I am very popular with audiences connected to the pharmaceutical industry.
An ability to motivate and inspire patients is one of the most important tools found in a physician’s bag.
Before modern medications can be offered for sale the effectiveness of the medication is required to be measured in trials against a placebo, on inert substance with no medicinal or pharmacological qualities. It has long been recognised that if a motivated patient believes that a pharmacologically inactive substance has an ability to cure, it can - and often does.
Most medications available today simply reduce unpleasant symptoms. Few cure the condition. In fact, it is argued by some that the only medications that do cure are antibiotics.
One doctor, an experienced general practitioner, told me that he saw his role as physician as being that of, ‘. . making a patient feel as comfortable as possible, whilst their body healed itself’. He motivated and inspired his patients back to good health.
It is recognised by the medical profession that a patient’s positive attitude and beliefs can play an important part in their well-being and assist greatly in recovery from illness or injury.
By the 10th century most villages had a ‘wise woman’. Such people provided essential treatment for ordinary folk who were unwell. Much of their power was based on motivating and inspiring the patients’ belief in their power. Trance and herbal remedies were frequently used. They hypnotised to heal.
The Greek Esculapius is said to have often thrown his patients into a trance-like sleep and then used the power of touch to heal.
Philosophers and physicians throughout history have considered that the so-called relics of saints might be little more than the bones of animals. However, they could not deny that the patients’ belief in the relics brought about remarkable cures. The patients were motivated and inspired to belief so by the motivational and inspirational words and actions of others.
Franz Anton Mesmer was born in 1734 in Germany. He trained as a doctor at the University of Vienna and is best remembered for his use of hypnosis. The word ‘mesmerise’ comes from his name. The power of mesmerism was soon recognised throughout the world, and some doctors still use the techniques described by Franz Mesmer.
He had rediscovered a means of entering the subconscious of his patients – a method that had been used by others for centuries. Mesmer wrongly believed that hypnosis was connected to magnetism. He had no trouble in motivating and inspiring his patients but seemed to have difficulty convincing other doctors that hypnotism could have a place within the world of medicine.
Mesmer died in 1815 having failed to convince his colleagues of the benefits of hypnotism.
That same year a Portuguese monk called Abbe Faria arrived in Paris and described how in India and the Far East healers were producing a somnambulistic trance in their patients by staring into their eyes and shouting, ‘sleep’. Faria was the first to acknowledge that hypnosis was linked to trance and not to magnetism.
Hypnotism was becoming popular in France at that time, and used to perform painless surgery.
Around 1837 in the United Kingdom Dr John Elliotson, professor of medicine at London University was using hypnotism for both the treatment of nervous disorders and as an anaesthetic.
However, the council of the University were unconvinced about the benefits of hypnosis and forbade its use in the hospital. Elliotson resigned in protest.
In 1846 he founded the Mesmeric Hospital in London. Other cities soon followed suit, and a Dr Parker of Exeter later performed over 200 successful operations using hypnosis.
However the following year chloroform was used as an anaesthetic for the first time and the use of hypnosis for this purpose fell into decline.
Hypnosis continued to be popular with psychiatrists. Whilst practising in Vienna in 1885 Sigmund Freud decided to visit Paris to learn more about hypnosis.
However, Freud was not satisfied with his ability as a hypnotist and eventually stopped using the method, preferring instead to have his patients talk for long periods until he considered he had come to the root of their problem - usually, in his opinion, connected with sex.
I cannot help but feel that it was Freud who had the big problem - not necessarily his patients!
Freud’s popularity and his reluctance to use hypnosis resulted in a rapid decline in its use amongst members of the medical profession. Others, untrained in medical matters, had no qualms about using hypnosis to their advantage.
In my next article I will describe how ‘The Mad Monk’ Rasputin used hypnosis to inspire and motivate.
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