History of Hypnotherapy

HISTORY OF HYPNOTHERAPYDISCOVERING THE SUBCONSCIOUS MIND

HISTORY OF HYPNOTHERAPY

3000BC – ancient Egyptians

Ancient Greeks

Indian Sanskrits

Hindu fakirs

Celtic druids

African witch doctors

Jesus’s miracles?


1500 Paracelsus

Swiss doctor discovered mercury as cure for syphilis

Passed magnets over patient to effect cure

1600 Valentine Greatrakes

The ‘ great Irish Stroker’ – again stroked magnets to cure


1725 Maximilian Hehl

Jesuit priest – using magnets to heal

Mesmer was his student


(1734-1815 )Franz Anton Mesmer Father of hypnosis

Found could stop bleeding with a stick and therefore postulated ‘ animal magnetism’


Franz Anton Mesmer(contd)

‘De Planatorium influxu’ – magnetic fields pervade nature

Cured patient of paralysis and temporary blindness

Cured Maria Theresa Paradies – protégé of empress of blindness. Angering parents

Moved from Vienna to Paris

Mozart was a fan


Franz Anton Mesmer(cont)

Developed the ‘baquet’

Asked Louis XVI for a board

of enquiry in 1784

Benjamin Franklin,

Guillotine, Lavoisier

Found all due to the

imagination !


1727-1779 Father Gassner

Contempory of Mesmer

Suggestion as faith healing

1787 Marquis de Puysegur

Student of Mesmer

Magnetised elm trees

Somnambulism


1815 Abbe Jose Castodi de Faria Fixed gaze method first to coin word

‘sleep’


1791 John Elliotson Professor at University

London Became interested via a

student of Faria 1837 Surgery under

hypnosis – angered other doctors as pain ‘ needed for healing’

Expelled from university hospital


1795 – 1860 James Braid Scottish surgeon coined

term ‘ hypnosis’ Developed suggestions

method Saw Mesmer and was

eventually convinced Changed term to ‘

monoidiesm’ ‘Nervous sleep’ acting

on subject whose suggestibility is increased’


1808-1859 James Esdaile

Scottish doctor

Reports in 1846 300

major operations

Reduced post op mortality

from 505%


1864 Nancy school of Hypnosis

Liebeault – ‘ de la suggestion’

Bernheim

Freud studied here

Initially enthusiastic – eventually discounted

hypnosis


1878 Charcot – school of Saltpierre

Pathological theory

Stages of hypnosis

Lethargy

Catalepsy

Somnambulism


Dave Elman 1950’s Stage Hypnotist

Studied Hypnosis for years

Taught doctors exclusively Quick inductions

Deepening techniques


1929-1980 Milton Erickson

Indirect approach

Metaphor

Utilization

THEORIES OF TRANCE

Suggestion Theory Bernheim 1886 – suggestions bypass concious mind

Modified Sleep Abbe Faria – a type of sleep BUT thought would

always amnesia

Pathological Theory Charcot – BUT 90% hypnotisable NOT equivalent to

hysteria

THEORIES OF TRANCE

Dissociation Janet ‘ splitting of consciousness into two’ BUT not

always amnesia – can remove amnesia by suggestion

Neo Dissociation Some cognition continuous throughout

Psychoanlanalytic Freud – libidinal gratification Ferenczi – parent/child BUT mirrors metronomes may

hypnotise

THEORIES OF TRANCE

Conditioned response Pavlov to word ‘ sleep’ BUT not sleep,

metronomes, quick awakening

Role Playing R White – goal directed striving

Atavistic Regression Ainslie Meares to a primitive level – primitive

man accepted ideas by suggestion

THEORIES OF TRANCE

Neurophysiological

Barry Wyke – voice blocks other sensory input [like gate theory]

Hemispheric Specificity

L verbal/voluntary/language speech

R nonverbal/emotional/submissive/art music/imagination

Meszaros – induction L brain R brain

Education

History of Hypnotherapy