Freud’s Rejection of Hypnosis, Part I: The Genesis of a Rift

Abstract

Modern psychoanalysis begins with Sigmund Freud’s study of hypnosis and the treatment of the grand hysterics of the fin de siècle. In the process of developing his own paradigm, Freud came to reject the use of hypnosis and turned his attention away from the severe hysterias. These decisions began what has become, notwithstanding noteworthy exceptions, over a century of estrangement and disengagement between the fields of hypnosis and psychoanalysis. The current communication reviews the 75 archived Psychoanalytic Electronic Publishing resources from Freud’s scientific work and correspondence in which reference is made to hypnosis. A close examination of Freud’s stated rationales for abandoning hypnosis suggests that both the ideas he developed and the rift between hypnosis and psychoanalysis that they created may prove to have been problematic as well as innovative. They and their consequences merit thoughtful review and critical reconsideration.