Pierre Janet (1858- 1947)

ALONG WITH HIS COLLEGUES
at The Salpêtrière School in Paris, viewed Hypnosis as being an artificially induced state of hysteria and was therefore a physiological phenomenon.   He considered hysteria to be an inherited physiological deficiency of binding nervous energy which at that time had been hypothesized as being necessary in order to bind all the neural processes and their associated mental functions into one unified whole, (or normal individual personality).
      Unfortunately, these observations and train of thought, led to developing the conviction that

"... One's hypnotizability is demonstrative of a pathological trait! ..."

   Since it gave evidence of a weak mental integration of the personality secondary to an insufficient quantity of binding nervous energy!    Hence, normal people were not suggestible and could not be hypnotized!

      The ability to be hypnotized, however, is not a reliable correlate for specific personality traits.   Recent research has revealed that virtually all people enter a spontaneous, informal trance state, at one time or another.   There is evidence however, that intelligent people do better as hypnotic subjects than their less intelligent counterparts.   This is also true of those individuals who are Right Hemisphere Dominant!