- I we pass in review all the conceptions, all
the discoveries and inventions that have
enriched the world, we shall be struck with the
fact that nearly always they have come up out of
the profound depths of humanity unexpectedly,
and as it were by chance. Such was the beginning
of whatever knowledge we have of hypnotic
processes. It has come down to us from the most
remote times, not in a clear, definite
tradition, but in a vague rumor, sufficiently
accounted for by the state of religious belief
and the notions about witchcraft that then
prevailed. Not till the close of the 18th
century and the era of philosophy, free inquiry,
and free thought, was this question brought into
the light of day by Mesmer, whose name is
sufficiently known to render any epithet
needless. Every one has heard of the fame of the
séances given by the new apostle and of
the outcome of his therapeutic efforts. But it
is less well known that the theory of animal
magnetism and the term itself were both of his
inventien; besides, by a singular chance
Mesmer's animal magnetism differs measurably
from the magnetism of the magnetizers of
to-clay. Mesmer believed in a fluid diffused
everywhere, by the aid of which the heavenly
bodies, the earth, and animate bodies exert
among themselves a reciprocal influence. The
action of this fluid is subject to flood and
ebb, and the alternate effects of these
movements are felt by the human body as by all
other bodies. Further, this fluid manifests
itself in man through properties analogous to
those of the magnet, and, just as in the latter,
tends to locate itself at certain poles (hence
the term "animal magnetism "), though it is
totally different from the magnetic fluid.
Again, Mesmer believed that it is reflected and
refracted like light, is communicated from one
body to another, is propagated, is augmented by
sound, and is capable of being accumulated,
concentrated, and transported.
-
- If, quitting pure theory, we consider
practical results, we find Mesmer asserting with
the utmost assurance that "this principle can
cure nerve diseases directly, and other diseases
indirectly." To attain this result, and as a
mode of applying the magnetic fluid to the human
body, Mesmer invented and put in operation his
famous baquet (tub). In the bottom of this were
several tiers of bottles of water, laid in
different directions, and immersed in water
containing iron filings, pounded glass, and
other ingredients. The cover had several holes
bored in it, from which projected iron rods bent
at a right angle and movable, which patients
were to apply to themselves at the points where
their maladies had their seat. Around these tubs
the patients took their places in several
concentric ranks, forming a chain by contact of
their finger tips, just as is done in our day by
spiritists. Then, music and the darkened room
assisting, the expected phenomena were not long
in manifesting themselves. A goodly number of
the subjects, but not all, experienced a bodily
agitation more or less marked, and soon fell
into convulsions characterized by "involuntary
jerky movements of all the members and of the
whole body, contrac tion of the throat,
subsultus of the hypochondrium and epigastrium,
disordered vision, shrill cries, weeping,
hiccoughing, and immoderate laughter "-in short,
all the tokens of a most pronounced fit of
hysteria.
-
 -
- If I have dwelt a little on this
description, it is less on account of its
historical interest than because of its
importance as regards our conception of the role
of Mesmer and mesmerism in the question of
hypnotism. In fact, the Viennese thaumaturgus
supposed that he was subjecting his patients to
the action of a physical agent freely diffused
throughout nature, which he thought was best
applied by means of conductor bodies-metal rods,
water impregnated with iron filings. Even the
"passes" he used were intended merely to aid the
circulation of the fluid. As for the result, it
was commonly just a fit of hysteria.
-
- In all this, it is to be noted, there is
nothing that is not entirely natural. There is
no personal action of the operator upon the
subject; and the result obtained, consisting
ordinarily of hysteric convulsions, has no
connection whatever or in any degree with sleep.
Mesmer's animal magnetism, therefore, was
essentially different from what is now
customarily designated by that name.
-
- One of Mesmer's disciples, the Marquis de
Puysgur, was destined to initiate tue new order
of things. Immediately on his return to his
estates, after having attended the
séances of the master, he amused himself
with magnetizing the people around him. To his
great astonishment, during one of his
experiments a young peasant fell peacefully
asleep in his arms, without convulsions and
without pain, and began talking aloud, telling
of all his thoughts and feelings in the
different occupations in which he imagined
himself to be employed, according to the
directions given to him by the Marquis de
Puysgur. Under the influence of the magnetic
manipulation the man slept, and while sleeping
walked; hence the term "artificial
somnambulism," proposed by Puységur's
brothers. Further (and this is of no small
importance), the images that came before the
mind of the subject during this sleep, were
capable of being indefinitely modified at the
pleasure of the one who had put him in that
state. The three terms of the modern magnetizer
are thus found united and revealed in the case
of the Marquis de Puysgur; namely, sleep not
inconsistent with lucidity of mind, and allowing
the subject to be influenced by another
person.
-
- An impulse was given to animal magnetism,
which henceforward was identified with
artificial somnambulism; and magnetizers swarmed
not only in Paris but throughout the provinces.
Still, public favor was not entirely won for
these novel practices, whether simply because
people mistrusted the unknown and the
unaccustomed, or because they remembered the
mischances that had befallen Mesmer and after
him the priest Fana, causing the edifice of
their fortunes, that for a moment excited
wonder, to collapse ridiculously. Then it was
that the heads of the magnetic school resolved
to ask of the learned societies an official
inquiry. Mesmer having already been banned by
the Paris Academy of Sciences, the request was
this time addressed to the Academy of Medicine.
A special committee was named in 1826, and five
years later Husson presented the report upon its
labors. With this report, famous in the history
of magnetism, one might have hoped that the
matter would enter its scientific phase; but
that was still distant. Alongside of a few
positive facts, what a searching for the
marvelous! Seemingly, before they strove to
obtain even a superficial knowledge of the
effects of magnetism, the committee wanted
forthwith to penetrate to the uttermost limits
of its action. Hence, though Husson's report was
favorable, the doctrine neither made progress
nor won proselytes among physicians; and in
1840, upon motion of Double, who likened
magnetism to circle-squaring, the Academy of
Medicine declared that "nothing is demonstrated
in magnetism," and that on no account would it
thereafter have aught to do with anything
connected with that class of facts.
-
- At that time, therefore, and since Puysgur's
discovery, the initiated and the inquirers
devoted themselves principally to the
investigation of marvels. The subjects must see
with the eyes shut, must have the sense of smell
at the finger tips, must even divine the future;
but it did not occur to them to study the
subjects, to notice how they act, what phenomena
they present, what laws control these phenomena,
upon the strength of winch all the laws
acknowledged in physiology were to be completely
reversed. Again, therefore, researches upon
magnetism fell into absolute discredit, having
become a close preserve for the sole benefit of
charlatans and illuminati. Then it was that the
ideas of the absolute power of the magnetizer's
will, of his unlimited influence over the will
of the subject, were set forth with unheard-of
exaggeration and in the most positive form.
Reaction came quickly. Braid, a surgeon of
Manchester, indignant at the thought of the
degradation of human nature implied in this mind
slavery, so-called, began, in 1841, the
experiments by which he showed that in order to
produce artificial somnambulism there is no need
of any extraneous influence, and that any person
of moderate sensibility can easily produce in
himself the "magnetic sleep " without any aid or
act of another. One has simply to fix his eyes
for a few minutes upon some shining object
placed a little higher than the ordinary plane
of vision and at the distance of a few
centimeters. The "impersonal" sleep thus
produced was called by Braid "hypnotism," and
the process published by Braid is now known as
"braidism." The word hypnotism (from sleep),
coined by Braid, has also been generally adopted
in our time by scientific men to denote sleep
artifically produced by mechanical means. The
word possesses at least one advantage, namely,
that it implies no foregone conclusion, and
merely states a fact without basing it upon a
theory, as was the case with the term
magnetism.
-
- But Braid's discovery did not save the study
of these phenomena from becoming, with very few
exceptions, the exclusive province of charlatans
and illuminati, nor from falling into almost
absolute discredit. It needed, perhaps, a little
courage for a man to take up again a question
upon which the anathema had thus been laid, and
to attempt its official rehabilitation. In the
lack of any other merit, may the generations to
come credit me at least with that!
-
- From the inception of my investigation of
these questions, my aim has invariably been to
study the hypnotized subject himselfhow he bears
himself under hypnosis. This study has seemed to
me to be much preferable to that which
considers, not the subject, but the hypnotism in
its essence and as a special force. I have also
endeavored to consider the hypnosis as a state
into which a man may be brought; not as an
agent, whether superhuman or extrahuman. And the
more I have examined the facts, and the further
I have advanced in my study, the more I am
convinced that hypnotism is a reaction, not an
action.
-
- The end I have ever held before my eyes,
then, and which I hope I have never lost from
view, is this: to study the hypnotic phenomena
according to a strictly scientific method; and
for this purpose to employ processes purely
physical and which can always be compared with
one another, so that the results obtained by me
may be rigorously tested by all observers who
shall use the same processes under the same
conditions.
-
- Before I speak of these processes, I must
say a few words about the subjects with whom my
experiments have had to do. At the very outset
my studies dealt with hysterical women, and ever
since I have always employed hysterical
subjects. There were two reasons for this:
first, because the practice of hypnotization is
by no means free from danger to whoever may be
subjected to it; and, secondly, because not
infrequently we see hysteric symptoms manifest
themselves at the first attempt of this kind,
which may thus be the occasional cause of this
neurosis. One avoids this danger, and
consequently a heavy responsibility, by
operating, as I have ever clone, only upon
subjects that are manifestly hysterical. The
second reason why I have always preferred to act
in this way (and the first alone would suffice
to determine my mind), is that hysterical
subjects are as a rule much more sensitive than
persons reputed to be in sound health. To this
point I invite the attention of observers; for
if some experimenters have not reached the same
results that I have reached, their want of
success is certainly attributable to the fact
that they have operated upon non-hysterical
subjects. For a like reason, I have chosen
rather to deal almost always with the female
sex, because females are more sensitive and more
manageable than males in the hypnotic
state.
-
- And now I come to the processes employed to
produce hypnosis. In choosing among these, I
have, like Braid, wished to make use of means
that might as far as possible be impersonal. I
have thus had recourse to sundry physical agents
capable of producing upon the sense organs
impressions that might result in hypnosis. Among
the processes employed, that used by Braid is
one of the easiest to apply and of the most
certain in operation. It consists in holding in
front of the patienta small shining object, and
getting him to gaze upon it without letting his
attention be diverted. This object must be held
10 or 15 centimeters distant from his eyes, and
a little above the usual plane of vision. Soon
the eyelids begin to wink; then the winking
becomes more and more rapid; later they tend to
droop, and finally they fall. The subject can
still lift them, with an effort; but after a
little while even that effort becomes impossible
and has no result. Then comes a sleep more or
less deep according to the person, or according
to the experience of the subject with the
process; for sleep comes the quicker the oftener
the subject has been thus put to sleep. In
practice, I have often been able to simplify
Braid's process, by merely making the subject
gaze fixedly upon the tip of my finger, held at
the proper distance from his eyes.
-
- In both these cases one factor is absolutely
necessary to success-the good will of the
patient. In other cases we can supply the
deficiency by substituting for the effect due to
persistency of impression (protracted gazing),
suddenness and intensity of impression. This I
have often been able to do by suddenly- and
unexpectedly unmasking before the subject's eyes
an electric or a magnesium light. If, instead of
acting upon the organ of sight, we act upon the
Organ of hearing, results strictly analogous are
obtained; and here, too, we may employ the slow
or the instantaneous method, as when we have to
do with the eye. The slow method consists in
placing the subject near a very large tuning
fork, operated by an electro-magnet. Little by
little, under the influence of the swelling
vibrations thus produced, sleep supervenes and
becomes as profound as when the other processes
are employed. As for the sudden auditory method,
it consists in the use of a gong or tom-tom. The
instrument being struck, the patient not
expecting it, she is seen to become suddenly
motionless, as though frozen where she stands,
fixed in the gesture she may have been making at
the moment when the gong was sounded. But it is
to be remarked that this method, like the
others, is not always successful; besides, it is
a rather brutal expedient, and may in some
patients provoke a veritable fit of hysteria,
instead of producing hypnotism. Nevertheless, it
has this advantage over the other methods, that
it does not require the good will of the
subject, who may therefore be hypnotized in
spite of himself. But it is dangerous to employ
it, and it is not to be resorted to
habitually.
-
- Having spoken of the choice of the subject
of hypnosis and the means employed to produce
the hypnotic state, we have now to describe the
phenomena produced-hypnotism itself.
-
- First of all it is to be noted that the
results obtained through the different methods
are not absolutely identical. If hypnosis is
produced by fixing the eyes upon a shining
object (braidism), and if the gaze be prolonged
a sufficient time, the eyes are seen to close,
the subject becomes totally unconscious,
perceives none of the objects around him, hears
none of the words addressed to him; but if
sufficient pressure be made upon a nerve or a
muscle, the corresponding segment of a member
assumes a fixed posture, which is in all
instances the same, being due to contraction of
the muscle directly manipulated or of that
innervated by the nerve upon which the pressure
is exerted. This special hypnotic state, so
easily recognized by the neuro-muscular
characters just described, is what I have called
the "lethargy."
-
- If the gong or the electric light is
employed, the state into which the patient is
brought is very different; it is now, not
lethargy, but "catalepsy." This state is
distinguished by the following characters: The
eyes are wide open and staring; the muscles and
nerves are no longer capable of being excited
directly by pressure, and contractions cannot be
produced; but, on the other hand, the muscles
acquire the property of retaining whatever
attitude may he given to the members, and the
latter oppose to passive movements a mild
resistance, which produces in the experimenter a
very peculiar sensation -the flexibilitas cerea
of the old authors. In this state is to be seen
the very interesting phenomenon of the unison of
attitudes and facial expressions: the patient
will clinch his fist if the face muscles that
express anger be made to contract by
electricity; conversely, his face will assume
the expression of violent anger if his fists be
clinched and made to assume an attitude of
threatening.
-
- Lastly, there are subjects in whom the
hypnogenic processes produce neither of the two
states mentioned, but a third and totally
distinct state, to which I have given the name
of "somnambulism." This is the state which
"magnetizers" specially desire to produce.
Whereas, in the two preceding states the subject
seems to have no mental connection with the
outer world, perceiving no sound, responding to
no question, powerless even to make any
spontaneous movement, the case is entirely
different in the somnambulism. The somnambulized
person can keep his eyes either open or closed;
often he has exactly the appearance of one that
is awake, and, to see him walk, no one hardly
would suppose him to be a hypnotized subject. He
answers questions addressed to him, and even can
take part in a prolonged conversation. In the
somnambulic state the muscles can be made to
contract; not, as in the lethargy, however, by
direct pressure upon muscles or nerves, but by
merely grazing the skin overlying them, or even
by making passes along their course, at a
certain distance.
-
- Thus, these three states, as can easily be
seen, differ essentially from one another; and I
have chosen to fouid distinctions between them
upon strictly objective characters that can
easily be demonstrated. The neuro-muscular
phenomena of which I have spoken with an
emphasis due to the importance I attribute to
them, are among the most stable of these
characters. But does it follow, because these
three states are really distinct from one
another, that they stand abolutely isolated, and
that they may not be transformed one into
another? By no means; and it is the easiest
thing in the world to produce this
transformation. Suppose the subject is in the
lethargy, we need but open his eyes wide with
the fingers, in order to put him into the
cataleptic state; and by rubbing briskly the top
of the head, we can make him pass into the
somnambulism. Conversely, the patient being in
the catalepsy or in the somnambulism, to put him
in the lethargic state we have only to keep his
eyes shut for a few seconds by exerting some
little pressure upon them.
-
- So far I have dealt only with phenomena
directly amenable to physical analysis; indeed,
with phenomena that can be analyzed with
comparative disregard of niceties of
distinction. But, the preceding facts once
established, this no longer suffices, and we
must, for the sake of completeness, enter upon
the study of phenomena of a quite different
order-phenomena of the psychic order. Here we
meet with greater difficulties, and, truth to
tell, we have to feel our way. Researches of
this nature must be made in the somnambulism,
for in that state the hypnotized person speaks
freely and answers questions put to him. The
psychic characteristic of the state of
somnambulism is an absolute trust, a boundless
credulity on the part of the subject toward the
one who has hypnotized him. However improbable
the story told in the hearing of a person so
hypnotized, he believes it, takes it in, makes
it his own; it becomes the center of his entire
cerebral activity; all his thoughts radiate out
of it, until some new thought is furnished to
him, though the same be diametrically opposite
to the former. It is because of this state of
mind that the phenomena of "suggestion" are so
easily produced. Everyone knows what is meant by
this suggestion and to what lengths it may be
carried. Take one example from among a thousand.
I present to a woman patient in the hypnotic
state a blank leaf of paper, and say to her:
"Here is my portrait; what do you think of it?
Is it a good likeness?" After a moment's
hesitation, she answers: "Yes, indeed, your
photograph; will you give it to me? " To impress
deeply in the mind of the subject this imaginary
portrait, I point with my finger toward one of
the four sides of the square leaf of paper, and
tell her that my profile looks in that
direction; I describe my clothing. The image
being now fixed in her mind, I take that leaf of
paper and mix it with a score of other leaves
precisely like it. I then hand the whole pack to
the patient, bidding her go over them and let me
know whether she finds among these anything she
has seen before. She begins to look at the
leaves one after another, and as soon as her
eyes fall upon the one first shown to her (I had
made upon it a mark that she could not discern),
forthwith she exclaims: "Look, your portrait! "
What is more curious still, if I turn the leaf
over, as soon as her eyes rest upon it, she
turns it up, saying that my photograph is on the
obverse. I then convey to her the order that she
shall continue to see the portrait on the blank
paper even after the hypnosis has passed. Then I
awaken her and again hand to her the pack of
papers, requesting her to look over them. She
handles them just as before, when she was
hypnotized, and utters the same exclamation:
"Look, your portrait!" If now I tell her that
she may retire, she returns to her dormitory,
and her first care will be to show to her
companions the photograph I have given her. Of
course, her companions, not having received the
suggestion, will see only a blank leaf of paper
without any trace whatever of a portrait; and
will laugh at our subject and treat her as a
visionary. Furthermore, this suggestion, this
hallucination, will, if I wish, continue several
days; all I have to do is to express the wish to
the patient before awakening her.
-
-
-
- The foregoing experiment has been made
hundreds of times by me and by others, and the
facts can easily be substantiated. Their
objectivity is as complete as could he wished in
researches of this kind. Let us then analyze
each of these phenomena, and so obtain a notion
of what is meant by suggestion. I show the
patient a perfectly blank leaf of paper, telling
her that on it is drawn my portrait-an entirely
baseless affirmation on my part, and one that
would he flatly contradicted by any person even
of moderate intelligence. And yet, because of
the unheard of credulity of which I have spoken,
the hypnotized subject sees the matter quite
differently. Almost without any hesitation she
seizes the idea that I present to her. Indeed,
to say that the hypnotized subject seizes the
idea is not a precise expression of the fact; it
is more correct to say that the idea seizes,
takes possession of, the hypnotized subject. The
portrait that I tell her to look at she
distinguishes perfectly; and if I but urge the
point a little, she will describe the picture
with great abundance of details, unrolling ad
infinitum this panorama of induced hallucination
as she grafts upon the simple notion of a
portrait every association of ideas that occurs
to a quick imagination. Yet she never lets
herself wander from her starting point, ever and
again going back to the initial idea-the piece
of paper by her transformed into a photograph.
She holds it at different angles, turns it this
way and that, brings it near or holds it at a
distance, contemplates it from every side; and
if I cease to talk to her, she will go on thus
for hours fondly gazing on the bit of paper. It
seems as though, under the influence of the
hypnosis, there exists in the brain an absolute
thought vacuum; and that, taking advantage of
this solitude, every idea introduced by
suggestion spreads itself out immeasurably and
lords it in the tenantless domain. In the case
we are considering, the thought of the portrait,
its existence once granted, is entirely
rational; but were I pleased to suggest to my
patient something utterly absurd, she would
accept that suggestion with the same docility.
Were I but to tell her that the portrait has two
noses and three eyes, she would believe that
quite as readily, without raising any
difficulties.
-
- Such is the influence of suggestion in its
less complex features, and one can easily
imagine what a variety of results may be
produced by it. But let us proceed with the
analysis of our experiment. When, upon my
injunction, the patient continues, even after
being awakened, to see my portrait upon this
leaf of paper, that is a proof of the intensity
with which a suggestion may be impressed upon
the mind; for even when the mind has resumed its
normal life and functionment, the impression
made during the hypnotic state persists, like a
veritable parasite, for hours, nay for days,
sometimes for weeks, and that without losing
aught of its potency. The importance of these
facts is patent, and I regret that space does
not permit me to discuss the highly interesting
questions raised by hypnotism regarded from the
medico-legal point of view, as an agent in crime
and a factor in lessening individual
responsibility. But that would carry me too far,
and I must give simply a broad general notion of
hypnotism, without discussing its
applications.
-
- Return we once again, therefore, to the
experiment already described, for we have not
yet examined all its phases. Having suggested to
the patient that the leaf of paper set before
her eyes is a photograph, I put it amid a great
number of other leaves so exactly like it that
even a keen eye cannot tell one leaf from
another. Then I tell the lady to find whether
the lot of papers contains anything she lias
seen before. Whatever I may do to "throw her off
the scent," she never misses; every time that,
as she goes over the papers, her eyes fall upon
the leaf in question, she recognizes it without
any hesitation. Here we enter the domain of the
marvelous, the enchanted garden toward which
every one has been drawn who has studied
magnetism; and from it few have come back. But
is there any need to appeal to the miraculous
for an explanation of facts of this character?
Must we invoke the supernatural? Certainly not,
when we can account for thse phenomena in the
simplest way in the world, by assuming an
enhanced acuteness of some of the senses -an
acuteness developed under the influence of the
hypnotic state. Is it matter for astonishment
that a dog follows his master by scent through
forests and fields, or that a carrier pigeon
comes back to its home from a distance of
hundreds of miles?
- No; these phenomena contain nothing
supernatural. This view I shall never be weary
of proclaiming. Hypnotism is directly amenable
to our means of investigation, and must needs be
an integral part of the known domain of science.
To that goal our efforts ought to be directed.
Let us, then, continue in this path -the only
one that may save us from precipices and that
can lead us to success.
-
 -
- Voir
d'autres portraits, le cabinet de consultation,
le cabinet photographique,
- une
lettre manuscrite de
Charcot
- Une
leçon de Charcot à La
Salpêtrière, tableau de M
Brouillet
- Œuvres
principales de Charcot
- Charcot
JM The topography of the brain Forum
1886
- Charcot
JM Magnetism and hypnotism Forum
1889
- Hypnotisme
and crime Charcot JM
1890
-
- Les
internes de JM. Charcot
-
- JM
Charcot et une patiente
ataxique
1875 la seule photo connue de
Charcot avec un malade
-
- Croquis
de JM. Charcot par Paul
Richer
-
Charcot in
Morocco: Introduction, notes and translation by
Toby Gelfand
|
