Hidden Depths: The Story of Hypnosis (62 page)

This is a severely restricted bibliography; it represents only a fraction of my reading, and of the hundreds of books and even more articles relevant to the subjects covered in this book. Whatever the category, I have tried to include the best and most accessible work, to create a reading list designed for the general reader; the focus is inevitably on books, with the occasional article added to fill gaps and bring things up to date. After a couple of general sections, I have broken the list up into sections relevant to each chapter. There are more detailed bibliographies especially in [1], [4], [12], [65] and [136].

Many general books on hypnotism will have a historical section too. The five most informative histories are:

[1] Adam Crabtree,
From Mesmer to Freud: Magnetic Sleep and the Roots of Psychological Healing
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993)

[2] Henri Ellenberger,
The Discovery of the Unconscious: The History and Evolution of Dynamic Psychiatry
(New York: Basic Books, 1970)

[3] Derek Forrest,
The Evolution of Hypnotism
(Forfar: Black Ace Books, 1998); repr. as
Hypnotism: A History
(London: Penguin, 2000)

[4] Alan Gauld,
A History of Hypnotism
(Cambridge University Press, 1992)

[5] Frank Podmore,
From Mesmer to Christian Science: A Short History of Mental Healing
(1909; New York: University Books, 1963)

And a number of original texts are reprinted or translated in:

[6] Maurice Tinterow,
Foundations of Hypnosis: From Mesmer to Freud
(Springfield, IL: Charles Thomas, 1970)

A swift, but well-informed historical survey is:

[7] Melvin Gravitz, ‘Early Theories of Hypnosis: A Clinical Perspective' in Steven Jay Lynn and Judith Rhue (eds.),
Theories of Hypnosis: Current Models and Perspectives
(New York: Guilford, 1993), 19–42

And further relevant topics are covered in:

[8] Melvin Gravitz, ‘Two Centuries of Hypnosis Specialty Journals',
International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis
, 35 (1987), 265–76. See also the addendum in
American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis
, 39 (1996), 18–20

[9]———‘Etienne Félix d'Hénin de Cuvillers: A Founder of Hypnosis',
American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis
, 36 (1993), 7–11

[10] Melvin Gravitz and Manuel Gerton, ‘Origins of the Term Hypnotism Prior to Braid',
American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis
, 27 (1984), 107–10

The best two books with which to begin thinking about the nature of hypnotism are:

[11] Kenneth Bowers,
Hypnosis for the Seriously Curious
(New York: Brooks/Cole, 1976)

[12] Michael Yapko,
Essentials of Hypnosis
(Philadelphia: Brunner/Mazel, 1995)

The most instructive how-to book by far is:

[13] John Grinder and Richard Bandler,
Trance-formations: Neuro-Linguistic Programming and the Structure of Hypnosis
(Moab, UT: Real People Press, 1981)

And the following introductory works, from a spread of periods, are all good:

[14] George Barth,
The Mesmerist's Manual of Phenomena and Practice
… (London: Baillière, 1851)

[15] Fredrik Björnström,
Hypnotism: Its History and Present Development
(New York: Humboldt Publishing, 1887)

[16] George Estabrooks,
Hypnotism
(New York: Dutton, 1943)

[17]
H.B. Gibson,
Hypnosis: Its Nature and Therapeutic Uses
(London: Peter Owen, 1977)

[18] F.L. Marcuse,
Hypnosis: Fact and Fiction
(Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1959)

[19] Robert Temple,
Open to Suggestion: The Uses and Abuses of Hypnosis
(Wellingborough: Thorsons, 1989)

[20] David Waxman,
Hypnosis: A Guide for Patients and Practitioners
(London: Allen & Unwin, 1981)

Somewhat more academic, but worth persevering with, are:

[21] J. Milne Bramwell,
Hypnotism: Its History, Practice and Theory
(London: Grant Richards, 1903)

[22] Michael Heap (ed.),
Hypnosis: Current Clinical, Experimental and Forensic Practices
(London: Croom Helm, 1988)

[23] Ronald Shor and Martin Orne (eds.),
The Nature of Hypnosis: Selected Basic Readings
(New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1965)

[24] Boris Sidis,
The Psychology of Suggestion
(New York: Appleton-Century, 1910)

[25] David Spiegel, ‘Hypnosis and Implicit Memory: Automatic Processing of Explicit Content',
American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis
, 40 (1998), 231–40

[26] David Waxman
et al
. (eds.),
Modern Trends in Hypnosis
(New York: Plenum, 1985)

One of the topics that recurs throughout the book, but most prominently in the first chapter, is the fictional treatment of hypnosis. But there seems little point in giving bibliographical details for fictional works (or a filmography for the films I mention). There are a number of good books and articles in academic journals on the involvement with hypnosis or mesmerism of Poe, say, or Browning or Shelley, but the following more general works are more suitable for this bibliography:

[27] Arnold Ludwig, ‘Hypnosis in Fiction',
International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis
, 11 (1963), 71–80

[28] Maria Tatar,
Spellbound: Studies in Mesmerism and Literature
(Princeton University Press, 1978)

Here are a couple of the dozen or so how-to books on stage hypnotism:

[29] Kreskin,
The Amazing World of Kreskin
(New York: Random House, 1973)

[30] Professor Leonidas,
Secrets of Stage Hypnotism
(1901; Hollywood: Newcastle Publishing, 1975)

The best book on hypnotism and Christianity, with an informed and balanced approach, and a survey of and response to earlier literature, is:

[31] John Court,
Hypnosis, Healing and the Christian
(Carlisle: Paternoster Press, 1997)

The early history of hypnotism in the West has scarcely been researched and a lot of inaccurate information is still being perpetuated, but the following works are useful:

[32] Emma and Ludwig Edelstein,
Asclepius: A Collection and Interpretation of the Testimonies
(2 vols., Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1945; 1-volume edn, 1998)

[33] Henderikus Stam and Nicholas Spanos, ‘The Asclepian Dream Healings and Hypnosis: A Critique',
International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis
, 30 (1982), 9–22

[34] Lynn Thorndike,
A History of Magic and Experimental Science
(8 vols., Columbia University Press, 1923 –58)

[35] Ian Wilson,
Jesus: The Evidence
(London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1984)

Mesmer's own writings are available in various translations, but especially as follows:

[36] G.J. Bloch,
Mesmerism: A Translation of the Original Medical and Scientific Writings of F.A. Mesmer
(Los Altos, CA: Kaufmann, 1980)

There have been a good half-dozen books dedicated to Mesmer in English in the last 100 years, but the only two worth recommending are:

[37] Vincent Buranelli,
The Wizard from Vienna: Franz Anton Mesmer and the Origins of Hypnotism
(London: Peter Owen, 1976)

[38] Frank Pattie,
Mesmer and Animal Magnetism: A Chapter in the History of Medicine
(Hamilton, NY: Edmonston Publishing, 1994)

Then, on further topics in this chapter, see:

[39] Robert Darnton,
Mesmerism and the End of the Enlightenment in France
(Harvard University Press, 1968)

[40] Kevin McConkey and Campbell Perry, ‘Benjamin Franklin and Mesmerism',
International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis
, 33 (1985), 122–30

On Mesmer's twentieth-century descendants, summarized in the appendix, see (as well as [103]):

[41] David Boadella,
Wilhelm Reich: The Evolution of His Work
(London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1985)

[42] Janet Macrae,
Therapeutic Touch
(New York: Knopf, 1988)

[43] Gary Null,
Healing with Magnets
(New York: Carrol and Graf, 1998)

This important period, roughly between Mesmer and Braid, is rarely treated on its own, and so I simply refer the reader to the general histories listed at the start of this bibliography, apart from the following paper (which, however, largely repeats material from [2]):

[44] Henri Ellenberger, ‘Mesmer and Puységur: From Magnetism to Hypnotism',
Psychoanalytic Review
, 52 (1965), 137–53

For the early history of mesmerism in the United States the best single book is:

[45] Robert Fuller,
Mesmerism and the American Cure of Souls
(University of Pennsylvania Press, 1982)

Then see also:

[46] John Andrick, ‘Hypnosis and the Emmanuel Movement: A Medical and Religious Repudiation',
American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis
, 20 (1978), 224 –34

[47] Ruth Brandon,
The Spiritualists: The Passion for the Occult in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
(New York: Knopf, 1983)

[48] Eric Carlson, ‘Charles Poyen Brings Mesmerism to America',
Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences
, 15 (1960), 121–32

[49] Robert Fuller, ‘The American Mesmerists' in Heinz Schott (ed.),
Franz Anton Mesmer und die Geschichte des Mesmerismus
(Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 1985), 163–73

[50] Melvin Gravitz, ‘Early Uses of Hypnosis as Surgical Anesthesia',
American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis
, 30 (1988), 201–8

[51]———‘Early American Mesmeric Societies: A Historical Study',
American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis
, 37 (1994), 41–8

[52] Gail Parker,
Mind Cures in New England: From the Civil War to World War I
(Hanover, MA: University Press of New England, 1973)

The most important original works relevant to this period are available in [6] and as follows:

[53] James Braid,
Satanic Agency and Mesmerism
(Manchester: Sims and Dinham, Galt and Anderson, 4 June 1842)

[54]———
Neurypnology, or the Rationale of Nervous Sleep Considered in Relation with Animal Magnetism
(London: John Churchill, 1843)

[55]———
The Power of Mind Over the Body
(London: John Churchill, 1846)

[56]———
Magic, Witchcraft, Animal Magnetism, Hypnotism, and Electrobiology
(London: John Churchill, 1852)

[57]———
The Physiology of Fascination and the Critics Criticised
(Manchester: Grant, 1855)

[58] John Elliotson,
Numerous Cases of Surgical Operations Without Pain in the Mesmeric State
(London: Baillière, 1843)

[59]———
Case of a True Cancer of the Female Breast
(London: Walton and Mitchell, 1848)

[60]——— (ed.),
The Zoist
(London: Baillière, 1843 –56)

[61] James Esdaile,
Mesmerism in India and Its Practical Application in
Surgery and Medicine
(London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans, 1846; repr. New York: Arno, 1975); repr. as
Hypnotism in Medicine and Surgery
, ed. William Kroger (New York: Julian Press, 1957)

[62] Fred Kaplan,
John Elliotson on Mesmerism
(New York: Da Capo Press, 1982)

[63] Harriet Martineau,
Letters on Mesmerism
(London: Moxon, 1845)

[64] Chauncy Hare Townshend,
Facts in Mesmerism with Reasons for a Dispassionate Inquiry into it
(1840; repr. New York: Da Capo, 1982)

A great deal has been written about the period. The outstanding book is:

[65] Alison Winter,
Mesmerized: Powers of Mind in Victorian Britain
(University of Chicago Press, 1998)

And particular topics are well treated in:

[66] Roger Cooter, ‘The History of Mesmerism in Britain: Poverty and Promise' in Heinz Schott (ed.),
Franz Anton Mesmer und die Geschichte des Mesmerismus
(Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 1985), 152–62

[67]———‘Dichotomy and Denial: Mesmerism, Medicine, and Harriet Martineau' in Marina Benjamin (ed.),
Science and Sensibility: Gender and Scientific Enquiry, 1780–1945
(Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1991), 144–73

[68] Waltraud Ernst, ‘ “Under the Influence” in British India: James Esdaile's Mesmeric Hospital in Calcutta and Its Critics',
Psychological Medicine
, 25 (1995), 1113–23

[69] Fred Kaplan, ‘The Mesmeric Mania: The Early Victorians and Animal Magnetism',
Journal of the History of Ideas
, 35 (1974), 691–702

[70]———
Dickens and Mesmerism
(Princeton University Press, 1975)

[71] Jonathan Miller, ‘Mesmerism in the London Medical Circle',
Transactions of the Medical Society of London
, 106 (1989/90), 60–71

[72] Jon Palfreman, ‘Mesmerism and the English Medical Profession: A Study of Conflict',
Ethics in Science and Medicine
, 4 (1977), 51–66

[73] Terry Parssinen, ‘Mesmeric Performers',
Victorian Studies
, 21 (1977/8), 87–104

[74]——— ‘Professional Deviants and the History of Medicine: Medical Mesmerists in Victorian Britain' in Roy Wallis (ed.),
On the Margins of Science: The Social Construction of Rejected Knowledge
(Sociological Review Monograph 27, University of Keele, 1979), 103–20