Describe the debate that occurred between members of the Nancy school and Charcot and his colleagues over hypnotizability. Who finally won the debate?
Charcot strictly discouraged the malingering theory for hysteria. He proposed the hysteria as a real disease. He followed the medical model to identify the hysteria as real illness. He concluded the cause of hysteria as the neurological degeneration, which can be associated with hereditary. According to him, hysteria is a process, which is progressive as well as irreversible in nature. He called his theory on hysteria and the hypnotism as the theory of the suggestibility.
He concluded the resemblance between the symptoms of the hypnosis and the hysteria. He defined the hysteria as predisposition of the hypnotizability. He believed that only patients with hysteria could be subjected for hypnotism. Charcot’s theory on hypnotizability got disapproved by the members of the Nancy school. They proposed the definition of the hypnotizability as the symptom associated with mental pathology, whereas Charcot considered the condition of the hypnotizability as normal.
Debate between the Charcot and the members of the Nancy school was heated so much and it got lasted for many years. By the end of the life of Charcot, he accepted the wrongness of his suggestibility theory and the debate was won by the members of the Nancy school, their theory got accepted universally.