Early developments of what we now refer to as hypnosis have been found in history since almost the dawn of societal development!

 

A Persian psychologist, Avicenna, published The Book of Healing in the year 1207, which touched on creating conscious conditions in clients to help them accept the reality of hypnosis.

 

A Swiss physician in the 1500s, Paracelsus, was the first to use magnets in his practice.  He passed lodestones, naturally occurring magnets, over his clients’ bodies and many people were claiming to be healed by it.  Valentine Greatrakes, an Irishman in the 1600s, also known as “The Great Irish Stroker,” healed people by passing magnets over their bodies.

 

In the late 1700s, a Viennese Jesuit named Maximillian Hell was also using magnets to heal people.  Though rather than just passing his hands over people like Greatrakes, he applied steel plates to the naked body.  One of his students ended up bringing hypnosis as a practice to the Western world: Franz Anton Mesmer. 

 

Hypnosis as an ‘official’ practice was initially developed in the late 18th century by this German physician named Franz Mesmer, who believed that there was a balance of magnetic power in our body.  His work was referred to as ‘mesmerism,’ and it utilized a concept called animal magnetism, a power that only resided in animals and humans.  This concept did not hold true very long as there was no science behind it, but there was no doubt that Mesmer was curing many patients using mesmerism.

 

One of Mesmer’s students, Marquis de Puységur, coined the term somnambulism, which is a combination of sleep and wakefulness.  In modern hypnotherapy, we use the state of somnambulism as part of the process to induce deep mental relaxation as well as anesthesia to erase pain.

 

Abbé Faria, an Indo-Portuguese priest, introduced Oriental hypnosis to Paris in the early 19th century.  He also brought back interest in the concept of animal magnetism.  Originating from India, Faria’s idea of hypnosis was that it came from the power of the mind with the cooperation of the client.

 

As time passed, the 19th century brought much interest in the concept of hypnosis in the medical field. In the 1820s, Récamier, a French surgeon, used a practice similar to hypnoanesthesia and operated on patients who were under a mesmeric coma.

 

James Eisdale, a Scottish surgeon, performed 345 major operations using mesmeric sleep instead of anesthesia in British India.  John Elliotson, an English surgeon, also found much success in painless surgeries using mesmerism.

 

James Braid, a Scottish ophthalmologist, coined the word ‘hypnosis’ in 1842 after his fascination with Mesmer’s work.  ‘Hypno’ is Greek for sleep, and although hypnosis is not a state of being asleep, their commonality lies within the enhancement of focus on the external and the subconscious.  Braid was skeptical of mesmerism, and took a more scientific approach on the matter of hypnosis, explaining that the laws of psychology and physiology are why hypnosis works.  He detailed that the mesmeric trance was due to a physiological process brought about by prolonged fixation to a moving object which fatigued parts of the brain, inducing what we know now as hypnotic trance.  Braid also tied in Hindu yoga meditation and various other spiritual practices in his hypnotism, even including Persian and Oriental practices which he used to prove the validity of his claims.

 

Field doctors used hypnosis during the American Civil War, which was one of the first extensive medical applications of hypnosis.

 

French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot used hypnotism for the treatment of hysteria, which led to the first use of post-hypnotic suggestion as well as great improvements in sensory acuity and memory.  His student, Pierre Janet, described the concept of dissociation – a mental splitting where skills and memories could be recovered.  Janet’s work is also the foundation for personality dissociation treatment.

 

Hippolyte Bernheim, another French neurologist, helped found the Nancy School, which further fueled the practice and theory of hypnotherapy.

 

The mid-19th century brought about an Austrian physician named Josef Breuer, who used suggestive hypnosis to treat hysteria.  He was able to trigger his client’s childhood emotions and reduced her hysteria symptoms.

 

This leads us to a well-known psychotherapist, Sigmund Freud, who was Breuer’s colleague.  Freud used hypnosis to discover the unconscious process, which at the time was a breakthrough in the field of psychoanalysis.  Unfortunately, Freud was not exactly the best at using hypnosis, but it did enable him to create the concept of free association for psychotherapeutic practice.

 

Fernand Lamaze, a French obstetrician, visited Russia where their medical practice had adopted obstetric hypnosis.  He brought it back to France and used it during childbirth.

 

Hypnosis was also used in World War I, World War II and the Korean War for the treatment of neuroses – these treatments were the foundation of what we use today to treat Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

 

Dave Elman was an American who is considered one of the most important figures in the development in medical hypnosis.  He actually had no medical training – though Gil Boyne, one of the most prominent teachers of hypnosis, claimed that Elman trained more medical professionals in hypnotism than anyone else.  Elman also coined the use of rapid inductions, which we still use today as practitioners.  He was very fond of the Eisdale state – the hypnotic coma – loosely resembling mesmerism! 

 

As of late, an American named Milton Erikson is one of the most famous modern hypnotherapists.  His mastery of creative language to communicate with the unconscious is unique and unparalleled because he was not trying to find the cause of the symptoms, but instead focused on the release of symptoms by stopping the stress response and the defensive behaviors.  This method was called Ericksonian hypnosis, which is also used in neuro-linguistic programming.

 

The American Psychological Association established the Division 30 Society of Psychological Hypnosis in the late 20th century.  Hypnotherapy is now considered a legitimate, scientific approach as a branch of psychology, with the number of studies (which is already quite a lot!) growing very frequently.