History of hypnosis

The history of hypnosis in German-speaking countries

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The history of hypnosis in German-speaking countries can be divided into different epochs. The Gassner's exorcism (Johann Joseph Gassner's Catholic exorcism rituals: arbitrary triggering of symptoms and their deliberate resolution with post-hypnotic suggestions as well as behavioral therapeutic measures) stands until 1775. Then follows the epoch of animal magnetism (1775-1850). This can in turn be found in the orthodox mesmerism from 1775, the Puysegurism from 1784 as well as the somnambulism divide the romanticism from 1800. From the end of the 19th century to the end of the Weimar Republic, the era of the Hypnotism and suggestion at. The epoch of medical hypnosis and autogenic training begins in the 2nd third of the 20th century. Germany experienced the renaissance of hypnosis through Milton Erickson from 1978.

Today hypnosis is considered an independent, psychotherapeutic method with which many types and degrees of severity of mental disorders can be treated, provided that they can generally be influenced by psychotherapeutic measures.

See Dirk Revenstorf, Burkard Peter (ed.): Hypnosis in Psychotherapy, Psychosomatics and Medicine. Manual for Practice, 3rd Edition 2015, Chapter 68, History of Hypnosis in Germany, p. 818 ff.


Further worldwide historical aspects of hypnosis


  • Ägypten - Papyrus Ebers

  • Bible

    Bible

  • Greece

  • Die heilige Inquistition bezeichnete jede Art der erfolgreichen Heilkunst als Teufelswerk und verbrannte nicht nur die Schriften auf dem Scheiterhaufen, sondern auch die Menschen, insbesondere Frauen, da sie meinten, sie seien vom Teufel besessen oder trieben im Namen des Teufels Krankheiten aus. Das ist wohl das dunkelste Kapitel der Hypnose in Bezug auf Überlieferung und Tod durch Verbrennen.

  • The pika-pika breathing is derived from the Hawaian Huna (teaching) and means from tip to tip.

  • Paracelsus (1493-1541)

    Paracelsus (1493-1541)

  • Maximilian Hell (1720-1792)

  • Johann Joseph Gassner (1727-1779)

    Johann Joseph Gassner (1727-1779)

  • Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815)

  • James Braid (1795-1860)

    James Braid (1795-1860)

  • James Edaile (1808-1859)

    James Edaile (1808-1859)

  • Ambroise Auguste Liébeault (1823-1904)

    Ambroise Auguste Liébeault (1823-1904)

  • Jean-Martin Charcot (1825-1893)

    Jean-Martin Charcot (1825-1893) is considered the founder of modern neurology and was probably the most famous neurologist of his time from 1870-1893, from whose school well-known neurologists such as Babinski, Gelles de la Tourette, Paul Richter, Meige and others emerged. He used hypnosis for lesions of the nervous system. This enabled him to prove that such paralysis was suggestively made to disappear in a hypnotic trance. Many of his theories have since been contradicted, but Charcrot made hypnosis socially acceptable in scientific circles because of his authority and it was taken seriously as a phenomenon worth investigating.

  • Hippolyte Marie Bernheim (1840-1919) and Nancy School

    Hippolyte Marie Bernheim (1840-1919) and The School of Nancy

  • Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

    Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) was an Austrian neurologist, depth psychologist and founder of psychoanalysis. In 1923 he first elaborated on his theory of the id (drives), the ego (sensible and self-critical thinking - reflection) and the superego (moral authority of the environment).

  • Emil Coué (1857-1926)

  • Dave Elman (1900-1967)

    Dave Elman (1900-1967)

  • Milton Erickson (1901-1980)

    Milton Erickson (1901-1980)

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