Hypnotism / by Albert Moll.

  • Moll, Albert.
Date:
1890
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hypnotism / by Albert Moll. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    feeling of fatigue, till the suggestion was executed. This subjective discomfort is sometimes felt without the suggestion being carried out. One lady to whom it had been suggested that she should put a book on the floor woke in great discomfort, but it did not occur to her to put the book on the floor. She re- covered herself however when, at my request, she had put the book on the floor in a waking state. Another subject complained of a twitching in the arm after waking ; I had suggested to him to give me his hand when he woke. He did not do it till I asked him again in the waking state ; he was aware of nothing but the twitching. As in all the above cases of post-hypnotic sugges- tion the command was not remembered, it is particu- larly interesting to observe how the subjects try to account for their execution of the suggestions. Naturally, I shall here only consider the cases in which the action is not immediately forgotten ; in the others the subjects do not try to find reasons for actions which they have forgotten. Let us take an example. I say to a hypnotized woman, After you wake you will take a book from the table and put it on the bookshelf. She wakes and does what I told her. When I ask her what she has been doing, she answers that she has moved the book from the table to the shelf. When asked for her reason, she answers, I do not like to see things so *• untidy ; the shelf is the place for the book, and that is why I put it there. In this case I suggested an action to the subject ; she does not remember my order but believes she has so acted of her own accord, from love of order. This phenomenon has often been observed (Richet), and is so common that some con-