Three Thousand Years of Mental Healing by George Barton Cutten (best large ereader txt) ๐
For a great many years physicians have recognized that not only are all diseases made worse by an incorrect mental attitude, but that some diseases are the direct result of worry and other mental disturbances. The mental force which causes colored water to act as an emetic, or postage-stamps to produce a blister, can also produce organic diseases of a serious nature. The large mental factor in the cause of diseases is generally admitted, and it seems reasonable to infer that what is caused by mental influence may be cured by the same means. There is no restriction in the power of the mind in causing disease, and should we restrict the mind as a factor in the cure? The trouble seems to be in the explanation. People ask, "How can the mind have such an effect upon the body?" and to the answer of this question we must now turn
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In 1841 the French magnetizer, La Fontaine, gave some public exhibitions in Manchester which attracted the attention of a physician by the name of James Braid. Through the aid rendered by Braid, animal magnetism blossomed into a science. He directed the subject into its proper field: he eschewed the occult and mysterious, and emphasized observation and experiment. It was Braid who gave us the word "hypnotism." At first a sceptic, he began experimenting and proved that fixity of gaze had in some way such an influence on the nervous system of the subject that he went off into a sleep. He therefore opined that the transmission of a fluid by the operator had no part in the matter.
He further showed that an assumed attitude changed the subject's sentiments in harmony with the attitude, and that the degree of sleep varied with different persons, and with the same person at different times. He also noted the acuteness of the senses during hypnosis, and that verbal suggestion would produce hallucinations, emotions, paralysis, etc. Therapeutics was a subject in which he was naturally interested, and his experiments on different diseases were frequent and valuable. Braid made some mistakes, as was natural, but his discoveries covered the field so well and his ideas were so sound that too much credit cannot be ascribed to him. At first he thought hypnotism (Braidism) was identical with animal magnetism, but later made the mistake of considering it analogous, and the two flourished side by side and independently.
Animal magnetism was first introduced into America in 1836 by Mr. Charles Poyan, a French gentleman. A few years later a certain Dr. Collyer lectured upon it in New England. New Orleans was, however, for a long time its chief centre. In 1848 Grimes, working independently, appears to have arrived at about the same conclusions as Braid. He showed that most of the hypnotic phenomena could be produced in the waking state in some subjects, by means of verbal suggestion. The phenomena were known under the name of electro-biology. In 1850 Darling went to England and introduced electro-biology, but it was soon identified with Braidism, and in 1853 Durand de Gros, who wrote under the pseudonym of Philips, exhibited the phenomena of electro-biology in several countries, but aroused little attention.
Azam of Bordeaux and Broca of Paris made some experiments following Braid's method, and several times performed some painless operations by this means. They were followed by numerous others in all European countries and in America. In fact, the interest in the subject became general, and as more was known about it, fewer objections were heard. Societies were formed for the study of hypnotism, publications were started devoting all their space to the exposition and discussion of it, and as this third period advanced, its scientific value was more and more recognized from the stand-points of psychology, pathology, and therapeutics.
In a brief rรฉsumรฉ like this it would be impossible to name even the chief experimenters in the different countries who contributed to this period, but some names stand out so prominently that they should be emphasized, for they must be reckoned in importance with Braid's. Liebeault, whose book, Du Sommeil, etc., was published in 1866, has been called the founder of the therapeutics of suggestion. While suggestion in both waking and hypnotic states had been applied long before Liebeault's day, it was he who first fully and methodically recognized its value. We are also indebted to him for stimulating in the study of hypnosis Bernheim and other prominent investigators. Liebeault at the head of the School of Nancy was not less known than Charcot at the Salpรชtriรจre.
Charcot was indefatigable in his researches, but was led away in his conclusions by artifacts. For example: three states were produced in the hypnotic subject which Charcot considered to be symptomatic and characteristic. They were catalepsy, lethargy, and somnambulism. Certain physical excitations, such as rubbing the scalp or exposing the eyes to a bright light, were thought to be all that was necessary to change the subject from one stage to another. It has since been shown that not only were the states of catalepsy, lethargy, and somnambulism produced by suggestion, but the physical stimuli were simply suggestions and signs by which the subject knew that a particular change was expected, and, in harmony with hypnotic action, the expected change came about. Not only did Charcot make this mistake, but some of his followers of the Salpรชtriรจre School continued to be deceived for years afterward.
Hardly a conclusion of Charcot's remains to-day, and yet so earnest was he in his investigations and so untiring in his experiments, that many of his facts contributed much to our knowledge of the subject even if his theories have been rejected. Binet, Fรฉrรฉ, and other followers of his have contributed much to the science and literature of the subject. The latter half of this period is not unknown to us to-day, and as the names connected with it are familiar, it remains for me to mention but one more name, that of the one who ushered in the fourth period, F. W. H. Myers.
From its beginning Myers was prominently connected with the Society for Psychical Research and occupied the offices of president and secretary. He held the latter position at the time of his death in 1901. In 1887 he formulated his theory of the subliminal self or subliminal consciousness, a theory which has come to be more and more accepted, and the value of which has received increasing appreciation. It has been known as the "subconscious self" or the "subconsciousness" probably more than by Myers's original title; and his theory has been modified by some subtractions and additions, but it is generally accepted to-day and its exposition has helped solve many problems in abnormal psychology. In no department has it contributed more than in that of hypnotism, for by it this state has been partially explained.
For a number of years Charcot and his followers put forward a physiological theory of hypnotism which waged war with that of the Nancy School, under Liebeault, but even before Charcot's death he recognized the validity of the Nancy claims while still clinging to his own. Few if any espouse Charcot's claims to-day. The general psychological theory of Nancy, which bases the results on suggestion, is that currently accepted, while a theory not very different from that of animal magnetism has been held by some of those who accepted the spiritualistic hypothesis, notably among whom was Myers.
Hypnotism to-day is recognized as the product of a long line of erroneous theory and zigzag development, but the wheat has largely been sifted and the chaff thrown to the winds of antiquity. Its therapeutic and psychological value is duly recognized by science to-day.189
187 Binet and Fรฉrรฉ, Animal Magnetism, p. 8.
188 C. Mackay, Extraordinary Popular Delusions, I, p. 278.
189 Many works and encyclopedic articles on hypnotism have been consulted in the preparation of this chapter, all of which were valuable, and few of which stand out prominently.
CHAPTER XI THE HEALERS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY"Medical cannot be separated from moral science, without reciprocal and essential mutilation."โReid.
"Man is a dupeable animal. Quacks in medicine, quacks in religion, and quacks in politics know this, and act upon that knowledge. There is scarcely anyone who may not, like a trout, be taken by tickling."โSouthey.
There seems to have been a great development of mental healing during the nineteenth century. The healing by shrines, relics, and charms diminished in the latter part of the century on account of the lessening of superstition and the better understanding of mental laws, but additional work has thereby been laid upon the healers. The development of hypnotism and the exposition of the laws underlying it, the collection and publication of cases of cures by mental means, the lessening of faith in noxious doses of drugs, the increase of nervous diseases which are most easily helped by suggestive therapeutics, the attempted duplication of apostolic gifts on the part of some sects and the general reaction against the materialism of the early part of the century as shown in the great revival of psychical study and research have all been factors in the demand for mental medicine.
The healers have been of various kinds. Having already dealt with the mesmerizers and hypnotizers, we shall now look only at the classes of independent and generally less scientific investigators and experimenters. Some have not been regular healers but healed only incidentally, as, e. g., the revivalists; some have followed James 5:14 f. in anointing with oil and prayingโof these and others, some have had institutions for housing the patients; some have been peripatetic healers; some have simply used prayer; some have established their systems on metaphysical bases and been the founders of sects; some have combined the results of scientific investigations in an endeavor to help mankind. Many of these have simply followed the ways of their predecessors of former centuries, but a few started on new lines of procedure. Whatever the method, they have all, consciously or unconsciously, depended upon the influence of the patient's mind over his own body, and the now better understood laws of suggestion.
The revivals were eighteenth and nineteenth century phenomena, and in discussing the part which their leaders have taken in healing we may well include the experience of Wesley. As a mere incident in his revival work, John Wesley (1703-1791), the great founder of Methodism, appeared in the rather unenviable role of exorcist. It is to his credit that he was not led away from his primary purpose by this experience, but returned to his preaching without any effort to add healing to his gifts. The account of his encounter with the demons can best be given by quoting his own words, as found in his Journal.
"October 25 [1739]. I was sent for to one in Bristol who was taken ill the evening before. She lay on the ground furiously gnashing her teeth and after a while roared aloud. It was not easy for three or four persons to hold her, especially when the name of Jesus was named. We prayed. The violence of her symptoms ceased, though without a complete deliverance." Wesley was sent for later in the day. "She began screaming before I came into the room, then broke out into a horrid laughter, mixed with blasphemy, grievous to hear. One who from many circumstances apprehended a preternatural agent to be concerned in this, asking, 'How didst thou dare to enter into a Christian?' was answered, 'She is not a Christian, she is mine.' Then another question, 'Dost thou not tremble at the name of Jesus?' No words followed, but she shrunk back and trembled exceedingly. 'Art thou not increasing thy own damnation?' It was faintly answered, 'Ay! Ay!' which was followed by fresh cursing and blasphemy ... with spitting, and all the expressions of strong aversion." Two days later Wesley called and prayed with her again, when "All her pangs ceased in a moment, she was filled with peace, and knew that the son of wickedness was departed from her." On October 28 he exorcised two more demons whom he had evidently (unconsciously) been the means of producing in two neurotic girls. He had
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