In spite of Freud's successive theories of hypnosis, the essence of the phenomenon remains elusive, in much the same fashion as we remain in relative ignorance of the relationship between mind and body in such situations as conversion and psychosomatic reactions in general. We can perhaps detail why such symptoms come about, but not how they are realized. While the historical details of various stages of Freud's explanations of hypnosis are familiar to most analysts, Chertok provides a service in closely relating them to the development of psychoanalytic