HYPNOTISM. - From ὕπνος = sleep. This name (synonyms: animal magnetism, mesmerism) designates a state of suspension of the individual's consciousness, bound to a kind of sleep induced by procedures of various kinds, most often in relation to the suggestive action of another individual, the hypnotist, whom the hypnotized person obeys, performing, without consciousness, like an automaton, whatever he commands by word or gesture, or acting automatically through a kind of involuntary internal impulse, as in somnambulism.
E. Servadio defines it as "the body of theories and phenomena relating to a special type of artificial sleep (hypnosis) that can be induced by various methods."
The name h. was coined by the English physician James Braid (d. 1860) in 1842, but the phenomena had been known for a long time; it suffices to recall the experiment published by Fr. Kircher around the middle of the 17th century, consisting in the induction of a state of hypnosis in a chicken by means of appropriate maneuvers. In the 18th century the Austrian physician Anton Mesmer sought to attempt a new method of treating the sick, which was called "mesmerism" after him; it is the same thing as h. and also took the name of "animal magnetism," almost in contrast to physical magnetism, in the belief that the phenomena were produced by a magnetic fluid emanating from every animal body. J. M. Charcot, in connection with his studies on hysteria (v.), dealt extensively with the manifestations of h. and affirmed that the one and the other are linked by close relations, so that every form of major h. necessarily has its foundation in hysteria. On the contrary, the school of Nancy, with Bernheim, maintained that hypnotic manifestations can be induced in every subject, even a normal one, and should not be considered a sign of a neuropathic constitution.
There is no doubt that h. presents itself at first sight as something extraordinary, such as could be interpreted as a preternatural fact. Examined properly, however, and studied in the light of modern physiological and psychological knowledge, it proves fully explicable by recourse to natural laws alone. Characteristic of the phenomena of h. is the suspension of the individual's consciousness, produced by the maneuvers that the hypnotist performs on the hypnotized subject or that the latter performs on himself. The sleep that results, of varying intensity, and in union with particular phenomena, is similar to normal sleep, having in common with it the abolition of the control of reason and, usually, an almost complete anesthesia of the senses.
Hypnotic sleep can present itself under three different forms: the lethargic state or lethargy, the cataleptic state or catalepsy (v.), the somnambulistic state or somnambulism. In lethargy the individual has the appearance of a person deeply asleep: consciousness is suspended, the senses are extinguished, the muscles relaxed. On the contrary, the activity of vegetative life is fully preserved; indeed, in relation to the abolition of the inhibition of the higher centers, there is an exaggeration of the irritability of the spinal cord, whence the reflexes are accomplished more rapidly and intensely. In catalepsy, with the complete state of unconsciousness and abolition of general sensibility present, the subject retains the possibility of being influenced through sight and hearing, particularly rendered more sensitive to reception. In this state the particular flexibility and pliancy that the parts of the body assume is characteristic, as if the individual's muscles were of soft wax (flexibilitas cerea), so as to be capable of assuming and retaining without effort, even for a long time, difficult and tiring poses passively impressed upon them. In somnambulism the subject, in a state of psychic dissociation, acts with coordinated actions, apparently conscious, but which are in reality related to the automatic motor externalization of sub-conscious ideo-motor complexes that come to the fore, becoming operative in the individual's sleeping consciousness. All this can unfold in the very act in which the individual is placed in a hypnotic state, under the impulse of the operator's suggestive commands, or at a distance of time, with a more or less near expiration term, passing from a previous state of wakefulness.
These three forms of manifestation of h. do not represent successive phases of increasing value, but modes that usually present themselves irregularly in isolation or variously interwoven with one another in complex pictures.
In the course of such hypnotic states the whole complex symptomatology presents certain general characteristics. An absolute relation between hypnotist and hypnotized subject, with the abolition of the latter's will, replaced by that of the operator who guides the individual like an automaton through verbal or visual suggestion, so that one sees the subject undergoing the experiment, according to the commands, walk or stop, feel hot or cold, perform this or that action, assume the most varied, uncomfortable, difficult positions, at the moment of the intimation or, as in somnambulism, at the expiration of a more or less long interval.
The command can manifest itself through external actions, and also by provoking states of consciousness and representations, arousing illusions and hallucinations (v.).
In h. a large role is played by images and psychic contents preserved in the sphere of the subconscious and the unconscious, which either aroused, regulated, utilized by external suggestion, or by themselves grouping into complexes, so as to form at times almost small autonomous blocks of consciousness, are capable of becoming the cause of external phenomena, whether motor or of external projection or sensory-perceptual.
One can even, in the course of the manifestations of h., witness a form of doubling of consciousness and personality (v.), whereby the individual, either spontaneously or under the impulse of suggestion, assumes the behavior and the manner of thinking and acting of a determined person, with attributes at times completely opposed to his own. It may be thought that in the individual there occurs a fracture of consciousness into a primary personality, so to speak supraliminal, and a secondary subliminal one capable, under particular conditions, of acting autonomously and in a coordinated manner. According to L. Luciani (Fisiologia dell'uomo, IV, Milan 1924, p. 499) the unevenness and unconsciousness of character and conduct that can be seen in certain unbalanced, eccentric, borderline persons would reside precisely in a disharmony between consciousness and sub-consciousness, thus forming two mentalities almost in antagonism.
In the course of hypnosis, phenomena affecting the surface of the body may present themselves, such as localized or diffuse pallors or reddenings, wheals, blisters, bullae, cutaneous hemorrhages, similarly to what occurs in the manifestations of hysteria (v.).
Thus it is possible in the hypnotic state, at the operator's will, beyond motor and secretory activities, to provoke in the patient cutaneous manifestations of the type of spots, raised areas or the like, which can be erroneously judged to be facts of preternatural origin.
Bibliography3 works
Giuseppe de Ninno
MORAL PRINCIPLES
1) Hypnotism practiced without reason and without the safeguard of certain conditions is unlawful, because it harms the hypnotized person by weakening the nervous system; but above all the hypnotized person is deprived of the use of reason and of freedom and subjected totally to the will, hypothetically even a wicked one, of the hypnotist; now, it is a grave sin to deprive oneself, in an unnatural way and without sufficient reason, of the use of reason and to entrust oneself blindly to another's will; in this way the hypnotized person approves in advance everything that the hypnotist will dispose concerning him; it is unlawful to give others an occasion of sinning, for the hypnotist can abuse the hypnotized person, commanding him to perform a wicked action. If, moreover, even if wrongly, since hypnotism is a purely natural phenomenon, one seeks through it to learn some hidden preternatural knowledge, then the sin of divination is also committed.
2) If hypnosis is practiced for a just end, to cure illnesses or to promote scientific progress, and with the due precautions, then it is lawful. As a therapeutic end, it is required: that the illness cannot be cured otherwise or as well as by means of hypnosis; that the hypnosis be induced by a physician truly expert in hypnotizing and that every harm to the patient's health be avoided, as far as possible; that the person to be hypnotized give his consent; that the hypnotist be honest and promise not to abuse his relation with the hypnotized person; that the suggestions be honest, necessary or useful (setting aside all curiosity) for the illness, and that an honest person be present, in whom the hypnotized person can trust.
The Holy Office, on 26 July 1899, when questioned on the matter, replied that experiments may be tolerated, provided that: the protest be premised of not wishing to obtain the requested effect, if this should depend on a preternatural cause (for it was believed at that time that there could be preternatural interventions); there be no scandal, inasmuch as those present might think that this is something wicked or to be attributed to magical arts; it not be a matter of facts that certainly surpass the forces of nature. In doubt one may perform the act or request the effect, having first made the aforementioned protest.
The harms produced by hypnotism can be avoided with the due precautions that in individual cases will be suggested by prudence. The usefulness of hypnotism extends not only to curing illnesses, but also to correcting the wicked inclinations and habits of the hypnotized person. Indeed there have been cases of persons given over to drunkenness who have been corrected by hypnotism; likewise young men given over to lust who have been improved by mental suggestion. Today, many physicians obtain the same effects without inducing hypnosis, but through suggestions produced in the waking state. But it must be said that hypnotism is unlawful whenever the required conditions are not combined, inasmuch as it is dangerous for the active and the passive subject and because it is not lawful to deprive oneself of reason in an unnatural way without a sufficient reason. Regarding its lawfulness or otherwise in the judicial field or in police investigations, v. NARCOTICI.
With regard to canonical penal law, after what has been said from the ethical point of view, it will suffice to observe that during true hypnotic sleep there is naturally no imputability (can. 2201 § 1), but there can be imputability in cause, determinable on the basis of the concrete circumstances (can. 2201 § 3) of the criminal event. It is almost superfluous then to say that the imputability of the hypnotist remains intact (cf. can. 2209 § 3 and by analogy can. 2230).