James Esdaile – Ambroise-Auguste Liébeault – Jean-Martin Charcot – Hippolyte Bernheim – Ivan Pavlov – Sigmund Freud – Émile Coué – Pierre Janet
James Esdaile [1808 - 1859] was thought to have been the pioneer of using hypnosis as anaesthesia. Just has James Braid had done a few years previously, Esdaile attended the University of Edinburgh and graduated in 1830. As a sufferer of asthma and chronic bronchitis since childhood, he thought it a good idea to accept a position as assistant surgeon in Calcutta, Bengal for the East India Company, hoping that the different climate would suit his condition. He took up the position in 1831 but he eventually suffered a complete breakdown and had to take extended leave from 1836 through to 1838. After this leave he returned to Calcutta at the Hooghly Hospital. He was also responsible for the Jail hospital due to its proximity.
Esdaile had never witnessed anyone being mesmerised but when he was presented with a patient in particular discomfort he decided to put what he had read into practice. Esdaile’s method was to have the patient lie down in a dark room wearing just a loin cloth then he would repeatedly pass his hands, in the shape of a claw, slowly over the patient’s body. It was essential that the hands remained within one inch of the surface and be directed from the back of the head to the pit of the stomach. Esdaile would be seated at the patient’s head during this process and stooped over, breathing on the patient’s head and eyes.
As Esdaile was not in particularly good health himself, and this process would take hours each day, Esdaile employed native assistants to help him. The use of this technique in surgery gained him a reputation in Europe and other nations. His work also came to the attention of the then Governor of Bengal, Sir Herbert Maddocks. The Governor appointed a committee to investigate these amazing claims. The report was positive and in 1846 Esdaile was given exclusive use of a hospital in Calcutta for his research. In 1848 a Mesmeric Hospital was opened in Calcutta specifically for his work. Unfortunately, the hospital was closed again 18 months later by the deputy Governor of Bengal.
Also in 1848, the Governor General of India Lord Dalhousie was impressed by Esdaile’s achievements and awarded him the position of Presidency Surgeon. Later, in 1850, although Lord Dalhousie was unwilling to support the Mesmeric Hospital, he had gained so much respect for Esdaile that he appointed him to the position of Marine Surgeon..
Esdaile’s techniques differed quite substantially from the techniques used by regular mesmerists and involved a lot of breathing on the patient. When James Braid was asked to report on Esdaile’s use of mesmerism in an Indian Hospital, he did so favourably. He did made it clear though, that he did not believe Mr Esdaile, as a mesmerist, was able to transmit a peculiar occult influence over the patient. Esdaile retired in 1853 after his contract with the East India Company expired. He spent some time back in his home land of Scotland before finally ending up in Sydenham where he died in 1859.
Ambroise-Auguste Liébeault [1823 - 1904] founded The Nancy School of Hypnotism. He was born in 1823 and his school insisted that hypnosis was a normal phenomenon induced by suggestion. This was in contrast to a lot of earlier schools of thought that had based hypnotic trances on hysteria, psycho-physiological phenomenon or the manifestation of magnetism. His school was attended by many famous people two of whom, Sigmund Freud and Émile Coué were directly influenced by him.
Around the same time, the Salpâtriére School or Paris School as it became known, was set up by Jean-Martin Charcot. Charcot was a respected French Neurologist who spent much of his time researching the functions of different parts of the brain. His contribution to the understanding of many of todays conditions is well documented including the addition of many symptoms to Parkinson’s disease. He was responsible for changing the French attitude to Hypnotism as all forms of mesmerism had previously been rejected and was known as the Father of Modern Neurology. He was greatly influenced by Mesmer and Braids early work both of whom had veered towards the state theory at the time. A dispute over their theories raged between Charcot and Hippolyte Bernheim, another leading neurologist of the day and a lot of Charcot’s views have since been dismissed as incorrect although his most famous student was Sigmund Freud..
Hippolyte Bernheim [1840 - 1919] had become a follower of Liébeault and and collaborated with him at the Nancy School. After the Medical Profession accepted and took up hypnotism around 1880, he was very enthusiastic about it and become one of the leaders of the investigation. He was one of the best known authorities on the subject at that time. Bernheim had also had some influence over Freud who had visited him around 1889, even though Bernheim was so opposed to the views of Charcot, Freud’s teacher .
Ivan Pavlov [1849 - 1936] was a Russian born physician and psychologist. After many years of research, his interest turned to ‘conditional reflexes’ where he was able to get animals to have reactions such as salivation through an external stimulation such as the sounding of a bell. His research showed that animals could be programmed to have an involuntary reaction to a particular stimulation rather than using observation and critical thinking. The phrase ‘Pavlov’s Dog’ is often used to describe a person that reacts in such a manner. Pavlov won the Nobel Prize for his research into the digestive system and famously had one of his students sit with him and record the last moments of his life as he wanted to create a subjective experience of death.
Sigmund Freud [1856 - 1939] had some interest in Hypnosis and as previously mentioned attended both the Salpâtriére School in Paris and the Nancy School. He popularised the idea of hypnotic regression by left the idea of hypnosis behind in favour of his own psychoanalytic method.
Émile Coué [1857 - 1926] had originally wanted to study as a chemist. Unfortunately, due to his family circumstances, he had to leave that dream behind and eventually gained a degree in Pharmacology. It was whilst working as a pharmacist a Troyes, France that he discovered the Placebo effect. He noted that if he suggested to the patients that the remedy they were receiving was particularly successful one, they had a far better response to the treatment than another who received no such suggestion. He studied under Liébeault and Bernheim at the Nancy School and with his wife, he eventually founded the Lorraine Society of Applied Psychology.
Coué had been treating patients with hypnosis but discovered that they could not be hypnotised against their will. He also noted that the effects of the hypnosis lessened as the patients began to regain consciousness. He than turned to autosuggestion. Whilst as a pharmacist, he believed in the effects of medication, he also believed that a persons mental state played a major role in the affect that these medications could have. He observed that a patient was able to cure themselves by replacing any negative thoughts of illness with more positive thoughts of cure and healing. He claimed that repeating any suggestion often enough, was sufficient for the unconscious to accept it and act on it. He was against the idea that hypnosis induced an altered state of mind or trance and was very much a Non-State Theorist. It is Coué’s phrase, translated into English that is recognised by many. ‘Day by day in every way I’m getting better and better’.
Pierre Janet [1859 - 1947] was a French psychologist and was also a student of Charcot. He was the first person to make a connection between and event in a persons past life and their present day situation. Many believe he preceded Sigmund Freud in the foundation of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy. He is responsible for our use of the words ‘subconscious’ and ‘disassociation’ and has been a great influence on modern psychotherapists.
