PART C: LATE HISTORY

Section 2.

Dr. Sydney Van Pelt 
A history of hypnosis would not be complete without mentioning the foremost expert in the field of medical hypnosis of our time.  Dr. S. J. Van Pelt, an Australian physician who established practice in London, England over 15 years ago, was the world's first modern full-time medical hypnotist.  Limiting his practice to the use of hypnosis in medicine, Dr. Van Pelt built up an enviable reputation at a time when the rest of the world was very suspicious of the new modality.  He became the first and lifetime president of the British Society of Medical Hypnotism, and the Editor of the British Journal of Medical Hypnotism, the oldest and most respected journal in the field still in publication.  The British Journal of Medical Hypnotism under his guidance from its inception has lived even longer that Elliotson's Zoist and is now the world's undisputed leader in its field.  By means of the British Journal and the Journal of the A.I.H., for which he has written a number of articles, the best of the scientific literature on the subject of hypnotism is disseminated throughout the English-speaking medical profession of the world.  Dr. Van Pelt participated as lecturer in the first international course in medical hypnotism ever given in November 1959 aboard the M.S. Kungshohm on a Caribbean Cruise, and except for myself, is still today the only other living full-time medical specialist in hypnosis.  He has written more books on hypnosis than any other four authors combined if I am not utilized in the combination, and has so many articles on the subject published that they are too numerous to count.  If there is any one man of our time who will ascend to greatness via medical hypnosis, it is certainly Dr. S. J. Van Pelt, the foremost authority on the subject in the world.

Section 3. Hypnotism in France
The formation of the American Institute of Hypnosis and the simultaneous action of the British Medical Association in approving it in 1955 spurred the Council on Mental Health of the American Medical Association to conduct a three year exhaustive study which culminated in an official endorsement of hypnosis by the American Medical Association at its 1958 June meeting.  This was reported in detail in the Journal of American Medical Association, and a text of the unanimous endorsement, by the A.M.A. House of Delegates can be found in the A.M.A. Journal Vol. 168, No 2, September 13, 1958.  The House of Delegates without one dissenting vote accepted the report of the Council on Mental Health approving Hypnosis.

Shortly after this happened, the French Government again became interested in Hypnotism.  Due to Babinski's denunciation of Charcot's methods and treatments, although obviously untrue, this nevertheless gave hypnotism an extremely bad reputation in France, and consequently no one was even allowed to speak on the subject of hypnosis at any University medical gathering for the French Medical Academy officially forbade discussion of the topic in 1840, and this subject remained taboo until 1958, at which time the Sorbonne University of Paris faculty of medicine invited me to reintroduce the subject to France in a lecture to be given to over 200 famous French physicians at the St. Anne's Psychiatric Hospital in Paris.  The lecture was given in the auditorium of the Psychiatric Hospital in France, and the reception was so enthusiastic that I was kept a full hour and a half longer answering questions and performing demonstrations including a demonstration of hypnosis performed through an interpreter, which was the first known such medical exhibition in the world.  Because of this great success, the assistant mayor of Paris in his office with the traditional champagne toast received me, in the absence of the Mayor who was in New York on a goodwill mission.  The success of this venture led to an invitation to return and conduct a complete weeklong course in hypnosis in the spring of 1960.  The British Journal of Medical Hypnotism Vol 10, No. 4, describes this important event on the teaching of medical hypnosis.