History of Hypnosis

Ex.1. Learn the following new words:

1. to claim – заявлять, утверждать;

2. to coin the term – вводить термин;

3. to distribute – распределять, to redistribute – перераспределять;

4. to enhance – увеличивать, усиливать, улучшать;

5. to facilitate – облегчать; содействовать; способствовать;

6. fear – страх;

7. to heal – вылечивать, исцелять;

8. to relax – расслабляться, отдыхать.

Ex.2. Read the following text.

When hypnosis first claimed the attention of scientists, it was called animal magnetism or mesmerism, after Franz Mesmer of Vienna. In the late 18th century, Mesmer claimed to use it to heal certain nervous disorders. He thought some sort of magnetism was transferred from him to his patients, and that it redistributed their body fluids. For many years mesmerism was blamed by medical practitioners and generally associated with fraud and superstition.

In the 19th century, before the discovery of anesthetics, physicians began to use mesmerism in surgery. They found that a deeply hypnotized patient would lie perfectly still and appear unaffected by pain, even during operations as serious as an amputation. Around 1840 a doctor named James Braid coined the term hypnosis, which means a “nervous sleep.” The new name was more acceptable than mesmerism, and it soon replaced the older term. In the mid- to late 19th century several physicians, including Jean-Martin Charcot and Sigmund Freud, became interested in the use of hypnosis in the practice of medicine.

Today hypnosis is widely and successfully used by such medical practitioners as surgeons, dentists, and psychotherapists. Physicians may use it to relieve anxiety or as an anesthetic. Psychotherapists use it to relax the patient, to facilitate memory, and even to treat some conditions. Hypnosis is also used in specialized therapies such as those that help a person to stop smoking, eat less, or fight specific fears, such as fear of flying. It is unclear, however, if such procedures have any positive long-term effects. Hypnosis has also been used during police interviews to enhance the memory of witnesses.

Hypnosis should be left to those who are properly trained. When used by untrained persons it may have undesirable and even dangerous effects.

1. fraud – обман; мошенничество, жульничество

2. superstition – суеверие, религиозный предрассудок

3. procedure – процедура, методика, метод

Ex.3. Practice to pronounce the following words.

Hypnosis, hypnotist, psychotherapist, hypnotized, fluid, anesthetic, surgery, surgeon, procedure, specialized, dangerous, witness.

Ex. 4. Read and translate the words and word-combinations.

Animal magnetism, long-term effect, police interview, body fluids, medical practitioner, a deeply hypnotized patient, to stop smoking, to fight specific fears, properly trained, certain nervous disorders, unaffected by pain, fear of flying.

Ex.5. Answer the question on the text in writing:

1. Who discovered the effect of hypnosis?

2. What does meremism mean?

3. Why did physicians blame hypnosis?

4. Who coined the term “hypnosis”? What does it mean?

5. Who used hypnosis in their practice?

6. Where is hypnosis used now?

7. Can every psychologist use hypnosis in the practice?

Ex.6. Read and translate the following sayings about the psychotherapy using the dictionary. How do you understand them?

1. “Psychotherapy is distinguished from such other forms of psychiatric treatment as the use of drugs, surgery, electric shock treatment and insulin coma treatment”

(Group of psychologists)

2. “The doctor should be opaque (недоступный для понимания) to his patient and, like a mirror, should show them nothing but what is shown to him”.

(S. Freud, 1912)

3. “Different types of psychotherapy (verbal or behavioral, psychodynamic, client-centered, or systematic desensitization) do not produce different types or degrees of benefits”.

(Group of psychologists)

3. “If there were no positive effects of psychoanalysis as a therapy, then it would be completely unethical to apply this method to patients, to charge them money for such treatment, or to train therapists of these unsuccessful methods …”.

(H.S.Eysenck, 1992)

Ex. 7. Retell the text above.

Ex.8. Put the sentences from direct into indirect speech:

1. I wonder, “What exactly is psychology?”

2. He agreed, “I’d better be careful what I say from now”.

3. We asked the health educator, “How does alcohol affect us?”

4. She said, “The problem is that we haven’t got the necessary equipment.”

5. “What is this book about?” my mother asked me.

6. They said, “There may be a mistake in our calculation”.

7. The teacher said, “Look up this term in the dictionary.”

8. I wondered, “Who is coming tomorrow?”

UNIT 5

Text 1.