James Braid

1795 - 1860

Surgeon and pioneer in the field of hypnosis. Braid was born in Fife and educated at the University of Edinburgh. He became a successful surgeon in Manchester (England). In 1841, he attended a demonstration of what was then called 'mesmerism', after Franz Anton Mesmer (1734 - 1815). Braid explored the use of the technique in pain relief during surgery, at a time when the use of anaesthetics was in its infancy. He found that some of his subjects would enter a hypnotic trance by simply fixing their eyes on a bright object, such as a pocket watch. In 1843, Braid was the first to use the term 'Neurohypnosis', which was later shortened to simply 'Hypnosis'.

Use the tabs on the right of this page to see other parts of this entry