive drug use can ...
s
*
Age regression hypnotherapy (or "hypnoanalysis")
* Cognitive-behavioural hypnotherapy, or clinical hypnosis combined with elements of cognitive behavioural therapy
*
Ericksonian hypnotherapy
* Fears and
phobia
A phobia is an anxiety disorder, defined by an irrational, unrealistic, persistent and excessive fear of an object or situation. Phobias typically result in a rapid onset of fear and are usually present for more than six months. Those affected ...
* Habit control
* Pain management
* Psychotherapy
* Relaxation
* Reduce patient behavior (e.g., scratching) that hinders the treatment of skin disease
* Soothing anxious surgical patients
* Sports performance
* Weight loss
In a January 2001 article in ''
Psychology Today
''Psychology Today'' is an American media organization with a focus on psychology and human behavior.
The publication began as a bimonthly magazine, which first appeared in 1967. The print magazine's reported circulation is 275,000 as of 2023. ...
'', Harvard psychologist
Deirdre Barrett
Deirdre Barrett is an American author and psychologist known for her research on dreams, hypnosis and imagery, and has written on evolutionary psychology. Barrett is a teacher at Harvard Medical School, and a past president of the International ...
wrote:
Barrett described specific ways this is operationalised for habit change and amelioration of phobias. In her 1998 book of hypnotherapy case studies,
she reviews the clinical research on hypnosis with dissociative disorders, smoking cessation, and insomnia, and describes successful treatments of these complaints.
In a July 2001 article for ''
Scientific American
''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it, with more than 150 Nobel Pri ...
'' titled "The Truth and the Hype of Hypnosis", Michael Nash wrote that, "using hypnosis, scientists have temporarily created hallucinations, compulsions, certain types of memory loss, false memories, and delusions in the laboratory so that these phenomena can be studied in a controlled environment."
Menopause
There is evidence supporting the use of hypnotherapy in the treatment of
menopause
Menopause, also known as the climacteric, is the time when Menstruation, menstrual periods permanently stop, marking the end of the Human reproduction, reproductive stage for the female human. It typically occurs between the ages of 45 and 5 ...
related symptoms, including
hot flash
Hot flushes are a form of flushing, often caused by the changing hormone levels that are characteristic of menopause. They are typically experienced as a feeling of intense heat with sweating and rapid heartbeat, and may typically last from t ...
es. The
North American Menopause Society
The Menopause Society, founded in 1989, is a nonprofit, multidisciplinary organization with the mission of promoting the health and quality of life of women during midlife and beyond through an understanding of menopause and healthy aging. Base ...
recommends hypnotherapy for the nonhormonal management of menopause-associated
vasomotor
Vasomotor refers to actions upon a blood vessel which alter its diameter. More specifically, it can refer to vasodilator action and vasoconstrictor action.
Control Sympathetic innervation
Sympathetic nerve fibers travel around the tunica media ...
symptoms, giving it the highest level of evidence.
Irritable bowel syndrome
Hypnotherapy has been studied for the treatment of
irritable bowel syndrome
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a functional gastrointestinal disorder characterized by a group of symptoms that commonly include abdominal pain, abdominal bloating, and changes in the consistency of bowel movements. These symptoms may ...
. Hypnosis for IBS has received moderate support in the
National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department of Health and Social Care.
As the national health technology assessment body of England, it is responsible for j ...
guidance published for UK health services. It has been used as an aid or alternative to chemical
anesthesia
Anesthesia (American English) or anaesthesia (British English) is a state of controlled, temporary loss of sensation or awareness that is induced for medical or veterinary purposes. It may include some or all of analgesia (relief from or prev ...
, and it has been studied as a way to soothe skin ailments.
Pain management
A number of studies show that hypnosis can reduce the pain experienced during burn-wound
debridement
Debridement is the medical removal of dead, damaged, or infected tissue to improve the healing potential of the remaining healthy tissue. Removal may be surgical, mechanical, chemical, autolytic (self-digestion), or by maggot therapy.
In ...
,
bone marrow aspirations, and
childbirth
Childbirth, also known as labour, parturition and delivery, is the completion of pregnancy, where one or more Fetus, fetuses exits the Womb, internal environment of the mother via vaginal delivery or caesarean section and becomes a newborn to ...
.
The ''International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis'' found that hypnosis relieved the pain of 75% of 933 subjects participating in 27 different experiments.
Hypnosis is effective in decreasing the fear of
cancer treatment
Cancer treatments are a wide range of treatments available for the many different types of cancer, with each cancer type needing its own specific treatment. Treatments can include surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, hormonal therapy, targ ...
reducing pain from
and coping with cancer and other chronic conditions.
Nausea and other symptoms related to incurable diseases may also be managed with hypnosis. Some practitioners have claimed hypnosis might help boost the immune system of people with cancer. However, according to the
American Cancer Society
The American Cancer Society (ACS) is a nationwide non-profit organization dedicated to eliminating cancer. The ACS publishes the journals ''Cancer'', '' CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians'' and '' Cancer Cytopathology''.
History
The society w ...
, "available scientific evidence does not support the idea that hypnosis can influence the development or progression of cancer."
Hypnosis has been used as a pain relieving technique during
dental surgery
Dentistry, also known as dental medicine and oral medicine, is the branch of medicine focused on the teeth, gums, and mouth. It consists of the study, diagnosis, prevention, management, and treatment of diseases, disorders, and conditions o ...
, and related pain management regimens as well. Researchers like Jerjes and his team have reported that hypnosis can help even those patients who have acute to severe orodental pain. Additionally, Meyerson and Uziel have suggested that hypnotic methods have been found to be highly fruitful for alleviating anxiety in patients with severe dental phobia.
For some psychologists who uphold the altered state theory of hypnosis, pain relief in response to hypnosis is said to be the result of the brain's
dual-processing functionality. This effect is obtained either through the process of selective attention or dissociation, in which both theories involve the presence of activity in pain receptive regions of the brain, and a difference in the processing of the stimuli by the hypnotised subject.
The American Psychological Association published a study comparing the effects of hypnosis, ordinary suggestion, and placebo in reducing pain. The study found that highly suggestible individuals experienced a greater reduction in pain from hypnosis compared with placebo, whereas less suggestible subjects experienced no pain reduction from hypnosis when compared with placebo. Ordinary non-hypnotic suggestion also caused reduction in pain compared to placebo, but was able to reduce pain in a wider range of subjects (both high and low suggestible) than hypnosis. The results showed that it is primarily the subject's responsiveness to suggestion, whether within the context of hypnosis or not, that is the main determinant of causing reduction in pain.
Other uses of hypnotherapy
In 2019, a Cochrane review was unable to find evidence of benefit of hypnosis in smoking cessation, and suggested if there is, it is small at best.
Hypnosis may be useful as an adjunct therapy for weight loss. A 1996 meta-analysis studying hypnosis combined with cognitive behavioural therapy found that people using both treatments lost more weight than people using cognitive behavioural therapy alone.
American psychiatric nurses, in most medical facilities, are allowed to administer hypnosis to patients in order to relieve symptoms such as anxiety, arousal, negative behaviours, uncontrollable behaviour, and to improve self-esteem and confidence. This is permitted only when they have been completely trained about their clinical side effects and while under supervision when administering it.
Forensic hypnosis
The use of hypnosis to exhume information thought to be buried within the mind in the investigative process and as evidence in court became increasingly popular from the 1950s to the early 1980s with its use being debated into the 1990s when its popular use mostly diminished. Forensic hypnosis's uses are hindered by concerns with its reliability and accuracy. Controversy surrounds the use of hypnotherapy to retrieve memories, especially those from early childhood. The
American Medical Association
The American Medical Association (AMA) is an American professional association and lobbying group of physicians and medical students. This medical association was founded in 1847 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Membership was 271,660 ...
and the
American Psychological Association
The American Psychological Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychologists in the United States, and the largest psychological association in the world. It has over 170,000 members, including scientists, educators, clin ...
caution against
recovered-memory therapy
Recovered-memory therapy (RMT) is a catch-all term for a controversial and scientifically discredited form of psychotherapy that critics say utilizes one or more unproven therapeutic techniques (such as some forms of psychoanalysis, hypnosis, jour ...
in cases of alleged childhood trauma, stating that "it is impossible, without corroborative evidence, to distinguish a true memory from a false one."
Past life regression
Past life regression (PLR), Past life therapy (PLT), regression or memory regression is a method that uses hypnosis to recover what practitioners believe are Past life memory, memories of past lives or reincarnation, incarnations.[pseudoscience
Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or unfalsifiable cl ...]
.
Military
A 2006
declassified
Declassification is the process of ceasing a protective classification, often under the principle of freedom of information. Procedures for declassification vary by country. Papers may be withheld without being classified as secret, and event ...
1966 document obtained by the US
Freedom of Information Act Freedom of Information Act may refer to the following legislations in different jurisdictions which mandate the national government to disclose certain data to the general public upon request:
* Freedom of Information Act (United States) of 1966
* F ...
archive shows that hypnosis was investigated for military applications.
[Hypnosis in Intelligence](_blank)
, ''The Black Vault'', 2008 The full paper explores the potentials of operational uses.
The overall conclusion of the study was that there was no evidence that hypnosis could be used for military applications, and no clear evidence whether "hypnosis" is a definable phenomenon outside ordinary suggestion, motivation, and subject expectancy. According to the document:
Furthermore, the document states that:
The study concluded that there are no reliable accounts of its effective use by an intelligence service in history.
Research into hypnosis in military applications is further verified by the
Project MKUltra
MKUltra was an illegal human experimentation program designed and undertaken by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to develop procedures and identify drugs that could be used during interrogations to weaken individuals and force confes ...
experiments, also conducted by the
CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...
. According to Congressional testimony,
[Congressional Hearing by MKULTRA](_blank)
, ''The Black Vault'' the CIA experimented with utilising
LSD
Lysergic acid diethylamide, commonly known as LSD (from German ; often referred to as acid or lucy), is a semisynthetic, hallucinogenic compound derived from ergot, known for its powerful psychological effects and serotonergic activity. I ...
and hypnosis for
mind control Mind control may refer to:
Psychology and neurology
* Brainwashing, the concept that the human mind can be altered or controlled by certain psychological techniques
* Brain–computer interface
* Hypnosis
* Neuroprosthetics, the technology of cont ...
. Many of these programs were done domestically and on participants who were not informed of the study's purposes or that they would be given drugs.
Self-hypnosis
Self-hypnosis happens when a person hypnotises oneself, commonly involving the use of
autosuggestion
Autosuggestion is a psychological technique related to the placebo effect, developed by pharmacist Émile Coué at the beginning of the 20th century. It is a form of self-induced suggestion in which individuals guide their own thoughts, feelings ...
. The technique is often used to increase motivation for a
diet
Diet may refer to:
Food
* Diet (nutrition), the sum of the food consumed by an organism or group
* Dieting, the deliberate selection of food to control body weight or nutrient intake
** Diet food, foods that aid in creating a diet for weight loss ...
, to quit smoking, or to reduce stress. People who practise self-hypnosis sometimes require assistance; some people use devices known as
mind machine
A mind machine (aka ''brain machine'' or ''light and sound machine'') uses pulsing rhythmic sound, flashing light, or a combination of these. Mind machines can Induced activity, induce deep states of relaxation or concentration.
The process app ...
s to assist in the process, whereas others use hypnotic recordings.
Self-hypnosis is claimed to help with stage fright, relaxation, and physical well-being.
Stage hypnosis
Stage hypnosis is a form of entertainment, traditionally employed in a club or theatre before an audience. Due to stage hypnotists' showmanship, many people believe that hypnosis is a form of mind control. Stage hypnotists typically attempt to hypnotise the entire audience and then select individuals who are "under" to come up on stage and perform embarrassing acts, while the audience watches. However, the effects of stage hypnosis are probably due to a combination of psychological factors, participant selection, suggestibility, physical manipulation, stagecraft, and trickery. The desire to be the centre of attention, having an excuse to violate their own fear suppressors, and the pressure to please are thought to convince subjects to "play along".
Books by stage hypnotists sometimes explicitly describe the use of deception in their acts; for example,
Ormond McGill
Ormond Dale McGill (June 15, 1913 – October 19, 2005) was an American Stage hypnosis, stage hypnotist, magician and instructor who was considered to be the "Dean of American Hypnotists". He was also a writer and author of many books including Hy ...
's ''New Encyclopedia of Stage Hypnotism'' describes an entire "fake hypnosis" act that depends upon the use of private whispers throughout.
Music
The idea of music as hypnosis developed from the work of
Franz Mesmer
Franz Anton Mesmer ( ; ; 23 May 1734 – 5 March 1815) was a German physician with an interest in astronomy. He theorized the existence of a process of natural Energy (esotericism), energy transference occurring between all animate and inanimat ...
. Instruments such as pianos, violins, harps and, especially,
the ''glass harmonica'' often featured in Mesmer's treatments; and were considered to contribute to Mesmer's success.
Hypnotic music became an important part in the development of a 'physiological psychology' that regarded the hypnotic state as an 'automatic' phenomenon that links to physical reflex. In their experiments with sound hypnosis,
Jean-Martin Charcot
Jean-Martin Charcot (; 29 November 1825 – 16 August 1893) was a French neurology, neurologist and professor of anatomical pathology. He worked on groundbreaking work about hypnosis and hysteria, in particular with his hysteria patient Louise A ...
used gongs and tuning forks, and
Ivan Pavlov
Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (, ; 27 February 1936) was a Russian and Soviet experimental neurologist and physiologist known for his discovery of classical conditioning through his experiments with dogs. Pavlov also conducted significant research on ...
used bells. The intention behind their experiments was to prove that physiological response to sound could be automatic, bypassing the conscious mind.
Satanic brainwashing
In the 1980s and 1990s,
a moral panic took place in the US fearing
Satanic ritual abuse
The Satanic panic is a moral panic consisting of over 12,000 unsubstantiated cases of Satanic ritual abuse (SRA, sometimes known as ritual abuse, ritualistic abuse, organized abuse, or sadistic ritual abuse) starting in North America in the 19 ...
. As part of this, certain books such as ''The Devil's Disciples'' claimed that some bands, particularly in the musical genre of heavy metal,
brainwashed
Brainwashed may refer to:
*Brainwashing, to affect a person's mind by using extreme mental pressure or other methods
Film and television
* ''Brainwashed'' (film), a 1960 German film
* '' Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power'', a 2022 American documenta ...
American teenagers with subliminal messages to lure them into the worship of the devil, sexual immorality, murder, and especially suicide.
Crime
Various people have been suspected of or convicted for hypnosis-related crimes, including robbery and sexual abuse.
In 1951, Palle Hardrup shot and killed two people during a botched robbery in
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...
- see
Hypnosis murders
The Copenhagen hypnosis murders were a double-murder case in connection with a failed bank robbery that happened in Denmark on 29 March 1951. After extensive police, psychiatric and psychological investigations and the ensuing trial proceedings, tw ...
. Hardrup claimed that his friend and former cellmate Bjørn Schouw Nielsen had hypnotised him to commit the robbery, inadvertently causing the deaths. Both were sentenced to jail time.
In 2013, the then-40-year-old amateur hypnotist Timothy Porter attempted to sexually abuse his female weight-loss client. She reported awaking from a trance and finding him behind her with his pants down, telling her to touch herself. He was subsequently called to court and included on the sex offender list. In 2015, Gary Naraido, then 52, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for several hypnosis-related sexual abuse charges. Besides the primary charge by a 22-year-old woman who he sexually abused in a hotel under the guise of a free therapy session, he also admitted to having sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl. In December 2018, a Brazilian
medium
Medium may refer to:
Aircraft
*Medium bomber, a class of warplane
* Tecma Medium, a French hang glider design Arts, entertainment, and media Films
* ''The Medium'' (1921 film), a German silent film
* ''The Medium'' (1951 film), a film vers ...
named
João Teixeira de Faria
João Teixeira de Faria (born 24 June 1942), known also as João de Deus (John of God), is a Brazilian self-proclaimed medium, and self-proclaimed psychic surgeon. He was based in Abadiânia, Brazil, where he ran a spiritual healing center ...
(also known as "João de Deus"), famous for performing Spiritual Surgeries through hypnosis techniques, was accused of sexual abuse by 12 women. In 2016 an Ohio lawyer was sentenced to 12 years of prison after hypnotizing a dozen different clients into committing sexual acts under the guise of a mindfulness exercise.
Sexual
State vs. non-state
The central theoretical disagreement regarding hypnosis is known as the "state versus non-state" debate. When Braid introduced the concept of hypnotism, he equivocated over the nature of the "state", sometimes describing it as a specific sleep-like neurological state comparable to animal hibernation or yogic meditation, while at other times he emphasized that hypnotism encompasses a number of different stages or states that are an extension of ordinary psychological and physiological processes. Overall, Braid appears to have moved from a more "special state" understanding of hypnotism toward a more complex "non-state" orientation.
State theorists interpret the effects of hypnotism as due primarily to a specific, abnormal, and uniform psychological or physiological state of some description, often referred to as "hypnotic trance" or an "altered state of consciousness". Non-state theorists rejected the idea of hypnotic trance and interpret the effects of hypnotism as due to a combination of multiple task-specific factors derived from normal cognitive, behavioural, and social psychology, such as social role-perception and favorable motivation (
Sarbin), active imagination and positive cognitive set (
Barber
A barber is a person whose occupation is mainly to cut, dress, groom, style and shave hair or beards. A barber's place of work is known as a barbershop or the barber's. Barbershops have been noted places of social interaction and public discourse ...
), response expectancy (Kirsch), and the active use of task-specific subjective strategies (
Spanos). The personality psychologist Robert White is often cited as providing one of the first non-state definitions of hypnosis in a 1941 article:
Put simply, it is often claimed that, whereas the older "special state" interpretation emphasizes the difference between hypnosis and ordinary psychological processes, the "non-state" interpretation emphasizes their similarity.
Comparisons between hypnotised and non-hypnotised subjects suggest that, if a "hypnotic trance" does exist, it only accounts for a small proportion of the effects attributed to hypnotic suggestion, most of which can be replicated without hypnotic induction.
Hyper-suggestibility
Braid can be taken to imply, in later writings, that hypnosis is largely a state of heightened suggestibility induced by expectation and focused attention. In particular,
Hippolyte Bernheim
Hippolyte Bernheim (17 April 1840, in Mulhouse – 2 February 1919, in Paris) was a French physician and neurologist. He is chiefly known for his theory of suggestibility in relation to hypnotism.
Life
Born into a Jewish family, Bernheim receiv ...
became known as the leading proponent of the "suggestion theory" of hypnosis, at one point going so far as to declare that there is no hypnotic state, only heightened suggestibility. There is a general consensus that heightened suggestibility is an essential characteristic of hypnosis. In 1933,
Clark L. Hull wrote:
Conditioned inhibition
Ivan Pavlov
Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (, ; 27 February 1936) was a Russian and Soviet experimental neurologist and physiologist known for his discovery of classical conditioning through his experiments with dogs. Pavlov also conducted significant research on ...
stated that hypnotic suggestion provided the best example of a conditioned reflex response in human beings; i.e., that responses to suggestions were learned associations triggered by the words used:
He also believed that hypnosis was a "partial sleep", meaning that a generalised inhibition of cortical functioning could be encouraged to spread throughout regions of the brain. He observed that the various degrees of hypnosis did not significantly differ physiologically from the waking state and hypnosis depended on insignificant changes of environmental stimuli. Pavlov also suggested that lower-brain-stem mechanisms were involved in hypnotic conditioning.
Pavlov's ideas combined with those of his rival
Vladimir Bekhterev
Vladimir Mikhailovich Bekhterev ( rus, Влади́мир Миха́йлович Бе́хтерев, p=ˈbʲextʲɪrʲɪf; 20 January 1857 – 24 December 1927) was a Russian neurologist and the father of objective psychology. He is best known fo ...
and became the basis of hypnotic psychotherapy in the Soviet Union, as documented in the writings of his follower K.I. Platonov. Soviet theories of hypnotism subsequently influenced the writings of Western behaviourally oriented hypnotherapists such as
Andrew Salter.
Neuropsychology
Changes in brain activity have been found in some studies of highly responsive hypnotic subjects. These changes vary depending upon the type of suggestions being given. The state of light to medium hypnosis, where the body undergoes physical and mental relaxation, is associated with a pattern mostly of alpha waves. However, what these results indicate is unclear. They may indicate that suggestions genuinely produce changes in perception or experience that are not simply a result of imagination. However, in normal circumstances without hypnosis, the brain regions associated with motion detection are activated both when motion is seen and when motion is imagined, without any changes in the subjects' perception or experience. This may therefore indicate that highly suggestible hypnotic subjects are simply activating to a greater extent the areas of the brain used in imagination, without real perceptual changes. It is, however, premature to claim that hypnosis and meditation are mediated by similar brain systems and neural mechanisms.
Another study has demonstrated that a colour hallucination suggestion given to subjects in hypnosis activated colour-processing regions of the occipital cortex. A 2004 review of research examining the
EEG
Electroencephalography (EEG)
is a method to record an electrogram of the spontaneous electrical activity of the brain. The bio signals detected by EEG have been shown to represent the postsynaptic potentials of pyramidal neurons in the neoc ...
laboratory work in this area concludes:
Studies have shown an association of hypnosis with stronger theta-frequency activity as well as with changes to the
gamma
Gamma (; uppercase , lowercase ; ) is the third letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 3. In Ancient Greek, the letter gamma represented a voiced velar stop . In Modern Greek, this letter normally repr ...
-frequency activity.
Neuroimaging
Neuroimaging is the use of quantitative (computational) techniques to study the neuroanatomy, structure and function of the central nervous system, developed as an objective way of scientifically studying the healthy human brain in a non-invasive ...
techniques have been used to investigate neural correlates of hypnosis.
The induction phase of hypnosis may also affect the activity in brain regions that control
intention
An intention is a mental state in which a person commits themselves to a course of action. Having the plan to visit the zoo tomorrow is an example of an intention. The action plan is the ''content'' of the intention while the commitment is the ...
and process
conflict. Anna Gosline claims:
Dissociation
Pierre Janet originally developed the idea of ''dissociation of consciousness'' from his work with hysterical patients. He believed that hypnosis was an example of dissociation, whereby areas of an individual's behavioural control separate from ordinary awareness. Hypnosis would remove some control from the conscious mind, and the individual would respond with autonomic, reflexive behaviour. Weitzenhoffer describes hypnosis via this theory as "dissociation of awareness from the majority of sensory and even strictly neural events taking place."
Neodissociation
Ernest Hilgard
Ernest Ropiequet "Jack" Hilgard (July 25, 1904 – October 22, 2001) was an American psychologist and professor at Stanford University. He became famous in the 1950s for his research on hypnosis, especially with regard to pain control. Along wi ...
, who developed the "neodissociation" theory of hypnotism, hypothesised that hypnosis causes the subjects to divide their consciousness voluntarily. One part responds to the hypnotist while the other retains awareness of reality. Hilgard made subjects take an ice water bath. None mentioned the water being cold or feeling pain. Hilgard then asked the subjects to lift their index finger if they felt pain and 70% of the subjects lifted their index finger. This showed that, even though the subjects were listening to the suggestive hypnotist, they still sensed the water's temperature.
Social role-taking theory
The main theorist who pioneered the influential role-taking theory of hypnotism was
Theodore Sarbin
Theodore Roy Sarbin (1911–2005) was an American psychologist and professor of psychology and criminology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He was known as "Mr. Role Theory" because of his contributions to the social psychology of r ...
. Sarbin argued that hypnotic responses were motivated attempts to fulfill the socially constructed roles of hypnotic subjects. This has led to the misconception that hypnotic subjects are simply "faking". However, Sarbin emphasised the difference between faking, in which there is little subjective identification with the role in question, and role-taking, in which the subject not only acts externally in accord with the role but also subjectively identifies with it to some degree, acting, thinking, and feeling "as if" they are hypnotised. Sarbin drew analogies between role-taking in hypnosis and role-taking in other areas such as
method acting
Method acting, known as the Method, is a range of rehearsal techniques, as formulated by a number of different theatre practitioners, that seeks to encourage sincere and expressive performances through identifying with, understanding, and expe ...
, mental illness, and shamanic possession, etc. This interpretation of hypnosis is particularly relevant to understanding stage hypnosis, in which there is clearly strong peer pressure to comply with a socially constructed role by performing accordingly on a theatrical stage.
Hence, the ''social constructionism and role-taking theory'' of hypnosis suggests that individuals are enacting (as opposed to merely ''playing'') a role and that really there is no such thing as a hypnotic trance. A socially constructed relationship is built depending on how much
rapport
Rapport ( ; ) is a close and harmonious relationship in which the people or groups concerned are "in sync" with each other, understand each other's feelings or ideas, and communicate smoothly.
The word derives from the French language, French ve ...
has been established between the "hypnotist" and the subject (see
Hawthorne effect
The Hawthorne effect is a type of human behavior reactivity in which individuals modify an aspect of their behavior in response to their awareness of being observed. The effect was discovered in the context of research conducted at the Hawthorn ...
,
Pygmalion effect
The Pygmalion effect is a psychological phenomenon in which high expectations lead to improved performance in a given area. It is named after the Greek myth of Pygmalion, the sculptor who fell so much in love with the perfectly beautiful statue he ...
, and
placebo effect
A placebo ( ) can be roughly defined as a sham medical treatment. Common placebos include inert tablets (like sugar pills), inert injections (like saline), sham surgery, and other procedures.
Placebos are used in randomized clinical trials ...
).
Psychologists such as
Robert Baker and Graham Wagstaff claim that what we call hypnosis is actually a form of learned social behaviour, a complex hybrid of social compliance, relaxation, and suggestibility that can account for many esoteric behavioural manifestations.
Cognitive-behavioural theory
Barber, Spanos, and Chaves (1974) proposed a nonstate "cognitive-behavioural" theory of hypnosis, similar in some respects to Sarbin's social role-taking theory and building upon the earlier research of Barber. On this model, hypnosis is explained as an extension of ordinary psychological processes like imagination, relaxation, expectation, social compliance, etc. In particular, Barber argued that responses to hypnotic suggestions were mediated by a "positive cognitive set" consisting of positive expectations, attitudes, and motivation. Daniel Araoz subsequently coined the acronym "TEAM" to symbolise the subject's orientation to hypnosis in terms of "trust", "expectation", "attitude", and "motivation".
Barber et al. noted that similar factors appeared to mediate the response both to hypnotism and to cognitive behavioural therapy, in particular systematic desensitisation.
Hence, research and clinical practice inspired by their interpretation has led to growing interest in the relationship between hypnotherapy and cognitive behavioural therapy.
Information theory
An approach loosely based on
information theory
Information theory is the mathematical study of the quantification (science), quantification, Data storage, storage, and telecommunications, communication of information. The field was established and formalized by Claude Shannon in the 1940s, ...
uses a brain-as-computer model. In adaptive systems,
feedback
Feedback occurs when outputs of a system are routed back as inputs as part of a chain of cause and effect that forms a circuit or loop. The system can then be said to ''feed back'' into itself. The notion of cause-and-effect has to be handle ...
increases the
signal-to-noise ratio
Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR or S/N) is a measure used in science and engineering that compares the level of a desired signal to the level of background noise. SNR is defined as the ratio of signal power to noise power, often expressed in deci ...
, which may converge towards a steady state. Increasing the signal-to-noise ratio enables messages to be more clearly received. The hypnotist's object is to use techniques to reduce interference and increase the receptability of specific messages (suggestions).
Systems theory
Systems theory
Systems theory is the Transdisciplinarity, transdisciplinary study of systems, i.e. cohesive groups of interrelated, interdependent components that can be natural or artificial. Every system has causal boundaries, is influenced by its context, de ...
, in this context, may be regarded as an extension of Braid's original conceptualisation of hypnosis as involving "the brain and nervous system generally".
Systems theory considers the
nervous system
In biology, the nervous system is the complex system, highly complex part of an animal that coordinates its behavior, actions and sense, sensory information by transmitting action potential, signals to and from different parts of its body. Th ...
's organisation into interacting subsystems. Hypnotic phenomena thus involve not only increased or decreased activity of particular subsystems, but also their interaction. A central phenomenon in this regard is that of feedback loops, which suggest a mechanism for creating hypnotic phenomena.
Societies
There is a huge range of societies in England who train individuals in hypnosis; however, one of the longest-standing organisations is the British Society of Clinical and Academic Hypnosis (BSCAH). It origins date back to 1952 when a group of dentists set up the 'British Society of Dental Hypnosis'. Shortly after, a group of sympathetic medical practitioners merged with this fast-evolving organisation to form 'The Dental and Medical Society for the Study of Hypnosis'; and, in 1968, after various statutory amendments had taken place, the 'British Society of Medical and Dental Hypnosis' (BSMDH) was formed. This society always had close links with the
Royal Society of Medicine
The Royal Society of Medicine (RSM) is a medical society based at 1 Wimpole Street, London, UK. It is a registered charity, with admission through membership. Its Chief Executive is Michele Acton.
History
The Royal Society of Medicine (R ...
and many of its members were involved in setting up a hypnosis section at this centre of medical research in London. And, in 1978, under the presidency of David Waxman, the Section of Medical and Dental Hypnosis was formed. A second society, the British Society of Experimental and Clinical Hypnosis (BSECH), was also set up a year before, in 1977, and this consisted of psychologists, doctors and dentists with an interest in hypnosis theory and practice. In 2007, the two societies merged to form the 'British Society of Clinical and Academic Hypnosis' (BSCAH). This society only trains health professionals and is interested in furthering research into clinical hypnosis.
The
American Society of Clinical Hypnosis
The American Society of Clinical Hypnosis (ASCH) is a professional organization based in Bloomingdale, Illinois, dedicated to the use of hypnosis in clinical settings. Founded by Milton H. Erickson in 1957, ASCH is a U.S. based organization for ...
(ASCH) is unique among organisations for professionals using hypnosis because members must be licensed healthcare workers with graduate degrees. As an interdisciplinary organisation, ASCH not only provides a classroom to teach professionals how to use hypnosis as a tool in their practice, it provides professionals with a community of experts from different disciplines. The ASCH's missions statement is to provide and encourage education programs to further, in every ethical way, the knowledge, understanding, and application of hypnosis in health care; to encourage research and scientific publication in the field of hypnosis; to promote the further recognition and acceptance of hypnosis as an important tool in clinical health care and focus for scientific research; to cooperate with other professional societies that share mutual goals, ethics and interests; and to provide a professional community for those clinicians and researchers who use hypnosis in their work. The ASCH also publishes the ''
American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis
The American Society of Clinical Hypnosis (ASCH) is a professional organization based in Bloomingdale, Illinois, dedicated to the use of hypnosis in clinical settings. Founded by Milton H. Erickson in 1957, ASCH is a U.S. based organization for ...
''.
History
See also
*
List of hypnotists
A list is a set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of the list-maker, but ...
and
list of fictional hypnotists
A list is a set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of the list-maker, but ...
Historical figures
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Alfred Binet
Alfred Binet (; ; 8 July 1857 – 18 October 1911), born Alfredo Binetti, was a French psychologist who together with Théodore Simon invented the first practical intelligence test, the Binet–Simon test. In 1904, Binet took part in a comm ...
*
James Braid
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John Milne Bramwell
John Milne Bramwell (11 May 1852 – 16 January 1925) was a Scottish physician, surgeon and specialist medical hypnotist. He was born in Perth and educated at the University of Edinburgh.
Early and personal life
The fourth child and young ...
*
William Joseph Bryan
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Emile Dantinne
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John Elliotson
*
George Estabrooks
*
Abbé Faria
Abbé Faria () (born José Custódio de Faria; 31 May 1756 – 20 September 1819) was a Portuguese Catholic priest who was one of the pioneers of the scientific study of hypnotism, following on from the work of Franz Mesmer. Unlike Mesmer, ...
*
Ainslie Meares
Ainslie Dixon Meares (3 March 1910 – 19 September 1986) was an Australian psychiatrist, scholar of hypnotism, psychotherapist, authority on stress and a prolific author who lived and practised in Melbourne.
Early life
Ainslie Meares was born ...
*
Franz Anton Mesmer
Franz Anton Mesmer ( ; ; 23 May 1734 – 5 March 1815) was a German physician with an interest in astronomy. He theorized the existence of a process of natural energy transference occurring between all animate and inanimate objects; this he cal ...
*
Mahmoud K. Muftić
Mahmoud Kamal Muftić (or Mahmut Kemal Muftić; born 14 January 1919 – died September 1971) was a Bosnian Muslim medical researcher and political activist during the Cold War. He worked in biomedical science, combining it with unconventional re ...
*
Julian Ochorowicz
Julian Leopold Ochorowicz (Polish pronunciation: ; outside Poland also known as Julien Ochorowitz; Radzymin, 23 February 1850 – 1 May 1917, Warsaw) was a Polish philosopher, psychologist, inventor (precursor of radio and television), poet, pub ...
*
Charles Lloyd Tuckey
Charles Lloyd Tuckey (14 February 1854 – 12 August 1925) was an English physician, who with John Milne Bramwell, is widely credited with reintroducing medical hypnotism or hypnotherapy to the United Kingdom in the late nineteenth-century. He ...
*
Otto Georg Wetterstrand
Otto Georg Wetterstrand (14 September 1845 – 11 July 1907) was a Swedish physician and psychotherapist who was a native of Skövde.
Wetterstrand studied medicine at the University of Uppsala, and in 1871 received his medical license at Karolins ...
Modern researchers
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Etzel Cardeña
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Alan Gauld
Alan Gauld (born 1932) is a British parapsychologist, psychologist and spiritualist writer best known for his research on the history of hypnotism and mediumship.
Biography
Gauld was born in Portland, Dorset. In the late 1950s, he attended ...
*
Jack Stanley Gibson
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Ernest Hilgard
Ernest Ropiequet "Jack" Hilgard (July 25, 1904 – October 22, 2001) was an American psychologist and professor at Stanford University. He became famous in the 1950s for his research on hypnosis, especially with regard to pain control. Along wi ...
*
Albert Abraham Mason
Dr. Albert Abraham Mason (192616 May 2018) was an anesthesiologist at Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead, England who used hypnosis to treat pain and common ailments. He is known for his accidental treatment of epidermolytic hyperkeratosis ...
*
Ainslie Meares
Ainslie Dixon Meares (3 March 1910 – 19 September 1986) was an Australian psychiatrist, scholar of hypnotism, psychotherapist, authority on stress and a prolific author who lived and practised in Melbourne.
Early life
Ainslie Meares was born ...
*
Dylan Morgan
John Dylan Morgan (3 May 1946 – 5 March 2011) was a Welsh mathematician, physicist, hypnotherapist and author. He developed a theoretical approach to hypnotherapy which he published in his book ''Principles of Hypnotherapy''. He also made contr ...
*
David Spiegel
David Spiegel is an American psychiatrist and the Wilson Professor and Associate Chair of Psychiatry at Stanford University School of Medicine, where he is known for his research into psycho-oncology; the neurobiology of therapeutic hypnosis, an ...
*
Michel Weber
Michel Weber (born 1963) is a Belgian philosopher. He is best known as an interpreter and advocate of the philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead, and has come to prominence as the architect and organizer of an overlapping array of international sc ...
Michel Weber
Michel Weber (born 1963) is a Belgian philosopher. He is best known as an interpreter and advocate of the philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead, and has come to prominence as the architect and organizer of an overlapping array of international sc ...
is working on a Whiteheadian interpretation of hypnotic phenomena: see his
Hypnosis: Panpsychism in Action
», in Michel Weber and William Desmond, Jr. (eds.),
Handbook of Whiteheadian Process Thought
'', Frankfurt / Lancaster, ontos verlag, Process Thought X1 & X2, 2008, I, pp. 15–38, 395–414; cf. �
Syntonie ou agencement ethnopsychiatrique ?
», Michel Weber et Vincent Berne (sous la direction de),
Chromatikon IX. Annales de la philosophie en procès – Yearbook of Philosophy in Process
'', Les Editions Chromatika, 2013, pp. 55–68.
*
Michael D. Yapko
*
Gary R. Elkins
Related subjects
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Covert hypnosis
Covert hypnosis is an attempt to communicate with another person's unconscious mind without informing the subject that they will be hypnotized. It is also known as conversational hypnosis or sleight of mouth. (although both Conversational Hypnosis ...
*
Guided meditation
Meditation is a practice in which an individual uses a technique to train attention and awareness and detach from reflexive, "discursive thinking", achieving a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state, while not judging the meditat ...
*
Highway hypnosis
Highway hypnosis, also known as white line fever, is an altered mental state in which an automobile driver can drive lengthy distances and respond adequately to external events with no recollection of consciously having done so.
It appears tha ...
*
Hypnagogia
Hypnagogia is the transitional state from wakefulness to sleep, also defined as the waning state of consciousness during the onset of sleep. Its corresponding state is '' hypnopompia'' sleep to wakefulness. Mental phenomena that may occur duri ...
*
Hypnoid state The hypnoid state is a theory of the origins of hysteria published jointly by Josef Breuer and Sigmund Freud in their ''Preliminary communication'' of 1893, subsequently reprinted as the first chapter of ''Studies on Hysteria'' (1895).
For Breuer ...
*
Hypnosis in popular culture
For over a century, hypnosis has been a popular theme in fiction – literature, film, and television. It features in movies almost from their inception and more recently has been depicted in television and online media. As Harvard hypnotherapist ...
*
Hypnosurgery
*
Hypnotherapy
Hypnotherapy, also known as hypnotic medicine, is the use of hypnosis in psychotherapy. Hypnotherapy is generally not considered to be based on scientific evidence, and is rarely recommended in clinical practice guidelines. However, several p ...
*
Hypnotic Ego-Strengthening Procedure
The Hypnotic Ego-Strengthening Procedure, incorporating its constituent, influential hypnotherapy, hypnotherapeutic monologue which delivered an incremental sequence of both Suggestion#Temporal dimensions, ''suggestions for within-hypnotic influ ...
*
Ideomotor phenomenon
The ideomotor phenomenon is a psychological phenomenon wherein a subject makes motions unconsciously. Also called ideomotor response (or ideomotor reflex) and abbreviated to IMR, it is a concept in hypnosis and psychological research. It is der ...
*
List of ineffective cancer treatments
A list is a set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of the list-maker, but ...
*
Psychonautics
Psychonautics (from the Ancient Greek ' 'soul, spirit, mind' and ' 'sailor, navigator') refers both to a methodology for describing and explaining the subjective effects of altered states of consciousness, including those induced by meditatio ...
* Recreational hypnosis
*
Royal Commission on Animal Magnetism
The Royal Commission on Animal Magnetism involved two entirely separate and independent French Royal Commissions, each appointed by Louis XVI in 1784, that were conducted simultaneously by a committee composed of four physicians from the Univer ...
*
Scientology and hypnosis Practices in Scientology make extensive use of techniques drawn from hypnosis. They are used in 'auditing' and in the Training Routines widely practiced within the Church of Scientology. Hypnosis, in this context, is defined as language and nonve ...
*
Sedative
A sedative or tranquilliser is a substance that induces sedation by reducing irritability or Psychomotor agitation, excitement. They are central nervous system (CNS) Depressant, depressants and interact with brain activity, causing its decelera ...
(also known as sedative-hypnotic drug)
* ''
The Zoist: A Journal of Cerebral Physiology & Mesmerism, and Their Applications to Human Welfare''
References
Bibliography
Baudouin, C. (Paul, E & Paul, C. trans.), ''Suggestion and Autosuggestion: A Psychological and Pedagogical Study Based on the Investigations made by the New Nancy School'', George Allen & Unwin, (London), 1920.*
Braid, J. (1850), ''Observations on Trance; or, Human Hybernation'', London: John Churchill.Braid, J. (1855), "On the Nature and Treatment of Certain Forms of Paralysis", ''Association Medical Journal'', Vol.3, No.141, (14 September 1855), pp. 848–855.* Brann, L., Owens J. Williamson, A. (eds.) (2015), ''The Handbook of Contemporary Clinical Hypnosis: Theory and Practice'', Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
*
Brown, T. (1851)
''Lectures on the Philosophy of the Human Mind (Nineteenth Edition)'', Edinburgh: Adam & Charles Black.Coates, James (1904), ''Human Magnetism; or, How to Hypnotise: A Practical Handbook for Students of Mesmerism'', London: Nichols & Co.*
*
Glueck, B., "New Nancy School", ''The Psychoanalytic Review'', Vol. 10, (January 1923), pp. 109–12.
Harte, R., ''Hypnotism and the Doctors, Volume I: Animal Magnetism: Mesmer/De Puysegur'', L.N. Fowler & Co., (London), 1902
Harte, R., ''Hypnotism and the Doctors, Volume II: The Second Commission; Dupotet And Lafontaine; The English School; Braid's Hypnotism; Statuvolism; Pathetism; Electro-Biology'', L.N. Fowler & Co., (London), 1903
*
Yeates, Lindsay B. (2005), ''An Account of Thomas Brown’s Philosophy of the Human Mind'', (unpublished manuscript), School of the History and Philosophy of Science, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of New South Wales, Kensington, New South Wales, Australia.Yeates, L.B. (2013), ''James Braid: Surgeon, Gentleman Scientist, and Hypnotist'', Ph.D. Dissertation, School of History and Philosophy of Science, Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences, University of New South Wales, January 2013.Yeates, L.B. (2014), "Hartland’s Legacy (II): The Ego-Strengthening Monologue", ''Australian Journal of Clinical Hypnotherapy & Hypnosis'', ''36''(1), pp. 19–36.Yeates, Lindsay B. (2016a), "Émile Coué and his ''Method'' (I): The Chemist of Thought and Human Action", ''Australian Journal of Clinical Hypnotherapy & Hypnosis'', Volume 38, No. 1, (Autumn 2016), pp. 3–27.Yeates, Lindsay B. (2016b), "Émile Coué and his ''Method'' (II): Hypnotism, Suggestion, Ego-Strengthening, and Autosuggestion", ''Australian Journal of Clinical Hypnotherapy & Hypnosis'', Volume 38, No.1, (Autumn 2016), pp. 28–54.Yeates, Lindsay B. (2016c), "Émile Coué and his ''Method'' (III): Every Day in Every Way", ''Australian Journal of Clinical Hypnotherapy & Hypnosis'', Volume 38, No. 1, (Autumn 2016), pp. 55–79.Yeates, L.B. (2018), "James Braid (II): Mesmerism, Braid’s Crucial Experiment, and Braid’s Discovery of Neuro-Hypnotism", ''Australian Journal of Clinical Hypnotherapy & Hypnosis'', Vol. 40, No. 1, (Autumn 2018), pp. 40–92.
External links
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