and even had been rediscovered decades before; but not until this
period were they extensively and authoritatively acknowledged.
This reinstatement was naturally the result of coöperation of
many workers; while hypnotism still remained a favorite study of
French neurologists, other countries contributed extensively to its
advance. In Germany the main impetus to its study seems to have
been given by the striking demonstrations of hypnotic phenomena
by a Danish hypnotist, Hansen (1879 and 1880), which led to their
study by various physiologists. The earliest American contribution
of this period (and which was somewhat independent in origin) was
a study of trance-states by Dr. G. M. Beard, of New York, in 1881.
But accounts of contributors and contributions belong no longer
to the historical aspect which we are considering, but to modern
hypnotism. Suffice it to say that the literature of the subject of
the past two decades is almost alarmingly voluminous in its extent,
and most cosmopolitan in its composition; that cognate departments
of science--physiology, psychology, medicine--consider its bearings
upon their special problems; that its therapeutic application to
the cure of disease by the efficacy of the power of suggestion is
recognized extensively by general practitioners, by neurologists,
as well as in specific hypnotic clinics; that its utilization as a
special method of psychology has been productive of interesting and
valuable contributions; and that it illuminates many a dark recess
in the story of the historical and sociological development of
humanity. One phase of the matter, alone, seems destined to serve
as an historical turning-point; the year of the new epoch is best
marked by the appearance in 1886 of Dr. Bernheim's classic volume on
"Suggestion and its Therapeutical Applications"; and the key-note of
the newer doctrine lies in the term "suggestion." Charcot and his
followers had, in different degrees and ways, emphasized the physical
characteristics of the hypnosis; they held that in typical subjects
there were objectively distinct hypnotic states, characterized and
induced by physical manifestations. They recognized the importance
of suggestion, but in addition to it also recognized the existence
of objectively differentiated hypnotic phenomena. These and related
doctrines are commonly referred to as those of the "school of Paris."
In contrast with this is the "school of Nancy," of which Dr. Bernheim
is the acknowledged leader, and which may be characterized as the
"suggestionist" school. This school recognizes different degrees of
suggestibility, and an endless variety of resulting phenomena, but
regards suggestion, in its various forms, as furnishing a sufficient
and comprehensive clue to the entire range of observations. It
is compelled accordingly to regard the three distinctive states
recognized by Charcot as themselves the product of unconscious
suggestion and of a contagious _esprit de corps_ of the Salpêtrière
subjects.
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