School of Positive Psychology
Historian in Hypnotherapy – James Braid
Dr. James Braid is regarded by
many as the 'Father of Hypnosis' for he was the man who coined the term
"hypnosis" – because he made a mistake. (James Braid Society, 2006).
Born James
Braid, to James Braid and Ann Suttie, on 19 June 1795 at
Ryelaw House in Portmoak, Kinross-Shire, Scotland, Dr. James Braid was the 3rd
son and last child of the family. James Braid married Margaret Mason at the age
of 18 (Yeates, 2013).
A surgeon by profession, James Braid
studied at the Edinburgh Royal College of Surgeons and became a member there
(M.R.C.S). He was also a member of Wernerian
Natural History Society of Edinburgh, the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh,
the Manchester Athenæum, and the Honorary Curator of the museum of the Manchester
Natural History Society. In 1828, Dr. Braid moved from Scotland to Manchester to
continue in his professional capacity specializing in the medical correction of
squint, club-foot, stammer, spinal curvature, among others (Yeates, 2013).
On
November 13, 1841, a date which led to changes in the history of Hypnotism, a
curious Dr. James Braid attended a stage demonstration on mesmerism by Swiss
demonstrator Charles Lafontaine. Intrigued, his second visit to another
Lafontaine demonstration captured Braid’s attention on the experience of eye
catalepsy shown by the patient in the demonstration. He was convinced that
there was no animal magnetism at work and surely not something caused by a
charismatic operator. By using ‘self-’ or ‘auto-hypnotism’ on himself within
his own home, Braid successfully demonstrated that it only needed a subject’s
‘fixity of vision’ on an ‘object of concentration’ at a specific height and
distance, to reach the state Lafontaine’s patients demonstrated (Yeates, 2013).
By doing the experiment on himself, he proved that the phenomenon was not a
cause of magnetism (Yeates, 2013).
After
replicating the experiment successfully with the same results on his friend Mr
Walker, his wife and his servant, Braid concluded that the induction state of
trance or ‘sleep’, caused by “fixation of the subject’s vision upon a task”,
was a result of “exhaustion of the nervous system” and a “natural reflex of an
entirely normal human physiological system (Yeates, 2013). His theory that this state can be achieved by any operator, challenged the
dominant theories of animal magnetism and mesmerism at that time.
On 27 November 1841, Braid
held his first public lecture cum demonstration to dispel the theory of animal magnetism
in Lafontaine’s demonstration. Over the
course of the next few months, James Braid conducted many more lectures and
demonstrations to packed audiences, displaying the effectiveness of hypnotism and
its therapeutic effects. Constantly challenged, he answered his critics through
tact, facts and real-life demonstrations.
Braid’s biggest challenge
came in the form of Rev Hugh Boyd M’Neile, an influential Anglican cleric, who associated
Braid’s practice to Satanic methods and through objectionary sermons and
publications, condemned his important therapeutic work as having no efficacy (Yeates, 2013). All
efforts by Braid to provide accounts and demonstrations to the opposite, failed
to satisfy M’Neile. Braid defended himself as not promoting neurohypnotism as a
“universal remedy” but when applied correctly and appropriately it had the
means of curing many ailments where other known remedies failed (Yeates, 2013).
It
should be noted that by this time, having associated the phenomenon of trance
to a form of sleep, Braid named the phenomena after Hypnos, the Greek God of
sleep and master of dreams (James Braid Society, 2006). Since then, the terms
Hypnosis and Hypnotism have gained fame.
On
June 22 1842, Braid wrote to the British Association for the Advancement of
Science (B.A.A.S) detailing his proposal to present his paper on
“Neurohypnology as a curative agency” (Yeates, 2013) with
physical evidence of people he had treated. Amid conspiracy theories of
professional jealousy, his proposal was deemed “unsuitable” by the B.A.A.S.
Undaunted, on 29 June 1842, Braid still went ahead on his own to present a
conversazione on the same topic to a packed full-house (Yeates, 2013).
In 1842, he published "Neurypnology or The Rationale of Nervous Sleep
Considered in Relation With Animal Magnetism." (James Braid Society,
2006). With descriptions of 25 cases
where a variety of conditions were treated, this book provided an extensive
account of Braid’s work on the domain of Hypnotism, his views and defense of
his theories and work (Yeates, 2013). He
sold nearly 800 copies of his work
By 1847, Braid started to realize the phenomena of catalepsy, anaesthesia and
amnesia could be induced without sleep. Realising his choice of using the term hypnosis
was not in line with the practice, Braid tried to change the name to monoideism
(concentration on a single idea or object) but he was too late as the terms
“hypnosis” and “hypnotism” had already been widely adopted in many European
languages (James Braid Society, 2006).
Known for his kindness, generosity, sympathy, and concern for
his patients, despite his deep interest and extensive work in hypnotism, Braid
continued to work as a surgeon until his death (Yeates, 2013).
Jayasim s/o Tharmapalan
School of Positive Psychology
Dr. James Braid died suddenly of a heart attack on Sunday, 25 March 1860.
References
Braid, J. (1843). Neurypnology; or, the rationale
of nervous sleep, considered in relation with animal magnetism. Retrieved
from http://bscw.rediris.es/pub/bscw.cgi/d4523401/Braid-Neurypnology.pdf
The James Braid Society. (2006). James braid
(1796 - 1860). London: James Braid Society. Retrieved from http://www.jamesbraidsociety.com/jamesbraid.htm
Whorwell, P. J. (2005). Review article: the
history of hypnotherapy and its role in the irritable bowel syndrome. (Vol.
22, pp. 1061-1067). Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics. Retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2036.2005.02697.x/full
Yeates, L. B. (2013). James braid: Surgeon,
gentleman scientist, and hypnotist. Sydney, Australia: University of New
South Wales. Retrieved from
http://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/fapi/datastream/unsworks:11299/SOURCE01
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