Hidden Depths: The Story of Hypnosis [Paperback]

Robin Waterfield (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0415947928 | ISBN-13: 978-0415947923 | Publication Date: August 3, 2003 | Edition: 1

In Hidden Depths, Robin Waterfield explores the fascinating world of hypnosis, tracing the history of this often misunderstood craft beginning with a passage in the book of Genesis, and continuing through his own personal experiences today. Waterfield uses the history and controversy surrounding the practice of hypnosis to gain insight into our behavior and psychology, and considers how hypnotic techniques have been absorbed into society through advertising, media and popular culture.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The burning gaze and seductive murmur of the hypnotist is both an enduring cultural touchstone and a useful therapeutic tool, according to this fascinating history of, and brief for, hypnosis. Waterfield (Prophet: The Life and Times of Khalil Gibran) follows the evolution of the 18th-century notion of "animal magnetism" into the idea of the hypnotic trance as a psychological phenomenon, an understanding that laid the groundwork for the development of psychotherapy and the concept of the unconscious. Always a matter of scientific controversy, hypnotism was taken up by earnest medical reformers and road show impresarios alike. It was championed by Romantics and revolutionaries opposed to rationalism and elite control, but its rituals reinforced the authority of usually male, upper-class hypnotists over usually female or lower-class subjects, who, it was believed, risked succumbing to the hypnotist's moral and sexual control under trance. Writing with a lightly erudite style, Waterfield explores hypnotism's multifarious meanings and traces its influence in everything from Dracula movies to techniques in advertising and salesmanship. He is also an unabashed partisan of hypnosis ("Let's do it!") in its less flamboyant contemporary guise as a "gentle, effective and empowering treatment for a surprisingly wide range of ailments" that go well beyond the usual psychiatric problems. Occasionally skeptical but broadly credulous (he dismisses past-life regression but believes in telekinesis), Waterfield accepts, often on anecdotal evidence, claims that hypnosis can block pain, clear up skin conditions, boost the immune system and increase breast size. While his discussion of therapeutic hypnosis and mind-body holism in disease processes lacks rigor, his well-written and insightful analysis of hypnosis as a cultural artifact will definitely keep readers from getting sleepy. Photos.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Robin Waterfields Hidden Depths: The Story of Hypnosis, is undoubtedly the most thorough and informative book about hypnosis on the market today. Written in an engagingly intelligent and entertaining style, this book details the history of the field of hypnosis. The authors descriptions of a remarkable cast of charlatans, eccentrics, and dedicated professionals eventually leads us from Egypt though Mesmer and up to the present, where the author provides a remarkably clear picture of the current state of the field. Professionals and non-professionals alike will come away from this book with a more complete understanding of the history, controversies, applications, and potentials of hypnosis than they could acquire anywhere else..
–Ronald A. Havens, co-author of Hypnotherapy Scripts

Hidden Depths is, without any doubt, the single most informative and exciting treatise regarding hypnosis and hypnotherapy I have ever seen. I suggest you memorize it!.
–Stephen Lankton, MSW, DAHB

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Product Details

• Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (August 3, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415947928
• ISBN-13: 978-0415947923
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,834,333 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Poor on the Ancient World - Egypt, Greece, Rome, November 6, 2002

By 

Peter Keyani "Pete" (London, England, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hidden Depths: The Story of Hypnosis (Hardcover)

All books on the historical evolution of hypnosis - and there are a lot of them - start with Anton Mesmer in the 18th Cent. As a professionally-trained Archaeologist and a Certified Hypnotherapist with the National Guild of Hypnotists (NGH), I was excited by the idea of Robin Waterfield's book as it was supposed to chart the 'story' of hypnosis from Prehistory to Modern Times.
Waterfield, wisely, skates around defining what hypnosis actually is. He states in his Introduction : "....from our point of view, it doesnt matter there is such a thing as the hypnotic state, which is different from any other state of consciousness. All that matters is that something unusual is going on, that we can trace the history of this unusal something, and that as a result of this unusual something people can have all sorts of experiances, including being cured or being relieved of a number of disorders".
But, a mere few pages later in his all too short chapter called 'In the beginning' which is supposed to review the earliest evidence of hypnosis in the Egyptian, Greek and Roman Periods, his admirable open-mindedness has simply vanished. According to Waterfield, there is no evidence of hypnosis practiced before the Middle Ages because, as he states "... evidence for the induction of trance states is no more evidence for hypnosis than, say, evidence for the ingestion of narcoleptic drugs is evidence for hypnosis. to repeat: not every trance state is a hypnotically induced state" Waterfield, therefore, uses his own, very narrow defination of hypnosis, to simply exclude all evidence of trance induction in the Ancient World from further consideration. Amazingly, Waterfield further goes on to label all those working in the feild of Hypnosis who disagree with him - he's just a translator of ancient lit., remember- as 'Hypnotic Imperialists' (this presumeably includes the founder of Hypnotherapy, Dr Milton H. Erickson, MD) and calls two of the most important figures in Post-Ericksonian Hypnosis, Dr Richard Bandler & Dr John Grinder (Trance-formations) "arch-imperialists"! He therefore sets himself against mainstream opinion within Hypnosis without ever arguing his case for his narrow definition of hypnosis (for instance how would he explain the 'Placebo Effect' or well documented anthropological studies on Voodoo, niether of which would be classed as 'Hypnosis' in his definition) which allows him to simply dismiss the prehistoric evidence without further discussion. Most dissapointing to say the least!!!
I recommend anyone interested in the Ancient History of Hypnosis to read the following:
The Shamans of Prehistory: Trance and Magic in the Painted Caves
by Jean Clottes, et al , Trance: A Natural History of Altered States of Mind, by Brian Inglis, Jesus the Healer: Possession, Trance, and the Origins of Christianity, by Stevan L. Davies, & Trance: From Magic to Technology, by Dennis R. Wier

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars captivating and comprehensive history of hypnosis, March 5, 2006

By 

o. fenech "signifier" (new york city, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hidden Depths: The Story of Hypnosis (Paperback)

hidden depths is an absorbing and fascinating history of hypnosis --it's background, high and lows and it's influence in the birth of psychology. highly recommended.

note this is a history of hypnosis, not a history of trance, therefore the main stream is caught with the rise of mesmerism.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Resource, April 9, 2005

By 

M. E. Raines "Author of UNA and THE LAUGHING ... (Arizona) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hidden Depths: The Story of Hypnosis (Hardcover)

This is a very thorough, well organized, superbly researched and intelligently written book on the history of hypnotism. I recommend it to all of my hypnotherapy students and feel it should be required reading for anyone with a serious hypnosis practice.

Mary Elizabeth Raines, Director
Academy for Professional Hypnosis Training