Charcot's hypnotism

1. Introduction

Version followed: the Salpêtrière school's "grand hypnotisme" of Jean-Martin Charcot (1825-1893) and his pupils, c. 1878-1893, as described by historians of neurology (Bogousslavsky, Walusinski and Veyrunes 2009) and in Charcot's 1882 note to the Académie des sciences (cited by title, not quoted); the psychotherapist's present-day work follows current UK NHS descriptions of functional neurological disorder (FND) services.

"Charcot's hypnotism" is a historical practice, not a therapy to be used today. Charcot, the neurologist who led a clinic at the Salpêtrière hospital in Paris, began using hypnosis with patients diagnosed with hysteria around 1878. For his school, being hypnotisable was itself a sign of disease: "grand hypnotisme" was held to occur in hysterics, distinguished later from a lesser "petit hypnotisme" in ordinary people [source: Bogousslavsky, Walusinski and Veyrunes 2009]. Hysteria was understood as a neurological disease produced by a "dynamic" or "functional" lesion that autopsy could not find [source: Arquivos de Neuro-Psiquiatria 2014; AJP Residents' Journal, Hysteria to Functional Neurologic Disorders]. Hypnosis served the school as an experimental tool to reproduce and display symptoms before audiences of physicians, students and, increasingly, the non-medical public [source: Wellcome Collection catalogue, etching after Brouillet; Bogousslavsky et al. 2009].

The school's implicit idea of change was neurological rather than psychological: symptoms followed fixed laws of a diseased nervous system, and hypnosis exposed those laws. Rivals at Nancy, led by Hippolyte Bernheim, argued instead that hypnotic phenomena were products of suggestion and not a marker of hysteria; after Charcot's death his former pupil Joseph Babinski recast much of hysteria as "pithiatism", symptoms produced by suggestion and removable by persuasion [source: Bogousslavsky et al. 2009; AJP Residents' Journal]. For today's psychotherapist this history matters for three reasons: it shaped the concept now called functional neurological disorder, it is a founding case study in suggestion and demand effects, and it raises lasting questions about the consent and display of patients [synthesis].

2. Framework

Historical phases of the practice (outline only)

c. 1862-1878: neurology at the Salpêtrière. Charcot worked at the Salpêtrière from 1862, a hospital that combined an asylum with a home for elderly women; he separated epileptic from hysterical patients and applied the anatomo-clinical method to hysteria, finding no lesion [source: Wellcome Collection catalogue; Arquivos de Neuro-Psiquiatria 2014]. His lectures on hysteria are reported to have begun in 1870 [source: Osler Library blog, McGill].
1876-1880: photographic documentation. Désiré-Magloire Bourneville (text) and Paul Regnard (photographs), both Charcot's pupils, published the Iconographie photographique de la Salpêtrière: service de M. Charcot in three volumes (Paris, Progrès médical/Delahaye), with photographs of mostly young women patients in stages of "attacks" and their case histories [source: Wellcome Collection catalogue record; Osler Library blog]. The Wellcome digitisation carries a Public Domain Mark.
1878-1882: hypnosis enters the clinic. Charcot began hypnotising hysterical patients around 1878, probably influenced by Charles Richet's work on provoked somnambulism [source: Bogousslavsky et al. 2009]. In 1882 he presented a note to the Académie des sciences, Sur les divers états nerveux déterminés par l'hypnotisation chez les hystériques (Comptes rendus 94: 402-405) [source: reference list, Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences 1997]. The same year a chair of diseases of the nervous system was created for him [source: Arquivos de Neuro-Psiquiatria 2014].
1880s: the doctrine of "grande hystérie" and "grand hypnotisme". Charcot and Paul Richer described a four-stage major hysterical attack; Georges Gilles de la Tourette described three hypnotic states (lethargy, catalepsy, somnambulism) plus preliminary states [source: Arquivos de Neuro-Psiquiatria 2014; Bogousslavsky et al. 2009]. Alfred Binet and Charles Féré's Le magnétisme animal (Paris, Alcan, 1887) gave an account of hypnotism "strongly influenced by the Salpêtrière school" [source: University of Pittsburgh HSLS, Early Works on Animal Magnetism]. Public lessons drew a large intellectual audience; André Brouillet's painting of a clinical lesson, showing Charcot presenting a hypnotised woman patient to colleagues, was exhibited at the 1887 Paris Salon [source: Wellcome Collection; US National Library of Medicine]. The weekly "Tuesday lessons" are often cited in histories [uncertain: not verified].
1884-1893: the Nancy controversy. Bernheim's school held that hypnosis was not diagnostic of hysteria; the two schools clashed publicly over whether crimes could be suggested under hypnosis, notably in criminal trials of 1888-1890 [source: Bogousslavsky et al. 2009].
1893 onwards: revision. By 1893 Charcot himself is reported to have called the Salpêtrière concept of hysteria in need of profound revision [source: Arquivos de Neuro-Psiquiatria 2014]. Babinski's 1901 paper redefined hysteria, and his Démembrement de l'hystérie traditionnelle (pithiatisme) followed in 1909 [source: Bogousslavsky et al. 2009; Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences 1997 reference list]. Sigmund Freud, who studied with Charcot in 1885-1886, moved from neuroanatomy toward psychological accounts of hysteria; Pierre Janet developed a rival dissociation-based account [source: AJP Residents' Journal; Arquivos de Neuro-Psiquiatria 2014].

Phases of the psychotherapist's work

The psychotherapist does not practise Charcot's hypnotism. The work runs in four overlapping phases [synthesis]:

Recognition and assessment. Goal: identify how the history reaches this client - a functional neurological diagnosis, a past experience of being called "hysterical" or "faking", fear or fascination about hypnosis, an interest in medical history, or a family member once institutionalised. Move on when the therapist and client share a working description of what brings the topic into therapy and any risks are known.
Safety, coordination and safeguarding. Goal: confirm medical care is in place (for FND, a neurologist's diagnosis and access to specialist services), screen for mood problems, trauma and suicide risk, and agree consent ground rules for recording, teaching or research. Move on when risk is managed and the care team's roles are clear.
Processing and repair. Goal: psychoeducation, a shared formulation, and repair of any injury caused by past dismissal, display or suggestion. For FND, this phase sits inside a care pathway: one NHS neuropsychiatry service describes psychotherapy for FND as up to 12 hour-long appointments, usually weekly or fortnightly, built around a shared formulation [source: Walton Centre NHS leaflet]. Other formats vary by service [uncertain]. Move on when the client has a usable understanding and measurable goals are being worked on.
Advocacy, follow-up and the profession's lessons. Goal: help the client communicate with services, support informed consent in teaching and research, and carry the historical lessons on suggestion and display into the therapist's own practice and teaching. End when the client's goals are met or care is handed back to the treating team.

3. Guiding principles

[synthesis unless a source is given]

History, not technique. Practical meaning: describe what the Salpêtrière did in outline and attributed; never reproduce or demonstrate its induction or display methods.
The symptoms are real. Practical meaning: people with functional symptoms are not "faking it" and cannot consciously produce or stop them [source: Walton Centre NHS leaflet]; say so early and plainly.
Diagnosis belongs to neurology. Practical meaning: FND is diagnosed by history and examination, including positive clinical signs [source: King's College Hospital NHS FND page]; the psychotherapist never makes or overturns the diagnosis, and never suggests that a symptom is "psychological" in place of medical assessment.
Suggestion is a force in every room. Practical meaning: the Nancy critique and Babinski's later view show that expectation shapes symptoms [source: Bogousslavsky et al. 2009; AJP Residents' Journal]; monitor your own leading questions, enthusiasm and theory.
Do not presume a hidden cause. Practical meaning: the Salpêtrière linked hysteria to sexuality, and Freud first tied it to childhood sexual abuse before revising this [source: Arquivos de Neuro-Psiquiatria 2014; AJP Residents' Journal]; explore trauma only as the client reports it, and never infer abuse from symptoms.
Consent before display. Practical meaning: no photograph, recording, case presentation or teaching use of a client's material without informed, revocable consent; anonymise by role description.
The client is not an exhibit. Practical meaning: power imbalances between clinician, audience and patient were central to the Salpêtrière lessons; keep the client's own account at the centre.
Avoid gendered stigma. Practical meaning: "hysteria" carries a history of dismissal of women; do not use the word clinically, and notice when clients have been dismissed on gendered grounds.
Hypnosis today is a separate question. Practical meaning: modern clinical hypnosis is covered elsewhere (cross-refer Domain VI 081); this guide is about the Salpêtrière's historical doctrine.
Multidisciplinary care. Practical meaning: FND care may combine specialist physiotherapy, psychotherapy and other therapies in day, inpatient or community pathways [source: King's College Hospital NHS FND page]; coordinate, do not work alone.
Respect the dead. Practical meaning: Salpêtrière patients are named in some historical sources; refer to them by role only (for example "the woman patient shown in Brouillet's 1887 painting").

4. Intervention inventory

The interventions below are the psychotherapist's own work; steps not drawn from a cited source are marked [synthesis]. None of them involves inducing hypnosis or reproducing any Salpêtrière method.

4.1 Building the therapist's own historical literacy

Purpose and when to use: before working with FND clients, teaching on hypnosis, or using Salpêtrière images; so the therapist can speak accurately and without myth.
Steps: (1) Learn the core sequence: Charcot's anatomo-clinical neurology, hysteria as a "dynamic lesion", hypnosis from c. 1878, the 1882 Académie note, the Nancy critique, Babinski's pithiatism [source: Bogousslavsky et al. 2009; Arquivos de Neuro-Psiquiatria 2014]. (2) Look at the primary images in official digitisations (Wellcome's Iconographie photographique; the NLM and Wellcome reproductions of Brouillet's painting) rather than social-media reposts. (3) Note what is attributed to whom; separate Charcot's own claims from his pupils' (for example, the three hypnotic states as described by Gilles de la Tourette). (4) Keep a short note of the open questions (for example how far demonstrations were coached) and mark them as debated.
Example language (illustrative): "Charcot thought being easily hypnotised was a sign of a nervous disease; his critics at Nancy thought it showed the power of suggestion."
Watch for: repeating popular claims as fact (for example that every demonstration was fraud, or that Charcot "discovered" FND); naming patients from old sources. Working when you can explain the history in two minutes, with attributions.

4.2 Responding to a client's interest in the Salpêtrière or "hysteria" history

Purpose and when to use: a client brings up Charcot, the Brouillet painting, a documentary or a book, often after receiving an FND diagnosis.
Steps: (1) Ask what drew them to it and what it means for them. (2) Offer accurate outline history with attributions. (3) Link it to their situation only if they wish: what has changed (positive-sign diagnosis, multidisciplinary treatment) and what has not (stigma, suggestion). (4) Return to their goals.
Example language (illustrative): "What did you feel when you saw that painting? Some people with an FND diagnosis find it validating that doctors took these symptoms seriously 140 years ago; others find it upsetting how patients were shown."
Watch for: the client concluding "so it is all in my head" or "so I am a hysteric"; rumination on the history in place of treatment. Working when the history becomes a resource rather than a source of shame.

4.3 Recognising the legacy in a client's care history

Purpose and when to use: assessment of any client with functional symptoms, or who reports having been called "hysterical", "attention-seeking" or told symptoms were "all in the mind".
Steps: (1) Ask about each contact with services and how the diagnosis was explained. (2) Note experiences of disbelief, being shown to students, being filmed, or being treated as a teaching case. (3) Note any gendered remarks. (4) Record the effect on trust and help-seeking.
Example language (illustrative): "Before we go on, I'd like to hear how doctors have talked to you about your symptoms so far, including anything that felt dismissive."
Watch for: anger, shame or withdrawal when services are mentioned; reluctance to attend appointments. Working when the client can name past injuries and say what they need from care now.

4.4 Psychoeducation on functional neurological disorder (present-day framing)

Purpose and when to use: a client with a neurologist's FND diagnosis who is unsure what it means.
Steps: (1) Check the client's understanding first. (2) Use the service-level description: FND is a problem with how the nervous system functions and how signals are processed in a structurally normal brain [source: King's College Hospital NHS FND page; Walton Centre NHS leaflet]. (3) State that symptoms are real and not consciously produced [source: Walton Centre NHS leaflet]. (4) Explain that the diagnosis rests on history and examination with positive signs, not only on normal tests [source: King's College Hospital]. (5) Point to neurosymptoms.org, which both NHS services cite. (6) Contrast briefly with the 19th-century "hysteria" label if the client raises it.
Example language (illustrative): "Your neurologist found signs that the brain's software, not its hardware, is misfiring. That is a real problem, and it can improve."
Watch for: the client hearing "psychological" as "imagined"; doubts about the diagnosis (the Walton Centre leaflet advises discussing doubts with doctors before starting therapy). Working when the client can explain FND in their own words.

4.5 Collaborative formulation for FND

Purpose and when to use: once the diagnosis is accepted well enough to start therapy.
Steps: (1) Map together what made the client vulnerable, what triggered the symptoms and what keeps them going, the structure one NHS service uses [source: Walton Centre NHS leaflet]. (2) Include bodily, emotional, social and illness-belief factors. (3) Write it down jointly; let the client edit it. (4) Revisit as treatment proceeds.
Example language (illustrative): "Let's draw what was going on before the symptoms started, what set them off, and what keeps them going now. You tell me where I've got it wrong."
Watch for: imposing a cause (trauma, sex, conflict) the client does not report, the Salpêtrière's and early Freud's error in reverse [synthesis]. Working when the client recognises the formulation as theirs.

4.6 Coordinating with neurology and the multidisciplinary team

Purpose and when to use: throughout FND work.
Steps: (1) With consent, confirm the diagnosis and care plan with the treating neurologist. (2) Know the local pathway: day-case, inpatient or community, with specialist physiotherapy and psychotherapy [source: King's College Hospital NHS FND page]. (3) Agree who explains what, so messages are consistent. (4) Refer back to medical care for any new or changed symptoms.
Example language (illustrative): "I'd like to let your neurologist and physio know what we're working on, so you hear one consistent story. Is that OK with you?"
Watch for: splitting between professionals; the therapist being asked to judge whether symptoms are "real". Working when the team gives aligned messages.

4.7 Screening for mood, trauma and suicide risk

Purpose and when to use: at assessment and at review; mood changes can be a risk factor for or a result of living with FND [source: King's College Hospital NHS FND page].
Steps: (1) Use standard depression, anxiety and trauma screening. (2) Ask directly about suicidal thoughts, plans and protective factors, following safe-messaging principles (no method detail). (3) Make a safety plan where needed. (4) Give crisis resources: 988 in the US; Samaritans 116 123 in the UK and Ireland. (5) Route medical questions about medicines to the prescriber; never advise starting, stopping or changing a medicine.
Example language (illustrative): "Living with symptoms people don't understand can be exhausting. Have you had thoughts of ending your life?"
Watch for: hopelessness after diagnosis or after repeated disbelief. Working when risk is known and a plan is in place.

4.8 Trauma-informed exploration without presumption

Purpose and when to use: the client reports past trauma, or has been told by someone that their symptoms "must" come from trauma.
Steps: (1) Explain that trauma and stress can be linked to FND but not always [source: Walton Centre NHS leaflet]. (2) Let the client decide what to disclose and when. (3) Never infer abuse from symptoms or seek "hidden" memories. (4) If abuse is disclosed, follow safeguarding procedures.
Example language (illustrative): "Some people with FND have had hard experiences and some haven't. We don't need to find a single cause to make progress."
Watch for: pressure (from the client, family or another provider) to uncover memories; cross-refer to Domain XVI 085 (recovered-memory therapy). Working when the client feels in control of disclosure.

4.9 Monitoring suggestion and demand characteristics in your own practice

Purpose and when to use: always; especially with highly suggestible or eager-to-please clients, and in group or teaching settings.
Steps: (1) Recall the historical lesson: the Nancy school and later Babinski held that suggestion produced much of what was attributed to disease; critics said the Salpêtrière demonstrations were shaped by suggestion [source: Bogousslavsky et al. 2009; AJP Residents' Journal]. (2) Use open, non-leading questions. (3) Avoid predicting specific symptoms or responses. (4) Watch for symptoms that appear only in your presence or follow your theory. (5) Discuss in supervision.
Example language (illustrative): "I want to be careful not to put ideas in your head. Tell me in your own words what happens."
Watch for: symptom patterns converging on the therapist's model. Working when the client's account stays their own and is consistent across settings.

4.10 Consent for recording, teaching and case presentation

Purpose and when to use: any time a client's sessions, images or story might be recorded, presented, published or used in training; the Salpêtrière photographed patients for publication and displayed them in lessons [source: Wellcome Collection catalogue records; Osler Library blog].
Steps: (1) Explain the specific use, audience and storage before asking. (2) Separate consent for treatment from consent for teaching or research; refusing must not affect care. (3) Confirm consent again before each use and state the right to withdraw. (4) De-identify by role description. (5) Never present a client live to an audience for teaching. (6) Record the consent conversation.
Example language (illustrative): "You can say no to this, now or later, and your care stays exactly the same."
Watch for: clients consenting out of gratitude or fear of losing care; clients with FND who may feel their symptoms are on show. Working when consent is specific, informed and freely revocable.

4.11 Responding to a request for hypnosis "to cure" symptoms or recover the cause

Purpose and when to use: a client asks to be hypnotised because they have read about Charcot, or because a provider has offered hypnosis to find a hidden cause.
Steps: (1) Explore what they hope hypnosis would do. (2) Explain that Charcot's hypnotism was a historical diagnostic and display practice, not a treatment to seek out. (3) Explain that the psychotherapist does not use hypnosis to search for buried memories, and why (suggestion; cross-refer Domain XVI 085, recovered-memory therapy). (4) Discuss the treatments their NHS or local FND service offers. (5) For questions about modern clinical hypnosis as a separate method, cross-refer Domain VI 081 and leave the decision to the treating team.
Example language (illustrative): "I can see why that history is appealing. What would you hope to find out? Let's look at what your FND team can offer and what the evidence says for it."
Watch for: a provider promising to reveal a hidden trauma or to "switch off" symptoms; any practitioner proposing staged demonstrations. Working when the client's choice is informed and anchored in their care pathway.

4.12 Addressing fears of hypnotic control or criminal suggestion

Purpose and when to use: a client fears that they were or could be controlled by hypnosis, or a family member fears it, often after media portrayals.
Steps: (1) Listen for whether the fear is cultural, anxious, or part of a psychotic or persecutory belief. (2) Offer history: in the 1880s the Nancy and Salpêtrière schools fought over whether crimes could be suggested, and French courts in 1888-1890 rejected hypnosis defences [source: Bogousslavsky et al. 2009]. (3) Where a fear is part of a broader persecutory belief, assess risk and coordinate with psychiatry. (4) Where the fear relates to real abuse by a practitioner, follow safeguarding and reporting routes.
Example language (illustrative): "People argued about this in Paris in the 1880s. Can you tell me what happened that makes this worry feel so real for you?"
Watch for: fixed persecutory beliefs; reports of sexual abuse by a hypnotist (take seriously, safeguard, report). Working when anxiety eases or appropriate services are involved.

4.13 Working with stigma and the word "hysteria"

Purpose and when to use: a client has been labelled "hysterical", or uses the word about themselves.
Steps: (1) Name the term's history as a historical diagnosis, linked by the Salpêtrière to sexuality and applied mostly to women in its published photographs [source: Arquivos de Neuro-Psiquiatria 2014; Osler Library blog]. (2) Note that Charcot also described male traumatic hysteria [source: Arquivos de Neuro-Psiquiatria 2014], so the label was never only about women. (3) Offer present-day terms (functional neurological disorder; DSM-5 "functional neurological symptom disorder" alongside conversion disorder [source: AJP Residents' Journal]). (4) Explore the shame attached.
Example language (illustrative): "That word has a long history of being used to dismiss people. The name for what you have now is functional neurological disorder, and it is taken seriously."
Watch for: internalised shame; avoidance of care. Working when the client can describe their condition without self-blame.

4.14 Family history: an ancestor in a 19th-century hospital or asylum

Purpose and when to use: a client has found that a relative was a patient at the Salpêtrière or a similar hospital, or appears in published case histories.
Steps: (1) Explore what the discovery means and how it affects family stories. (2) Help them use official archives and digitised collections rather than speculation. (3) Discuss privacy: whether and how to share findings. (4) Address fears of inherited illness with accurate information and medical routing if needed. (5) Support grief or anger about how the relative was treated or displayed.
Example language (illustrative): "Finding her in a medical book must have been a shock. What would you like to do with what you've found?"
Watch for: fears about heredity drawn from 19th-century theory; distress at seeing published images. Working when the client has a coherent, bearable account.

4.15 Using Salpêtrière images and history in teaching and supervision

Purpose and when to use: the therapist teaches students or supervisees about hypnosis, FND or the history of psychiatry.
Steps: (1) Use official digitisations with their stated licence (for example the Wellcome Iconographie under a Public Domain Mark; the NLM's public-domain photoprint of Brouillet's painting). (2) Refer to patients by role, not name, even where catalogues name them. (3) Frame the images ethically: power, consent, gender and the audience. (4) Draw the lessons: suggestion, demand effects, consent.
Example language (illustrative): "Look at who is watching and who is being watched. What would we need today before anyone could be shown like this?"
Watch for: voyeuristic use of images; jokes at patients' expense. Working when learners can state the ethical lessons.

4.16 Duties when a colleague or institution displays or exploits patients

Purpose and when to use: a colleague, training event or institution presents patients live, films them without valid consent, or uses hypnosis demonstrations on vulnerable clients.
Steps: (1) Raise the concern with the colleague where safe. (2) Escalate through the organisation's clinical governance or safeguarding lead. (3) Report to the professional regulator or licensing board through its published route where informal resolution fails or harm is serious. (4) Document facts. (5) Support the affected client. The APA Ethics Code is at https://www.apa.org/ethics/code; specific ethics points here are [synthesis].
Example language (illustrative): "I'm concerned the patient in that demonstration couldn't really say no. Can we discuss how consent was obtained?"
Watch for: retaliation; minimisation ("it's for education"). Working when the practice stops and the client is supported.

4.17 Repairing a rupture caused by perceived dismissal

Purpose and when to use: the client feels the therapist has implied symptoms are "psychological" or "made up".
Steps: (1) Name the rupture. (2) Acknowledge your part without defensiveness. (3) Restate that symptoms are real and involuntary [source: Walton Centre NHS leaflet]. (4) Ask what would help. (5) Adjust language.
Example language (illustrative): "I think what I said sounded as if I didn't believe you. I'm sorry. I do believe your symptoms are real."
Watch for: missed sessions or silence after the rupture. Working when the alliance recovers.

4.18 Advocacy and communication with services

Purpose and when to use: the client faces disbelief in emergency departments, workplaces or benefit assessments.
Steps: (1) Help the client prepare a short explanation of their diagnosis. (2) With consent, write to services confirming engagement in treatment (not making diagnoses). (3) Point them to reputable information sources (neurosymptoms.org, cited by NHS services). (4) Support assertive but calm communication.
Example language (illustrative): "Let's write three sentences you can hand to staff about your diagnosis and what helps."
Watch for: the therapist being drawn into disputes about diagnosis. Working when the client gets more consistent care.

5. Handling problems

The guidance below is [synthesis] except where a source is named.

The client rejects the FND diagnosis. Do not argue. Explore doubts, and encourage the client to discuss them with their neurologist before starting therapy, as one NHS service advises [source: Walton Centre NHS leaflet]. Offer to pause therapy until they are ready.
The client hears "psychological" as "faking". Restate that symptoms are real and involuntary [source: Walton Centre NHS leaflet]; use nervous-system language; check understanding each session.
Stuck clients. Revisit the formulation; check whether maintaining factors (avoidance, illness beliefs, others' responses) have been missed; coordinate with physiotherapy so physical and psychological work align. Some people show no measurable change, while many improve [source: Walton Centre NHS leaflet]; review goals honestly with the team.
Symptoms worsen during therapy. Expect that difficult topics can make symptoms temporarily worse [source: Walton Centre NHS leaflet]; slow the pace, strengthen coping skills, and route any new or changed symptoms to medical review.
Overwhelm or dissociation in session. Pause, ground the client using their chosen strategies, reduce emotional intensity, and plan the next session together. Do not use hypnosis or trance work to manage this.
Non-adherence to homework. Explore obstacles (fatigue, fear, disbelief, practical barriers); shrink tasks; tie them to the client's own goals.
Ruptures over disbelief. Use 4.17; name the history of dismissal if the client finds that helpful.
Pressure to find a hidden cause. From the client, family or another provider: explain the risks of suggestion with the Salpêtrière-Nancy history as illustration [source: Bogousslavsky et al. 2009]; never seek "recovered" memories.
Family members who think the client is "putting it on". With consent, offer joint psychoeducation; give consistent language from the care team.
Client fixated on the history. Acknowledge its meaning, then contract to give time to present goals.
Distress at historical images. Ask before showing any image; offer descriptions instead; never show images of named or identifiable patients for effect.
Suicidal crisis. Follow your risk protocol and safe-messaging principles; crisis resources: 988 (US), Samaritans 116 123 (UK and Ireland).
Medication questions. Refer to the prescriber; never advise starting, stopping or changing a medicine.
A provider offers staged or public hypnosis "treatment". Discuss risks of exposure and suggestion; do not refer; raise concerns through professional routes where clients are harmed (4.16).
Disclosure of abuse by a practitioner or of a child at risk. Follow safeguarding and mandatory reporting procedures in your jurisdiction; support the client through the process.

Sources

Web sources:

Works cited:

Charcot, J.-M. (1882). Sur les divers états nerveux déterminés par l'hypnotisation chez les hystériques. Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l'Académie des sciences, 94, 402-405 (as listed in the Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences 1997 reference list).
Bourneville, D.-M. and Regnard, P. (1876-1880). Iconographie photographique de la Salpêtrière: service de M. Charcot. Paris: Progrès médical / Delahaye.
Binet, A. and Féré, C. (1887). Le magnétisme animal. Paris: Alcan.
Babinski, J. (1909). Démembrement de l'hystérie traditionnelle (pithiatisme) (as listed in the Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences 1997 reference list).
Goetz, C. G., Bonduelle, M. and Gelfand, T. (1995). Charcot: Constructing Neurology [uncertain: not verified].

Cross-references: Domain VI 081 (clinical hypnosis), Domain VI 082 (Bernheim and the Nancy school), Domain XIV 081 (animal magnetism and the 1784 Royal Commission), Domain XVI 085 (recovered-memory therapy).

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