"On hypnotism" (1860) De l'hypnotisme.
James Braid's last essay on hypnotism, the culmination of his work, summarized in a French translation for the Academy of Sciences, is published in English with comments. According to Braid, hypnotism is a psychological ("subjective") approach, fundamentally opposed to the paranormal claims and magnetic ("objective") theories of mesmerism. Hypnotism operates primarily by means of dominant ideas that the attention of the subject is fixated upon. The reversibility of hypnotic amnesia is taken as evidence of "double consciousness." However, over 90% of Braid's subjects did not exhibit this state of dissociation or any sleep-like responses but merely a sense of "reverie." Good subjects are as suggestible in the "waking" state as others are in hypnotism.
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