the just reputation of one who has done so much to advance the science of medicine, but I believe that in reference to the subject of hypnotism Charcot has committed a serious error in regarding a neurosis which is unquestionably an artificial derivative of hypnotism as the type of hypnotism itself, and it seems probable that this error is largely due to a failure to appreciate the subtle role of suggestion.[1]
We have now reviewed the more important facts at present known about hypnotism. Into the question of cerebral physiology I can not enter here, for I desire to confine myself to facts, and we can not go far into that realm unless we give ourselves up to speculation and abandon the surer footing of facts entirely; nor can I stop to speak of the interesting phenomena of spontaneous double consciousness, of retroactive hallucinations, and of spontaneous somnambulism. Full descriptions of these and of many other interesting conditions can be found in the more recent treatises upon hypnotism.
The medico-legal aspects of hypnotism have recently been very carefully studied, and only a short time since a special treatise appeared upon the subject. The forensic questions suggested by hypnotism are certainly of great interest, but I can not help thinking that their actual importance has been considerably exaggerated. The problem is such a novel one and suggests so many curious possibilities that it is not strange that some persons should have had their mental equilibrium a little disturbed from speculating about it.
In conclusion I wish to make a few remarks about the value of hypnotism in the cure of disease. This is a subject upon which the greatest difference of opinion at present exists among professional men, but there can be no question that the majority maintain an attitude of the most rigid skepticism. That it is very difficult at present to form an exact estimate of the therapeutic value of hypnotism is certain, but I can not help believing, after careful observation of a considerable number of cases in which it was tried, that the virtues of hypnotic suggestion are real and great. To be sure, the class of maladies in which benefit can be expected is limited. There is no evidence at present that organic states of disease can be in any way modified by hypnotism, and it is not probable that there ever will be. But there is evidence, and evidence of the best kind, that a large number of functional diseases have been benefited and even permanently cured. Liébault, Bernheim, and Forel have succeeded in curing, or at least in improving, such conditions as headache, functional disturbances of the bladder, St. Vitus's dance, writer's cramp, migraine, neuralgia,
- ↑ I recently had an opportunity of studying the cases of the "grand hypnose" at the Salpêtrière, and my belief in the correctness of Bernheim's views was fully confirmed.
