Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 September 1896 — Curing Kleptomania by Hypnotism. [ARTICLE]

Curing Kleptomania by Hypnotism.

Experiments made by Dr. Bertillon have proved that kleptomania is easily cured by hypnotic suggestion. According to a recent statement by the eminent French physician, the most striking characteristic of the disease in children is the automaton-like way they steal, and the fact that when questioned as to why they did it, invariably the reply is: “I don’t know; I couldn’t help it.” It appears as if the power of will to resist the impulse was totally absent, and for this reason coercive measures are nearly always useless, the impulse returning as soon as the coercion is removed. One of Dr. Bertillon’s recent patients was a youth of fifteen, belonging to an aristocratic family, who was in the habit of stealing on every possible occasion. The case was a particularly difficult one, but Dr. Bertillon began by rendering the lad’s arm rigid (by hypnotism) so that he was unable to take hold of the objects he wished to steal. Subsequently the usual course of suggestion was gone through, and a complete cure was effected. Similar success had attended the treatment of other cases of young kleptomaniacs. The system employed is one of mental gymnastics equivalent in a way to physical exercises. One of Dr. Bertillon’s most successful plans with children who steal money is thus described by himself: “The child being sufficiently under the hypnotic Influence I make him approach a table on which is lying a piece of money. ‘You see this coin?’ I say. ‘You want to take it? Well, take it if you like and put it in your pocket.’ He does so. Then I add: ‘That is what you always do, but you shall put back the coin where you took it from, and in future you shall always do the same. If it happens that you give way to temptation you shall feel ashamed at having stolen, and you shall put back the stolen object in its place.’ After a few repetitions of this mental gymnastics, executed under the influence of hypnotic suggestion, the child Is cured forever of his bad habit.”—PaV Mall Gazette.