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Approved For Release 2003/09/10 : CIA-RDP96-00788R001300020001-6 (RCL ASSTET ST-CS-01-169-72 July 1972 PART III _MENTAL SUGGESTION AND CONTROLLED BEHAVIOR SECTION I - HYPNOSIS PART A — The Use of Hypnosis in Medicine - USSR 1. (U) In the latter half of the nineteenth century, many French and German researchers began to use hypnosis as a therapeutic aid and to study the way in which it worked. In the Soviet Union, pioneer work in hypnosis was undertaken by V. Danilyevski, A. Tokarski, and V. Bekhterev (see Part II, Section IV). 2. (U) V. Danilyevski discovered that the major characteristics . shown by man in a state of hypnosis, such as lower sensitivity, HaeH ; “wax-like" flexibility of muscles and joints, and suppressed wey movements, were also typical of animals in a similar state. This Hed! led him to assert that hypnosis in man was identical in nature to hypnosis in animals. A. Tokarski proved that hypnosis and suggestion, like other psychical phenomena were determined entirely by the influence of the environment on man. He wholeheartedly supported the view that hypnosis was an effective treatment for a wide variety of disorders. V. Bekhterev applied hypnosis widely for treatment. He maintained that verbal suggestion played a big role in developing a state of hypnotic sleep; physical stimuli merely facilitated the achievement of this state. I. Pavlov advanced a scientifically based theory of the nature of hypnosis and its potential use as a method of treatment. In 1935 he described hypnosis as "the standard method in the physiological struggle against the pathogenic agent." Pavlov's school gave experimental support to the view that hypnosis was a specific variety of sleep, long before that view had been arrived at empirically. This view had already been advanced in the last century by most doctors and scientists who were concerned with the theory of hypnosis and its application to therapeutic practice. On the basis of experiments on animals and later on humans, the phasic suppression theory developed into a firm physiological foundation for under- standing hypnosis and suggestion and the way in which they work. The theory held that hypnotic sleep is a transitional stage between wakefulness and sleep and that there is an active "watch" point in the cerebral cortex of both hemispheres (rapport). 3. (U) The three generally recognized stages of hypnosis are sleepiness, hypotaxia, and somnambulism or, respectively, light, medium and deep hypnosis. At the first stage of hypnosis, the 41 IRICLASSIFIEN Approved For Release 2003/09/10 : CIA-RDP96-00788R001300020001-6