Hypnotism : its history, practice and theory / by J. Milne Bramwell.

  • John Milne Bramwell
Date:
1906
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Hypnotism : its history, practice and theory / by J. Milne Bramwell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    to hypnotise them. In such cases no attempt to induce hypnosis should he made at the first interview. The true nature of the hypnotic state should be explained, and the patient’s fears removed. Above everything he should be made to understand that his volition will not be interfered with. Forel, too, holds that mental excitement is unfavourable to the production of hypnosis, and fear renders it impossible. Thus, he says, the first attempt to induce hypnosis frequently fails because the patients imagine that extraordinary things are going to happen to them. (b) Insanity, Hysteria, etc.—According to Bernheim, it is a mistake to think that the nervous, weak-brained, or hysterical are easy to influence; on the contrary it is often difficult or impossible to hypnotise those suffering from mental disorders. Moll states that the hysterical are particularly difficult to hypnotise. This is largely due to the spirit of contradiction which exists in such patients, and the opposing self-suggestions that result from it. If we take, he says, a pathological condition of the organism as necessary for hypnosis, we shall be obliged to conclude that nearly every one is not quite right in the head. On the contrary, it is now generally agreed that the mentally unsound, particularly idiots, even if not wholly insusceptible, are still very much more difficult to hypnotise than the healthy. Wetterstrand states that one of the best somnambules he ever saw was remarkable for good health and freedom from nervous- ness. Further, he invariably found that the most difficult to influence were the hysterical, restless, and egotistical, who were unable to concentrate their thoughts and attention. Gerster says the daily press echoes the statement that it is only the “credulous” and feeble-minded who can be hypnotised; the opposite, however, is correct. According to Forel, all experienced operators agree that the insane are undoubtedly the most difficult to hypnotise. With patience and perseverance some of the milder forms of mental disorder may be influenced; but it is extremely difficult to hypnotise those who are suffering from grave insanity. Here, owing to the continuous cerebral irritation, and the fact that the attention is fixed exclusively upon diseased ideas, it is almost impossible for suggestion to find an entrance into the brain. As we have seen, Esdaile’s patients were regarded as hysterical, but he pointed out that hysteria was unknown in his hospitals. Braid found patients with very
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