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Hypnotic Session
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Once I witnessed my magnetic friend’s attempt to put a young Danish woman to sleep among a small circle of friends by a dim light, on a damp summer’s evening in Sannois [France]—and the impression I got from her hard fight against the sleep gave me, along with the light and the environment, the first idea to paint a picture on this theme. But only a few years later. . . . magnetism had become hypnotism.—Richard Bergh, 18881
In 1843, Scottish surgeon James Braid (1795-1860) introduced the term hypnosis (from Hypnos, the Greek god of sleep) and dismissed, by means of his experiments, the claims of the mesmerists of a "magnetic" force that is manipulated by the magnetizer to reestablish physiologic equilibrium and cure the sick. Mesmerism had fallen into disrepute in France in the previous century following the 1784 report of a royal commission. The Royal Commission on animal magnetism was . . . [Full Text of this Article]
James C. Harris, MD
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