BBC News
23-4-1999
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Health ‘No link between hypnotism and madness’
Hypnotic facts
Variations of hypnosis used in ancient times
1775
Dr Franz Mesmer in Vienna uses “animal magnetism”, basis of modern-day hypnotism
1821
magnetism first used in dentistry in France.
1845-1853
hypnotism used as form of anaesthesia in surgery by James Esdail.
1914
new era of hypnosis due to shortage of psychiatrists in World War One
1950s
the British Medical Association backs hypnosis
1962
brain operation performed under hypnosis in US
1993
Large survey shows hypnosis is best way to give up smoking
Hypnotist Paul McKenna was cleared of causing mental illness
Hypnosis cannot cause mental illness, a conference on hypnotherapy will hear.
Dr Graham Wagstaff, a researcher and member of the British Society of Experimental and Clinical Hypnosis, will tell its annual conference in Birmingham on Saturday that there is no proof that hypnosis can cause severe mental illness such as schizophrenia.
Stage hypnotist Paul McKenna was recently cleared of causing a man to become schizophrenic after he appeared in his show.
Dr Wagstaff told News Online: “If people have an underlying mental health problem, a whole variety of things could make it worse, such as an accident.
“But that is not a peculiar characteristic of hypnosis.
“It depends what the hypnotist does. Hypnotists should take the normal safeguards that any good therapists does.”
There are currently few regulations regarding hypnotherapy.
Anyone can advertise as a hypnotherapist in the Yellow Pages and they may have only the most minimum of knowledge of the subject.
Some hypnotherapists are calling for the regulations to be tightened, but Dr Wagstaff says this should apply to other therapies as well, such as counselling, where there are also few regulations.
“There is nothing particularly unusual about hypnotherapy,” he said. “Bad therapy is bad therapy wherever it is found.”
He added: “A lot of the fears over hypnosis are due to an outdated concept of hypnosis related to entertainment.
“A lot of people think it makes you enter a strange state where you lose control and are controlled by the hypnotist who can cause strange neurological effects.”
Education
He said there was a great need for education about what hypnosis involved.
“Most people who have been hypnotised say it is a situation where they imagine and relax and go along with suggestions made to them unless they are violently opposed.
“They do not zonk out and lose consciousness.”
He believes people do stupid things when hypnotised on stage because of social pressure rather than as a result of hypnosis.
“It would be embarrassing if they did not join in. That is not hypnosis,” he said.
He added that there were great differences between stage and clinical hypnosis.
“Stage show hypnosis is for entertainment. There is no preparation, no relaxation and no case history is taken.”
He said most hypnotherapists would do a risk assessment before subjecting a person to hypnosis.