HYPNOTISM : WHAT IT IS AND WHAT IT IS NOT. 763 



asleep, one of its arms be lifted, it will remain, in a certain number 

 of cases, just where it is put. It is rigid, and resists any attempt 

 to change its position ; that is, it is cataleptic. The phenomenon 

 is called suggestive catalepsy, because it is the result of sugges- 

 tion and is not spontaneous. The arm is lifted into a certain 

 position ; it remains, because the act of putting it there — the sug- 

 gestion — insinuates into the mind the idea of keeping it there. 

 The psychical process which determines this phenomenon is 

 purely automatic. The will does not come into play. 



It often happens that patients whose sleep is no deeper than 

 that just described imagine, upon waking, that they have not 

 been asleep, because they remember what has been said to them ; 

 or they think that their somnolence has been due to their desire 

 to be obliging. If they are again hypnotized, the catalepsy can 

 be made to reappear, although the subject may have previously 

 avowed his intention of preventing it. 



In the third degree the phenomena just described are i^resent, 

 but the sleep is deeper than before. The sensibility to pain is 

 nearly or quite abolished, and can generally be entirely abolished 

 by verbal suggestion. The physician says authoritatively, " Your 

 hand is dead and can no longer feel anything," and he may then 

 • puncture the skin with a needle, and the subject shows no sign of 

 pain. Automatic movements of various kinds can be produced in 

 this stage. The arms may be made to rotate about one another, 

 and the subject may be dared to stop them, but he can not. He 

 hears and remembers everything that is said to him. 



All these phenomena are present in the fourth degree, but, in 

 addition, there is loss of relationship with the outer world. The 

 sleep is so deep that the subject only hears what the hypnotizer 

 says. He is in relation with the hypnotizer and no one else, but 

 may be switched off, so to speak, into relationship with any one 

 else at pleasure. 



The fifth and sixth degrees are distinguished by forgetfulness 

 of what has happened, or amnesia, upon waking, and constitute 

 somnambulism.* In the fifth degree the amnesia is not complete. 

 The patient still vaguely remembers what has been told him, or 

 may have a confused recollection of what has occurred during a 

 certain period of his sleep, while he may have comjjletely forgot- 

 ten everything else. 



Persons who exhibit this degree of sleep are extremely sensitive 

 to suggestion. They may be made catalei)tic and absolutely insen- 

 sible to pain. They can be made to execute the most varied auto- 



* The word somnambulism is commonly used to designate sleep-walking. As used in 

 hypnotism, it has the more extensive meaning of forgetfulness after waking from hypnotic 

 sleep. Very often, however, this amnesia is associated with such highly developed auto- 

 matic movements that the person is able to walk about. 



