The cultural origins of the concept
of hypnosis

The creation of a distinct concept
of hypnosis owes its existence mostly
to a charismatic 18th
century healer named
Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815).

Mesmer had a deep interest in
Paracelsan astrological principles, and the supposed direct influence of heavenly bodies on human health,
by means of what were believed
by Mesmer and others to be measurable physical forces (as opposed to the subtle forces of later occult doctrines interpreting Mesmerism).

Mesmerism caught on widely, attracting followers to many spiritualist, religious, and scientific variations of mesmerism,
as well as to 'mesmerism' as a dramatic form of
entertainment for its own sake ('stage hypnosis').

It was highly influential in a number of popular movements,
some of which are still very popular today.

What qualified acceptance of hypnosis in medicine that we
have today is largely due to the efforts of pioneers in the experimental study of hypnosis, starting in the 1920's and
30's. Foremost early researchers were Clark Hull and his
then student, Milton Erickson. Hull's 1933 discussion of
scientific research into hypnosis (Hypnosis and Suggestibility)
is still considered a classic.

Erickson later came to disagree with Hull on the important
issue of fundamental approach, stressing the complex
subjective inner processes operating in hypnosis, rather
than the measurable correlates and standardized procedures promoted by Hull. Hull went on to make important
contributions in learning theory, while Erickson went on to
become the name most closely associated with clinical
hypnosis today.

Milton Erickson died in 1980, but left a legacy of often
zealous followers, a number of important contributions to
the field, and several offshoot schools of applied psychology
based on his core principles of indirect strategic therapy and suggestion, and based on hypothetical unconscious
processes and indirect forms of human communication.
Examples include Jay Haley's strategic model of therapy,
the MRI Interactional model, the Erickson-Rossi hypnotic
theories, Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP), and a
number of later frameworks such as that of
Lankton (1983) and Gilligan (1987). The 'Ericksonian'
models deliberately blur the traditional distinction
between hypnosis and other forms of therapy, and share
this basic idea with the 'skeptical' view of hypnosis.
In addition to Erickson and Hull, modern scientific research
into hypnosis is often associated with a period of intense experimental research in the late 1950's and early 1960's
by notables such as J.P Sutcliffe, T.X. Barber, M.T.Orne,
E.R. Hilgard, R.E. Shor, and T.R. Sarbin. The work of these
researchers had been particularly influential on the current
scientific view of hypnosis, especially as viewed in medicine.