Hidden Depths : The Story of Hypnosis

by Waterfield, Robin

• ISBN13: 9780333779491
• ISBN10: 0333779495
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-09-01
• Publisher: Trans-Atlantic Pubns

Summary

With wit and verve Robin Waterfield brings the bizarre story of hypnotism to life. A lively mixture of popular history, science and psychology, Hidden Depths is the definitive work on hypnosis. From its origins as animal magnetism, as practised by Franz Anton Mesmer, to its modern-day use as a health cure and a form of entertainment, hypnosis has always been controversial. The outlandish claims that its zealous believers make are only matched in intensity by the howls of derision that they provoke from sceptics.

Author Biography

Robin Waterfield is the author of more than twenty-five books, ranging from children's fiction to biography and translations of Ancient Greek texts. He is currently Writer-in-Residence at the University of Sussex

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	xi
Acknowledgements	xiii
Preface	xv
Introduction	xxi
Hypnosis in Fact and Fiction	1	(41)
In the Beginning	42	(22)
Franz Anton Mesmer	64	(41)
Magnetic Sleep and Victor's Sister	105	(27)
Crusaders and Prophets in the United States	132	(25)
`Mesmeric Mania' in the United Kingdom	157	(54)
Murder, Rape and Debate in the Late Nineteenth Century	211	(28)
Psychic Powers and Recovered Memories	239	(40)
Freud and Other Alienists	279	(25)
State or No State: The Modern Controversy	304	(26)
Hypnotherapy: Mind and Body	330	(31)
Mind Control	361	(30)
Self-improvement and the New Age	391	(26)
A Plea	417	(6)
Appendix: In Mesmer's Footsteps	423	(3)
References	426	(6)
Bibliography	432	(20)
Index of Names	452	(7)
Index of Subjects	459