An evolution of the historical origins of hypnotism prior to the twentieth century: between spirituality and subconscious

Abstract

While today hypnosis is widely used as an adjunct for many therapeutic purposes, clinical as well as psychological, an embarrassing historical heritage of somewhat esoteric practices has prevented it from becoming mainstream in the fields of medicine and psychology. Today, hypnosis has been scientifically validated as a valuable adjunctive therapy. However, hypnosis has a long history, having passed through three main historical phases and currents of thinking: the ancient religiously based doctrine of the Egyptians and the Greeks as well as the medieval Christian superstitious beliefs that later gave birth to ‘spiritualism’; Mesmer's ‘fluidism’ founded on physics and nature; and finally the psychologically based ‘suggestionism’, as a premise to the study of the subconscious mind. In this study, I provide a synthesis of the history of magnetism and hypnotism. Copyright © 2007 British Society of Experimental & Clinical Hypnosis. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.