The Original Philosophy of Hypnotism

Copyright © Donald Robertson 2008. All rights reserved.
This is an excerpt from the book The Discovery of Hypnosis: The Complete Writings of James Braid (2009), published by the National Council for Hypnotherapy (NCH).

There is, therefore, both positive and negative proof in favour of my mental and suggestive theory, and in opposition to the magnetic, occult, or electric theories of the Mesmerists and electro-biologists.  My theory, moreover, has this additional recommendation, that it is level to our comprehension, and adequate to account for all which is demonstrably true, without offering any violence to reason and common sense, or being at variance with generally admitted physiological and psychological principles. – Braid, Electro-Biological Phenomena (1851).

I am not aware of any author having commented on the fact that Braid seemingly developed his theory and practice of hypnotism out of the conceptual framework provided by a particular philosophical and psychological tradition, the “Scottish School of Common Sense” also known as “Scottish Realism”.

Braid was not himself a philosopher in the academic, or any other, sense.  However, he was demonstrably influenced by the leading academic philosophers of his time.  He makes several explicit references to the Scottish Realist philosophers, especially Prof. Dugald Stewart.  Moreover, the broader influence of British “empiricist” philosophy can be seen throughout his writings.  Braid developed hypnotism in the wake of the “Scottish Enlightenment”, a period in cultural history which, in the latter half of the 18th century, saw an explosion of interest in logic and scientific method.  Thomas Reid (1710-1796) founded the Scottish School of Realism or Common Sense, which was continued by his follower Dugald Stewart (1735-1828), and Thomas Brown (1778-1820), and further popularised in Braid’s time by the physician John Abercrombie (1780-1844).  From them, he absorbed a fiercely pragmatic, rational and empirical attitude toward the field of mental philosophy, or “philosophy of psychology”, as it is now known. 

Braid wrote, we must remember, during a period in history when psychology was still a branch of academic philosophy.  The psychological concepts developed by philosophers of mind, such as “dominant ideas” (akin to the automatic thoughts of Beck’s cognitive therapy) “habit and association” (a subjective precursor of Pavlovian conditioning), and “imitation and sympathy” (which we now call “role-modelling” and “empathy”), are repeatedly mentioned by Braid as the theoretical framework upon which his science of hypnotism, “neuro-hypnology”, was built.  Braid’s friend and collaborator, Prof. William B. Carpenter, discusses the theoretical principles of this in his Principles of Mental Physiology (1889), especially in the chapter ‘Of Common Sense’ which concludes by quoting an approving letter from the philosopher John Stuart Mill sent to Carpenter in 1872.  Mill agrees with Carpenter’s contention that “common sense”, by which he means a kind of intellectual intuition analogous to the ancient Greek concept of nous, is a combination of innate and acquired judgements, which have a “reflexive” or “automatic” quality and appear to consciousness as “self-evident” truths.

I have long recognised as a fact that judgements really grounded on a long succession of small experiences mostly forgotten, or perhaps never brought out into very distinct consciousness, often grow into the likeness of intuitive perceptions. […] When states of Mind in no respect innate or instinctive have been frequently repeated, the Mind acquires, as is proved by the power of Habit, a greatly increased facility of passing into those states and this increased facility must be owing to some change of a physical character, in the organic action of the Brain. (Mill, quoted in Carpenter, 1889)

Carpenter argues that rational judgements may evolve into “common sense” reflex judgements as a result of the law of habit and association, becoming “second nature”, a term borrowed from Aristotle.  It is, perhaps, possible to interpret Braid as meaning that hypnotic suggestion, or rather focused attention upon a dominant idea (“monoideism”), provides an artificial means of acquiring the same sense of conviction.

In his Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind (1827), Dugald Stewart had specifically discussed the French Royal Commission’s report on Mesmerism and speculated that Mesmeric subjects, rather than being influenced by animal magnetism, were reacting to a psychological “law of sympathetic imitation” not yet understood.  While rejecting the pseudo-scientific theory of animal magnetism, Stewart recommended that physicians nevertheless take the observable effects of the technique seriously.  Braid therefore quotes his remark as the motto to Neurypnology, ‘Unlimited scepticism is equally the child of imbecility as implicit credulity’.  Indeed, Braid toyed with the idea of calling his method “rational Mesmerism” as opposed to “transcendental Mesmerism”, though he seems ultimately to have felt that this would obscure the fundamental difference between the competing theories of animal magnetism and the ideo-dynamic reflex. 

Stewart claimed that the phenomena of Mesmerism could be salvaged by physicians adopting a more rational and scientific approach, while avoiding the worst excesses of its metaphysical speculations.  Moreover, in a discussion of similar ideas propounded by the philosopher Francis Bacon, he specifically recommends that physicians, like Braid, should develop a ‘doctrine of the bond between mind and body’ (i.e., Braid’s “psycho-physiology”).  Moreover, Stewart urges enquiry into ‘the effect of fixing and concentrating the attention, in giving to ideal [i.e., imaginary] objects the power of realities over the belief’, adding,

[Lord Bacon had urged physicians] to ascertain how far it is possible to fortify and exalt the imagination, and by what means this may most effectually be done.  The class of facts here alluded to, are manifestly of the same description with those to which the attention of philosophers has been lately called by the pretensions of Mesmer […].  (Stewart, 1827: 130, italics added)

Stewart therefore recommends that medical research should attempt a rational re-appraisal of the effects of Mesmerism, and other “nostrum” or placebo remedies, such as Perkins’ tractors,

I would beg leave […] to recommend warmly to my successors in this branch of study, a careful examination and comparison of the details connected […] with the practice of animal magnetism, – as inestimable data for extending our knowledge of the laws which regulate the connexion between the human mind, and our bodily organization.  The lights, more particularly, which they throw on various questions relative to the Imagination, are such, as must for ever entitle Mesmer […] to the gratitude of those who cultivate the Philosophy of the Mind; whatever the motives may have been which suggested the experiments of these practitioners, or whatever the occasional mischiefs of which they may have been the authors. (Stewart, 1827: 135, italics added)

Braid explicitly quotes the following passage from Stewart in Magic, Witchcraft, etc. (1852),

It appears to me, that the general conclusions established by Mesmer’s practice, with respect to the physical effects of the principle of imagination (more particularly in cases where they [i.e., imagination and body] co-operated together), are incomparably more curious than if he had actually demonstrated the existence of his boasted science: nor can I see any good reason why a physician, who admits the efficacy of the moral [i.e., psychological] agents employed by Mesmer, should, in the exercise of his profession, scruple to copy whatever processes are necessary for subjecting them to his command, any more than that he should hesitate about employing a new physical agent, such as electricity or galvanism. (Stewart, 1827: 147, italics added)

Braid very frequently refers to Stewart’s “law of sympathy and imitation” in developing the psycho-physiological theory of hypnotism.  It may be worthwhile to clarify the meaning of this term, because Stewart gives it a technical definition,

The Imitation of which I am here to treat, and which I have distinguished by the title of Sympathetic, is that chiefly which depends on the mimical powers connected with our bodily frame; and which, in certain combinations of circumstances, seems to result, with little intervention of our will, from a sympathy between the bodily organisations of different individuals. […]

In general, it may be remarked, that whenever we see, in the countenance of another individual, any sudden change of features; our own countenance has a tendency to assimilate itself to his. (Stewart, 1827: 105-106, italics added)

Stewart gives numerous everyday examples, such as the notorious contagion of yawning, melancholy, panic, laughter, etc., as well as more pathological illustrations relating to mass hysteria, etc.  Braid’s theory of “muscular suggestion” is also clearly pre-empted by Stewart, who writes in the same place,

As the imitation of any expression, strongly marked in the countenance and gestures of another person, has a tendency to excite, in some degree, the corresponding passion in our own minds, so, on the contrary, the suppression of the external sign has a tendency to compose the passion which it indicates.  It is said of Socrates [the Graeco-Roman personification of the composed Sage], that whenever he felt the passion of anger beginning to rise, he became instantly silent; and I have no doubt that by observing this rule, he not only avoided many an occasion of giving offence to others, but actually killed many of the seeds of those malignant affections which are the great bane of human happiness.  (Stewart, 1827: 164, italics added)

These simple psychological mechanisms are the building blocks which Braid uses to construct a viable “rational” alternative to Mesmerism.  Indeed, the basic “laws” of Braid’s Common Sense philosophy of psychology can be viewed as broadly corresponding with the certain principles of social, cognitive, and behavioural psychology adopted in modern psychotherapy, viz.,

1.         The Law of Habit & Association.  Similar to the principle of habit conditioning which underlies the learning theory approach derived from Pavlov, Hull, etc., employed in modern Behaviour Therapy.

2.         The Law of Dominant Ideas.  The role of “fixed” or “dominant ideas”, and expectation in Braid clearly pre-empts modern Cognitive Therapy’s notion of “automatic negative thoughts”, etc., and is essentially the forerunner of “autosuggestion”, though Braid does not use this term himself.

3.         The Law of Imitation & Sympathy.  Braid’s emphasis on mimicry also pre-empts the emphasis on “role-modelling” in social learning theory, developed by Bandura and others.

In this way, therefore, Braid’s discovery of hypnotism laid the foundation of precisely the rational and empirical alternative to the theories of Mesmer anticipated by Stewart.  His work can be seen as the deliberate, practical continuation of the philosophical agenda outlined by the philosophy of psychology predominant among the Edinburgh intellectuals of his day.  It is in the Scottish School of Common Sense philosophy, therefore, that we may find the original philosophy of hypnotism.