A CRITICAL History of Hypnotism: The Unauthorised Story

Author: Saul Marc Rosenfeld www.historyofhypnotism.com
ISBN 978-1-4363-3016-9
Review by Josephine P Teague MSc BSc(Hons) DipPsych PGCE

One of the things I enjoy about reading books is the quality of the paper used and this one is a pleasure to hold even before you start to read.

I approached this book with some disquiet considering its title. My qualms were allayed immediately. This book was an absolute pleasure to read from beginning to end.
This is a good comparative work which offers many references and varying views of hypnosis and experiments into hypnosis over the years. It brought the history of hypnosis to life for me including the horrifying description of sewing tongues together in trance and conversing!

It is a superbly researched book which captures the attention and the motivation to actually follow the references through and possibly find out even more information. For me, Saul seemed to capture the personality of the main protagonists of hypnosis through the ages and shows that the old ways of thinking are still with us despite the evidence (or lack of it) of any shortfalls. This includes the reluctance of the medical fraternity to accept “Lay” practitioners of hypnotherapy. He explains the reasoning behind the negative attitudes to hypnosis that persist even today. There is an extremely valid and useful discourse on the concept of depth testing and its limitations, along with suggestibility tests.

For me the main highlights of this book are the re-enforcement of current knowledge regarding trance states and how it is allied to the rapport and interpersonal relationship between the client and the therapist. This supports many of the principles that I teach in my training school and try to instil in my students. I enjoyed the quotes and the small personal “asides” within the text. It is useful the follow the author’s suggestion of reading the first part of the book first and then reading it along with the copious notes in part two. The notes as a stand alone source of information are very useful. To me it was an excellent way to arrange the book and avoid being distracted or losing your train of thought as you read.