The Discovery of Hypnosis (2009)

The Discovery of Hypnosis

The Complete Writings of James Braid, The Father of Hypnotherapy

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Donald Robertson (ed.)

Published by the National Council for Hypnotherapy (NCH) in 2009.

ISBN: 0956057004

Google Books / Amazon UK / www.James-Braid.com

James Braid (1795-1860) was the founder of hypnotherapy. It was Braid who coined the English term “hypnotism”, and subsequently “self-hypnotism” and “hypnotic therapy”. You can find a basic introduction to James Braid’s life and work on Wikipedia. The portrait of James Braid on this page is reproduced by kind permission of Manchester Archives & Local Studies.

You can read my blog articles about James Braid here. Braid’s final, previously unpublished in English, manuscript ‘On Hypnotism‘ was written in 1860; I published a backward translation from French in the International Journal of Clinical & Experimental Hypnosis with a brief communication and preface. The lost manuscript ‘On Hypnotism’ is an excerpt from the book The Discovery of Hypnosis.

Table of Contents

  • Acknowledgements
  • Editor’s Preface by Donald Robertson
  • Foreword by Dr. Michael Heap

SECTION I: Articles on Braid

  • James Braid’s Life & Work
  • The Original Philosophy of Hypnotism
  • Principal Works by Braid
  • Glossary of Braidism
  • Braid’s Hypnotic Induction Technique
  • Braid’s Mature Theory of Hypnotism
  • Braid’s Theory of Suggestion
  • James Braid’s Work & Writings (Bramwell, 1896-1903)
  • Braid’s Discovery of Hypnotism (Williamson, 1896)

SECTION II: Braid’s Collected Works

  • On Hypnotism (1860)
  • The Physiology of Fascination & The Critics Criticised (1855)
  • Hypnotic Therapeutics (1853)
  • “Psycho-Physiology & the Ideo-Motor Reflex” (1853)
  • Magic, Witchcraft, Animal Magnetism, etc. (1852)
  • Lecture on Electro-Biology (1851)
  • Electro-Biological Phenomena Considered Physiologically & Psychologically (1851)
  • Observations on Trance or Human Hybernation (1850)
  • “On Mesmerism & Chemical Anaesthesia”: Letter (1849)
  • “On Esdaile & Hypnotic Anaesthetic”: Letter to The Medical Times (1847)
  • The Power of the Mind over the Body (1846)
  • “Observations on Mesmeric & Hypnotic Phenomena”: Letter to The Medical Times (1844)
  • “On Thomas Wakley & John Elliotson”: Letter to The Medical Times (1844)
  • “On Muscular Suggestion”: Braid’s Letters on Phreno-Hypnotism (1843-1844)
  • Neurypnology: The Rationale of Nervous Sleep (1843)
  • “On Neuro-Hypnotism”: Letter to The Medical Times (1842)
  • “The Discovery of Hypnotism”: “Satanic Agency & Mesmerism” Reviewed (1842)
  • “On Braid’s Hanover Square Talks”: Report & Letter in The Medical Times (1842)
  • Bibliography of James Braid’s Writings

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