It was James Braid (1795-1860), a Scottish surgeon who coined the term and developed the procedure known as Hypnosis in 1842.The word Hypnosis came from the Greek word, 'Hypnos' who was the Greek God of Sleep. Braid attempted to use Hypnotism to treat various psychological and physical conditions. He had little success, other doctors had better results, especially in the use of hypnosis as a method of pain control; a report in 1842 described an amputation performed on a hypnotized participant without pain. The report was widely dismissed and there was resistance in the medical profession to hypnotism, but it did not end there for hypnosis.

James Esdaile (1805-1859) performed over 300 operations using hypnosis to control pain; this changed the use of chemical aesthetics used for this role.

The interest in the use Hypnotism was curbed following the deaths of Esdaile and Braid, but there was a revival in the 1880's mainly in continental Europe where new translations of Braid's work were circulated.                                                                                                     Jean-Martin Charcot (1825-1893), a neurologist, endorsed hypnotism for the treatment of hysteria. La méthode numérique, still more popular on the continent than in England, led to a number of systematic experimental examinations of hypnosis in Germany, Switzerland and France. The process of post-hypnotic suggestion was first described in this period. Extraordinary improvements in sensory acuity and memory were reported using hypnosis.

From the 1880’s the interest in hypnosis passed from doctors to mental health professionals. Charcot had led the way and a pupil of his, Pierre Janet, continued his studies. Janet described the theory of dissociation, the splitting of mental aspects using hypnosis (or hysteria) enabling skills and memory to be recovered or made inaccessible. Janet provoked a great interest in the subconscious and laid the framework for reintegration therapy for dissociated personalities.

Even Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) himself tried hypnosis with Charcot and was so impressed for a while that he used hypnosis in psychotherapy. He later stopped this method completely in favour of Free Association (which is to this day an effective method used in hypnosis) and his famous method of Psychoanalysis.