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A History of Hypnotism

Article  in  BMJ Clinical Research · May 1993

DOI: 10.1136/bmj.306.6886.1215-a · Source: PubMed Central

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 B
topped and tailed like a Sunday joint. Ford's
points about the functions of scientific
illustration hold just as well for these illustra-
tions.-TONY DELAMOTHE. deputy editor, BMJ
The Cambridge World History
ofHuman Disease
Ed K F Kiple
Cambridge University Press, £C75, pp 1176
ISBN 0-521-33286-9
A iming to provide an up to date historical
review and reference source on human
diseases for the close of the twentieth
century, The Cambridge World History took
seven years to complete and has over 150
contributors. It is a fascinating collection of
essays on topics including concepts and
origins of disease, the history of medicine and
the development of specialties, measuring
"health," and the history and geography of
disease in different world regions. The book
is aimed at a broad readership including
those in the medical and related professions,
social scientists, and historians.
To generalise about the content is difficult
because of the diverse nature of the subject
matter. The first sections on concepts and
history vary from being highly referenced
and detailed-although perhaps sometimes
difficult to digest by the non-expert-to
being more superficial and relying on a
bibliography only.
Although very informative, most of these
initial chapters either look at the world as it
was "discovered" or concentrate on Westem
approaches to our understanding of disease.
This is understandable since most of the
authors are from the United States, and only
around 10 are from outside North America or
Europe. A difficulty, which is acknowledged,
is that less is written down or researched about
Africa, parts of Asia, and South America; but
to consider "sexual deviance," for example, or
"measuring infant mortality" almost solely by
using examples from the United States or
Europe cannot fully reflect a world approach
on such important topical issues.
The chapters on health and disease in
different cultures look at the difficulties
of definition, and the sections on Eastem
medicine probe the concepts of disease being
a part of normal healthy experience. The
contribution of Christianity to the develop-
ment of the scientific method as a means of
searching for the truth about human frailties
and the caring/sharing approach to suffering
as being healthy in itself are not explored in
depth. This may have been a conscious
decision by the editors but is perhaps sur-
prising since much of the book's approach is
based on these concepts.
A greater use of illustrations, flow charts,
maps, and even cartoons would have made
these initial chapters easier to browse
BMJ VOLUME 306 1 MAY 1993
Lunette showing the plague 1143, Cantone oratory, Modigliana
through, which is likely to be the principal
way in which the book is used.
The remainder of the book is an encylo-
paedia on 158 selected diseases ranging from
cholera and malaria to the "black death" and
"sweating sickness." Some of the diseases are
discussed in detail and include historical and
geographical information, others are so brief
and "clinical" that you wonder why they
were included. In general, however, these
sections will fascinate the occasional reader
looking for background to special interests
and be a useful source of reference. Care
should be taken over interpretation of some
Hcuwid
4and _
in;
Devised by Richard Appleton, consultant
paediatric neurologist at Alder Hey Hos-
pital, Hand in Hand is a collection of letters
and drawings by children with epilepsy,
explaining how it affects their lives and how
they feel about it. Useful for encouragig
communication with child patients and
their families, the book is available to
doctors from Marion Merrell Dow Ltd
and to the general public from all British
epilepsy support associations.
of the clinical data regarding modem treat-
ments, for example, which are already,
inevitably, becoming a part of history.
I am sure this book will be widely used and
become a must for college and university
libraries-not just in the medical sections. If
editors can keep up the momentum to allow
future editions it is the sort of book that could
be developed over many decades, taking into
account new knowledge and criticisms and
hopefully including authors and material
from other world regions.-ERic WALKER,
consultant physician/epidemiologist, Communicable
Diseases (Scotland) Unit, Glasgow
A History of Hypnotism
Alan Gauld
Cambridge University Press, ,75, pp 738
ISBN 0-521-30675-2
T| awo centuries after its debut in pre-
Revolutionary Paris, the intrigue of
mesmerism lingers on, its psycho-
physiological mysteries unresolved. The
showmanship may be all but dead; the once
strong links with the psychical, spiritualist,
and occult movements may be severed; and
the use of mesmerism in the treatment of
physical ailments and as an analgesic for
surgery-applications that by threatening to
undermine medical livelihoods (at literally a
few strokes) once drove the medical profes-
sion berserk-are now largely things of the
past. Even the popular image of Freud
dangling his hypnotic pocket watch has lost
its potency. But research into the nature
of hypnotic phenomena continues apace.
Indeed, according to Alan Gauld, a psycho-
logist at the University of Nottingham,
the extent of the experimentation and the
number of publications since the 1 960s
renders the present something of a "golden
age.")
1215

The operator putting his patient into a trance. From
Sibley's "Key to Physic " (1794)
It is very much from this contemporary
perspective that Dr Gauld approaches the
history of hypnosis. Although he provides a
clear and cogent survey of its chequered
fortunes across the whole of the Westem
world, his main interest is in the types of
techniques that have been employed in the
past for inducing hypnotic states, the kinds
of manifestations produced and their applica-
tions, and the various theories expounded in
explanation. Except for the period from the
first world war to the 1950s, which is given
short shrift, Gauld trawls virtually all publi-
cations on the subject, the titles of which fill
80 pages of bibliography. Few practices and
practitioners are overlooked, and, commend-
ably, attention is paid to the experiences of
patients.
It is thus with authority and precision
that Gauld is able to document the history
of hypnotic theories and practices, and to
correct the historical record at several points.
The impression, for example, that the
hypnotic movement simply disintegrated
after its heyday between the mid-1880s and
the tum of the century is shown to be
mistaken. More crucial from Gauld's per-
spective is the case he makes for previous
generations of hypnotists not simply defining
the phenomenon circularly as a state charac-
terised by enhanced responsiveness to
suggestion. Previous practitioners had under-
standings which were sometimes similar to
those of today's researchers.
Gauld's approach is not without its pitfalls,
however. It often leads him into anachro-
nistic use of language and into inappropriate
ahistorical evaluations of past "researchers."
More worrying is the presupposition inherent
in such a chronicle: that there actually is
a connected continuous "history" to the
melange of ideas and practices now cate-
gorised as hypnotic. It does not occur to
Gauld that the widely different social
contexts for the production of texts on mes-
merism and hypnosis may constitute quite
different histories, rather than different un-
foldings of the same one. "A history" of
hypnosis may be a delusion fabricated and
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sustained precisely by the act of focusing
chronologically on texts and seeking connec-
tions between them.
Gauld's history is thus bound to appeal
more to those narrowly interested in past
theories and practices of hypnotism than to
those seeking fuller historical understanding
of the construction of such theories and
practices. Even so, few are likely to be
completely mesmerised by a volume weigh-
ing in at around a half a million words. It is
primarily as a useful reference tool that this
book will deservedly find a place.-ROGER
COOTER, senior research officer, Welkcome Unit for the
History of Medicine, University ofManchester
Predicting the Future
Ed L Howe, A Wain
Cambridge University Press, ,18.95, pp 195
ISBN 0-521-41323-0
It is impossible to predict the future, but
that has not stopped us from trying.
Through the ages, oracles, seers,
soothsayers, and charlatans have provided
compelling visions that have sobered, scared,
and seduced us. The term prediction suggests
foresight so clear that the future is crystallised
into a single vision that can be controlled,
manipulated, or avoided. Yet, even in an age
of supercomputers and endless databases, we
seem no closer to the dream of prediction
than were the ancients.
As practising futurists my colleagues and I
spend our time trying to help organisations
think through their longer term future. Our
various approaches are a form of applied
social science aimed at informing decision
makers and helping them make better
choices. One cannot predict the future, but
A surprise. Lithograph by H Daumier, 1853. From the
book reviewed here
1216MBMJ VOLUME 306
that does not mean that one cannot think
systematically about it and try to make some
sense of trends, developing issues, and
emerging technologies.
Howe and Wain's collection of essays came
as a pleasant surprise. I was expecting a "how
to do it" book by futurists for futurists that
scraped together the meagre intellectual
roots of futures research into one slim volume.
Instead, I was treated to a compilation of
the Darwin College lectures, delivered in
Cambridge in 1991 under the title "Predic-
tions." The contributors are eminent scholars
from diverse fields who provide the reader
with a personal view of predicting the future
that is rooted in their own discipline and
perspective. While some contributors stay
closer to their task than others, all of them
provide useful insights into the role and
problems ofprediction.
There are four themes that run through
several of the contributions. Firstly, the
purpose of prediction reflects the culture in
which it is embedded. In the culture of
science, prediction is the ultimate test of
theory. In the culture of religion, prediction
is the ultimate test of faith.
Secondly, prediction is the purview of an
elite that has a clear normative view. A group
in society is granted or grants itself the right
to predict. The basis for the right may be the
group's ability to interpret comets, chaos
theory, or the complexity of the universe. In
all cases the predictor brings with him or her
a world view that colours the prediction.
Even among pure scientists, where you start
affects where you end up.
Thirdly, prediction is in tension with free
will. Whether it be the tension between blind
faith and individual temptation or the tension
between economic theory and individual
action, there is a clear confrontation between
what is predicted to occur and what indi-
viduals with free will or leadership, or both,
will end up actually doing. This is why
predicting the course of society, technology,
and the economy is fraught with danger. As
Frank Hahn's essay points out with regard to
predicting the economic future, one may be
better off shooting for understanding rather
than prediction.
Finally, prediction is seduced by the
cutting edge of knowledge. Scores of futures
organisations were founded in the late 1960s
in the United States, at a time when the
quantitative revolution and the computer
were hitting social science. The new analytic
tools dazzled us with the illusion of predictive
power. We run the risk of assuming that
some new intellectual force (like chaos theory)
will provide us with true predictive tools.
Such breakthroughs help improve our
understanding of the world. But, as was true
for Newton, Adam Smith, and Einstein,
new knowledge does not provide perfect
predictive power. The future hasn't hap-
pened yet, so we shall have to wait and see
what it brings, or go out and create it.-j iAN
MORRISON, president, Institute for the Future,
California, USA
1 MAY 1993