Hippolyte Bernheim

Biography

Bernheim makes its studies with the Université of Strasbourg, where it receives the diploma for the occupation of doctor of medicine in 1867. The same year, he always becomes lecturer at the University of Strasbourg and is established as doctor in the city. At the time of the annexation of Strasbourg by Germany in 1871, Bernheim leaves the university of Strasbourg for the university of Nancy, within which he becomes full professor of internal medicine in 1879.

In 1882 it attends work of Hypnose of the doctor Ambroise-Auguste Liébeault characterized by authoritative suggestions and starts to introduce them into its service of university hospital. In 1883 Bernheim carries out experiments on the criminal suggestions with the lawyer Jules Liégeois and the doctor Henri Beaunis.

With Liébeault, Inhabitant of Li2ege and Beaunis, Bernheim forms what one called the École of Nancy, or " School of the suggestion" in opposition to l'" School of Salpêtrière" of Jean Martin Charcot. Bernheim defines the Hypnose like a simple sleep produced by the suggestion and suitable for therapeutic applications. In that, he is opposed to the definition of Charcot which sees in the Hypnose a pathological state specific to the hystericals. In 1884, Bernheim defines the " Suggestion " like " the influence caused by an idea suggested and accepted by the cerveau" , then in 1886 like " an idea conceived by the operator, seized by hypnotized and accepted by its cerveau". In 1903, Bernheim considers that one cannot distinguish hypnosis from suggestibility. He declares " the suggestion was born from the old hypnotism as chemistry was born from the alchimie". It gives up the Hypnose gradually, supporting that its effects can just as easily be obtained with the waking state by the suggestion, according to a method which it indicates of the name of " Psychotherapy ". In 1907, in Doctor Liébeault and the doctrines of the suggestion , it proposes the concept d'" idéodynamisme" , according to which " any suggested idea tends to be made acte".

Bernheim and Liébeault receive the visit of Emile Coué in 1885, of Auguste Forel in 1887, of Joseph Delboeuf in 1888 and of Sigmund Freud in 1889. This last translated into German Of the suggestion and its therapeutic applications in 1888. In the years 1890, the international influence of the " School of Nancy" is very important, in particular in Germany (Albert Moll, Leopold Löwenfeld and Albert von Schrenck-Notzing), in Austria (Richard von Kraft-Ebing), in Russia (Vladimir Bechterew), in the United States (James Baldwin, Boris Sidis and Morton Prince), in Sweden (Otto Wetterstrand) and Holland (Frederik Van Eeden). About 1900, Bernheim is regarded as the largest psychotherapist of Europe, but ten years after he was almost completely forgotten.

Works

Of the typhic Fevers in general , Strasbourg (1868)
Lessons of medical private clinic , Paris (1877)
Of the Suggestion in the Hypnotic State and the Waking state , Paris (1884); Editions Harmattan, 2004, ISBN 2747556239
Of the Suggestion and its Application to Therapeutic the , Paris (1886). Editions Harmattan, 2005, ISBN 274758691X
Hypnotism, Suggestion, Psychotherapy (1891); Editions Beech, 1995, ISBN 2213595291
Doctor Liébeault and doctrines of the suggestion (1907)

The majority of these publications are available on Gallica.

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