HYPNOSIS ON THE STAGE

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27048, 25 May 1953, Page 10

HYPNOSIS ON THE STAGE

British Act Controls Demonstrations BILL PASSED LAST YEAR The demonstration of hypnotism on the stage on people under 21 vears of age is now prohibited in England. The passing of the Hypnotism Bill last year—it received Royal Assent early in August—brought to an end, temporarily at least, long discussions in newspapers on the possible danger of stage demonstrations of hypnotism. The bill, until it reached the committee stages, sought to prevent entirely all demonstrations of stage hypnotism, and it was only at a meeting of the Standing Committee on the bill that the clause defining age limits was included. The bill does, however, give local authorities power to control stage demonstrations and to Specify conditions. The bill was introduced in the House of Commons on December 5, 1951, by Dr. D. Somerville Hastings (Labour. Barking), soon after a girl Who had taken part in a performance by a hypnotist in Airdrie, Scotland, had been taken to hospitaL The bill at that stage sought to make illegal "demonstrations of hypnotic phenomena for purposes of public entertainment.”

Support for the bill was advocated in a leter to “The Times” by a Harley street specialist. Dr. Henry Yellowlees. He said, in part, “The suggestion that a hypnotist is a person possessing some special abilities or semi-magical powers is completely without foundation. Naturally certain qualities of character or personality make their possessors more successful than others in using hypnotism. So do training and experience, but this truth applies to all human activities and does not alter the fact that the successful induction of the hypnotic state depends far more on the subject than on the operator. Many of the factors which determine the readiness with which a given subject can be hypnotised are by no means fully understood. “It is, however, established beyond doubt (a) that it is impossible to hypnotise any normal healthy person who is genuinely unwilling to be hypnotised; (b) that those who pass into the hypnotic state when merely spectators of a stage performance, those who cannot be roused from the state, and those who pass into it again spontaneously after an interval, are without exception, mild case of the magicseeking hysterical variety of neurosis. These persons are irresistibly attracted by public exhibitions of hypnotism. The proposed bill would protect them from the consequences of their nervous instability and from the attentions of. an operator who certainly cannot claim that devotion to their medical interests is the governing motive of his performance.” Views of Medical Profession

On March 12, “The Times” printed another letter on the subject, from Sir Walter Russell Brain, president of the Royal College of Physicians, who said that it was the stronglyheld opinion of the English medical profession that hypnotism was subject to dangers and abuses which made it unsuitable for public demonstration- or experiment by persons without scientific qualifications. ‘ “Much still remains to be learned even about its therapeutic possibilities. but research on this can only safely be carried out by doctors who are aware of the risks involved,” he said. “Moreover, ethical problems are raised by a procedure in which the will of one person is temporarily under the control of another. It is often stated that the hypnotised subject cannot be compelled to do anything which is contrary to* his normal nature, but it is not certain that hypnotism cannot be used to reinforce impulses which the subject, to his conscious state, is striving to suppress.” Two days later, Mr William Brown, president of the British Psychological Association, said in a letter to “The Times” that the medical qualifications should also include qualification in the sciences of psychology and psychiatry and training in the practice of analytical psychotherapy. “It is only such all-round qualification and training which would be an adequate safeguard in the practice of hypnotism enabling the practitioner to foresee and understand possibilities of danger and to circumvent them,” he said. Protection of the Public In March, 1952, the Home Secretary (Sir David Maxwell Fyfe) was asked if he would assist to provide legislation sought in the private bill. Mr L C. Rodgers (Conservative, Sevenoaks) asked whether, in view of public disquiet on the subject of stage performances of hypnotism, and the fact that several people had had to spend time in hospitals as a result of hypnotism, the Home Secretary would see that the public Was protected. Sir David Maxwell Fyfe said he was prepared to consider the private bilL The Government facilitated the passage of the bill and by the middle of June it was in the committee stage, where the age restriction was introduced.

Speaking to the Standing Committee on June 17, Dr. A. D. D. Broughton (Labour, Batley and Morley) said that in the hands of other than highlytrained members of the medical profession hypnosis was dangerous. Most of the medical profession was opposed to stage hypnosis for that reason. Little more than a month later the bill became law.