The hypnoid state is a
theory
A theory is a rational type of abstract thinking about a phenomenon, or the results of such thinking. The process of contemplative and rational thinking is often associated with such processes as observational study or research. Theories may be s ...
of the origins of
hysteria
Hysteria is a term used colloquially to mean ungovernable emotional excess and can refer to a temporary state of mind or emotion. In the nineteenth century, hysteria was considered a diagnosable physical illness in women. It is assumed that ...
published jointly by
Josef Breuer
Josef Breuer ( , ; 15 January 1842 – 20 June 1925) was a distinguished physician who made key discoveries in neurophysiology, and whose work in the 1880s with his patient Bertha Pappenheim, known as Anna O., developed the talking cure (catharti ...
and
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies explained as originatin ...
in their ''Preliminary communication'' of 1893, subsequently reprinted as the first chapter of ''
Studies on Hysteria'' (1895).
For Breuer and Freud, who characterised the hypnoid state as a state of absence of mind/consciousness produced by intense
daydream
Daydreaming is the stream of consciousness that detaches from current, external tasks when attention drifts to a more personal and internal direction. This phenomenon is common in people's daily life shown by a large-scale study in which partici ...
s of a mournful or sexual nature, "the existence of hypnoid states forms the foundation and condition of hysteria".
Characteristics
The hypnoid state was seen as one resembling but not identical with
hypnosis
Hypnosis is a human condition involving focused attention (the selective attention/selective inattention hypothesis, SASI), reduced peripheral awareness, and an enhanced capacity to respond to suggestion.In 2015, the American Psychologica ...
.
In the hypnoid state, one may have dream-like experiences.
One enters the hypnoid state by either hypnosis or by voluntary
amnesia
Amnesia is a deficit in memory caused by brain damage or disease,Gazzaniga, M., Ivry, R., & Mangun, G. (2009) Cognitive Neuroscience: The biology of the mind. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. but it can also be caused temporarily by the use ...
.
Breuer credited
Paul Julius Möbius as a forerunner in the development of the idea.
Repudiation
Freud was shortly to repudiate the causative notion of hypnoid states, in favour of his theory of psychological
repression. As he would put it later, "Breuer's theory of 'hypnoid states' turned out to be impeding and unnecessary, and it has been dropped by
psycho-analysis
PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: + . is a set of theories and therapeutic techniques"What is psychoanalysis? Of course, one is supposed to answer that it is many things — a theory, a research method, a therapy, a body of knowledge. In what might ...
today...the screen of hypnoid states erected by Breuer".
Nevertheless he continued to recognise the importance of such states of absent consciousness in the
symptomatology
Signs and symptoms are the observed or detectable signs, and experienced symptoms of an illness, injury, or condition. A sign for example may be a higher or lower temperature than normal, raised or lowered blood pressure or an abnormality showin ...
of the hysterical subject.
[S. Freud, ''On Psychopathology'' (PFL 10) p. 101]
See also
References
External links
Hypnoid states
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Freudian psychology
Hypnosis