page_title: John Milne Bramwell
section_title: Hypnotism
hierarchical_section_title: John Milne Bramwell / Hypnotism
caption_attribution_description: English: Pitres, A., Leçons Cliniques sur l'Hystérie et l'Hypnotisme: Faites à l'Hôpital Saint-André de Bordeaux: Tome 2 (Ouvrage précédé D'une Lettre-Préface de M. le Professeur J.-M. Charcot), Octave Doin (Paris), 1891. Diagram taken from p.499. The French neurologist Albert Pitres (1848–1928) claimed (p.98) that there were: (a) zones hypnogènes (‘hypnogenetic zones’), which induced hypnotism when stimulated — “regions… de provoquer instantanément le sommeil hypnotique” (‘zones that provoke hypnotic sleep instantaneously’); and (b) zones hypnofrénatrices (‘hypno-arresting zones’) — “le font cesser brusquement le sommeil hypnotique” (‘that abruptly terminate the hypnotic sleep’). Although the locations of the “zones” varied from person to person, they were distinct and constant for any given individual; viz., they had a “position habituelle” (p.497). According to Pitres, the “zones” are bi-lateral. This diagram, drawn by Pitres, of his patient, “Paule C—“, on 13 October 1884, shows the ‘hypnogenetic zones’ for the right-hand side of his body, and the ‘hypno-arresting zones’ for the left-hand side of his body.
context_page_description: John Milne Bramwell was a Scottish physician, surgeon and specialist medical hypnotist. He was born in Perth and educated at the University of Edinburgh.
context_section_description: His father had seen James Esdaile (1808–1859) at work and, as a child, Bramwell had seen his father replicate Esdaile's mesmeric experiments.
  While studying medicine at Edinburgh University, he was influenced by John Hughes Bennett (1812–1875), author of The Mesmeric Mania of 1851, With a Physiological Explanation of the Phenomena Produced (1851), who revived Bramwell's interest in hypnotism.
  On 28 March 1890 Bramwell gave a public demonstration in Leeds of the use of hypnotism for dental and surgical anæsthesia.
  He travelled widely in Europe and visited most of the important centres of hypnotism. He also directly observed the work of Hippolyte Bernheim (1840–1919) in Nancy, Jean-Martin Charcot (1825–1893) at the Salpêtrière in Paris, Frederik Willem van Eeden (1860–1932) and Albert Willem van Renterghem (1846–1939) in Amsterdam, Ambroise-Auguste Liébeault (1823–1904) in Nancy and Otto Georg Wetterstrand (1845–1907) in Stockholm, at their respective clinics.
  Bramwell, who had visited Charcot, the famous French neurologist, founder of the "Hysteria School" at the Salpêtrière hospital in Paris, characterised Charcot and his work as a throwback to mesmerism.
  Around 1885 an associate of Charcot, Albert Pitres, another famous French neurologist at the Salpêtrière hospital, in a throwback to phreno-mesmerism, went even further, claiming that he had discovered zones hypnogènes, or "hypnogenetic zones" which, he said, when stimulated threw people into the hypnotic state, and zones hypnofrénatrices or "hypno-arresting zones", which, when stimulated, abruptly threw people out of that same hypnotic state (Pitres, 1891, passim).
  Bramwell also visited Nancy on two occasions. From his observations and discussions there he felt that Hippolyte Bernheim and Ambroise-Auguste Liébeault had done little except reproduce Braid's earliest findings. Bramwell was also certain that they knew nothing about Braid's later developments of his theories and practices, his amended terminology and his mature understanding of the applications of hypnotic suggestion. In Bramwell's view, the theoretical position that Braid held at the end of his life (viz., 1860) was considerably more advanced than anything that was promoted by the "Suggestion School" in Nancy thirty-five years later.
          In the history of hypnotism, especially in reference to its development from mesmerism, there are several facts which ought never to be forgotten.
      Elliotson and Esdaile, however mistaken in their theories, were far in advance of their fellows.
  
      Amid much that was false, they had discovered genuine phenomena, and investigated them in a scientific spirit, and successfully employed their knowledge for the relief of pain and the cure of disease.
  
      Further, we shall see, when dealing with theories, that their fallacies and mistakes were reproduced in an exaggerated form by Charcot and his disciples.
  
      Braid did not destroy mesmerism root and branch, and substitute hypnotism as something totally distinct in its place.
  
      He might rather be said to have taken over the business of his predecessors, to have written off as valueless much of what they regarded as assets, and to have reconstructed a company on new lines.
  
      [Braid's] views, too, as already mentioned, underwent constant change and development; and I hope to show, when discussing hypnotic theories, that he ended by holding opinions which are far in advance of those generally accepted at the present day.
                      Bramwell, Hypnotism, etc. (1903), p.39.
  Along with other members of the Society for Psychical Research, such as Henry Sidgwick (1838–1900), William James (1842–1910), Frederic Myers (1843–1901), Charles Lloyd Tuckey (1854-1925), Eleanor Sidgwick (1845–1936), Edmund Gurney (1847–1888) and Arthur Myers (1851–1894) — Gurney and the two Myers brothers had visited both the Salpêtrière and Nancy in 1885 —  Bramwell made a thorough scientific investigation of hypnotism and hypnotic phenomena and, through his lectures, public demonstrations, research and publications did much to increase
caption: Pitres' 1884 diagram of the 'hypnogenetic zones’ and ‘hypno-arresting zones’ on his patient, "Paule C—"
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