Hypnosis in Cancer Patients: Can We Do Better?

There is an official history of hypnotism: very often it begins with the Scottish surgeon James Braid (1795-1860) who was one of the first physicians to have used this word in 1843. Instead of using the standard magnetic induction popularized by magnetism/mesmerism1, he proposed his subjects to stare steadily at a shiny object to enter a trance. He tested his method to anesthetize his patients during surgeries (Braid, 1843). The practice of hypnosis, using deliberate techniques to help focus attention, is recent, but trance states have always been part of the human experience. Many kinds of trance phenomena are observed in shamanism, fakirism, witchcraft, and religion but also in psychopathology. After remaining an inglorious stage practice in western countries, hypnosis has begun to gain relevance in