ABSTRACT

The choice to use procedural hypnosis is often born out of necessity. In 1845 Esdaile, a Scottish surgeon working in India, became so distraught by the screaming and sufferance of a patient during a surgery that he decided to use “mesmerism” for the next procedure. It worked and the experience propelled Esdaile to become a pioneer in the use of hypnosis as anesthesia for surgery (Esdaile, 1846). He built a distinguished career on this concept and even had a mesmeric hospital in Calcutta dedicated to this practice. Esdaile achieved not only pain reduction, but also observed a reduced rate of infections and had no patients die from surgery-quite a competitive advantage. However, the discovery of ether and, shortly thereafter, chloroform shifted enthusiasm of the clinical establishment toward pharmaceutical options of anesthesia and largely away from the benefits of procedural hypnosis.