A Brief History of Hypnosis

Evidence of hypnotic-like phenomena appears in many ancient cultures. The author of Genesis seems familiar with the anaesthetic power of hypnosis when he reports that God put Adam”into a deep sleep” to take his rib to form Eve. Other ancient records suggest hypnosis was used by the oracle at Delphi and in rites in ancient Egypt (Hughes and Rothovius, 1996). The modern history of hypnosis begins in the late 1700s, when a French physician, Anton Mesmer, revived an interest.

1734-1815 Franz Anton Mesmer was born in Vienna. Mesmer is regarded as the father of alcoholism. He’s remembered for its word mesmerism which described a practice of inducing trance he left over people with his hands and/or magnets. He worked with a men animal magnetism (anabolic and psychic energies). He was discredited by the community regardless of his success. His successes offended the moment, who arranged to get an official French authorities investigating committee’s institution. This committee comprised then the American ambassador to France, Benjamin Franklin, along with Joseph Guillotine, a French doctor who introduced a never-fail apparatus separating the mind.

1795-1860 James Braid, an English doctor, initially opposed to mesmerism (since it had become known) who subsequently became curious. He said that remedies weren’t due to animal magnetism nevertheless they had been due to proposal. He developed the eye fixation technique (also referred to as Braidism) of causing relaxation and called it hypnosis (later Hypnos, the Greek god of sleep) since he believed the phenomena was a form of sleep. Afterwards, realising his mistake, he tried to change the title to monoeidism (meaning sway of a single thought )however, the original name stuck. 1825-1893 Jean Marie Charcot a French neurologistand all the Nancy School of Hypnotism, disagreed and claimed that hypnosis was a reflection of hysteria. There was bitter competition between Charcot and the Nancy band (Liebault and also Bernheim). He identified the 3 phases of lethargy trance, catalepsy and somnambulism and restored Mesmers theory of Animal Magnetism.

1845-1947 Pierre Janet was until he discovered promotion and its calming results of recovery, a French neurologist and psychologist who was opposed to the use of hypnosis. Janet was one of those few men and women who continued to show an interest in hypnosis throughout the anger.

1849-1936 Ivan Petrovich Pavlov – psychologist who was concentrated on the study of the digestive process. He’s known chiefly for his development of the concept of the conditioned reflex (or Stimulus Response Theory). In his classic experiment, he trained hungry dogs to salivate at the sound. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology for his work on digestive secretions in 1904. Although he had nothing to do with hypnosis, his Stimulus Response Theory is really a basis in anchoring and linking behaviors, especially in NLP.

A doctor who devised the Laws of Suggestion, 1857-1926 Emile Coue. He’s also known for encouraging his patients to say themselves 20-30 times a night before going to sleep;”Everyday in every wayI am getting better and better.” In addition, he discovered when prescribing medicine was shown to be much more effective cure than prescribing drugs alone that providing positive suggestions. He eventually abandoned the idea of hypnosis in favour of simply using feeling hypnosis proposal and the hypnotic state.

Coues Laws of Suggestion

The Law of Concentrated Care

” Whenever focus is concentrated on an idea over and over again, it tends to realise itself”

The Law of Reverse Action

“The harder one tries to get a thing, the less chance you have of success”

The Law of Dominant Effect

“A more powerful emotion tends to replace a one”

1856-1939 Sigmund Freud went to Nancy and studied with Liebault and Bernheim, then did research. Hypnosis was not incorporated by freud in his work because he believed he couldn’t hypnotise patients to a sufficient thickness, felt this hynosis stripped, and the therapies were temporary patients of the defences. Freud was regarded as a bad hypnotist awarded his paternal manner. His clients went into trance if he’d put his hands to signify that the , individual submissive roles that were dominant, and that he conducted inductions. Due to his early dismissal of hypnosis in favour of psychoanalysis, hypnosis was ignored.

1875-1961 Carl Jung rejected Freuds approach and developed his own interests. He developed the concept of the collective unconscious and archetypes. His patients encouraged utilize lively imagination to change older memories though he did not utilize hypnosis. He often used the idea of the guide, in the recovery work. He believed that the mind may be obtained through tools such as the I Ching and astrology. He was rejected by the conservative health care community as a mysterious. But healers actively embrace a lot of his ideas and theories for this day.

1932-1974 Milton Erickson, a psychologist and psychiatrist pioneered the art of suggestion in hypnosis. He’s considered to be the father of modern hypnosis. The mind was bypassed by his approaches including metaphor, confusion, and several others through the use of both the verbal and nonverbal pacing techniques. He was a lively personality and has profoundly influenced its approval by the AMA, and also the practice of hypnotherapy. His job, combined with the job of Satir and Perls, was the Foundation for Bandler and Grinders Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP).