Meacham, Leslie J. Lessons In Hypnotism and the Use of Suggestion,
Based Upon the Neuron Motility Hypothesis.
The Bishop Publishing Co., Cincinnati Ohio, 1898
Hardcover, red cloth, gold stamped lettering on cover.
192 pages: 159 pages of text plus 31 photographic half-tone plates "from photographs by Dr. Edwin P. Adams, Avondale, Cincinnati, Ohio."
As the author's foreword states: "The theory offered is in the main an elaboration of that first
presented by Dr. F. X. Dercum of Philadelphia. It has been carefully
considered in its application to all phenomena arising from suggestion. It has been accepted by leading
physicians and psychologists."
Francis Xavier Dercum (1856 – 1931) was a well respected neurologist of his era who held offices in
numerous professional medical organizations, published more than 200 papers, and was called upon to treat
the United States President Woodrow Wilson when he collapsed in the White House.
By associating his interest in hypnosis with Dercum's Neuron Motility Hypothesis and the
scientific experimentation which characterized Dercum's work,
Meacham places his own text on hypnosis
in a medical and therapeutic context. Quite a lot of the book is devoted to an
explanation of neurons, axons, and dendrites -- with line drawings. It's like a bonus book on
neurology before you even start in on hypnotism. Of course such knowledge is commonplace
now, but it was cutting edge at the time, and Meacham was working toward a scientific rationale
for the mental changes that can obviously be effected by putting a patient into a hypnotic trance.
In particular, by emphasizing neurons, he raised the question of how memories are
encoded in the brain and therefore how it is that a hypnotist can embed beneficial and uplifting
self-awareness, delusions and follies, or frightening and angering ideas within a patient's
proprioceptive sense of self.
These are questions that go far beyond mere hypnotism, of
course, and have broad application in areas such as leadership adulation, mass hysteria,
false memory syndrome, "Manchurian Candidate" assassins, and the induction of
unshakable beliefs in conspiracies and criminal activities which actually have no basis in fact.
What is interesting to me is that Meacham, via Dr. Dercum's research, was anticipating a
neurological theory of mind which even now, more than a century later, has still not been
fully demonstrated.
Meacham implies within the book that he himself has been a stage hypnotist,
but that he has also worked with medical doctors to hypnotise patients in an
attempt to retrain their minds through therapeutic suggestions.
His interest lies specifically in the use of hypnosis to
overcome bad habits, "neuroses," and the effects of trauma and chronic pain. This is a well-written book by a
a highly educated person who was fully abreast of then-curent medical theories, practiced hypnotism
professionally, and, above all, had an active and enquiring mind. Recommended.
The chapters are:
• I. Theory
• II. Theory Continued
• III. How to Produce and Test Hypnosis
• IV. Therapeutics
• V. Cautions
An additional value to this book is found in Meacham's informal list of source-book titles.
While not a proper bibliography or catalogue, this list was made just as hypnotism books
in English were becoming available in America, so when i first ran across it,
i was thrilled to see that it contained mention of quite a few rare volumes which i not only had
never seen, but had never even heard of. It thus became, for me at least, a kind of Rosetta Stone
that led me into a deeper understanding of hypnotism incunabula. I set out to acquire these books,
and almost at once i found to my pleasure (and non-surprise) that Melvin Powers had already picked up
on some of the titles and had reprinted them in facsimile paperback editions, with his usual outré covers and
the prized "Foreward by Melvin Powers." In this bibliography, if a book is noted as
"Listed in Meacham," the reference is to the source-books published here in 1898.
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