James Braid (physician)

This article is about a physician. For the golfer see James Braid (golfer).

James Braid.

James Braid (born 1795 – died March 25, 1860) was a Scottish neurosurgeon who coined the term and invented the procedure known as hypnotism. He rejected the common belief that cures were due to animal magnetism, and believed them be caused by suggestion. He developed the technique of relaxation and eye-fixation, usually known as "Braidism".

Life

James Braid was born in Rylawhouse, Fifeshire, Scotland, United Kingdom. He was educated at the University of Edinburgh, where he finished medical school. He specialized in surgery and wrote on orthopaedic surgery, the treatment of club foot, squint, and other surgical topics. He published several articles in the Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, volume 56.

After shortly practicing medicine in Leads-Hill in Lanarkshire, Scotland, he in 1841 moved to Manchester, England, where he lived and worked for the rest of his life. He opened a successful surgical practice there.

Braid became interested in mesmerism in November 1841, when he observed demonstrations given by a traveling mesmerist named Charles Lafontaine (1803 - 1892). He at first rejected Lafontaine as a charlatan, but later became interested in mesmerism and dedicated his whole life to the search of the dynamics behind it. He experimented on his own, and gave lectures and encouraging open discussion and criticism.

In 1843 he published his Neurypnology: or the Rationale of Nervous Sleep, which became groundwork for the later studies in hypnosis. In it he used for the first time terms such as “hypnosis’, and “hypnotist”. His second book was published in 1846, titled The Power of the Mind over Body.

He continued to research and give lectures on hypnosis. He died suddenly of a heart attack on the 25th March 1860 in Manchester, United Kingdom.

Work

Braid first witnessed phenomenon of “hypnosis” in 1843, when he participated in the session by Swiss magnetizer, Charles Lafontaine. Braid dismissed Lafontaine as a charlatan, writing:

"That night I saw nothing to diminish, but rather to confirm, my previous prejudices." (Neurypnology: or the Rationale of Nervous Sleep, 1843).

Braid however continued to come to the sessions, and soon became impressed with magnetism. He wrote:

“At the next conversazione, six nights afterwards, one fact, the inability of a patient to open his eyelids, arrested my attention. I considered that to be a real phenomenon, and was anxious to discover the physiological cause of it. Next night, I watched this case when again operated on, with intense interest, and before the termination of the experiment, felt assured I had discovered its cause, but considered it prudent not to announce my opinion publicly, until I had had an opportunity of testing its accuracy, by experiments and observation in private” (Neurypnology: or the Rationale of Nervous Sleep, 1843).

After only two years of his own research, in 1843 Braid published Neurypnology: or the Rationale of Nervous Sleep, his first and only book-length exposition of his views. In it he coined the words hypnotism, hypnotize, and hypnotist. Braid thought of hypnotism as producing a "nervous sleep" which differed from ordinary sleep. The most efficient way to produce it was through visual fixation on a small bright object held eighteen inches above and in front of the eyes. Braid regarded the physiological condition underlying hypnotism to be the over-exercising of the eye muscles through the straining of attention. He wrote:

”[The] inability of the patient to open his eyes was caused by paralyzing the levator muscles of the eyelids, through their continued action during the protracted fixed stare, and thus rendering it physically impossible for him to open them” (Neurypnology: or the Rationale of Nervous Sleep, 1843).

He completely rejected Franz Mesmer's idea that a magnetic fluid caused hypnotic phenomena, because anyone could produce them in "himself by attending strictly to the simple rules" that Braid laid down. His experiments usually consisted of a client staring at a small bright object, between 8-16 inches from his nose, which was held by Braid. After few minutes of staring at the object, the client’s eyelids would spontaneously close. Braid concluded that the phenomenon was a form of sleep, so he named the phenomenon after Hypnos, the Greek god of sleep.

By 1848 Braid gradually came to realize that the hypnotic state could be induced without sleep, and that it is actually associated with suggestibility. He thus tried to rename the state as "monoideism", but it was too late - the term “hypnosis” was already widely accepted.

Legacy

Braid did not found a school of thought nor did he widely propagate his ideas. His influence waned after his death and the center of research on hypnosis gradually moved from Scotland to France. His book however remained influential, and his legacy continued to live in the term “hypnosis”.

Publications

• Braid, James. 1842. Satanic agency and mesmerism reviewed: In a letter to the Rev. H. Mc. Neile ... in reply to a sermon preached by him in St. Jude's Church, Liverpool, on Sunday, April 10th, 1842. Willmer and Smith.
• Braid, James. 1846. The power of the mind over the body: an experimental inquiry into the nature and cause of the phenomena attributed by Baron Reichenbach and others to a "new imponderable". Edinburgh; Adam & Chas. Black
• Braid, James. 1852. Magic, witchcraft, animal magnetism, hypnotism and electro-biology: Being a digest of the latest views of the author on these subjects. Edinburgh; Adam & Chas. Black
• Braid, James. 1853. Hypnotic therapeutics: Illustrated by cases, with an appendix on table-moving and spirit-rapping. Murray and Gibb Printers
• Braid, James. 1976 (original published in 1843). Neurypnology; Or, the Rationale of Nervous Sleep, Considered in Relation with Animal Magnetism. Ayer Co Publisher. ISBN 0405074182

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Dyan, Morgan. James Braid. Human Trinity Hypnotherapy. Retrieved on February 6, 2007, <http://www.durbinhypnosis.com/braid.htm>
• Forrest, Derek. 2001. Hypnotism: A History. Penguin. ISBN 0140280405
• Gauld, Alan. 2006. A History of Hypnotism. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521483298
• James Braid Society. 2006. James Braid (1796 - 1860). Retrieved on February 6, 2007, <http://www.jamesbraidsociety.com/jamesbraid.htm>
• Marks, Robert W. 2005. The Story of Hypnotism. Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 1419154249
• WhoNamedIt.com. James Braid. Retrieved on February 6, 2007, <http://www.whonamedit.com/doctor.cfm/314.html>

External links

• A Brief History of Hypnosis – History of hypnosis, with short biography of important figures
• Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy Magazine – Online articles on hypnotherapy and similar issues
• James Braid Society – Official website of James Braid Society
• Some Hypnosis and Psychology Information – On the history and current issues in hypnosis
• What is hypnotism – On the basics of hypnotism

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