If a subject after submitting to the hypnotic procedure shows no genuine increase in susceptibility to any suggestions whatever, there seems no point in calling him hypnotised [...] (Hull, Hypnosis & Suggestion, 1933: 392) Hypnotherapy is often applied in order to modify a subject's behavior, emotional content, and attitudes, as well as a wide range of conditions including dysfunctional habits, anxiety, stress-related illness, pain management, and personal development. Hypnotism versus Mesmerism Hypnosis is often confused with Mesmerism, its historical precursor. As Hans Eysenck writes,
The terms ‘mesmerise’ and ‘hypnotise’ have become quite synonymous, and most people think of Mesmer as the father of hypnosis, or at least as its discoverer and first conscious exponent. Oddly enough, the truth appears to be that while hypnotic phenomena had been known for many thousands of years, Mesmer did not, in fact, hypnotise his subjects at all. […] It is something of a mystery why popular belief should have firmly credited him with a discovery which in fact was made by others. (Eysenck, Sense & Nonsense in Psychology, 1957: 30-31)
Franz Anton Mesmer held that trance and healing were the result of the channelling of a mysterious "occult" force called "animal magnetism." In the mid-Eighteenth Century, this became the basis of a very large and popular school of thought termed Mesmerism. However, in 1843, James Braid proposed the theory of hypnotism as a radical alternative, in opposition to Mesmerism. Braid argued that the occult qualities of Mesmerism were illusory and that its effects were due to a combination of "nervous fatigue" and verbal suggestion. A bitter war of words developed between Braid and the leading exponents of Mesmerism.
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- I beg farther to remark, if my theory and pretensions, as to the nature, cause, and extent of the phenomena of nervous sleep [i.e., hypnotism] have none of the fascinations of the transcendental to captivate the lovers of the marvellous, the credulous and enthusiastic, which the pretensions and alleged occult agency of the mesmerists have, still I hope my views will not be the less acceptable to honest and sober-minded men, because they are all level to our comprehension, and reconcilable with well-known physiological and psychological principles. (James Braid, Hypnotic Therapeutics, 1853: 36)
In their original committee report on hypnotherapy, the British Medical Association (BMA), likewise, made a point of condemning the occult theories of Mesmerism and sharply distinguishing them from hypnotism.
- The Committee, having completed such investigation of hypnotism as time permitted, have to report that they have satisfied themselves of the genuineness of the hypnotic state. No phenomena which have come under their observation, however, lend support to the theory of ‘animal magnetism’. ('Report on Hypnotism', British Medical Journal, 1892).
Nevertheless, as Eysenck complains, the confusion of Mesmerism and hypnotism continued to be perpetuated by popular fiction, the media, and its portrayal in comedy stage hypnosis shows. Basically, whereas Mesmerism is a supernatural theory, hypnotism attempted to explain the same phenomena in more established scientific terms, by reference to psychology and physiology. As Braid puts it, it is a scientific and 'psycho-physiological' (mind-body) discipline. Continue
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