Suggestibility is a fact of our daily social intercourse. We
live off one another's thoughts and react to one another's feelings. The man who sets himself to resist all the sugges- tions of his fellows is as much moved by them as anybody else. In Dr. Bernard Hollander's book, Methods and Uses of Hypnosis and Self-Hypnosis (Allen and Unwin, 6s.), he is dealing with a special aspect of this universal suggesti- bility. The technique of hypnosis has altered much from the days of mesmerism and animal magnetism. A doctor who uses hypnotism to cure his patients no longer sends them into a trance. The condition which Dr. Hollander himself advises is rather one of complete relaxation, in which the patient is freed from his preoccupations and his attention is concentrated on the physician's words. It is still possible to argue that hypnosis is an artificial state, and other methods of therapeutics are to be preferred. Dr. Hollander, however, quotes many instances of success attending his methods and his book is an interesting survey of the medical, moral, and philosophical implications of hypnosis. * * *
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