Article archive / April 1, 2012
Originally published: . Volume 3, No. 8. Source pages: 14, 15.
(Editors note: After Drs. Joseph Tramontana and Karen Slaton were elected board members of the New Orleans Society of Clinical Hypnosis (Vice-President and Secretary-Treasurer, respectively), Dr. Tramontana mentioned to the publisher that New Orleans had one of the oldest hypnosis societies in the United States. She asked him if he would consider reporting on the history of hypnosis in New Orleans and he graciously agreed.)
The website for the NOSCH identifies itself as follows: “New Orleans Society of Clinical Hypnosis, formerly known as The Société du Magnétisme de la Nouvelle-Orléans.” As noted by Tomlinson and Perret (1974; 1975), in their paper titled “Mesmerism in New Orleans, 1845-1861,” the theories of Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815) provided a major area of psychological investigation during the first two-thirds of the Nineteenth Century. Mesmeric sleep, later called hypnotism, gained official medical sanction as a mode of investigation and treatment and gained respectability through the work of Jean-Martin Charcot. A Royal Commission of Inquiry appointed by King Louis XVI in 1784 included members of the Académie des Sciences and the Académie des Sciences. This commission was chaired by the first US Ambassador to France, Benjamin Franklin (thus it was referred to as the Franklin Commission). Dr. Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, a French physician who first proposed the use of a device to carry out death penalties, was also a member of this commission. As a side note, Dr. Guillotin did not actually invent the guillotine and was reportedly against the death penalty. The commission rejected Mesmer’s theories. Their conclusion, which seems highly likely, based on current theories, is that the main effects are the result of the power of suggestion. The long history of official opposition to mesmerism lasted until the 1870’s when Charcot introduced hypnotism at the Salpêtrière School in Paris. Charcot, known as the father of modern neurology, was interested in hysteria and hypnotism. His interest, developed at a time when the general public was fascinated in “animal magnetism” and “mesmerization” considered the ability to be hypnotized as a clinical feature of hysteria. For the members of the Salpêtrière School, susceptibility to hypnotism was synonymous with disease, i.e. hysteria, although they later recognized … that grand hypnotisme (in hysterics) should be differentiated from petit hypnotisme, which corresponded to “the hypnosis of ordinary people."
Despite the official rejection of mesmerism, there was an active interest in Europe during the first half of the 18th century, and several groups were organized in the United States. It is believed that individuals in New Orleans interested in Mesmerism met as an informal group in the late 1830’s. The group formalized its structure with the publication of a constitution in 1845. At their weekly meetings, communications reporting activities of other societies in Paris and elsewhere were read and discussed. One or the leaders of the Paris organization wrote in 1850 that “of all the institutions founded in the last few years outside of Paris for the propagation of mesmerism, the one which succeeded best is, without doubt, the Society of Magnetism in New Orleans.” The New Orleans group did not have its own journal, but its activities were reportedly described in the Journal of Magnetisme (Paris).
Gravitz and Gerton (1986) published an article titled “The Société du Magnétisme de la Nouvelle-Orléans: Its Place in the Early History of Hypnosis in America.” A part of their abstract to that paper reads as follows:
“The Société du Magnétisme de la Nouvelle-Orléans was the largest, most active, and most enduring American mesmeric (hypnotic) organization of its day. This important group was officially established in 1845 and was in existence until the time of the Civil War. Virtually nothing is known about this early hypnosis association because its transactions were published in a long-defunct Paris-based French-language periodical.”
The present author contacted the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis (ASCH) national office to get information regarding when NOSCH became an official component section to the national organization. The response was that at an interim meeting of ASCH in March, 1974, it was noted that, “The New Orleans Hypnosis Society applied for component section status – and was approved at the ASCH annual meeting, held in New Orleans, in November, 1974.”
So what happened between the demise of the Mesmerism Society during the Civil War and 1974?
I talked with Dr. Dabney Ewin, current president of NOSCH and former president of the (ASCH). He is a professor of general surgery at Tulane and also a professor in Tulane’s Department of Psychiatry and Neurology, where he teaches clinical hypnosis. Dr. Ewin has long been a leader and top faculty member of ASCH, as well as an author of scholarly books on hypnosis. Having received his MD from Tulane 61 years ago, he seemed like the “perfect historian.” Although he did not remember exact dates, Dr. Ewin remembers that in the early 1970’s, he and three colleagues met in his living room and decided to re-initiate the old organization under the original French name, “The Société du Magnétisme de la Nouvelle-Orléans.” At some point between that meeting and the 1974 annual convention in New Orleans, the group began to expand. When they had enough members, they changed the name to NOSCH and applied for and were granted component section status by ASCH, and they helped to host that New Orleans Convention.
If Dr. Ewin doesn’t know (which he doesn’t) about what happened, if anything, in the hypnosis field in New Orleans between the Civil War and the early ‘70’s, it is highly likely that there was no organized activity. When you think about the history of Mesmerism in the United States, however, where else would it be expected to more likely have become popular than New Orleans? After all, New Orleans was originally a French colony and has always been considered more European than other US cities. It was formerly referred to as “Sin City” when, from 1897 – 1917, the Storyville District flourished (prostitution, brothels, gambling, and speakeasies). Storyville was modeled after similar areas in Germany and in Dutch ports. The city was always thought to be a little “wicked,” and with its history of voodoo, just a little “mysterious.”
It is probably noteworthy that in my work with clients, as well as in my workshop presentations and writings, I spend a lot of time attempting to de-mystify hypnosis and present it as a behavioral technique – certainly not magic, and definitely not evil or “wicked.” Certain religious groups are against hypnosis because of their naïve thinking that hypnotic trance is akin to a “possession trance,” which is absolutely untrue. On the other hand, perhaps a little “mystery” is exciting. The response I often get, especially from my young clinical and athlete clients, after the first hypnotic session is: “That was amazing!”
References: Gravitz, M.A. & Gerton, M.I.(1986).The Société du Magnétisme de la Nouvelle-Orléans: Its place in the early history of hypnosis in America. International Journal of Psychosomatics, 33(4). 11-14. Tomlinson, W.K. & Perret, J.J (1974). Mesmerism in New Orleans, 1845-1861. Presented at the 17th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis, New Orleans, 1974. Tomlinson, W.K. & Perret, J.J. (1975). Mesmerism in New Orleans, 1845-1861. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 18(1): 1-5.
Barthet, J. (1847) in J. Magnet (Paris)
Dr. Joseph Tramontana with volunteer at New Orleans Society of Clinical Hypnosis, doing a hypnosis demonstration for “Improving Peak Performance.”
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.