Hypnotizers cure male impotence and enuresis
Braid's discovery led to debates among physicians who split in half. Nancy physician Hippolite Bernheim considered hypnosis to be natural state and a perfect cure for all diseases. Parisian neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot was also interested in hypnosis. However, he thought that patients with hysteria were more susceptible to hypnosis than mentally healthy people. Thus, he considered hypnosis unnatural and harmful for people. At one point even such materialist as Friedrich Engels became interested in hypnosis.
Meantime in Russia progressive scientists were studying the mechanisms of hypnosis. In 1891 physiologist from Kharkov Vasiliy Danilevskiy while giving a talk at the sixth meeting of Society of Russian Physicians suggested that hypnosis of a person is similar to that of an animal: paralysis of will and thought as a result of psychic constraint.
Moscow psychiatrist Ardalion Tokarskiy disagreed with Danilevskiy. He considered hypnosis to be a complex process that could not be explained by mere reflexes. He was the first to organize lectures on hypnology at the Moscow State University.
The founder of Russian psycho neurology Vladimir Bekhterev proved that both psyche and physiology were important in hypnosis. Bekhterev studied the peculiarities of mass suggestibility and worked out principles of collective hypnosis that he used in healing patients in groups.
The most significant impact into understanding hypnosis was made by Ivan Pavlov. He thought that hypnosis was similar to sleep but some of the brain cells remained awake and were disposed to a hypnotizer’s voice.
Soviet school of hypnosis was considered the best in the world from 1920s till 1960s. Hypnotherapists were curing all sorts of diseases from hypertension to impotence. They took part in the radio programs that were transmitted for seamen who suffered from seasickness.
Famous psychotherapist Pavel Bul conducted hypnotic sessions via Leningrad television. The results were unexpected. It turned out that many of spectators were too sensitive to hypnosis. After putting hands in a lock many of the TV patients could not unlink them afterwards. Bul had to go around Leningrad all night to help them.
Another incident happened later with psychotherapist Anatoly Kashpirovsky. In 1989 he was curing involuntary urination by TV-sessions. The scandal broke out later when it turned out that such programs could seriously harm people with unstable psyche.
Nowadays classical hypnosis is not so popular as it used to be. Psychotherapists use so-called mild hypnosis based on the methods of popular neurolinguistic programming. However, it is too early to write the classical hypnosis off. It really works. Approved by Engels.
