James Braid (surgeon)

James Braid (1795 to 1860) was a Scottish surgeon, natural philosopher and so-called gentleman scientist. As a surgeon he introduced new approaches to the treatment of clubfoot, spinal curvature, knock-knees, bandy legs and squint, and he is remembered above all as an early and influential investigator of hypnotism and hypnotherapy. He also helped to bring both hypnotic anaesthesia and chemical anaesthesia into medical use. Some writers, such as William S. Kroger, call him the Father of Modern Hypnotism, but Andre Muller Weitzenhoffer urges real caution about assuming that Braid's hypnotism is the same thing as the hypnosis practised in the twentieth century. Braid himself, as quoted by John Milne Bramwell, saw hypnotic suggestion as a useful remedy for functional nervous disorders but not as a rival to other treatment, and he would not separate its practice from medicine in general. His record is therefore one of disputed lineage and careful claims.