Nancy School
[2] Having finally established a successful practice, his thoughts turned back to that book on animal magnetism and he decided to start experimenting with hypnotic therapies.
"[4] This book was largely ignored by the medical profession[2] due to the fact that it was obscurely written and sold very few copies.
[1][4] Bernheim, born in Alsace, received his medical degree from Strasbourg for internal medicine, specializing in heart diseases and typhoid fever.
[1] His amazement of what was happening led him to regularly visit the clinic to learn Liébeault's methods, and eventually abandoned his practice with internal medicine to become a full-time hypnotherapist.
[6] Liebeault, Bernheim, and the school in Nancy believed that hypnosis was due to the physiological property in the brain of suggestibility.
The subject showed no recollection of receiving a suggestion, and stated that the "idea presented itself to his mind only at the moment at which he was required to execute it.
"To one, I tell her during her sleep:—"Next Thursday (in five days) you will take the glass that is on the night table and put it in the suitcase that is at the foot of your bed."
Instead, "Charcot speculated that the root cause of hysteria lay in a hereditary, progressive, and generalized degeneracy of the nervous system that interferes with the ability to integrate and interconnect memories and ideas in the normal way.
Janet then used this research as evidence that traumatic events of the past led to the onset of symptoms of hysteria which resulted in a dissociated consciousness that was expressed in hypnotic neurosis.
[11] The theory of grand hypnotism was presented by Charcot to the French scientific establishment and was accepted as a legitimate study.
[12] This was the exact opposite of the belief held by Charcot that suggestion was due to provoked sleep from the disorder of hypnotic neurosis.
"Charcot too, admitted his errors on hypnotism and privately predicted that his theories of hysteria would not long survive him".
Besides his mistakes, "Charcot was among the first to explore interactions between emotional and physical factors, and he raised the important subjects of hysteria and hypnosis out of scientific obscurity".
[1] By doing this Braid was able to make a revolutionary observation and conclusion by having his subjects stare at and concentrate on a shiny object.
[13] He noticed that "the staring paralyzed the eye muscles, he concluded, and the fixed attention weakened the mind, resulting in an unusual state of the nervous system, halfway between sleep and wakefulness.
"[16] According to K. Cherry, "the technique has also been clinically proven to provide medical and therapeutic benefits, most notably in the reduction of pain and anxiety.
Experiments today have given us enough information to show that hypnosis and the power of suggestion can help with certain problems in daily life; whether it be trying to quit smoking or to relieve the pain of consistent headaches.
