In considering the psychology of the hypnotic state, we have first to notice that its sole and essential condition is an exaggerated state of passive attention to some object or person. (See ATTENTION.) ln popular phraseology there is a 'total surrender of the will' of the subject, either to a sense-impression or to the experi menter's personality. The condition of hypnosis thus lies—and this fact is of extreme importance —in the mind of the subject himself: the ex nerimenter or 'operator' has no pourer, except as the subject gives him power. The reason that the professional hypnotist and the physician are. accredited with a special ability to induce hyp nosis is. first, that they 'suggest' to the inquirer —whether consciously, by strongly worded ad vi•rtisenent, or unconsciously. IT the mere authority of position—that such ability resides in them; and. secondly. that they acquire, in the course of the it experience, a tact or insight concerning the I est means of bringing the in quirer into the necessary attentive state. The subjeet conies to them prepared for hypnotiza tion; and they make conditions easy fur its attainment. Further than this the ability of the operator does not extend. It is, indeed, entirely possible to hypnotize one's self. (See ilit•rosuGGEsTioN.) Most of us have, at 1.1111CS, 'lit ourselves go' mentally, until we were on the verge of what seemed to be a kind of fascination or trance, at the brink of which we aroused ourselves with a start. If now we place our selves under eircumstances favorable to sleep, cutting off, so far as may be, external impres sions, and attend enneentratedly to the idea of hypnosis, we presently drop into a similar state of 'fascination' NVIlich soon beeomes hypnosis proper, and later passes off as ordinary sleep.
We notice, secondly, as a corollary to what has just been said. that all persons of normal constitution are hypnotizable. 'Hypnosis is 'ab normal' only in the sense in which dreaming (q.v.) is abnormal; and as we are all liable, though in varying degree, to dreams, so are all normal minds liable to hypnotization. The strong-minded person who declares that So-and-so tried to hypnotize him, but could not on amount of his vigorous resistance, makes a ludicrous misstatement. It is not So-and-so who is to hypnotize him, hut he himself: and incapacity for hypnosis is not the mark of a strong, hut of a weak mind. Hypnosis (and this is a differ ence between it and dreaming) is impossible in the case of idiots and of very young children. because they are scatter-brained, unable to at tend fixedly and continuously; the more 'power ful tl• will,' the easier must hypnosis be. We see this. indeed, in the tendency of vigorous minds to 'brown study,' a state nearly related to and characterized by the same single hearted absorption, and the same arrest of bodily . Whether or not animals can he hyp notized is a disputed question. In the emotion of extreme fear (when, if ever, the animal mind must be dominated by one sole idea, and so ap proach to the requisite degree of passive atten tion). we have a musenlar known as 'cataplexy' (cf. the popular word `stroke'), which outwardly resembles the stage of catalepsy in man. Seize a frog firmly by a hind leg. and the animal will spread out. stiff and stark, mak ing no effort to escape. Pigeons, fowls, guinea etc., can all be readily 'hypnotized' by similar means. The trend of expert opinion seems, however, to lie that the resemblance to hypnosis is rather external than real.
We turn now to some special questions of hypnosis, and first (I) to that of the rapport.
This is a supposed subjective link or bond whereby the experimenter, in virtue of his will power or personal magnetism, attaches the sub ject to himself. Now it is true that there are eases in which n subject can be 'hypnotized' only if a certain operator or experimenter allows or commands it. But there is nothing mysterious. still less supernormal, in the matter. The sub ject in some way (perhaps by self-suggestion, perhaps at the explicit suggestion of n physician) acquires the insistent belief that hypnosis is impossible for him without the presence or assent of the experimenter; and the belief, mice acquired, is It is thus the subject. again. whose 'will' is concerned, not the operator. The rapport is sometimes suggested by physician to patient, in order to prevent interf•rellee by outsiders with the conduct of a ease; and thus serves n useful purpose. (2) It may be sug gested to a somnanilmlistie subject that at such :Ind-such a time lifter waking from the hypnotic sleep lie shall perform such-and-sueh an action. This is termed post-hypnotic or terminal sugges tion. Its effectiveness depends upon the fact that the time idea is common both to the hypnotic and to the waking conseiousnesses, and so forms a bridge between the abnormal and the normal states. "You will go into the kitchen and drink a glass of water at five o'clock." The subject i3 strongly impressed by the five-o'clock idea. When. therefore, five o'clock actually collies, its perception or idea is sufficient to throw him into the first stage of hypnosis; the suggestion re covers its hypnotic strength. and he goes, pas sively, to execute the prescribed act. (3) Al though the somnambulist remembers nothing of the hypnotic state from which lie is aroused, lie may, if rellyjmotized, recall what took place during his previous sleep. _Memory is thus con tinued from one hypnotic conseimisness to another. as it is from one waking eonseiousness to another; lint there is no continuity of memory from sleep to waking, or %lee versa. This fact has given oecasion to various theories of double consciousness (q.v.): quite unnecessarily—for it is adequately explained by the known law‘ of memory. We remember only when we have a cue to memory, when our present circumstances 'suggest' the past. When eating a good dinner after a long walk we recall other good dinners eaten in like circumstances; we do not recall such dinners \Olen there is nothing to remind 113 of them. lint the waking state, with all the sudden inrush of stimulations that it involves, is entirely different from the hypnotic state; there is nothing in the one (apart from the terminal suggestions just disnussed) to lemilni us of the other: whereas there is everything in a present hypnotic state to revive our memories of foregone like states. Dreams, in the same way, are not seldom continued from night to night, though we forget all about them in the daytime. (4) Lastly, as regards the therapeutic of hypnosis. we may say that as a `suggeq tion.' in the waking life. may make us blush or er•, so may the indefinitely stronger suggestions of the hypnotic state bring about circulatory or secretory changes that are of benefit to the organism. But no command to get well can ever mend a broken bone. or cure a typhoid patient. Moreover. there is always the danger of setting up an 'hypnotic habit,' or of breaking down the subject's self-reliance: in which event the remedy is worse than the disease.