Hysteria, hypnosis, psychopathology. History and perspectives

A historical outline is given of the search for an explanation of the still elusive nature of hysteria and hypnosis, their mutual relationship, and that which they bear to psychopathology. Charcot regarded hypnosis as an artificially induced hysterical neurosis, and it was he who first introduced Freud to these two states. Freud was the first to see in hypnosis an experimental instrument for understanding psychopathological mechanisms. His subsequent conceptualization of psychoanalysis derived from these two phenomena at this decisive period. In 1895 Freud attempted to achieve a psychophysiological synthesis of the mental apparatus in his "Project for a Scientific Psychology," but then decided not to publish it. Whether or not recent advance in neurophysiology are sufficiently important bo bring about this synthesis remains an open question. In recent years some psychoanalysts have become interested in hypnosis, which one of them described as a focus for psychophysiological and psychoanalytic investigations. Any theory of the psychical apparatus which does not account for such an obvious psychical phenomenon must necessarily be incomplete. Since Charcot, hysteria presents hardly any new openings for experimental work. It is suggested that the solution of psyche-soma interaction might be sought in the study of hypnosis. It is postulated that hypnosis is a "fourth organismic state," not as yet objectifiable (in contradistinction to the waking state, sleep, and dreaming): a kind of natural or inborn mechanism which acts as one of the regulators of man's relationships with the environment. The author discusses briefly the aims and methodology of future interdisciplinary research on hypnosis, and the study of the transition from one state of consciousness to another, and their potential application to a wide range of subjects, namely, wherever man's relations with the environment are involved.