The Harveian oration on experimental psychology and hypnotism delivered before the Royal College of Physicians of London, October 18, 1909 / by George H. Savage.

  • Savage, George H. (George Henry), 1842-1921.
Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The Harveian oration on experimental psychology and hypnotism delivered before the Royal College of Physicians of London, October 18, 1909 / by George H. Savage. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    use of hypnotism in highly neurotic people. It is also possible that certain people may come to like hypnotism, and to be parallels to the dram-drinkers; they like the sensation of passivity which follows hypnotic influence, and would make use of it unreasonably. It is said dullness, lassitude, and heaviness may follow, but the subjects whom I have questioned deny this. Another objection which has been raised is that the effect is so temporary that little good can be expected. This is rather an opinion of inexperience, for with experience one sees very permanent results. Dr. Sainsbury eloquently puts it thus: ‘ What need have we to go to hypnotism in camera when in the open forum, in broad daylight, amid the commonplaces of everyday life, it declares itself. For the most part we fail to realize how sug- gestion works in detail as well as in gross throughout the business of life. And this brings us to the point of those considerations, namely, that in every healthy art, no less than elsewhere, the ideational is a living force. Now, power is for use and abuse, and suggestion is for use and abuse—the orator to use and the demagogue to abuse. In like manner, it is for the physician to honour and the charlatan to dishonour suggestion/ And now as to some of the established facts in relation to hypnotism. We are all familiar with the public performances of so-called hypnotism, in which persons are made rigid and their muscles are kept tense for long periods. Such long-continued strain of muscle may be maintained under hypnotic conditions without any sense of fatigue and without any subse- quent pain. Again, as far as common sensation is concerned, it is usual for the public performer to induce insensibility, so that pins may be thrust into the skin without causing pain. Taste and smell may be per- verted or suppressed. Sensibility, on the other hand, may be greatly increased, and it has been shown that every one of the senses, under certain conditions, may be rendered very much more acute than is normal.