Psychotherapy: Including the History of the Use of Mental Influence, Directly and Indirectly, in Healing and the Principles for the Application of Energies Derived from the Mind to the Treatment of DiseaseWalsh, James J. (James Joseph)
Science
Psychotherapy: Including the History of the Use of Mental Influence, Directly and Indirectly, in Healing and the Principles for the Application of Energies Derived from the Mind to the Treatment of Disease
Walsh, James J. (James Joseph)
Mental healing
Some of these methods continued to be employed by the successors of
Mesmer and De Puysegur, the sense of touch being the principal
adjuvant, though Mesmer employed also the sense of hearing. Braid
seems to have been the first to realize that the sense of sight could
be used effectively, or perhaps that the tiring of the muscle sense
might well serve as a point for the concentration of attention. He
used the flash of a light from some bright object or tired the eye
muscles by having the patient look upward at some object brought near
so as to require convergence of vision. His methods were imitated by
most of the hypnotizers of the nineteenth century. Liebault and
Bernheim, at Nancy, employed them regularly, and they were used in the
investigations at the Salpetriere. It was found, however, that after a
patient had been once hypnotized, all that was needed was a word of
command or a definite suggestion, and the hypnotic state recurred.
Further experience showed also that the original hypnotic phenomena
might, in most cases, be secured very simply by word-suggestion to the
patient, though some individuals required persistent efforts in the
application of several methods {155} to secure the concentration of
mind on a single idea or set of ideas that is the essence of
hypnotism.
By most serious hypnotists, especially those who use hypnotism for
therapeutic purposes, all the rubbings and manipulations are now
either completely eliminated, or are used only under special
circumstances. The important element of the operator's influence
consists in obtaining the complete confidence of the subject in the
operator's power to control his intelligence for the time being;
getting the subject to resign himself completely, with absolute
assurance that his trust will be for his good, and can by no means
result in harm. Without this attitude of mind on the part of the
subject, anything like real hypnotism is impossible. Even with this,
only a slight degree of the hypnotic condition may be secured in
certain people, but the majority have a distinct susceptibility to it.
PRESENT DAY METHODS OF HYPNOTIZATION
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