You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
The technique of this experiment was suggested by the fact that recovery from an illness or conflict frequently results in the favourable resolution of a second concurrent illness or conflict (e.g. malaria in O.P.I.). The idea was to induce hypnotically a neurosis symbolizing or paralleling the original difficulty. When the patient was forced to abreact the conflict of the induced neurosis, there might occur a transference of the abreactive process to the original difficulty.
The subject of the experiment, an assistant of the author who suffered from ejaculatio præcox, was asked to co-operate in some hypnotic experiments, without knowing of any therapeutic intention. He was deeply hypnotized and then told a story which he was to accept as a real past experience of his own. The story concerned an attractive girl whose beautiful glass ash-tray he had broken by dropping a lighted cigarette into it. He was told that when he woke up he would forget the story, but it would be on his mind and would govern his speech and actions. This in fact occurred—every train of thought was dominated by the implanted complex, there were disturbances in the form of his stream of speech, and he showed phobia-like obsessive behaviour towards ash-trays. He was then re-hypnotized and instructed to remember everything. When awakened, he told the story as an actual experience, then realized it was a hypnotic suggestion. He described his subjective experiences. The result was almost complete cure of his ejaculatio præcox, and the cure has lasted more than a year.
The ultimate soundness of the therapeutic result is questioned, but it is suggested that such hypnotic procedures might be used experimentally in the analysis of personality disturbances, and certain specific problems for future research are outlined.