DIAGRAM III
“The therapeutic use of the hypnoidal state is a somewhat complex subject, for hypnoidization may be employed as an adjunct to other methods or as a curative measure in itself.
“The full record of hypnoidization is in the account of the well known Hanna case, given in his ‘Multiple Personality.’ This was a case of total amnesia, following a severe injury to the head. The patient, a cultured clergyman, was reduced to the mental condition of a new-born child. All his former acquisitions and memories had entirely disappeared, and he had to start learning everything again from the beginning. When he (the patient) was put into the hypnoidal state various fragmentary experiences of his past life emerged into consciousness, demonstrating to his observers that his lost memories were merely dissociated and not destroyed. This same method (hypnoidization) was made use of in other cases of amnesia, and it was found to be of great assistance in effecting the resurrection of dissociated mental material and its reintegration in consciousness.
“With the progress of his studies in Psychopathology, the reintegration of consciousness became, for Sidis, the aim of all therapeutic endeavor in connection with maladies that are associated with, or produced by, mental dissociation. The recurrent psycho-motor states of functional psychosis, insistent ideas, imperative concepts, persistent, or periodically appearing emotional states, so-called psychic epilepsy, and other states of dissociation all lent themselves to treatment by hypnoidization. By its means the dissociated complexes could be recovered, the psychogenesis of the malady could be traced, a synthesis of consciousness effected, and the patient thereby cured. As his confidence in his method increased, Sidis gradually extended its employment, until at the present time he seems to use it in every kind of disorder in which psychotherapy is indicated.
“I have no doubt that Dr. Bramwell induces in his patients a state of consciousness which is identical with the hypnoidal state of Sidis.
“My own experience, so far as it goes, tends to corroborate in every respect the therapeutic claims put forward by Sidis. I have observed the good effects of the hypnoidal state apart from any other measure.
“In his later writings Sidis insistently maintains that the use of hypnoidization alone is sufficient to cure certain morbid conditions. He bases this claim on the fact that he has found the hypnoidal state effective towards this end, and he interprets his results as being due to a release of reserve energy which has been locked up in the inhibited and dissociated systems or complexes.
“The principle of reserve energy is based upon a wide generalization of facts, namely, that far less energy is utilized by the individual than is actually at his disposal. In the struggle for existence, those forms of life which have accumulated a store of reserve energy that can be drawn upon in emergencies have the best chance for survival.”
According to my experimental and clinical work the waking state, sleep, hypnosis, and the hypnoidal state, may be differentiated as follows: