A RETRO HYPNO TIME-CAPSULE
Hypnosis: Fact and Fiction – F L Marcuse
This book is a random eBay purchase – the retro cover caught Kev’s eye while browsing for better-known books.
Neither of us were familiar with Marcuse and, clearly, the ‘facts’ and ‘fiction’ of any field or practice is unlikely to stand up some six decades later, as that is the nature of science and progress. I figured I’d blaze through it, bash out an amusing blog post, and move onto meatier, more important tomes.
Imagine my surprise, then, at finding this gem of a Clark L Hull quote in the opening pages: “All sciences alike have descended from magic and superstition, but none has been so slow as hypnosis in shaking off the evil associations of its origins.” (From Hypnosis and Suggestibility, 1933.)
I figured I’d better take this book a bit more seriously!
Hull is known as the man who taught Milton H Erikson hypnosis. He’s also credited with establishing the modern study of hypnosis, bringing academic rigour such as statistical analysis to the field, rather than relying on anecdotal case studies and self-reporting.
I’m fascinated by the history of the science of hypnosis, as well as by how hypnosis memes – ‘fact’ or ‘fiction’ – propagate. I was curious as to how Marcuse, an academic with a focus on psychology and hypnosis writing in 1959, would straddle a broad overview of hypnosis for students and the interested public, while representing Hull’s relatively new approach.
Reading an outdated (popular) scientific work by an author who you have no prior knowledge nor expectations of provides a good brain workout, I reckon! Case studies and anecdotes permeate the book despite his allegiance with Hull (though Marcuse does occasionally point out the pitfalls of such ‘evidence’).
I’m not going to pick holes in the science, but, for context, Marcuse believes in a then-credible theory on depths of trance. So, for instance, when weighing up experiments where different hypnotists achieved different results with different subjects, he ponders what role depth plays – this, for him, is a missing piece of the evidential puzzle.
There are yet more moments that, for me, brought this John Maynard Keynes quote to mind: “The difficulty lies, not in the new ideas, but in escaping from the old ones, which ramify, for those brought up as most of us have been, into every corner of our minds.”
He is unusually sympathetic towards Franz Anton Mesmer (who is often written off as a charlatan in so many histories, which is wrong and to miss the point). In this early chapter, he wrongly credits Mesmer – famed for the very animated mesmeric ‘crisis’ – with also discovering “the passive, sleep-like hypnosis frequently described today” (it was Marquis de Puységur).
Marcuse then misrepresents the 1784 French Royal Commission investigation into the veracity of mesmerism, IMO, as a petty misunderstanding on trees and metallurgy. Marcuse’s ambition for the book may have been to be objective, but his position on depths of trance, and other psychological vs physiological details, betray certain beliefs about hypnosis – here, it smacks of (unwittingly?) manipulating the facts to fit his views.
Where this book is invaluable, however, is as a ‘time-capsule’ for hypnosis as it was understood at the time, both by those who considered themselves students and professionals as well as among the public.
For example, as with many of his contemporaries, Marcuse is disapproving of stage hypnotists. It was widely felt that they were dangerous and disreputable, stoked popular misconceptions and fears, and hindered serious uptake in medical and therapeutic terms. Yet the book covers some stage techniques (carotid artery instructionals galore!) whilst also seeming to be taken in by others (hypnotically suggested blisters).
My favourite section covered advertising for training and education outside of academic circles (obviously he’s sniffy about stage training). The slogans and promises from hypnosis correspondence courses have not moved on much: power, money, sex… I would love to get my hands on one correspondence course Marcuse experimentally sent off for, which returned extensive pamphlets on the existence of a dog heaven!
It gets weirder once you’re past the medical and dental stuff: a section on animal hypnosis; a brief mention of hypnosis in warfare that seems based on the work of G H Estabrooks; a Freudian Freud bit; and topsy-turvy ‘facts’ vs ‘fiction’ on the dangers of hypnosis (eg, he believes self-hypnosis is potentially dangerous, including the risk of getting stuck), plus some other obscure concerns.
Bad news for past- and/or future-life regression fans though: Marcuse states that it is simply an imaginary fiction/fantasy/psychodrama, way back in 1959. And this comes from a book that includes the occasional phrenology hangover!
All in all, this provided a surprising yet welcome glimpse into hypnosis past. I’m now curious to know more about Marcuse and how he fitted in with his academic peers – he doesn’t have a Wikipedia page and I can’t find much more on Google aside from his book links…
