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Hubbard the Stage Hypnotist Series Hubbard, the Master Stage Hypnotist! Index The Anderson Report Use of the "Confusion Technique" in scientology Hypnosis in scientology - The Gradation Chart Revealed - LINK Hypnosis Is Hubbard Denounced by Inventor of the E-Meter Hypnosis Demonstration and Collective on Hubbard's Use of Covert Hypnosis - Exposed Dianetics in the 1952 Journal of Hypnosis and Instantaneous Hypnosis" by Harry Arons scientology's Source of the "E-Meter A Comparison of Hypnosis and Auditing from Ex-Member who Became a Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist Hubbard's own statements about Hypnosis from his books and Scientology official publications. The Rape of the Mind by Joost Meerloo 1957 - LINK Support the effort to expose Scientology today! |
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HYPNOSIS by G.A. Estabrooks
Chapter 3 THERE is a rule in hypnotism that everything we get in the trance can also be obtained by means of the posthypnotic suggestion. Also, that anything we find in either can be found in autosuggestion; and, finally, that everything we obtain in any of the three will be encountered in everyday life. In this latter case we refer to the subject as hysteric, neurotic, or even insane and will leave the consideration of these everyday cases to a later chapter on mental disease.
Let us take a typical posthypnotic suggestion. The operator says to the subject in somnambulism, "Now listen carefully. After you wake up, I will show you the ace of spades from a pack of cards. When I do this, you will see a black dog come in through the door. He is a very friendly dog, so you will pet him, then you will give him a bone. He belongs to Professor Fowler so, after you have fed him, you will call Fowler on the telephone and ask him to come get the dog." The operator repeats these instructions and asks the subject if he understands them thoroughly. Then the subject is awakened.
Five minutes later the hypnotist picks up a deck of cards, selects the ace of spades, and lays it on the table in front of the subject. The latter seems wide awake in every sense of the word. He glances at the door and says, "Why, here is Fowler's dog. He looks hungry. Come on in, fellow, and have a bone."
He pats the phantom dog, takes a plate from the table, puts on it an imaginary bone, and continues to fondle the dog as he eats it. Then he suddenly says, "You know, I don't believe Fowler knows where that dog is. I think I'll call him on the telephone and let him know."
So he goes to the phone and puts through his call, all the time talking in a perfectly normal manner about his garden, his auto or any other topic of conversation in which he may have been engaged. Fowler, who knows what is happening, comes over for a cup of tea. All the time he is in the room the subject keeps playing with the dog and finally says good day to the professor and his phantom pet in quite normal fashion.
Such is the typical picture of a posthypnotic suggestion. Some subjects act in a dazed condition while carrying out such orders but this is easily corrected by the suggestion that they will be wide awake and perfectly normal during the whole procedure.
Let us examine this type of suggestion more closely, far as we will see later it explains a great deal in abnormal psychology. It is a curious thing that the subject does not have to be in the deepest trance or in somnambulism to get the posthypnotic suggestion. To be sure it is much better if we start off from the deep state, but not absolutely necessary. We say to a subject in hypnotism, "After you awaken, I will tap three times on the table with my pencil. You will then have an irresistible impulse to take off your right shoe." Then we awaken him and find out that he remembers everything. Nevertheless we tap three times on the table and at once there is clear evidence of an inner conflict. He wants to take off that shoe but has made up his mind he will not. Like one possessed of a devil, he runs his hands through his hair, shakes his head, gets up and walks around the room muttering to himself, "I won't. I won't do it."
Finally the strain becomes too great and he says, "Oh! All right, then. Have it your own way." He takes off the shoe and sits down looking vastly relieved. While we can get this reaction in some subjects who do not enter somnambulism, in general they can fight off the suggestion. They still show evidence of a desire to carry out the order, but will sit still, grit their teeth, smile triumphantly and say, "No." And in most of these cases "no" means "no."
At this point, we should mention a very necessary precaution which should be taken in all this work. The subject must never leave the room until the suggestion has been removed. There are two ways of doing this. Re-hypnotize the subject and remove the suggestion, or, far easier, have him carry it out with his own consent. Simply say, "Very well. That test failed but I want to make sure that we have no trouble with it in the future. Take off your shoe and put in on again, just to clear the wires."
A doctor friend reports a very interesting case which happened to him twenty years ago. A patient came complaining that he was being followed by a big, black dog. The patient knew quite well that there was no dog around, but for all that he could not escape from the delusion that this dog was always at his heels. The doctor worked with him for a week with no success. Then the patient himself gave the answer. A stage hypnotist had been in town. He had volunteered as a subject, went into deep trance and remembered nothing of what happened until he was awakened at the end of the show. But the next day this dog delusion started and had been with him ever since.
The doctor found the answer in short order. Inquiring among his friends he found that the subject, the night of the show, had kept the house entertained by running around the stage for half an hour always pursued by a big, black dog. He was one of several subjects and this was his "stunt." He was hypnotized at once, the posthypnotic suggestion removed, and, after a couple of seances, had finally got rid of his phantom friend.
One of the real dangers of hypnotism lies right here. We may easily instill in the subject's mind some conflict, without in any way intending the same. One of our best operators reports the following case. The subject, in deep trance, was told to drink a glass of whisky. He was a prohibitionist, had never tasted liquor and refused. But the day after the trance, he told the hypnotist that, for some unknown reason, he had developed a
crazy idea of entering every saloon he passed and having a glass of whisky. The operator said nothing, re-hypnotized the subject and this time took care that he removed all posthypnotic suggestions.
The best procedure is as follows. After each trance, if any posthypnotic suggestions have been given, explain to the subject in the waking state just what has occurred. Then assure him that the suggestion in question has now been completely removed. If he has any hint of its still persisting, he is to look up the operator at once. With experience the hypnotist will never have any trouble along these lines but he must always realize that he must exercise great care.
There are two outstanding facts about these posthypnotic suggestions which link them very closely to the so-called Freudian "complex." First, these suggestions, as do those in hypnosis proper, have a very curious compulsive force. When given to a subject in somnambulism they simply "must" be carried out. The writer recalls one very interesting example while doing graduate work at Harvard. Professor William McDougall was always greatly interested in hypnotism. Under his leadership some very valuable research work was always under way.
On one occasion a group was gathered in his office. One of these graduate students was an excellent hypnotic subject and the professor hypnotized him. Before awakening the subject, McDougall said, "When I light my cigarette, you will take the ace of spades from the pack of cards on the table and hand it to me." Then he awakened the subject and later lit his cigarette.
Now it happened that this particular subject was greatly interested in hypnotism and quite familiar with its use. He at once reached over for the pack of cards, then suddenly stopped.
"Do you know," he said, "I believe that is a posthypnotic suggestion."
"Very probably," McDougall replied, "what do you want to do?"
"I want to give you the ace of spades."
"That's right. It is a posthypnotic suggestion. What are you going to do about it?"
"I won't do it."
"I bet you fifty cents you will."
"Taken."
Then came a very neat demonstration of this compulsive power of the suggestion. The subject was obviously in difficulties. Extremely restless, he would keep drifting toward that pack of cards, then pull himself together, and sit down only to be on his feet again in a minute's time wandering around the room in a most unhappy fashion. But he did resist and at the end of an hour and a half he collected his fifty cents, wiped his brow, and left the room.
But his troubles had only started. McDougall had purposely omitted removing the suggestion. The subject had a great deal of work to do but simply could not settle down. He was haunted by the ace of spades. Finally at four o'clock in the afternoon he gave up the struggle, returned to the building, had the janitor let him into the office, got the ace of spades, looked up the hypnotist at his home, and handed it over plus a one dollar bill.
These compulsions arising from the posthypnotic suggestion work in very curious ways. For example, we say to a subject, "When you awaken I will reach for a cigarette. You will then hand me the ash try from the mantelpiece." When he is wide awake the operator reaches for his cigarette and the subject promptly hands him the ash tray.
"Why did you hand me that tray?"
The subject looks puzzled. "Well, why not? You are smoking and have no ash tray."
"It was a posthypnotic suggestion. See if you can pick out the next one and resist it."
We try again. This time we say, "When I stand up to leave the room you will hand me a coat. By accident, however, you will hand me Mr. Jones' coat, the one with the velvet collar." This time when we stand up, he immediately hands us Jones' coat, then notices his mistake and apologizes profusely. We say, "Fooled again! Another posthypnotic suggestion. See if you can catch us."
In hypnotism we then say, "When you awaken we will mention the shipping losses caused by the submarines. You will then reach for the New York Times and quote us the losses for the last four weeks."
He is awakened. Five minutes later the hypnotist mentions shipping losses. He promptly reaches for the Times and just as promptly stops.
"No, you don't. Not this time. That is a posthypnotic suggestion. I won't carry it out."
"How do you know it is a posthypnotic suggestion?"
"I just feel it in my bones. Sort of an urge to do it and a very uncomfortable feeling when I resist. That feeling would never come from anything else."
"I bet you can't resist it."
"Yes, I can. Much as I want to get my hands on that Times, the thing is not irresistible."
"Very well. Look up the figures any how just to ease your mind."
This subject, highly intelligent and himself a psychologist, could pick out the curious drive to carry out the suggestion and so was able to identify it. The reader will note a point which is very important for later discussion. The subject tends to carry out these suggestions without any hesitation, especially when they fit into the social situation in which he finds himself. However, immediately he finds out the cause of his actions, he just as quickly decides to resist. Whether this resistance will be effective depends on many factors, especially the depth of the trance and the attitude of the hypnotist.
Sidis in his Psychology o f Suggestion brings out the importance of operator attitude very clearly. He quotes from his very wide experience to show that the subject will resist a suggestion if he has the least idea that the operator does not fully expect him to comply. On the other hand, if the hypnotist makes his suggestions in a firm voice which does not express the slightest doubt as to their acceptance the order will be obeyed.
Science here tends to lean over backward in its effort to become scientific and in doing so becomes very unscientific. We cannot adopt completely the methods of the physical sciences, such as chemistry. The attitude of the experimenter matters nothing here. If he adds zinc to sulphuric acid, the result is quite clear cut and definite, whatever may be his attitude. But in suggestion this attitude is tremendously significant. A suggestion given in a voice which does not express conviction is not nearly as potent as one given with determination and force.
We do not have to experiment with hypnotism to see the truth of this statement. Any effective public speaker knows that confidence, conviction, and force are necessary to sway his audience. We will later see that a Hitler uses all the techniques of a stage hypnotist and uses them with excellent results.
So we must always bear in mind that; while psychology claims to be a science and to follow the scientific method, this personal factor introduces an element which is quite foreign to chemistry, physics or geology. The psychologist, in his determination to get standard conditions, may, in some cases, completely defeat his own ends and become a very unscientific scientist. Hypnotism supplies us with our most glaring examples and, for this reason, hypnotism is probably the most difficult of all subjects in psychology to investigate. The personality of the operator is of such great importance.
The reader must bear this constantly in mind when, in later pages, we discuss such subjects as the possible use of hypnotism for criminal ends and for the detection of crime. Here we will see that some of our very best men, such as M. H. Erickson at Eloise State Hospital, are emphatic that hypnotism cannot be used in either situation. But we will also see that others of equal reputation, as W. R. Wells of Syracuse University or L. W. Rowland of University of Tulsa, are just as emphatic that it can. This presents a very confusing picture to the average reader and tends to discredit this branch of psychology. Actually such results must be expected until we find some way of evaluating the personal factors of both the hypnotist and the subject.
There is a second characteristic of the posthypnotic suggestion which is of the very greatest importance. This we term rationalization. The subject tends to rationalize, to find excuses for his actions and, strange to say, while these excuses may be utterly false, the subject tends to believe them.
For example, the writer says to a very good somnambulist, "After you awaken I will sit down by the piano. You will then go to the bookshelves, select the third book from the left hand side, second row from the top, turn to page 127 and read the first paragraph." The subject remembers nothing of what the operator has said, yet, when he seats himself by the piano, the subject wanders over to the library, selects the proper book, opens to page 127 and starts reading. It happens to be a textbook on biology.
The operator interrupts. "Why are you reading that stuff to me?"
"Well, yesterday I had an argument with Professor Smith about the action of the chromosomes in reduction-division, and I thought you could help me out."
The subject was a medical student, the story fitted together neatly, and he evidently believed it-only it was quite untrue. He had not seen Professor Smith for a week and had had no argument about the action of the chromosomes. This case is typical. The subject always finds an excuse to justify his conduct, and this conduct may be pretty hard to justify, as in the following case.
The operator hypnotizes a subject and tells him that when te cuckoo clock strikes he will walk up to Mr. White, put a lamp shade on his head, kneel on the floor in front of him and "cuckoo" three times. Mr. White was not the type on whom one played practical jokes, in fact, he was a morose, nonhumorous sort of individual who would fit very badly in such a picture. Yet, when the cuckoo clock struck, the subject carried out the suggestion to the letter.
"What in the world are you doing?" he was asked. "Well, I'll tell you. It sounds queer but it's just a little experiment in psychology. I've been reading on the psychology of humor and I thought I'd see how you folks reacted to a joke that was in very bad taste. Please pardon me, Mr. White, no offence intended whatsoever," and the subject sat down without the slightest realization of having acted under posthypnotic compulsion.
Next came a very curious situation. Mr. White was a lawyer and interested in the whole problem of hypnotism in crime. "Do you think hypnotism is dangerous?" he asked the subject.
"I'm sorry but I know nothing about hypnotism," came the puzzled reply.
"But you were hypnotized only five minutes ago."
"Now you're having your little joke, but I have never been hypnotized in all my life."
"I certainly saw you in hypnotism right in this room not five minutes back."
"You certainly saw no such thing. I know nothing about hypnotism, never have been hypnotized, and know that no one could put me to sleep."
It is a very curious thing that, with the use of the posthypnotic suggestion, we can remove from the subject all knowledge of ever being in the trance. We merely assure him in hypnotism, "In future you will have no memory of ever being asleep. You will remember nothing about hypnotism but will insist that you have never been hypnotized in all your life."
After such a suggestion has been repeated a few times the subject has no knowledge of going into trance. We seat ourselves opposite him at the table. He is hypnotized and we talk along for half an hour. Then we awaken him and he at once picks up the conversation where he left off before being hypnotized. We ask him about the trance and he looks puzzled. He is quite sure that we have been talking quietly in our chairs ever since he entered the room. When he is told that he was in the trance, and is a good subject, he is inclined to think that we are trying to play a very poor joke on him. He reacts in exactly the same way as would the reader if his doctor were suddenly to enter the room and tell him that for the last hour he had been walking in his sleep. The whole thing doesn't make sense and the subject says so.
We can go even farther with the posthypnotic suggestion. Not only can we, with its aid, remove all knowledge from the subject of ever having been hypnotized; we can make it impossible for anyone beside the operator to hypnotize him at any future date. This again is the result of suggestion in the hypnotic trance. After such a suggestion the subject, no matter how good a somnambulist he may have been, becomes the most obstinate of all people when we try to get the trance.
In the waking state he not only denies that he has ever been hypnotized but is very unwilling for anyone to try and induce the trance. He claims that hypnotism is something he never liked, that he thinks the whole thing silly and does not wish to make a fool of himself. If we press him, he will consent very reluctantly to allow someone present to try, but the operator in question can get nowhere. The subject is definitely hostile and merely goes through the motions of co-operation but nothing more.
Finally, to complete this curious picture we use the posthypnotic suggestion to induce hypnotism, after the first trance. We say to the subject, "Listen carefully. In future, whenever I take the lobe of my left ear in my left hand and pull it three imes, you will at once go sound asleep." This suggestion may have to be repeated several times, depending on the subject, but with a little practice it will work. To hypnotize the patient, the operator now merely strokes his left ear three times and the subject is in trance. Needless to say, we may use any cue, as long as we make it clear to the subject what this cue is to be. We may say to him, "You are asleep" or may use any other phrase as "Mary had a little lamb," if we wish it to be verbal, while the range of visual cues is unlimited.
The resulting picture of hypnotism is something with which the reader will be quite unfamiliar. We will see later that hypnotism has nothing to do with sleep, a good subject may be in deepest trance yet behave for all the world as if he were wide awake. For example, the writer has used a somnambulist as his bridge partner for an evening, had the subject play every other hand in the trance state and no one in the room was any the wiser. Control of the trance was exercised by means of posthypnotic cues, in this case scratching the left ear or scratching the right ear to hypnotize or awaken the subject.
This shift from waking to hypnotic states can be extremely quick and subtle. The writer recently saw a very beautiful demonstration. Another operator was demonstrating with a very good subject, hypnotizing and awakening him, with the writer trying to detect the change. It turned out to be quite impossible, so well concealed were the cues and so quickly did the change occur. The only way the writer could decide was to ask the subject, quite frankly, "Are you asleep?" and take his word. In the last analysis it would have been easy to check up by using some test, such as anaesthesia, but under the circumstances this was not necessary. The subject was quite honest and enjoyed the game as much as anyone. This certainly is a very different picture of hypnotism from that which exists in the mind of the average layman. It is this very confusing, one might almost say, deceptive aspect of hypnotism to which we later devote several chapters.
We have noted the main points of interest in the posthypnotic suggestion. Anything which we can get in hypnotism we can get by posthypnotic means. We pointed out the weird compulsive power which these delayed suggestions have, especially when the subject does not realize the cause of his actions; also that the subject will tend to rationalize, to give reasons for his actions. These reasons he believes just as much as if they were genuine.
Then we have the curious fact that with the posthypnotic suggestion we can remove all knowledge of ever having been hypnotized and render it impossible for anyone but the operator to use hypnotism at any future date. Finally we can use posthypnotic cues to aid in hypnotizing at a future date. These can be employed so cleverly that an experienced operator cannot detect their use, cannot even detect, without tests, that the subject is in the trance.
There are a few other questions which seem of interest to the public. How long will the posthypnotic suggestion last? Frankly we have no idea. Liebeault reports a case in which a very complicated suggestion was carried out after a year. The writer recently ran across a case where the posthypnotic suggestion seemed to be fairly strong after twenty years.
During the last war he was interested in the study of hypnotism and was far more inclined to go in for "stunts" in those early days. He had a favorite trick with one subject. He would say, "Watch the front." Whereupon the subject would stand up and shout, "Call out the guard. Here comes Paul Revere."
It happened that recently the operator met this subject and in the course of the conversation suddenly said, "Watch the front." The subject looked puzzled, then said, "Call out the guard. Paul Revere is coming." Then he immediately looked even more puzzled and added, "I wonder why I said that. Somehow something you said recalls the last war and all the muck in the trenches. I never recalled the whole thing quite so vividly before."
work after a day at the office. We try the usual hypnotic suggestions with considerable success, then clinch the matter with some very specific suggestions which are to take the form of autosuggestion.
We say to him, "In the evening when you wish to concentrate, you will prepare all your work so that you will not have to leave your room. You will then put your watch on the table, take a card and print on it `Concentrate until 10:30.' You will place this card beside the watch. From then on you will have no difficulty whatsoever in attending to your work. Everything will leave your mind except the determination to work hard until 10:30 or whatever time you may print on the card." This little trick seems to help very much in securing the much desired ability to concentrate.
Here, of course, arises a very neat point. Is this actually autosuggestion or posthypnotic suggestion? In this book we will side-step the issue by saying that the question is only of theoretical interest. We could argue indefinitely over many such problems, as, for instance, is all suggestion autosuggestion or is all suggestion hetero-suggestion; that is, suggestion with the aid of an operator, real or imagined? The reader may feel he has the answer but we can assure him that much ink has been shed on this issue and it is still an open question. For our purposes we are entitled to avoid such problems on the plea that we simply go "round and round the mulberry bush." If the professional psychologist can not find the answer, we can not hope to do so.
As with the hallucination, we can obtain all other hypnotic phenomena by means of autosuggestion and by using the same technique. Paralyses, anaesthesias, even control of the heart rate lend themselves to this attack. But its real practical use would be in giving man command over himself, over his powers of concentration, and over his personality, so that he could rebuild himself along the lines of success and happiness. There may be here a great future for autosuggestion.
However, all autosuggestion need not be initiated by hypnotism. Coue was not interested in this approach and Baudouin outlines in his book very carefully the ordinary procedure. This is literally to give to yourself, when relaxed, the desired suggestions. Coue's famous formula, "Every day and in every way I'm getting better and better," was quite the rage a few years ago. Undoubtedly such a general formula can be of great help in many cases.
Coue in his writings on autosuggestion stresses the importance of imagination. If we can imagine a thing vividly enough, then it's true. This point is very open to argument. We must realize that in autosuggestion, as in hypnotism, people probably vary greatly in their openness to such suggestions. Success will not be uniform with any technique, some people will get results, others will not.
Nevertheless, the writer has found that the following procedure seems to be the one which is easiest and which can produce most of the things we get in hypnotism. The subject should relax on a couch or in a chair, close his eyes, and "Talk sleep" to himself. With a little practice he will recognize the coming of hypnosis, that "faraway" feeling accompanied by numbness in the limbs and a general laziness.
When this stage arrives the subject should then shift over to active suggestion, but without awakening himself. He must suggest to himself that, let us say, all sensation has gone out of his right arm or that he is listening to a symphony. The technique of autosuggestion is difficult, but it can be mastered. Once the subject has obtained this mastery he will find that not only can he produce, say, hallucinations in the trance itself but can actually suggest posthypnotic hallucinations to himself. It does sound weird but it can be done.
For example, the writer while in military hospital had ample time to experiment with autosuggestion. He was able to suggest to himself that he would wake up at 2 A.M. and hear a symphony. Even more interesting he could suggest that he would
awaken and hear spiritistic raps. Sure enough at 2 a.m. he was wide awake listening to very distinct raps from the spirit world. Then came a very interesting experience, almost a state of divided consciousness. He heard the raps distinctly but knew they were the results of autosuggestion. He was even able to make a "mental request" that they group themselves in twos and threes and the spirits obliged. We will see later that hypnotism provides us with a key to explain most psychic phenomena, when these are genuine and not the result of magician's tricks. Autosuggestion gives us an excellent device with which to study many strange things. The writer had a pet polar bear which he was able to call up merely by counting to five. This animal would parade around the hospital ward in most convincing fashion, over and under the beds, kiss the nurses and bite the doctors. It was very curious to note how obedient he was to "mental" commands, even jumping out of a three story window on demand.
But there is a certain menace to autosuggestion which this phantom bear illustrated. He became so very familiar that he refused to go away. He would turn up in the most unexpected places and without being sent for. The writer was playing bridge one evening and almost threw his hostess into hysterics by suddenly remarking, "There's that damn bear again. I wish someone would shoot the beast." He also had a nasty habit of turning up in dark corners at night, all very well when one realized he was just made of ghost-stuff but rather hard on one's nerves for all that. So he was banished and told never to return, but it was fully a month before the writer felt quite sure that his ghostly form would not be grinning at him over the foot of his bed during a thunderstorm.
There is a real danger here in connection with autosuggestion-a much greater menace than can ever arise from straight hypnotism. In the latter, the situation is always in skilled hands. Any bad effects can be remedied on the spot once and for all, but this is not so with autosuggestion. The subject is his own doc
tor, which has all the dangers this would imply if he were allowed the run of a drugstore to treat his ills without previous training. It is very hard for the average man himself to recognize trouble which may be the result of autosuggestion and just as difficult for him to treat it.
The writer recalls the case of a very gifted lady who became interested in spiritism. As we will see, the spiritistic phenomena are largely due to autosuggestion. She became so completely deranged through talking to the spirits-St. Augustine in this case-that she had to retire to a sanatarium. She has since regained a certain amount of her former mental balance but, left to herself, she could never have handled the situation. This was largely because she did not realize how very near she was to complete insanity. St. Augustine was a very real person, she valued his friendship immensely and resisted treatment until the supposed spirit was ousted by hypnotism. With this aid she recovered sanity enough to see how serious her situation was and from then on could help herself.
The writer cannot become very enthusiastic about autosuggestion. We will see in later pages that it may easily result in dissociation. In theory the subject should be able to guide his own treatment and become the master of his own personality. But it may just as readily encourage a tendency to dissociation which is latent in so many people, and with this lead to the development of neurotic traits which are far from desirable. The reader will do well to read through the next two chapters before he passes judgment on this statement. As yet we have not talked enough on the theory of hypnotism to give us a proper basis for discussion.
Anything which occurs in hypnotism or the posthypnotic suggestion we can get in autosuggestion. Finally any of these hypnotic phenomena may occur in everyday life, when we refer to the individual as "queer," an hysteric, a neurotic, even as insane. For this reason hypnotism is of very great importance, and we refer to it as the "laboratory" of abnormal psychology. It provides us with a key whereby we can understand the insane, and the neurotic.
For instance, the operator can suggest to a subject that, on awakening, he will have an irresistible impulse to kill every cat he sees, telling him in hypnotism that cats spread bubonic plague through their fleas and that by killing cats he will confer a great service on humanity. When the subject awakens he may very easily have an urge to kill any cat he meets. Asked for a reason he will insist that they are a menace to the country, that they spread the plague. Yet he will have no idea of where this idea comes from.
Should we run across such a case in everyday life we would say that he is suffering from a "compulsion." Actually we do have many examples of these compulsions as in the case of the kleptomaniac who must steal even worthless objects, the pyromaniac who must set fires, and many others. Moreover, we will point out in later pages that the kleptomaniac, and the pyromaniac are really working under a posthypnotic suggestion -minus the hypnotist. They act in exactly the same way as if they had been hypnotized and given their instructions in the trance. As a matter of fact we will see that they have been hypnotized at some time in their life and have been given the suggestion in question. The fact that no hypnotist was involved, that they may never have seen a hypnotist in all their life, we will see, has no bearing whatsoever on the case.
Similarly hypnotism gives us the explanation for many other types of mental disorder. The man who has a fear of cats, a phobia as it is called, acts exactly as if he had received the suggestion in hypnotism. And he did-only it was not labelled hypnotism. Likewise we will point out that an understanding of hypnotism helps us to understand "Napoleon" in your nearest state hospital for mental diseases. We can procure him in any psychological laboratory, and in so doing understand how he "gets that way" in normal life. As a matter of fact, the writer can see no difference between the Freudian complex and the
posthypnotic suggestion. We will be in a better position to understand that statement after the next two chapters, but we would like to re-emphasize the thread of continuity. Hypnotism, posthypnotic suggestion, autosuggestion; what we get in one we can get in the other. And the phenomena we obtain in any of them occur in everyday life, when we refer to them as various mental disorders. But actually we can best understand them as forms of the posthypnotic suggestion or autosuggestion. This is why our subject is so very important.
Just a final word. Hypnotism may explain many forms of insanity. That does not mean to say that hypnotism can cure them. In some cases it may help, but the fact is that, while we may know why Mr. Smith is in hospital and thinks he is Napoleon, this does not guarantee a cure by hypnotism or any other means.
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