Christina Wikston, age 8, of Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, for her question:
WHEN WAS HYPNOTISM FIRST USED?
Hypnotism should only be used by people who are qualified. It can be like a potent drug and can cause serious trouble if not used properly. Untrained people cannot anticipate the difficulties that might come up as a result of hypnotizing an individual. However, properly used by a trained person, hypnotism can offer many benefits.
Scientists tell us that hypnotism is a natural part of human behavior. But, unfortunately, they cannot explain exactly what hypnotism is. They know there is no magic about it and that a hypnotist has no special power. Under hypnosis, they know, a person's consciousness narrows, just as it does in a dream or trance.
Hypnotism is defined as a temporary condition of altered attention in a subject which may be induced by another and in which a variety of phenomena may appear spontaneously or in response to verbal or other stimuli. It is not a state of increased suggestibility, but a state of increased susceptibility to suggestion usually is present in people who can be hypnotized. Some people cannot be hypnotized.
Scholars believe that hypnotism was most likely practiced before ancient history was recorded. Egyptian priests induced states similar to hypnosis in a number of their religious ceremonies. Healing suggestions were given to sick and troubled people in the names of their favorite gods.
Investigation of hypnotism by scientists did not begin until the 1700s. Until the late 1800s, however, when people began to understand the hypnotic state, the phenomenon of hypnotism was dramatized chiefly by charlatans. The practice was associated with witchcraft and black magic.
About 1850 an English medical writer named James Braid suggested the possible double consciousness in people and attempted to define hypnosis as a psychological phenomenon.
About this same time, an English doctor named James Esdaile began to use hypnotism as an anesthetic.
During the last half of the 1800s many doctors made investigations to determine the value of hypnotism as an aid in medicine. Jean Martin Charcot, a French scientist, opened a clinic in 1880 for nervous diseases and made some dramatic experiments involving hypnosis.
Among the students of Charcot in Paris were Alfred Binet and Sigmund Freud. Freud was especially interested in Charcot's methods and theories, and his first studies of the unconscious were done on hypnotized persons.
Modern scientists continue to pursue clinical research in hypnosis. Much knowledge has been added to the fields of psychoanalysis, psychology and psychiatry through the continuing study of hypnosis.