[Suggestion and hypnosis in hysteria]

Suggestive influences allow to resolve ambiguities. Normally they are only accepted if they correspond with the knowledge and believes of the subject. Under hypnosis or under the impact of serious psychic perturbations one may take up reality constructions which are not in conformity with these criteria. The restriction of consciousness and the ignoring of certain functions permitting this are the common basis of hypnosis and hysteria. But suggestions do not cause the later; they may only shape the symptomatology. Hypnosis can create a terrain facilitating the resolution of the problems underlying hysteria but it does not represent the treatment of hysteria.