By William J. Bryan, Jr. M.D.

EARLY HISTORY
The early history of hypnosis actually begins before any recorded history exists. In the religious and healing ceremonies of all primitive peoples on the face of the earth there exist the elements essential to place the subjects into a hypnotic trance. It is assumed, therefore, by the study of ceremonies of primitive peoples who still exist in Africa, Australia, and elsewhere that even before history was recorded, induction's were accomplished by rhythmic chanting, monotonous drum beats, together with strained fixations of the eyes accompanied by catalepsy of the rest of the body.

Such primitive ceremonies had the essential of a central focus of attention, with surrounding neurology areas of inhibition, which two factors are responsible for 95% of the induction of the hypnotic trance. Whether these were called religious ceremonies, healing ceremonies or a combination of religious and healing ceremonies is actually immaterial. The fact is that trances did exist and were hypnotic in character, although the word "hypnosis" was never applied to them since it was not in use until Braid coined the term in 1842.
All world travelers are familiar with the Hindus, Fakirs, Yogis, snake charmers, and Eastern magicians who induced themselves and others in cataleptic states by eye fixation and other mesmeric techniques, and were able to perform unusual physical feats and eliminate pain.
As Moll has pointed out, these hypnotic phenomena are also found to have existed several thousand years ago among the Persian Magi as well as up to the present day among Indian Yogis and Fakirs.

The oldest written record of cures by hypnosis was obtained from the Ebers Papyrus which gives us an idea about some of the theory and practice of Egyptian medicine before 1552 BC. In the Ebers Papyrus, a treatment was described in which the physician placed his hands on the head of the patient and, claiming superhuman therapeutic powers gave forth with strange remedial utterances which were suggested to the patients, and which resulted in cures. King Pyrrhus of Egypt, The Emperor Vespasian, Francis I of France and other French kings up to Charles X practiced healing in this manner.

The Egyptians are thought to have originated the "Sleep Temples,” in which the priests gave similar treatment to their patients through the use of suggestion. These temples became very popular in Egypt, and spread throughout Greece and Asia Minor.

Hippocrates, the Greek physician referred to most frequently as "the father of medicine" and whose oath all graduating physicians take, is known to have discussed the phenomenon saying, "the affliction suffered by the body, the soul sees quite well with the eyes shut."

The Romans borrowed trance healing from the Greeks, as they did much else of the Greek culture during the period of the rise of the great Roman Empire. Many men of great learning and wisdom were imported from Greece as Roman slaves to teach the young in Roman households. Among the Romans, Aesculapius often threw his patients 'into a "deep sleep" and allayed pain by stroking, with his hand.

The advent of Christianity had a great deal to do with the decline of the use of hypnosis and trance healing because hypnosis was then considered to be witchcraft, and trance healing if practiced at all was done secretly. Nevertheless, in spite of this Jesus employed hypnosis to perform many of His miracles. A complete discussion of this is to be found in my book entitled, Religious Aspects of Hypnosis, published by Charles C. Thomas and Co. Springfield, Illinois in 1962.

In the tenth century, Avicenna, a great physician, stated, "The Imagination can fascinate and modify man's body either making him ill or restoring him to health."
Van Helmont, Maxwell from Scotland, and Santanelli from Italy, about 1600, and laid the foundation for the concept of animal magnetism, which was later to have been made so famous by Mesmer. It can be proved that almost every ancient civilization has been familiar with hypnosis in one form or another. LeCron points out that it is described in some of the Mantras of India written in ancient transcript; that the Mongols, Tibetans, and the Chinese all had knowledge of hypnosis; and that even a detailed description of it is given in the Kalevala, the great epic poem of the Finns.

PART B: MODERN HISTORY

Section 1. Father Gassner
It is ironic that the modern history of hypnosis begins not with a physician but with a clergyman, a catholic priest who lived at Klosters. Father Gassner theorized, according to the beliefs of that day, patients who were ill were possessed by devils, which must be cast out, before the patient could again attain the state of good health. The good priest obtained church approval for his actions by stating that God was working through him to cast out devils that possessed his unfortunate patients.

The patient would be marched onto a stage in the center of the room to await the appearance of Father Gassner. Timing his entrance to make the most of the spectacle, Father Gassner would stride out onto the platform in a long solid black flowing cape, holding a "gold" crucifix high in the air before him. The patient had been told in advance that when Father Gassner touched him with the crucifix, he would promptly fall to the floor and remain there for further instructions. Gassner's patients were told to actually "die" while lying prostrate on the floor, and that during this period of "death,” he would cast out the devils from their body and then restore them to normal life again. (This idea of rebirth permeates both hypnosis and religion even as far back as the earliest primitive forms). Again, this has been discussed further in my book entitled, Religious Aspects of Hypnosis.

After the observer physician examined the patient, felt no pulse, heard no heart sounds, and pronounced him dead, then Father Gassner would order the demon to depart, and shortly thereafter the patient would revive and arise completely cured. Mesmer was said to have watched a number of performances by Father Gassner in the early 1770's and is responsible for introducing the phenomena to the medical profession.

Section 2. Franz Anton Mesmer
Franz Anton Mesmer was born the son of a game warden on May 23, 1734, at Iznang on Lake Constance. He studied at Dillingen and Ingolstadt and received his Ph.D. following which he studied law. He received his Doctor of Medicine degree in 1766. Mesmer, unable to swallow Father Gassner's hypothesis that patients were possessed by demons, believed that in some way the metal crucifix held by the Father was perhaps responsible for magnetizing the patient and hence developed his ideas and explanation of the results into a theory of animal magnetism, which he first tested in 1773 by treating a 28 year old female. Mesmer published his first account of the magnetic cure in 1775, under the title of, Schreiben Uber die Magnetiker.

As Mesmer's patients were placed in a tub filled with water and iron filings protruding from which were larger iron rods, Mesmer would suggest to them that as he touched them with his magnetic rod, they would become magnetized and eventually would go into a state of "crisis" from which they would emerge cured. His patients invariably did this and Mesmer considered the crisis an absolute necessity for the cure. Mesmer made a very imposing picture in his long flowing robes, holding his magnetic rod and passing from room to room in his clinic. His methods of magnetism, therefore, were unquestioned. A crisis seizure was a necessary part of the cure.

Although his fame continued to spread, he was forced to leave Vienna following the famous Paradis case. In 1777 Maria Theresa Paradis, a blind child pianist, and favorite of the Empress, recovered her sight after treatment by Mesmer despite the fact that she had been under the care of Europe's leading eye specialist, Dr. Von Stoerck for ten years without improvement. Influenced by jealous doctors, the child's mother took her away from Mesmer's care before the cure was complete. In an emotional scene, the mother struck the child across the face because she did not wish to leave Dr. Mesmer's clinic and the hysterical blindness reasserted itself.

Nevertheless, Mesmer's influence was still great enough to secure a recommendation from the Austrian Foreign Minister to the Imperial Embassy in Paris, to which he moved early in February 1778. He founded a clinic with D'Eslon on the Place Vendome, and published his famous book, Memoirre Sur La Decouverte Du Magnetisme Animal in 1779.

In 1784 the French Government investigated Mesmer, and pronounced him a fraud. However, Benjamin Franklin, who was a member of the investigating committee, wrote the minority report, which stated the phenomenon was worthy of further consideration. They had a series of axioms in Mesmerism presented to them, whose truth they were to examine and the efficacy of certain processes was to be proved to their satisfaction by experiment.

The Mesmerist's object seems to have been to try to convince the commission that he had a secret worth knowing, and yet to continue to keep it to himself by hiding its extreme simplicity under a load of complicated machinery and various kinds of mummery. D'Eslon, the pupil of Mesmer, propounded his laws of animal magnetism after this fashion:

Animal magnetism is a universal fluid, constituting an absolute polonium in nature, and the medium of all mutual influence between the celestial bodies, and betwixt the earth and animal bodies. It is the subtlest fluid in nature, capable of flux and of reflux, and of receiving, propagating, and continuing all kinds of motion.. The human body has poles, and other properties, analogous to the magnet. The action and virtue of animal magnetism may be communicated from one body to another, whether animate or inanimate. It operates at a great distance, without the intervention of anybody. By means of this fluid, nervous diseases are cured immediately, and others medially; and its virtues, in fact, extend to the universal cure and preservation of mankind True, to so great a degree, that we do not yet know how far it may go.

D'Eslon was not content to tell the truth simply, but added so many corroborating inventions of his own that no one knew what to believe, and the case was dismissed as unworthy of further investigation.

Esdaile's said in his book on hypnosis, “The process being a natural one, the more the parties are in a state of nature the better: the bodies of my patients being naked, and their heads generally shaved, is probably of no small consequence in the proceedings... As far as my observation goes, all that is necessary for success, if the parties are in relation of agent and subject, is PASSIVE OBEDIENCE in the patient, and a sustained patience on the part of the operator. My favorite induction method is to take the patient with all his or her senses on a journey into a primitive wooded area, peaceful and quiet, serene and still where concentration and relaxation are greatest.” After being denounced in Paris, Mesmer's popularity quickly faded. He eventually moved to Morsburg, where he died on March 5, 1815.

Section 3. Marquis de Puysegur
The Marquis de Puysegur was responsible for describing the three cardinal features of Hypnosis; 1) concentration of the senses on the operator, 2) acceptance of suggestion without question, and 3) amnesia for events in a trance. In 1814 the Abbe Faria suggested that the phenomena described by Mesmer were not due to animal magnetism, but actually due to suggestion. However the popularity of Mesmer was so well established that Faria's hypothesis was soon forgotten

Section 4. James Braid
On November 13, 1841 a French magnetizer named La Fontaine, who demonstrated Mesmerism, first introduced James Braid to Mesmerism and Mesmeric experiments at a meeting on that day. A complete description of this séance is found along with a detailed history of Braid's activity in writing in Bramwell's book, Hypnotism, Its History, Practice and Theory. James Braid was born at Rylaw House in Fifeshire in 1795, studied at Edinburgh and qualified there as a surgeon. He was most well known for the fact that he renamed Mesmerism, "Hypnotism" in 1842, after the Greek word "Hypnos" meaning, "sleep.” Nevertheless, unlike Mesmer he maintained a good professional standing in his community during his entire lifetime, and was not only noted as an excellent hypnotist, but also was widely acclaimed for his operating cases of clubbed foot and other deformities. Later in life, Braid realized hypnotism was not a true sleep, but a concentration of the mind, and tried to change the name to monoideism He maintained his practice and interest in hypnotism during his entire lifetime, and wrote many papers and monographs on the subject. Although Braid is best known for his renaming Mesmer's art hypnotism, he also was responsible for a number of ideas that still persist until the present day. They are as follows:

1: That hypnosis is a powerful tool which should be limited entirely to medical and dental professions.
2: That although hypnotism was capable of curing many diseases for which there had formally been no remedy, it nevertheless was no panacea and was only a medical tool which should be used in combination with other medical information, drugs, remedies, etc. in order to properly treat the patient.
3: That in skilled hands there is no great danger associated with hypnotic treatment and neither was there pain or discomfort.
4: That a good deal more study and research would be necessary to thoroughly understand a number of theoretical concepts regarding hypnosis.

Section 5. John Elliotson
Like Braid, Elliotson received his M.D. from Edinburgh, but went on to study on the continent as well as in Cambridge and at Sir Guy's Hospital. Like Braid, Elliotson was a brilliant physician, lecturer, and Professor of Medicine. Elliotson's fame however, even exceeded that of his predecessor, Dr. Braid, for Elliotson ascended to the academic heights of a full Professorship of Medicine at the London University. He was also named President of the Royal Medical and Surgical Society and was one of the founders of the University College Hospital in London.

He introduced the stethoscope into England together with the methods of examining the heart and lungs and they are used to this day. Elliotson is best known for the fact that in 1846, he established the first journal dealing with hypnotism. It was called Zoist, and complete copies of the journal are still obtainable from some sources. He was discharged from the University College Hospital for choosing hypnosis as the subject for the Harveian Oration of 1846. In this Harveian Oration, Elliotson quoted this memorable passage from Harvey's works, "True Philosophers, compelled by the love of truth and wisdom, never fancy themselves so wise and full of sense as not to yield to truth from any source and at all times; nor are they so narrow minded as to believe any art or science has been handed down in such a state of perfection to us by our predecessors that nothing remains for future industry.

Elliotson then applied Harvey's words to the science of Hypnotism and stated in no uncertain terms that it was the duty of physicians of that age to carefully and dispassionately review his research on the subject. Many interesting articles appeared in his journal for thirteen years until December 31, 1855. Esdalie, and many other brilliant physicians of that time, testified to the excellent results of hypnotic treatment in insanity, epilepsy, hysteria, stammering, neuralgia, asthma, torticollis, headaches, functional difficulties of the heart, rheumatism, tic-douloureux, spasmodic colic, sciatica, lumbago, palsy, convulsions, acute inflammations of the eyes and testicles, and reports of hundreds of painless operations, everything from removal of a cataract to the amputation of the penis of which James Esdalie reported two cases. Elliotson was excellent in the field of child hypnosis, and worked with many children and childhood diseases, such as St. Vitus Dance, Chorea, tics, and other maladies. Unlike Braid, however, Elliotson continued to believe in clairvoyance and other mystical phenomena until his death.

Section 6 James Esdalie
Dr. James Esdaile probably performed more surgical operations under hypnoanesthesia than any physician up until the present time. He was a man of extreme ingenuity and intelligence who practiced most of his life in India, and is probably better known for his work in hypnosis than any other man with the possible exception of Mesmer himself. He, like Elliotson and Braid studied at Edinburgh where he graduated in 1830.

Esdaile did his first operation under hypnosis on April 4, 1845, on a Hindu convict with double hydrocele, at the native hospital at Hooghly. After accomplishing 75 operations under hypnoanesthesia he wrote to the medical board; but his letter was not even acknowledged. Later, at the end of the year, having over a hundred operations to his credit, he then contacted Sir Herbert Maddock, then the deputy governor of Bengal, who appointed a committee of investigation composed primarily of physicians.

On receiving their favorable report, the Governor then placed Esdaile in charge of a small experimental hospital near Calcutta, in order that he might continue his research into hypnosis for whatever values it might have. At the end of the trial year of Esdaile's experimental works, he had 133 more operations to his credit, and a goodly number of medical cases as well. The reports by visitors to the institution continued to be favorable, and therefore, with the deputy governor's continued support, Esdaile was then appointed to Sarkea's Lane Hospital and Dispensary to continue his work and expand it to other fields of medicine.

Esdaile's fame spread far and wide, and he once stated truthfully that he did more operations on scrotal tumors in one month than took place in all the hospitals in Calcutta in a year. While he was in India, chloroform was first introduced as an anesthesia. Disgusted with India and "caring not a straw" about a big practice in Calcutta, Esdaile returned to Perth, developed an illness of the lungs and moved to Sydenham, where he died at the age of 50 on January 10, 1859.

His works were many, but perhaps his most famous work was a book originally titled, Mesmerism in India, and later released under the title of Hypnosis in Medicine and Surgery. In this particular book, he lashed out at the stupidity of some medical men who were blind to any new ideas; He further went on to say that as a lover of truth for its own sake, he was very little gratified by being told by his friends, "I believe because you say so." He felt this was a barren belief, and constantly searched out physicians to prove his newfound medical tool to them. Jacob Conn, M.D. of the John Hopkins Medical School faculty has stated that no one has worked more diligently to bring the value of hypnotic analgesia and anesthesia to the attention of the medical profession than James Esdaile. Esdaile's work evidently paid off, as the British Medical Association reported favorably in 1891 "As a therapeutic agent, hypnotism is frequently effective in relieving pain, procuring sleep and alleviating many functional ailments."

Section 7. Dr. Ambroise-Auguste Liebeault
Liebeault is widely known as "The Father of Modern Hypnotism." The reason for this is primarily because Liebeault was the man who concluded and published the observation that all the phenomena of hypnotism are subjective in origin. Liebeault was a humble French physician, who though generally speaking was uninterested in research, nevertheless was a genius at therapeutics. He received his M.D. in 1850. His practice in hypnotism was almost entirely gratuitous, and because of this, it gained him the quiet respect of all that knew him.

He was born in 1823, began his study of medicine in 1844, and started his experiments in hypnotism in 1848, even before he left medical school. In 1882 Liebeault cured an obstinate case of sciatica, which Dr. Bernheim had treated without results for over six months. Partly because of his curiosity, and partly because he wished to expose Liebeault as a quack, Dr. Bernheim journeyed to see Liebeault convinced that he was in fact a charlatan. Bernheim was, however, so impressed by Liebeault's work that he decided to remain with him and became a devoted pupil and lifelong friend. Bernheim and Liebeault then published a book together, which was widely acclaimed.. Liebeault invaded all fields of medicine and was in fact the most important single physician in broadening the scope of therapeutics through the use of hypnosis. An excellent description of Liebeault's clinic appears in Bramwell's book.

Liebeault became quite adept at rapid hypnosis and in fact was one of the first doctors who realized that for most hypnotherapy, a deep trance was unnecessary, a fact frequently pointed out by Dr. S. J. Van Pelt. Quite the contrary, Liebeault would induce his patients with no more than a wave of the hand, and a quick phrase, such as "Sleep, my little kitten"; suggest away the morbid symptoms and allow the patients to wake up when they desired. This was a period of development in hypnosis during which a great deal of experimental work was done with many types of induction.

At the same time that Liebeault was merely using the word "sleep" with a hand pass, and Eisenhart was suggesting stroking of the forehead as an excellent induction technique for children. Charcot was violently ringing gongs and flashing drummond lights. After much debate it was generally agreed upon that neither nationality nor sex entered into the ability of a person to be hypnotized. It was only after Liebeault achieved a ripe old age and retired from medical practice that he reaped a measure of the acclaim which was certainly due him.

When Bernheim published his book on hypnosis (with Liebeault's case histories), it was immediately accepted everywhere. As a matter of fact, in spite of Charcot's tremendous reputation and early start with the Salpetriere School, nevertheless, more and more persons swung to Bernheim’s way of thinking. Medical dispute continued throughout the entire 19th century on into the early 20th century, each side claiming victories in the explanation of hypnosis. Bernheim would merely ask the patient to look at him, think of nothing but sleep, and then would tell the patient, "Your eyelids begin to feel heavy, your eyes are tired and they begin to blink, they are getting moist, your eyes cannot see distinctly, and they are closed." If the patient did not close his eyes and fall asleep almost immediately as many did, then he would repeat the process until success was assured. If the patients never showed any signs of sleep or drowsiness, he would then assure them that sleep was not essential and that hypnotic influence could be exerted without it. Bernheim inspired hundreds of famous physician hypnotists.

Section 8. Jean Martin Charcot
Jean Martin Charcot the famous French neurologist was born in 1825 and died in 1893. He was well known in the Medical profession for many varied accomplishments, and his biography is easily obtainable. He is probably the most famous physician to embrace hypnotism at that time and, in addition to his work with Hypnotism was known for his work with progressive naturopathic muscular atrophy.

Despite his great fame in the medical field, he plunged into hypnotism without the usual careful research that had attended his other works. Consequently, his reputation weakened when his theories that hypnosis was a pathological state that weakened the mind were later disapproved by the Bernheim School of Medicine. As a matter of fact, when Charcot died, Babinski denounced many of Charcot's cures, stating that some were actually faked and some were figments of Charcot's imagination. This bitter attack on Charcot from Babinski, more than any other thing, was responsible for the decline of the use of hypnosis in France. This decline continued until modern times with only a few experts such as Pierre Janet and Dr. Joseph Morlaas using hypnosis until it was officially introduced to the French medical schools in the fall of 1958.

Section 9. Josef Breuer
Until Breuer's time, hypnosis had primarily been used for the alleviation of pain in surgery, and according to Liebeault's method, the simple suggesting away of symptoms. However, circa 1880, Breuer made an accidental discovery that changed the methods of hypnotherapy. As a matter of fact, it not only changed the methods of hypnotherapy, but actually introduced an entirely new art in itself as it was Breuer's work which attracted Freud and led him into methods of psychoanalysis which are so common to psychiatrists today.

In any case, Breuer had been treating a patient whom he called Anna O. The case is a long and involved one, and is well known to all students of psychiatry. During one portion of therapy, they found however, much to her distress, (and Anna O. was a hysterical patient with many, many different problems) that she could drink no water. In fact, no matter how intense her thirst became, she felt it was a physical impossibility for her to swallow water. Thereupon, she subsisted for a number of months on watery fruits and melons until, during a hypnotic session, she revealed in a fit of anger, how to her great disgust, a former governess had permitted a dog to drink water out of a glass in her presence. As soon as she awoke from the trance she immediately asked Breuer for a drink of water, emptying the glass with ease.

This led Breuer to the realization that the simple recalling of the traumatic experiences from the past of the dog drinking the glass of water was responsible for removing the symptoms. After coming to this conclusion, Breuer then attempted to associate all of the patient's symptoms with traumatic experiences in the past. After working with Anna O. for over a year, Breuer was able to remove her symptoms of blindness, paralysis, deafness, the contracture of her right arm, her anesthesia's, cough, trembling, and all of her other symptoms, merely by repeated trances which revealed more and more of her previous experiences, which contained damaging traumatic incidents.

As Wolberg states in his book, Medical Hypnosis, "The importance of Breuer's work lies in the change of emphasis in hypnotic therapy, from the direct removal of symptoms to the dealing with the apparent cause of these symptoms." Although Janet simultaneously arrived at this conclusion, Breuer has been given credit for the discovery.

Section 10. Dr. Eugene Azam
Azam, a professor on the faculty of Medicine at Bordeaux, and a correspondent at the Academy of Medicine in Paris, wrote a book on a case of splitting consciousness in 1887. He described in detail the case of a young girl, named Felita X., who first came to him during the month of June 1858. He perceived many hypnotic phenomena in this patient, and made some psychological deductions that bore out a good deal of Braid's conclusions. Azam went to great difficulty to remove the aura of mystery from hypnosis, and was praised by Charcot because of this. Dr. Heinz Hammerschlag states in his book, Hypnose und Verbrechen that the Azam studies in Bordeaux, while important, were important primarily because these studies attracted the attention of Liebeault who first succeeded in giving these researchers a new slant. He endeavored to attribute the phenomena of hypnosis to the psychiatric influence of suggestion rather than to the influence of magnetism, which had previously been so popular in the days of Mesmer.

Section 11. Sigmund Freud
There have been hundreds of volumes written on Sigmund Freud, possibly the most complete of which is The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud by Ernest Jones (1879 - 1958) in three volumes. We must be satisfied with a short summary of Freud's connection with the development of hypnosis.

It was Breuer's work that attracted Freud and caused him to publish his famous book co-authored with Breuer, Studien uber Hysterie, which was published in 1895. Breuer and Freud correctly concluded that hysterical symptoms developed as a result of repressing damaging experiences and that if these damaging experiences were once again released from the subconscious mind by a mental catharsis, the hysterical symptoms would be eliminated. Breuer accomplished this through the use of hypnosis, but Freud, a poor hypnotist, found that free association coupled with psychoanalysis were vehicles by which he could better accomplish his work. Parlour has pointed out that although Freud spurned formal "hypnosis" he nevertheless used many hypnotic techniques constantly such as "touching the patient's forehead," "the concentration of the patient's mind," "the relaxation of the body on a couch," and "the abundant use of the imagination." This was largely overlooked during Freud's lifetime and attention was given to Freud's words that did not always explain Freud's actions.

It was during this period that the greatest misconception regarding hypnosis first gained a foothold, and which even now is still regretfully difficult to dislodge in the minds of a number of learned medical men and hundreds of laypersons. Because of Freud's denunciation of hypnosis in favor of psychoanalysis, people began to associate hypnosis with "direct suggestions" (only one aspect of hypnotism). Hence, the general public and lay people as well began to think in terms of psychoanalysis versus direct suggestion. What was not sufficiently explained was that the science and art of hypnotism contains both analysis and suggestion and when correctly applied not only breaks the problem into its component for analysis but puts the individual back together again with a Synthesis.

Conventional psychoanalysis, however, with its lack of directive guidance, eliminates the latter entirely and renders the former slow, cumbersome and often times ineffective. Nevertheless, because of Freud's great brilliance and popularity, the words "free associations and "psychoanalysis" became the passwords of the day. With few exceptions most neurologists immediately were influenced by Freudian theory and methods, and hypnosis again took a nosedive into obscurity.

Freud was actually a paradox who said some things and practiced others. For one thing, he constantly maintained that he was a scientist of the first quarter, seeking only truth first, last, and always. He continued to believe until his death, Lamarch's theory that acquired traits could be inherited, which no true scientist of that age believed any more than they still believed the world was flat. Freud also dabbled in occultism and telepathy, and openly stated his belief in it, although he never published such works. Freud was a great believer in the magic of numbers, and his close friend, William Fliess has stated that Freud believed that important things happen to men in cycles of 23 to 28 days. He predicted his own death at age 61 or 62, and seemed quite dismayed after passing this age, and thereupon raised his prediction to 85 1/2, the age at which his father and half-brother both died.

Freud practiced as a specialist in nervous diseases, and was a junior lecturer at the University of Vienna. He lived at Suenhaus, facing Ringstrasze, but wrote many of his best books in naturalistic settings. Freud was always immaculately and carefully dressed, even during the last 17 years of his life in which he painfully suffered one operation after another for the incurable cancers that beset him. Even after much of his mouth and palate and jaw structure had been dissected away, and he was forced to wear a monstrous prosthesis in order to close the opening between the nasal cavity and the throat so that he could talk, he maintained his sense of humor.

Freud had a total of 33 operations in all, including a sterilization operation which he hoped would in some way change the hormonal setup of his body and prevent the cancer from spreading. He flew to England to escape Hitler in 1938, and at 82 years old, while in London, he recovered sufficiently to do four analysis treatments daily. Freud hated drugs and only took aspirin occasionally. In February of 1939 his cancer finally caught up with him and at the age of 83, he was dead.

Section 12. Milne Bramwell
Bramwell is best remembered for his classic text, Hypnotism, It's History, Practice and Theory, which even to the present day remains one of the finest books ever written on hypnotism Many of Esdaile's experiments were reproduced by Bramwell's father who was also a physician. Bramwell witnessed many of these experiments as a boy, and they deeply impressed him. He was an avid reader and student at Edinburgh when Professor John Hughes Bennett again drew his attention to hypnotism.

After leaving Edinburgh, Bramwell became engaged in general practice, and hypnosis was almost forgotten until he learned that it had been revived in the wards of the Salpetriere. On March 28, 1890, he gave a demonstration of hypnotic anesthesia to a larger gathering at Leeds. This was reported in the British Medical Journal and the Lancet, and referrals of patients became so great that he abandoned general practice and limited himself to the practice of hypnotism. Bramwell was somehow able to avoid most of the great opposition and misrepresentation that had been heaped on earlier physicians connected with the science. Bramwell was probably most famous for his work in clinical hypnosis in medicine and surgery. However, he also wrote on hypnotic theories, hypnosis in animals, the management of hypnotic experiments, experimental phenomena of hypnosis, and even on such occult subjects as spiritualism, clairvoyance, and telepathy.

Moll, an English contemporary, is equally famous for his book on hypnosis. Moll's book, copyrighted a few years before Bramwell's, was arranged a bit differently and is noteworthy for its dissertation on the legal aspects of hypnosis which Bramwell did not cover Moll demonstrated how everyday suggestions differ from hypnosis, and also gave the first reference to waking hypnosis. He anticipated Erickson's studies of the post-hypnotic state, and also investigated the relationship between hypnotist and the subject. His book has long been considered one of the best possible introductions to the study of hypnosis and was one of the first pieces of literature to objectively separate hypnosis from the mystical elements which surround it.

Section 13. Other Physicians of the Era
The first reported use of hypnosis utilized as an anesthetic occurred on April 12, 1829, when Jules Cleznet, a French surgeon, performed a breast operation. The first reported uses of hypnosis in America were in 1843, one year after Braid coined the term, in New York, Ohio, Illinois and Missouri by Doane, Dugas and others. Crile's contribution to hypnotic literature was that he recognized that even though a patient was "unconscious" during inhalation anesthesia, that the greater part of his brain was still awake, and nerve impulses could still reach the brain producing cerebral depression and other undesirable manifestations. Dupuytren, the famous French surgeon who is best known for his work on contractures, made the statement that "pain kills like hemorrhage," and indeed many patients of that era of medicine preferred death to extreme pain. William Kroger, a well-known obstetrician hypnotist, reported the decline of the use of hypnoanesthesia following the development of chemoanesthesia.

LATE HISTORY

Section 1. Contemporary scientists in the field
A new era of hypnosis began with World War I. The revival was primarily due to a multiplicity of paralytic and amnesia cases with psychogenic origin, and the fact that few psychiatrists were then available. From Great Britain came Hadfield, who originated the term Hypnoanalysis, meaning the use of age regression to uncover the damaging experiences and then reliving the experience under hypnosis to produce mental catharsis. The advent of hypnosis in our time brought forth many new experts including many stage hypnotists. Lewis R. Wolberg M.D., an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at New York Medical College, wrote perhaps the most extensive treatise on medical hypnosis in two volumes, which had been published in the U.S.A. In 1955 the British Medical Association officially endorsed the teaching of hypnosis in all medical schools and the organization of teaching groups and societies began.

WILLIAM J. BRYAN JR. M.D., who became its first president, founded the American Institute of Hypnosis on May 4, 1955. It was founded for the reason that until that time there had been no educational body devoted exclusively to promoting all the phases of hypnosis in medicine and dentistry, and the Institute was founded to fill that gap. It has grown since that time to become the world's most respected educational institution devoted solely to teaching hypnosis in medicine and dentistry to physicians and dentists all over the world.

Easily the most famous contemporary dental hypnotist is Dr. H. Joshua Sloan D. D. S., a past president and fellow of the American Institute of Hypnosis. He was instrumental in establishing the first university course in hypnosis and taught it for many years. He is best known for his research in the polishing of various induction and deepening techniques, and for his extensive work in the field of General Semantics, he practices on Madison Avenue in New York City.

Dr. Garland Fross of South Bend, Indiana, a legend in his own community and a full Commander in the Navy Dental Corps has done much toward educating Naval Dental Officers and thousands of civilian dentists regarding the ethical and proper place of Hypnosis in

Section 2. Dr. Sydney Van Pelt
A history of hypnosis would not be complete without mentioning the foremost expert in the field of medical hypnosis of our time. Dr. S. J. Van Pelt, an Australian physician who established practice in London, England over 15 years ago, was the world's first modern full-time medical hypnotist. Limiting his practice to the use of hypnosis in medicine, Dr. Van Pelt built up an enviable reputation at a time when the rest of the world was very suspicious of the new modality.

He became the first and lifetime president of the British Society of Medical Hypnotism, and the Editor of the British Journal of Medical Hypnotism, the oldest and most respected journal in the field still in publication. The British Journal of Medical Hypnotism under his guidance from its inception is now the world's undisputed leader in its field. By means of the British Journal and the Journal of the A.I.H., for which he has written a number of articles, the best of the scientific literature on the subject of hypnotism is disseminated throughout the English-speaking medical profession of the world.

Dr. Van Pelt participated as lecturer in the first international course in medical hypnotism ever given in November 1959 aboard the M.S. Kungshohm on a Caribbean Cruise, and except for myself, is still today the only other living full-time medical specialist in hypnosis. If there is any one man of our time who will ascend to greatness via medical hypnosis, it is certainly Dr. S. J. Van Pelt, the foremost authority on the subject in the world.

Section 3. Hypnotism in France
The formation of the American Institute of Hypnosis and the simultaneous action of the British Medical Association in approving it in 1955 spurred the Council on Mental Health of the American Medical Association to conduct a three year exhaustive study which culminated in an official endorsement of hypnosis by the American Medical Association at its 1958 June meeting.

This was reported in detail in the Journal of American Medical Association, and a text of the unanimous endorsement, by the A.M.A. House of Delegates can be found in the A.M.A. Journal Vol. 168, No 2, September 13, 1958. The House of Delegates without one dissenting vote accepted the report of the Council on Mental Health approving Hypnosis.

Shortly after this happened, the French Government again became interested in Hypnotism. Due to Babinski's denunciation of Charcot's methods and treatments, although obviously untrue, this nevertheless gave hypnotism an extremely bad reputation in France, and consequently no one was even allowed to speak on the subject of hypnosis at any University medical gathering for the French Medical Academy officially forbade discussion of the topic in 1840, and this subject remained taboo until 1958.

Recent Advances in Hypnosis in the United States
There have been no less than four major groups teaching hypnotism to doctors and dentists, and none of these groups confines their teaching to the hospital or medical school. Indeed, quite the contrary. There is Dave Ellman's group, the Seminars of Hypnosis, Symposiums of Hypnosis and The American Institute of Hypnosis.

SUMMARY

This brings the history of hypnosis up to our modern times. Since 1958, the Institute has offered over 15 different courses in Hypnotism in all the major cities of the United States and abroad. Literally thousands of physicians and dentists have been introduced to this important art of medicine. In 1958, Life Magazine estimated the number of physicians and dentists qualified to utilize hypnosis in their practice at 250. It is even doubtful that there were that many; but assuming there were, within the past four years, through 1962, largely due to the vigorous teaching program of the American Institute of Hypnosis, there are now over 7500 physicians and dentists in the United States fully qualified to utilize hypnosis in their practices, and are actively doing so.

This represents a 3000% increase over 1958. 44,000 operations were done in 1960 under hypnosis without a single anesthetic death. 52,000 were done in 1961 and 68,000 in 1962. With the tremendous increase in utilization of hypnosis by physicians of all specialties, medical hypnotism, like radiology has begun to be a specialty in itself, and physicians who do not yet know its use are more and more becoming labeled "horse and-buggy doctors," and will soon find themselves facing malpractice suits because of lack of knowledge which they should possess about the subject.

Perhaps the biggest progress and advance has been made in the psychiatric field, where long and tiresome techniques of psychoanalysis lasting five or six years or more have been supplanted by rapid, specific, and vastly more effective methods of treating the same illnesses by means of hypnoanalysis. Modern Medical Research has definitely proven that the time necessary for a complete psychoanalysis can now be reduced from six years to approximately three months or less through the proper use of hypno-analytic techniques as taught by the Institute. This fact is extremely important when we consider the report of the Joint Commission on Mental Illness and Health to the Congress of the United States in 1961. It stated that "no more than 20% of 277 State Mental hospitals have participated in modern advances designed to make them treatment rather than custodial institutions!"

As the treatment of syphilis has been largely removed from the dermatologist's practice to that of the general practitioner, because of the development of penicillin and other antibiotics, so also the treatment of psycho-neurotic and psychosomatic diseases is because of the advances made in medical hypnosis progressively becoming the domain of the family physician, with the referral of difficult cases to the medical hypnotist. This is as it should be, because now through the use of hypnosis, this treatment is not near as complex or complicated as it used to be under other old outmoded methods of treatment. In the days of treating pneumonia by means of specific antiserums, an expert in the field was often needed, and yet today the American general practitioner treats the vast majority of the cases of pneumonia with a few injections of penicillin, referring only specialized or complicated cases to the internist.

The Journal of the American Institute of Hypnosis was established in October of 1960 and now in 1963 is in its fourth year of publication. It is the only journal devoted exclusively to hypnosis in medicine and dentistry which carries the seal of approval of the Association of Medical and Allied Publications.

In the latter part of 1961 another first in medical hypnosis was begun when the first class of lawyers were taught medical hypnosis (not for the purpose of practicing medicine) but so that they might have an intelligent concept of the phenomenon when dealing with it in the courtroom in malpractice cases. They could then recognize when medical hypnosis practice by a competent physician might be valuable to them or their client. (See my book entitled, Legal Aspects of Hypnosis, 1962 Charles C. Thomas).

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