| 释义 |
hypnotism|ˈhɪpnətɪz(ə)m|
[f. hypnot-ic + -ism. This word is due to Dr. James Braid of Manchester, who in 1842 introduced the term neuro-hypnotism for ‘the state or condition of nervous sleep’, and in 1843 used the shortened form hypnotism, when the context made the sense plain.]
1. The process of hypnotizing, or artificially producing a state in which the subject appears to be in a deep sleep, without any power of changing his mental or physical condition, except under the influence of some external suggestion or direction, to which he is involuntarily and unconsciously obedient. On recovering from this condition, the person has usually no remembrance of what he has said or done during the hypnotic state. The term is also applied to the branch of science which deals with the production of this state, and its causes and phenomena. See braidism, mesmerism.
The usual way of inducing the state consists in causing a person to look fixedly, for several minutes, with complete concentration of the attention, at a bright or conspicuous object placed above and in front of the eyes at so short a distance that the convergence of the optic axes can only be accomplished with effort.
1842Braid in Trans. Brit. Assoc. (29 June), Practical Essay on the Curative Agency of Neuro-Hypnotism. 1843― Neurypnol. 13 By the term ‘Neuro-Hypnotism’ then, is to be understood ‘nervous sleep’; and, for the sake of brevity, suppressing the prefix ‘neuro’, by the terms—Hypnotic, will be understood ‘The state or condition of nervous sleep’; Hypnotize, ‘To induce nervous sleep’; Hypnotized, ‘One who has been put into the state of nervous sleep’; Hypnotism, ‘Nervous sleep’; Hypnotist, ‘One who practises Neuro-Hypnotism’. 1847–9Todd Cycl. Anat. IV. 695/2 Modes of inducing somnambulism..practised..under the designation of hypnotism. 1852Braid (title) Magic, Witchcraft, Animal Magnetism, Hypnotism and Electro Biology (ed. 3). 188319th Cent. Oct. 696 Under the name of Hypnotism, the subject has after a long interval reappeared on the scientific horizon. 1892Brit. Med. Jrnl. 27 Aug. 459 Hypnotism is an agent of great value in the treatment of chronic alcoholism. 1893Pall Mall G. 10 Jan. 1/3 Hypnotism is the science which deals with the phenomena of a peculiar mental state produced by artificial means. 1898Times 14 July 14/3 The habitual use of hypnotism on women is greatly injurious, both morally and intellectually.
2. The state thus induced: the hypnotized or hypnotic condition.
1843[see sense 1]. 1847Nat. Encycl. I. 760 This induced him [Braid] to give another name, Hypnotism, to the state in which persons are thus placed. 1860Illustr. Lond. News 11 Feb. 139/2 Hypnotisme, or nervous sleep, now exciting so much attention in the French medical world. 1862Lytton Str. Story II. 215 The enchanters and magicians arrived..at the faculty of..inducing fits of hypnotism, trance, mania. 1876C. M. Davies Unorth. Lond. (ed. 2) 98 Swedenborg had the power of inducing, in his own case, a state clearly the same as what we now call mesmerism or hypnotism.
3. Sleepiness or sleep artificially induced by any means; also fig.
1860I. Taylor Spir. Hebr. Poetry (1873) 27 He has fallen into a sort of Biblical hypnotism, or artificial slumber, under the influence of which the actual meaning of words and phrases fails to rouse attention. 1875H. C. Wood Therap. (1879) 23, I have given a hypodermic injection of a grain of morphia to a man, inducing a degree of hypnotism. 1885Times 15 Dec. 9 The country will be the gainer by the hypnotism of the one party and the forbearance of the other. |