Author: H. Bernheim

Publisher: Jason Aronson

Published: 1993

Total Pages: 448

ISBN-13: 9781568211381

Hypnotism is widely accepted today at its proper level - as a legitimate field of scientific inquiry and a useful tool of psychotherapy. Its potential has been recognized by the British Medical Society and the American Medical Association; and courses on the subject are appearing in medical schools and in training programs for psychiatrists. Previously, hypnosis had a chequered career over a period of centuries, going through cycle after cycle of general approval and then total eclipse. Can we be sure that hypnosis will retain the general interest it possesses today? The fate of this book indicates how fragile the reputation of hypnosis is; written nearly a century ago, and translated into English nearly eighty years ago, it has always been acknowledged as a great classic; yet it has been out of print nearly seventy-five years. It was not outmoded. It was not suppressed. It has simply been neglected. Its author was fully respected in medical circles; Bernheim conducted his research at one of those moments in medical history when the fact of hypnotic phenomena was accepted by the medical profession. Bernheim saw that the results he produced involved more than the ability to produce the hypnotic trance; he saw his relation to the patient as a "special relationship." In spontaneous sleep, the sleeper is in relation to himself alone, although he proceeds to hallucinate - to dream. In the "induced sleep" of hypnotism, however, the subject retains the memory of the person who has influenced him to "sleep," and this is the source of the hypnotist's unique power over him. This rapport between hypnotist and patient is the key; Bernheim describes cases in which this rapport does not occur - and therefore there is no therapeutic effect.