**2. History of hypnosis**

In mythology, Hypnos (Somnus, in Latin) is the personification of sleep who lived with his twin brother, Thanatos (Θάνατος, "death personified") in a dark under world cave on Lemnos island (according to Homer or Book XI of Ovid's Metamorphoses) without any light from the sun or the moon; where flowed Lethe, the river of forgetfulness. His parents were Nyx (Νύξ, night) and Erebus (darkness), and he married with, Pasithea, the goddess of marriage and birth and the deity of hallucination and relaxation. Their sons called Oneiroi (dreams) were bringers of dreams. Among them Morpheus, brought human dreams; Icelus, animal dreams; and Phantasus, dreams of inanimate things. A bronze head of Hypnos is in British Museum in London (**Figure 1**). The English word "hypnosis" refers to a person put into a sleep-like state (hypnos "sleep" + −osis "condition"). Hypnosis was used in the temples of Aesculapius, the God of Medicine, where priests advised patients during their sleep as gods talking to them in their dreams. Etymologically speaking, Somnus, Latin word for sleep, is the source of many English words such as insomnia (sleeplessness), somnolent (sleepy), hypersomnia (excessive sleep), and hypnotics(sleep inducing drugs) among many others [3].

#### **Figure 1.**

*Hypnos and thanatos carrying the body of sarpedon from the battlefield of Troy. Detail from an Attic white-ground lekythos, ca. 440 BC [2].*

Mesmer, founder of modern hypnosis, considered animal magnetism, an invisible magnetic fluid in all living things, as the cause of illness, which could be treated by manipulating with his hands through hypnosis (**Figure 2**). Although mesmerism was therapeutically effective, a scientific commission of inquiry attributed the effects of hypnosis to imagination in France in 1784 [5].

The Marquis de Puységur, who experimented with animal magnetism, put a peasant, into a sleep-like-state, a "sleep of senses," after which he could not recall his responses to the suggestions during his sleep. A will to direct an organic power unites the magnetizer with the subject. Puységur actually evoked the latent capacity of the subject's mental and emotional state by paying attention and showing a kind

**5**

*Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy: Emerging of Science-Based Hypnosis*

of benevolent love. This was the beginning of hypnosis. Puységur noted significant

*Drawing room scene with many people sitting and standing around a large table; a man on a crutch has an iron band wrapped around his ankle; others in the group are holding bands similarly; to the left, a man has* 

a. sleep-waking state, that he called "magnetic sleep" or "magnetic somnambulism,"

d.amnesia in waking state for the events occurred in the state of magnetic sleep,

e. ability to read the thoughts of the magnetizer, and diagnose the subject's own

f. change in the personality of the magnetic subject, with increased alertness and

By second half of the 19th century, Braid coined the term hypnotism and Erickson promoted new approaches to psychotherapy using hypnosis through storytelling [8].

Freud also used hypnosis considering as hysterical reactions to traumatic experiences in childhood and a mobilization of transference phenomena. Hypnotic techniques helped the soldiers to alleviate the effects of traumatic experiences dur-

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.94089*

responses from his subject:

*hypnotized a woman [4].*

**Figure 2.**

illness,

self-confidence [6].

resembled natural sleep-walking condition,

ing World War II and treat "traumatic neuroses" [7].

b.rapport, a special connection with the magnetizer,

c. suggestibility, heightened capacity to imagine vividly,

#### **Figure 2.**

*Hypnotherapy and Hypnosis*

**4**

**Figure 1.**

*white-ground lekythos, ca. 440 BC [2].*

Mesmer, founder of modern hypnosis, considered animal magnetism, an invisible magnetic fluid in all living things, as the cause of illness, which could be treated by manipulating with his hands through hypnosis (**Figure 2**). Although mesmerism was therapeutically effective, a scientific commission of inquiry attributed the

*Hypnos and thanatos carrying the body of sarpedon from the battlefield of Troy. Detail from an Attic* 

The Marquis de Puységur, who experimented with animal magnetism, put a peasant, into a sleep-like-state, a "sleep of senses," after which he could not recall his responses to the suggestions during his sleep. A will to direct an organic power unites the magnetizer with the subject. Puységur actually evoked the latent capacity of the subject's mental and emotional state by paying attention and showing a kind

effects of hypnosis to imagination in France in 1784 [5].

*Drawing room scene with many people sitting and standing around a large table; a man on a crutch has an iron band wrapped around his ankle; others in the group are holding bands similarly; to the left, a man has hypnotized a woman [4].*

of benevolent love. This was the beginning of hypnosis. Puységur noted significant responses from his subject:


Freud also used hypnosis considering as hysterical reactions to traumatic experiences in childhood and a mobilization of transference phenomena. Hypnotic techniques helped the soldiers to alleviate the effects of traumatic experiences during World War II and treat "traumatic neuroses" [7].

By second half of the 19th century, Braid coined the term hypnotism and Erickson promoted new approaches to psychotherapy using hypnosis through storytelling [8].
