602 PSYCHOLOGY. 



served phenomena, the importance of most particular symp- 

 toms as marks of the state has diminished. This lightens- 

 very much our own immediate task. Proceeding to enu- 

 merate the symptoms of the hypnotic trance, I may confine 

 myself to those which are intrinsically interesting, or which 

 differ considerably from the normal functions of man. 



First of all comes amnesia. In the earlier stages of hyp- 

 notism the patient remembers what has happened, but with 

 successive sittings he sinks into a deeper condition, which 

 is commonly followed by complete loss of memory. He 

 may have been led through the liveliest hallucinations and 

 dramatic performances, and have exhibited the intensest ap- 

 parent emotion, but on waking he can recall nothing at all. 

 The same thing happens on waking from sleep in the midst 

 of a dream- — it quickly eludes recall. But just as we may be 

 reminded of it, or of parts of it, by meeting persons or ob- 

 jects which figured therein, so on being adroitly prompted, 

 the hypnotic patient will often remember what happened in 

 his trance. One cause of the forgetfulness seems to be 

 the disconnection of the trance performances with the sys- 

 tem of waking ideas. Memory requires a continuous train 

 of association. M. Delboeuf, reasoning in this way, woke 

 his subjects in the midst of an action begun during trance 

 (washing the hands, e.g.), and found that they then remem- 

 bered the trance. The act in question bridged over the two 

 states. But one can often make them remember by merely 

 telling them during the trance that they shall remember. 

 Acts of one trance, moreover, are usually recalled, either 

 spontaneously or at command, during another trance, pro- 

 vided that the contents of the two trances be not mutually 

 incompatible. 



SuggestihiJiiy. The patient believes everything which 

 his h3q3uotizer tells him, and does everything which the 

 latter commands. Even results over which the will has 

 normally no control, such as sneezing, secretion, reddening 

 and growing pale, alterations of temperature and heart- 

 beat, menstruation, action of the bowels, etc., may take 

 place in consequence of the operator's firm assertions dur- 

 ing the hypnotic trance, and the resulting conviction on the 



