tional status has a significant effect on one’s physi-
cal status, a concept dating back to ancient Greece,
India, and Persia.
Franz Anton Mesmer (1734–1815), a German
physician, introduced hypnosis—what he called
Mesmerism—to the medical community in the late
18th century. Mesmer’s theory was that when mag-
netic forces existing in all matter became unbal-
anced, disease occurred, and he believed he could
transfer his body’s “animal magnetism” to another
through the use of magnets, iron rods, and “mes-
merizing,” or highly soothing, verbal suggestions
that induced a trancelike state. Despite the fact that
the healing potential of mind over matter and deep
relaxation states including trance emerged, Mes-
mer’s theories could not be scientifically proved by
a committee of investigators in the French medical
community, among whom were the American
statesman Benjamin Franklin and the French physi-
cian Josef de Guillotin. Mesmer was branded a
quack and banned from practicing in France.
It was later that the British ophthalmologist
James Braid explored Mesmer’s ideas with his
patients and renamed the technique hypnosis, after
Hypnos, the Greek god of sleep. Dr. Sigmund
Freud, known as the father of modern psychiatry,
used hypnosis in his practice in the 19th century,
but not until 1955 was hypnotherapy recognized
by the British Medical Association as a bona fide
medical treatment. In 1958 the American Medical
Association also officially recognized hypnosis; that
recognition eventually led to the establishment of
several professional associations, including the
American Society of Clinical Hypnosis and the
American Institute of Hypnotherapy, whose mem-
bers are physicians, psychologists, dentists, and
other health professionals.
Contemporary hypnosis has been shown to help
the body release endorphins and enkephalins
(morphine-like chemicals naturally produced by
the body to assuage pain and promote a sense of
well-being), improve circulation, lower blood pres-
sure and heart rate, and generally elicit deep relax-
ation that is beneficial in fighting stress, anxiety,
depression, chronic pain, and disease of many
kinds. Many hypnotherapists say that the patient
benefits most if he or she is willing to participate in
the process of hypnosis, and that people who are
not willing cannot be hypnotized.
See also Appendix I; MESMERISM; WEISS, BRIAN.hypnotherapy 63