Hypnotism and hynotic suggestion : a treatise on the uses and possibilities of hynotism, suggestion and allied phenomena / by twenty authors. Edited by E. Virgil Neal and Charles S. Clark.
- Neal, E. Virgil
- Date:
- [1900]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Hypnotism and hynotic suggestion : a treatise on the uses and possibilities of hynotism, suggestion and allied phenomena / by twenty authors. Edited by E. Virgil Neal and Charles S. Clark. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.
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![phenomena, occurring, not temporarily and in response to manip- ulation especially designed to produce them, but spontaneoisly, often persisting for months and years, and in the greatest variety and profusion. Many writers, with Charcot at their head, go so far as to regard the hypnotic states as merely forms of hysteria, while many others, led by the professors of the school of Xancy, repudiate the charge, with much needless bitterness, as a slur upon the mental and physical health of the subject. The truth. as often, lies between the two extremes. The phenomena and, perhaps, in part the causes of hypnotic states, are identical with .some, of those of hysteria, but this no more makes the hypnotic subject an hysteric than a bruised foot makes a man a cripple, or a dose of whiskey makes him a lunatic Hysteria is a relatively permanent entity, produced by relatively permanent causes, while hypnotic states are transitory groups of phenomena pro- duced and ended at will. But, one may retort, if the foot is bruised often enough and badly enough the man will become a cripple indeed, and if lie drinks enough whiskey often enough he may become a lunatic,—does the analogy hold? That is a qucs- lion of fact upon which the authorities differ.* If a so-called hypnotic state were to become permanent, or were to tend to recur of itself, it would undoubtedly be a form of hysteria, but the weight of evidence, in my opinion, goes to show that repeated hypnotizing does not tend to fix the hypnotic state upon the sub- ject,—that it has in fact no injurious effects whatever. Still, the question should be regarded as open. All these diverse phenomena are capable of being brought under one conception. All can be expressed in terms of the rela- tion between the self and the various sensations, ideas, motor ]lowers and powers of control which we usually ascribe to the self. Tlie hypnotic paralysis is not a true paralysis. The motor ma- chinery remains intact, but for the time being the self is deprived of its power of control over the muscles. Hypnotic anaesthesias are not true anaesthesias. Of them, as of hysterical anaesthesias, it is possible to prove that the lost sensations still in some •From lonff experience and rinse observation. I am thoroueh'v convinced that hypnoslB within Itself Is ab=olute'v harmless. If anv harmful effects ihould the same power that produced them could Immediately correct them— Editor.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21012271_0159.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
