An experimental study in the domain of hypnotism

Author's Preface

Author's Preface to the Second Edition Translator's Preface .....

Preliminary History of the Patient Present Condition ......

Course of the Disease ......

Dr. Jendrassik's Experiments ....

Daily Note-Book of Hypnotic Experiments at Graz

Preliminary Remarks .....

Daily Note-Book ......

Demonstration before the Medical Society at Steier M.AKK, Nov. 14, 1887 .....

Thirteenth Monthly Meeting of the Medical Society

Conclusions

A Final Word .... ...

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Preface

In the latter part of October, 1887, a favorable accident brought to the observation of the author, in the clinic for nervous diseases under his direction, a person extraordinarily suitable for the study of hypnotism. In so far as humane considerations and therapeutic judgment allowed, this opportunity, which occurs so infrequently, was liberally used in the interest of scientific investigation for the study of the questions of hypnotism. A clinical demonstration of the patient before the hearers in the clinic made the hypnotic "wonder" known to the medical circles of Graz. At the request of the president of the medical society of Steiermark the demonstrations of hypnotic experiments were made before that society, to which the patient, after persuasion, reluctantly consented.

The reports of the meetings of the society contain the most important facts concerning the experiments made. {Oesterr. drztl. Vercinzeitung, 1888, Nos. I and 2.)

The criticism of these experiments was various. While the large majority of the members of this eminent medical society could not avoid the conclusion that here were offered phenomena in the experimental investigation of nature which were

VI PREFACE.

genuine and highly interesting, yet, on the other hand, the value of the experiments made and the honesty of the patient were called in question ; and voices were loud in the assertion that one was here dealing with professional hypnotism and simulation.

The objections worthy of consideration correspond in all essentials with those raised in the mind of the medical circle of Berlin against Dr. Moll. {Berliner klin. Wochenschrift, December,, 1887.) But new was the demand — remarkable to every one acquainted with hypnotism — that the experimenter, after having hypnotized the subject,, should give the completion of the experiments into^ the hands of another experimenter.

The truth of the assertion, that the person who very reluctantly consented to allow the experiments before this society, is a swindler, I must unconditionally deny.

I cannot accept the very widely entertained notion, that all hysterical persons are inclined to deception and simulation. It is opposed by numerous exceptions, and depends often on superficial observation and imperfect knowledge ; since auto-suggestive self-deception is often confounded with intentional deception.

The person who was the subject of the following observations avoided experimentation and demonstration, and was very glad when she was left in peace. Her statements concerning her previous life history are shown by the independent testimony of authorities and private individuals to be true, with the exception of romantic auto-sugges-

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tive embellishments, delusions of memory, and gaps in her life history which had been lived in conditions of abnormal unconsciousness, and could not be remembered. If the phenomena the patient presented were not genuine, then she was the most accomplished dissembler that ever lived ; and, too, she must have made for her purpose special studies in the school of Charcot and in that of Nancy.

But fortunately hypnotism, as a biological phenomenon of nature, offers symptoms empirically true, clear, and objective, the proof of which is decisive. It is hoped that the following pages will convince the interested reader that the author was not concerned with a dissembler ; and that the following investigations, read in the interest of the physiology, psychology, and pathology of the nervous system, will be of no less value to moral therapeutics and legal medicine. Involuntarily i think of the motto placed by Braid, the scientific founder of hypnotism, at the beginning of his work : " Unlimited doubt, like unconditioned credulity, is the child of mental weakness."

At first I was not without doubts, but daily observation for several months removed them ; and the facts have compelled me to acknowledge hypnotism to be of the greatest importance as a source for the enrichment of our knowledge of the physiology of the human mind, and of the relations existing between the psychical and the corporeal world.

Significant and practically important facts for experimental and psychical therapeutics will, I am convinced, come from this source.

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On account of this conviction I believed that, in the interest of the advancement of scientific knowledge concerning so many questions of practical, social, and legal importance in the domain of hypnotism, I should lay before a wider circle of medical readers the observations and proofs made by numerous colleagues and myself ; and it is hoped that science and truth will be furthered by diverse and unprejudiced criticism. Moreover, my determination was influenced in no small degree by two facts which are clearly established by the following observations, and which, in any case, are important as aids to medical and forensic judgment, viz. : (i) that the phenomena of hypnotism are of a psychosuggestive nature ; (2) that post-hypnotic suggestion leads to the establishment of auto-hypnosis.

The Author.

Graz, May, 1888.