If you know of something that should be on this list but isn't, please send your entry to John Kihlstrom. Entries not written by him are signed by their respective contributors.
The "Harry Bosch" Series by Michael
Connelly. Harry Bosch is a veteran detective in Los Angeles
who was among the last of those trained in hypnosis when LA was
training police to do hypnosis, a controversial project that was
terminated. However, Harry remembers his training, and in a few of
the novels there are discussions of the pros and cons of using
hypnosis in particular cases. One novel includes a hypnotic
interview, and another demonstrates that Harry is able to slip
yes-set and hypnotic patters into his interview style at times,
trying to avoid actual hypnosis. After first happening upon an
intelligent mention of hypnosis in one of his books, I read every
one of his novels and took notes -- the most enjoyable research I
have ever done. After many requests - all right, I begged and told
his people that I was confident Connelly had had contact with LA's
hypnosis-trained detectives -- I was able to get some questions to
Connelly and some answers in return. As a crime reporter, he knew
some of the hypnosis-trained detectives, almost all now retired.
It is not clear whether he studied transcripts or witnessed
demonstrations -- Connelly is very reticent and protective of his
sources -- but he acknowledged through his people that he had been
privy to discussions of hypnosis involving that cohort of
hypnosis-trained detectives. He appreciated my interest, but
declined a more extensive conversation. He explained that he makes
a point of never revisiting or discussing his old novels -- his
vision is always toward the current and the next project.
[RPK]
Hypnotism
in Victorian and Edwardian Era Fiction, 3 volumes (so far), edited
by Donald K. Hartman.
Death By Suggestion: An Anthology of 19th and Early 20th-Century Tales of Hypnotically Induced Murder, Suicide, and Accidental Death (2018) is the first volume in a series, " From the book's Amazon webpage: Death by Suggestion gathers together twenty-two short stories from the 19th and early 20th century where hypnotism is used to cause death -- either intentionally or by accident. Revenge is a motive for many of the stories, but this anthology also contains tales where characters die because they have a suicide wish, or they need to kill an abusive or unwanted spouse, or they just really enjoy inflicting pain on others. The book also includes an introduction which provides a brief history of hypnotism as well as a listing of real life cases where the use of hypnotism led to (or allegedly led to) death. Donald K. Hartman's Death by Suggestion is a melange of crime fiction featuring stabbings, clifftop suicides, hangings and the odd strangulation. Hartman offers an admirable introduction, exploring the history of hypnotism and defining the terms "mesmerism" and "hypnotism". He discusses the positive and negative applications of hypnotism today before looking at modern criminal cases as well as those well-reported cases relating to his selection of stories. Times Literary Supplement (01/15/2019).
The Hypno-Ripper: Or, Jack the Hypnotically Controlled Ripper; Containing Two Victorian Era Tales Dealing with Jack the Ripper and Hypnotism The two stories collected in this second volume of the series were published during the time of the Jack the Ripper killings, and they are among the earliest fictional accounts dealing with the Whitechapel murders. Both of these stories have Jack the Ripper being an American, who travelled from New York City to London to commit the murders, and the Ripper commits his crimes while under the influence of hypnotism. The first story, "The Whitechapel Mystery; A Psychological Problem ("Jack the Ripper")," is a novel authored by N. T. Oliver, and originally published in 1889 by the Eagle Publishing Company. The second story, "The Whitechapel Horrors", is a short tale, published anonymously in two American newspapers, shortly after the murder of Mary Jane Kelly in November 1888.Also included is a lengthy biographical profile on Edward Oliver Tilburn. N. T. Oliver was a pseudonym for the highly interesting Edward Oliver Tilburn. Besides being an author, Tilburn was a minister, actor, lecturer, secretary for several cities' Chambers of Commerce, snake-oil salesman, Christian psychologist, as well as an accused embezzler, shady real estate broker, and a self-proclaimed medical doctor.
Now comes Tales of Rafael Sabatini, the third volume. Sabatini was the author of a number of popular adventure novels, such as The Sea Hawk, Scaramouche, and Captain Blood, which were turned into blockbuster movies of the Golden Age of Hollywood starring the likes of Ramon Navarro and"The Avenger", from 1908, introduces Roger Galliphant, a physician and hypnotist who accidentally discovers that an acquaintance friend has used hypnosis to commit two murders (just another reason not to do public demonstrations of hypnosis!), and decides to use hypnosis to turn the tables on the perpetrator. Galliphant also makes a cameo appearance in "The Dream" (1912), in which a killer may have been influenced by hypnosis. DKH
A Hypnotic Suggestion (2009) by Allison Jones. The plot of this cozy murder mystery centers on a forensic hypnotherapist. Jones is the pen name of Madelaine Lawrence, a forensic hypnotherapist who has published another hypnosis-related mystery under her own name: Why Kill A Parapsychologist? (2011). In a third mystery, A Pocketful of $20s (2020), involves Dr. Susan Kemper, the hypnotherapist who appeared in the earlier books, helping to solve a case in which a woman may have stabbed and killed her husband. A sequel is in the planning stages. ML
The Hypnotist (2009,
2011) by Lars Kepler (2009, 2011). A boy, sole survivor (and
witness) of the killing of his family, is helped by a hypnotist to
cope with the trauma and recover his memories. "Lars Kepler"
is the pseudonym of the husband-and-wife writing team of Alexander
and Alexandra Coelho Ahndoril). Originally published in
Swedish in 2009, it was a best seller there. The American
edition, published in 2011, The Hypnotist made it to the New
York Times best-seller list on July 17, 2011 -- an unusual
accomplishment for a first-time author). RPK
La Horla by Guy de Maupassant: a man is victimized by posthypnotic suggestions that cause him to have unexplained anxiety attacks.
Litle Demon in the City of Light by
Steven Levington (2014). Recounts the 19th-century French
case of Gabrielle Bompard, who claimed that her participation in a
murder was coerced by hypnosis -- the author says it was one of
the first celebrity murder cases..
Mesmeric Revelation (1840), a short story by Edgar Allan Poe. A physician hypnotizes a dying patient, who reveals the secrets of the immaterial world. See also the play of that title by Aaron Henne.
Mesmerism, a poem by Robert Browning.
Mesmerized: How Ben Franklin solved a Mystery
that Baffled All of France, a children's book (ages
6-9) by Mara Rockliff, illustrated in Iacopo Bruno. Tells
the story of mesmer and the Franklin commission, illustrating the
scientific method and the virtues of empirical evidence over
reliance on authority.
Oscar Wilde and the Vampire Murders
(2011) by Gyles Brandreth. One of a series of mystery novels
involving Oscar Wilde and his circle, this one features a British
psychiatrist, a follower of Charcot, and some of Cahrcot's former
patients from the Salpetriere, now performing as "hysterics on the
stage". RPK
Sister Marthe by Charles Epheyre -- the pseudonym of Charles Richet, himself a prominent 19th-century hypnotist.
Trilby by George DuMaurier (1894). The granddaddy of all hypnosis fiction, set in the Paris of La Boheme. Trilby is an artists' model who is transformed into a singer by the hypnotist Svengali. Her career ends (and she herself dies) when Svengali dies and she is released from his power. The source of many "Svengali" movies -- and at least one play, written by du Maurier with Beerbohm Tree. Edward Purcell, in his essay on "Trilby and Trilby-Mania: The Beginning of the Best-Seller System" (1977), argues that Trilby -- well, inaugurated the best-seller system in publishing, not to mention an epidemic of "Trilby mania". See also Trilbyana: The Rise and Progress of a Popular Novel by Joseph and Jeanette Gilder (1895), which shows that the impact of Trilby was apparent immediately after its publication.
Link to a discussion of the Svengali myth, published in the Australian Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis in 1987.
Franz Anton Mesmer arrived in Paris from Vienna in 1778 and began to promote a new theory of "animal magnetism" with, Darnton argues "offered a serious explanation of Nature, of her wonderful, invisible foces, and even, in some cases, of the forces governing society and politics". Darnton shows how Mesmer's ideas proliferated through Parisian society. He argues that Mesmer's group of disciples, the Society of Universal Harmony, fostered an anticlericalism and bourgeois liberalism that fed into the radical politics leading to the French Revolution, and also contributed to the shift from the 18th-century Age of Enlightenment to the 19th-century Romantic Era.
Dickens and Mesmerism: The Hidden Springs of Fiction
(1975) by Fred Kaplan. Mesmer's theories (though not his
cures) were discredited by the French Royal Commission, but
mesmerism remained popular on the Continent and in England.
The mesmeric as an important intellectual and spiritual
movement. work and his personality. In so doing he describes
a significant intellectual and spiritual movement and provides new
and controversial insights into Dickens' fiction. Kaplan
shows how the mesmeric movement in England during the 1830s and
1840s shaped social attitudes and interactions, and fostered
Dickens's own self-image as a sort of doctor of the mind.
Parallel Lives: Five Victorian Marriages by Phyllis
Rose (1983). To support her case that marriage is "the
smallest political unit" ("the primary political experience in
which most of us engage as adults"), rife with power relations,
Rose presents short biographies of five famous Victorian couples:
Jane Welsh/Thomas Carlyle, Effie Gray/John Ruskin, Harriet
Taylor/John Stuart Mill, Catherine Hogarth/Charles Dickens, and
George Eliot/George Henry Lewes. It's a wonderful book,
especially if you want to reflect on your own marriage(s).
But she also begins her chapter on Hogarth and Dickens (the latter
"an early and enthusiastic practitioner of mesmerism") with a
vignette of the Carlyles attending in 1847 a demonstration of
mesmerism -- complete with catalepsy. The mesmerist (who was
not Dickens), offended Jane, who was nobody's fool, by both his
lower-class speech and his claim that mesmerists were morally and
intellectually superior to their subjects, defied him to magnetize
her: "[W]hat I doubt is whether anyone could be
reduced to that state without the consent of their own
volition". Quoting from the "Prelude" to Rose's
treatment of Dickens (based on Jane's 12/13/1847 letter to her
uncle):
So Mrs. Carlyle gave him her hand, and he made some passes over it, and she thought to herself, "You must learn to sound your A's, Sir, before you can produce any effect on a woman like me!" and then, to her horror, she felt her body seized from head to foot by a galvanic flash. Fortunately, she retained enough self-control to keep him from seeing state, thus disproving his theory of power through superiority. For had it not taken superiority to keep him from seeing her response? At the same time, it was disturbing to learn that her theory of the need for a consenting will was also nonsense.
Little Demon in the City of Light: A True Story of Murder
and Mesmerism in Belle Epoque Paris
(2014) by Steven Levingston. In 1898, a century after Mesmer
left Paris, the city was shocked by the Eyroud-Bompard murder
case, in which Michel Eyraud, an amateur hypnotist, allegedly used
hypnosis to coerce Gabrielle Bompard, who may have been his
mistress, to seduce Toussaint-Augustin Gouffe, a Paris bailiff and
well-known womanizer, who was later found murdered. The case
went to trial in 1899, at the time that Paris was hosting both a
World's Fair and the First International Congress of Hypnosis, and
major figures from the world of medical hypnosis, including
Charcot and Freud, attended the trial. The case was
discussed by Jean-Roch Laurence and Campbell Perry in Hypnosis,
Will, and Memory: A Psycho-Legal History (1988), and given
book-length treatment by Levingston, a journalist and editor at
the Washington Post. Richard P. Kluft, a
psychiatrist and prominent authority on hypnosis, in an extensive
review of the book in the American Journal of Clinical
Hypnosis (2021), suggests that Eyraud was the model for
Svengali in Daphne DuMaurier's Trilby, whose serial
publication began in 1894.
For a comprehensive discussion of hypnosis in film and television, see the following articles, from which much of this list is derived:
Barrett (2006) notes that many films employ hypnosis at a plot device to coerce individuals to commit a crime, or in the service of sexual seduction. Another large body of work depicts the use of hypnosis to recover memories or promote age-regression -- testimony to the extent and depth of this myth about hypnosis. |
Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein
(1948). Also Abbott & Costello Meet the Killer
(1949) and Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man
(1951). DB1
Abracadabra (Pablo Berger,
2017). A hypnotic comedy. HR
Agnes of God (1985). DB1
Allan Quartermain (1937). DB1
Anastasia -- The Story of Anna (1956). DB1
Audrey Rose (1977). DB1
Ein Ausgekochter Junge (1931). DB1
Augustine (Alice Winocur, 2013). Jean-Martin Charcot finally gets his movie. In this french film (English subtitles), the pioneering neurologist and psychiatrist (played by Vincent Lindon), on the erge of great discoveries concerning the nature of hysteria, but also struggling for financing with public demonstrations of his hysterical patients' symptoms, falls in love with Augustine, a new patient (played by Soko). Pierre Janet makes a cameo appearance. JFK
The Bells (1913). Remade in 1914, 1918, and 1926. DB1
Bewitched (1945). DB1
Bez Konca (1984). DB1
Big Trouble in Little China (1986) DB1
Black Magic (1949). DB1
Black Sunday (1961). DB1
Blind Alley (1939). DB1
Blink of an Eye (1991). DB1
Body of Influence (1992). DB1
The Bostonians (1984). Based on the Henry James novel. In one scene, Henry has a little fun at the expense of his brother William. DB1; JFK
Broadway Danny Rose (1984). DB1
Buford's Beach Bunnies (1993). DB1
Calling Dr. Death (1943). DB1
Carefree (1938). DB1
The Case of Becky (1921). DB1
Casino Royale (1967). DB1
Cat People (1943). DB1
Chandu the Magician (1932). DB1
Charlie Chan at Treasure Island (1939). Also Charlie Chan in Rio (1941) and Charlie Chan: Meeting at Midnight (1944). DB1
The Climax (1944). DB1
Coach (1978). DB1
Cold Turkey (1971). DB1
Condemned to Death (1932). DB1
Curse of the Jade Scorpion (2001). DB1
Cure (1999). DB1
Cult Rescue (1994). DB1
Dark Tower (1942). DB1
Daughter of the Dragon (1932). An entry in the "Fu Manchu" series. DB1
Dead Again (1991). DB1
Dead on Sight (1994). DB1
Deadly Lives of the Ninja (n.d.). DB1
Death Warmed Up (1985). DB1
The Devil Doll (1964). DB1
The Devil's Undead (1972). DB1
Don't Go Breaking My Heart (1999). DB1
Dick Tracy (1937). DB1
Dr. Mabuse, The Gambler (1922). Also Dr. Mabuse, The Testament (1932). DB1
Dracula (1931). Remade in 1979; also a Spanish version (1931). DB1
Dracula's Daughter (1936). DB1
Dying to Remember (1993). DB1
Divorce American Style (1967). DB1
The Element of Crime (1984). DB1
Eternally Yours (1939). DB1
Equus (1977). DB1
Escapement (1958). DB1
Europa (1991). Also titled Zentropa. DB1
The Exorcist II: The Heretic
(1977). DB1
Get Out (2017), directed by Jordan
Peel. "[T]he role of the "conversational" hypnotist Missy
Armitage is extremely well played by Catherine Keener. This is by
far the most realistic and accurate representation of trance work
I have ever seen on film, far away from the usual clichés... I
unfortunately do not know who advised the director Jordan Peele on
the matter, this being his first movie. The film was
recognized as one of the top 10 films of 2017 by the American Film
Institute." DM
Hypnotic (Matt angel, Suzanne Coote,
2021). A Netflix suspense film in which a software engineer meets
a hypnotherapist. JFK
Hypnotic (Robert Rodriguez,
2023). Ben Affleck plays a detective, haunted by the
kidnapping of his daughter, who encounters a group of "hypnotics",
who all dress in red blazers, and can control other people by
means of words and thoughts. Reviewed by Glenn Kenny in A
Twisty Thriller Sends Ben Affleck on the Run", New York Times,
05/13/2023. JFK
Hypnotik: The Seer Will Doctor You Now
(2011), a play by Colm O'Shea, Marie Glancy O'Shea, and Ildiko
Nemeth, received its premiere at the Theater for the New City in
2011-2012 (see the review by Jason Zinoman in the New York
Times, 01/02/2012). Set in the Weimar era (think Cabaret),
the play focuses on The Seer, a stage hypnotist who gets his
subjects to reveal their true selves. JFK
The Hypnotist (Lasse Hallstrom, 2012). A detective pairs himself with a famous psychologist on a case involving a traumatized young witness to a crime (IMDb database).
The Mad Genius (1932), a kind of
follow-up to the 1931 version of Svengali, directed
by Michael Curtiz with Marsh as a dancer and Barrymore as an
artist's promoter.
The Manchurian Candidate (John
Frankenheimer, 1962). An American
POW in the Korean War is brainwashed as an unwitting assassin
for an international Communist conspiracy [ IMDB]. A
great movie, based on the novel by Richard Condon, starring
Frank Sinatra in one of his best roles (also Jennifer Leigh,
Lawrence Harvey, and Angela Lansbury as a mother from
Hell. Remade in 2004 by Jonathan Demme, with the setting
moved to Iraq, starring Denzel Washington, Liev Schreiber, and
Meryl Streep in the Angela Lansbury role. See also the
Search for the Manchurian Candidate (1978) by John D.
Marks, an investigative reporter (and brother of UCLA
psychologist Patricia Marks Greenfield) who was among the first
to expose research sponsored by the CIA to defend against
Manchurian Candidates -- or perhaps create our own.
Maurice (2012), by Roger Parsley and Andy Graham, adapted from the E.M. Forster novel. Set in Edwardian England, Maurice (pronounced Morris) is a closeted, distressed gay man who at one point consults a therapist who tries hypnosis to cure him of his condition. Premiered by the New Conservatory Theater Center in San Francisco. JFK
Mesmer (1994). [SP]
'Mesmeric
Revelation...'(2012) By Aaron Henne,
inspired by the story by Edgar Allan Poe (see above), Franz
Antoine Mesmer confronts Antoine Lavoisier, representing the
French Royal Commission. Who's the scientist, and who's the
fraud? Premiered by the Central Works theater company in Berkeley,
California. JFK
Ritual: A Psychomagic Story (Alejandro Jodorowsky, 2013. An erotic thriller. HR
Svengali. The granddaddy of all hypnosis movies. Based on the novel Trilby by George du Maurier. There have been at least five filmed versions of the Trilby-Svengali story:
Svengali (1911), an early silent film. And another silent from 1914. DB1
Svengali (1922), a silent film directed by Richard Tully.
Svengali (1931), the classic, directed by Archie Mayo and starring John Barrymore and Marian Marsh.
The Mad Genius (1932), a kind of follow-up, directed by Michael Curtiz with Marsh as a dancer and Barrymore as an artist's promoter.
Svengali (1955), directed by Noel Langley, with hildegard Neff as an actress and Donald Wolfit as a teacher.
Svengali (1983), made for television, with Jodie Foster as a rock singer and Peter O'Toole as a washed-up musician who takes her under his wing.
The novel was first rendered as a play in 1895 by du Maurier himself, in collaboration with Beerbohm Tree; that same year, another version by Paul Potter, was a hit on Broadway (New York Times, 04/16/1895). JFK
Link to a discussion of the Svengali myth, published in the Australian Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis in 1987.
Trance (2013). An employee at an art-auction house helps steal a Goya painting, hides it, and then receives a concussive blow to the head when renders him amnesic. A hypnotherapist is brought in to help him recover his memory. JFK
The Woman in Green starring Basil Rathbone as Holmes, Nigel Bruce as Watson, and Henry Daniel as Professor Moriarty. The plot is built around hypnosis, and Holmes solves the crime by pretending to be in a deep hypnotic trance. [DE]
Zentropa (1991). Also titled Europa. DB1
Additional Contributors |
||
| Dierdre Barrett | ||
| Dabney Ewin | ||
| Richard P. Kluft | ||
| Donald K. Hartman |
||
| Madelaine Lawrence | ||
| Denis Mirlesse | ||
| Stephen Pauker | ||
| Heinz Ruegg |
||
This page last updated 12/30/2023.
