James Braid

From Psychology Wiki

James Braid (1795 – March 25, 1860) was a Scottish neurosurgeon who coined the term and invented the procedure known as hypnotism.

Born in Fife and educated at the University of Edinburgh, Braid practised in Scotland for a short time, then moved to Manchester, England, where he lived for the rest of his life.

Braid became interested in mesmerism in November 1841, when he observed demonstrations given by a traveling mesmerist named Charles Lafontaine (1803 - 1892). Convinced that he had discovered the key to understanding these phenomena, Braid began giving lectures the following month.

In 1843 he published Neurypnology: or the Rationale of Nervous Sleep, his first and only book-length exposition of his views. In this book he coined the words hypnotism, hypnotize, and hypnotist, which remain in use. Braid thought of hypnotism as producing a "nervous sleep" which differed from ordinary sleep. The most efficient way to produce it was through visual fixation on a small bright object held eighteen inches above and in front of the eyes. Braid regarded the physiological condition underlying hypnotism to be the over-exercising of the eye muscles through the straining of attention.

He completely rejected Franz Mesmer's idea that a magnetic fluid caused hypnotic phenomena, because anyone could produce them in "himself by attending strictly to the simple rules" that Braid laid down. Braidism is a synonym for hypnotism, though it is used infrequently.

In 1997 Braid’s part in developing hypnosis for therapeutic purposes was acknowledged by the creation of the James Braid Society, a discussion group for those “involved or concerned in the ethical uses of hypnosis.” The society meets once a month in central London, usually for a presentation on some aspect of hypnotherapy.

[edit] Further reading

• Gauld, Alan. (1992). A History of Hypnotism. Cambridge University Press.
• Dylan Morgan has made available the full text of Neurypnology: or the Rationale of Nervous Sleep

de:James Braid (Arzt)

This page uses content from the English-language version of Wikipedia. The original article was at James Braid (physician). The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Psychology Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.