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joshua-gray-b2b2-jekyll-and-hyde · 8 years ago

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Final Draft of Essay

An exploration on how animation could be used to explore the themes of Repression and Symbolism in a short story drawing inspiration from Jekyll and Hyde

The incident in the white room

“Imagine a white room” the voice encourages. “Think of nothing else, only the room, let everything else melt away.” I clear my mind but it feels as if there is a shadow looming over me as I try to conjure the view of this white room in my mind’s eye. “Breathe.” the voice draws my attention. “Slowly now, good, in and out.” the becomes more captivating as time goes on. “Let go of everything, as if you are drifting away” the voice tells me. My body starts to tingle and I panic as this sensation crawls up my chest. “Good, keep still now” the voice reassures. “Breathe in, breathe out.” the voice has me ensnared. “Now find yourself in the white room”. feel as light as a feather floating away from my body, then suddenly I am drawn towards a dazzling light.

I open my eyes, and yet at the same time I know I have not. A shiver runs through me that does not register in my body. “What an odd sensation” I think to myself. All around me is a sea of white, not a single thing to be seen. “Think of somewhere familiar and imagine yourself there” the voice emerges, soundless but I know the words have been said. I turn around find myself in my laboratory as it once was, light gleaming through the polished cupola, the room busy with boxes and apparatus, feelings of invention and exploration in the air. “What do you see” the voice asks. “I am in my laboratory as fresh as the day I had first re-purposed it” another voice answers. Mine, but I have said nothing. I continue through the theatre, “It’s all so perfect, everything as it should be” I think, happiness flooding me.

I notice the door to my office; a comforting sight for the first time in months, I ponder how long it had been since I last enjoyed a visit here. “I see a door” my voice states. “Open it.” I brazenly step into the room and take in the surroundings, light spilling in from the windows overlooking the greenery of the court. My focus settles on the cheval glass. I peer into it, marking my features for I look as I once did, back before any of this business started, before the sleepless nights I have suffered. As if following my thoughts the image distorts until suddenly he is there looking back at me, smirking, taunting me with his gaze.

Fear grips me and I jump back, throwing my arms for protection. The room changed around me, fog creeping in through windows now barred, the only light coming from the crackling embers of the hearth, shadows dancing in the darkness. “He is here, the man I must forget” my voice monotonous with no trace of the fear that chills me down to the marrow. “Leave the room.” the voice commands. I sprint from the room into the laboratory, now dark and dingy, fog permeating the very walls thick and heavy, suffocating. “Close the door.” the voice says. I enthusiastically oblige it, slamming the door with all my might. “You hold the key in your hand, lock it!” A key appears in my hand out of nothing, and I force it into the tumblers, screeching as I turn the lock until it finally catches.

I hear something slam into the door, but it remains closed. Locked away. I am safe. The fog recedes as panic drains out of me.”It is done” my voice states. “Good, good, now… Awaken!” the voice commands.

Introduction

This essay will explore how a fictional short-story inspired by an original text would be animated to represent the key themes explored within the text. For the purpose of the essay the short story was based on the novella “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mister Hyde”(1886) by Robert Louis Stevenson with focus on the themes and symbolism of pathetic fallacy and dreams.

Pathetic Fallacy is “a literary device wherein the author attributes human emotions and traits to nature or inanimate objects.” (Oxford Royale Academy, 2014) throughout the novella Stevenson confers human characteristics to the weather; most notably through the use of the fog/mist to help set tone for a scene. The short story uses the fog to convey the persistence and oppressive nature of the pursuer he wishes to repress.

Dreams are defined as “a succession of images, thoughts, or emotions passing through the mind during sleep.” (Oxford Dictionary, 2017) Dreams play a key role in the original novella and the short-story; the novella was influenced largely by a dream that the author had, and the extensive use and symbolism of dreams within the source text provided inspiration for the short-story.

The essay will explore animation techniques and styles that could be used to best explore these three core themes and propose ideas of how particular scenes in the short-story could be animated.

Contextualisation

The novella was released in 1886, a time of misinformation in which practical science was commonly mixed with the occult, “What is relevant in history is not whether they happened, but whether they could happen in Victorian eyes.” (Winter, 2000, pg 11)

Victorian social ideals set the precedent that the most trusted source of information would come from the most upstanding members of Victorian society, regardless of their credibility. These elements of Victorian society are represented in the novella by how Jekyll's techniques blur the lines between science and occultism and yet the novel treats Jekyll’s letters as a believable turn of events; expecting the reader to believe Jekyll’s claims in part because of his social standing as a respectable gentleman.

Mesmerism was one of the most prevalent of these occult-driven pseudo-sciences to come out of the Victorian era. “Mesmerism [can be treated] as a prior incarnation of psychoanalysis, [bridging the gap in history between] Mesmer and Freud.” (Winter, 2000, pg 10) This idea of mesmerism being used as a form of psychoanalysis formed the key inspiration for my response to the novella. Further research into mesmerism found that it can be defined as “a fragile set of practises whose meaning was very much up for grabs. As for the phenomena these practices produced… [they are best described as] …an “altered state” of mind to that of a state of lucid “unconsciousness.” (Winter, 2000, pg 10) The ambiguity of mesmerism and its utilisation of hypnotic and manipulative techniques played into the themes of Jekyll and Hyde; the idea that a particular potion or substance could bring about a drastic change in a person was in keeping with the pseudo-scientific beliefs of the day. This state of lucid unconsciousness is what I further went on to expand upon in my short story, having the entirety of the narrative take place in such a state.

Mesmerism is regarded as a stepping-stone for modern hypnotism; an application of scientific method to what was at the time occultist pseudo-science. Some modern hypnotic therapy techniques (Brann, 2015) require you to initially envision yourself within a “white” space before filling said space with a familiar location that is relevant to the therapy, for this reason quotes from the text referring to Jekyll’s laboratory were used as reference points for the writing of the short story. This helped to convey the sense of mesmerism that is in keeping with the general style of the original work whilst allowing for a more believable induction process in the short story.

Animation

The short story was written with the intention of it being an extract from an unwritten chapter of the narrative from the POV of Jekyll, with this in mind when thinking of animating said sequence it should be assumed that this story is just a “scene” in a larger animation. When writing this story I imagined that the over-arching animation style present would be animated in the format of 2D digital, taking inspiration from the style and colour pallet of Victorian London from 1997’s “A Christmas Carol”, whilst taking a darker direction focusing on a desaturated and grimey industrial era aesthetic.

The first paragraph of the short story begins with the imagining of a white room; the animation of this scene would start shortly before this suggestion, inducing Jekyll into a lucid state before asking him to “Imagine a white room”. When animating this hypnosis scene there would be cuts between the faces of the hypnotist and Jekyll whilst the suggestion was taking place, similar to the hypnosis sequence found in the movie “Mr. Nobody” (2009), although in this sequence the cuts back and forth are merged with intermittent flashbacks, whereas in my animation I would want the cuts to build up to a point in which Jekyll slumps back into his seat, cutting to a POV shot of his eyelids closing over a blurry scene.

The last sentence of the first paragraph, “feel as light as a feather floating away from my body, then suddenly I am drawn towards a dazzling light.” , is the point at which there would be a shift in style to a much more fluid “hand-drawn” aesthetic similar to the time travel sequences found in the “Your Name” (2016), having an ethereal form exit Jekyll’s body and float away, leaving the rest of the scene behind before fading to a white space, similarly to the sequence in “Howl’s Moving Castle” (2004) in which one of the characters runs through a magic portal and is transported to a space full of black before coming to a new room.

The white room is to be a homage to the “construct” scenes found in 1999’s “The Matrix”, Jekyll finding himself in a “sea of white, not a single thing to be seen.”, similar to how Neo finds himself in an expansive white space. I would also take reference from how the Matrix uses camera pans to reveal things that were previously not there for the scene in which Jekyll turns around and finds himself in his “laboratory as it once was”.

The aesthetic of the animation would become more vibrant and exuberant at this point emphasising the “happy” tone of this segment of the short story, and giving the animation an “other-worldly” sense similar to the “dream” sequences from “Sucker Punch”. (2011) This visual style would last up until when Jekyll is looking into the distorting cheval glass, rippling in a fluid motion, and Hyde looks back at him. From this point the scene would undergo an almost nightmarish transition, taking inspiration from the janitor scene in the movie “Silent Hill” (2006) in which the walls start to rot and decay away, the scene around Jekyll would start to slowly degrade around him, getting darker as fog creeps “in through windows now barred, the only light coming from the crackling embers of the hearth, shadows dancing in the darkness.”.

The awakening scene at the end of the short story would be followed by a cut to black in my animation, then the next scene would revert back to the initial style described at the start, and events would carry on from Jekyll's next day, skipping over any further events happening after the therapy.

Conclusion

The grimier and desaturated art-style would be chosen to help convey the time period; helping to establish the time period, customs and culture of the fiction being depicted. This would lure the audience into a more receptive mindset as their suspension of disbelief would line up with common cliches of that time period; mesmerism, occultism and pseudo-science.

The change in styles for the animation are being utilised to highlight the transition from the conscious into the sub-conscious; emphasising the POV character’s descent into his own mind and establishing this new setting as one that does not follow conventional rules of reality, feeding into the overarching themes of occultism and dreams.

2D animation is less restrictive in terms of style; it is easier to transition from one style to the next, which is why the short-story would be animated using this particular style rather than 3D or CGI.

The focus of the animation would be utilising colour pallette and art-style to set the tone and time-frame for the audience of the piece as well as contrasting animation and art-styles to emphasise the transition from the conscious world to the sub-conscious one in a way that evokes the time periods pre-disposition towards occultism.

Reference List:

- A Christmas Carol (1997) Directed by S. Phillips [DVD]. Los Angeles: 20th Century Fox

- Brann, L. (2015) The Handbook of Contemporary Clinical Hypnosis: Theory and Practice. John Wiley & Sons.

- Howl’s Moving Castle (2004) Directed by Hayao Miyazaki [DVD]. Tokyo: Toho

- Mr. Nobody (2009) Directed by Jaco Van Dormael [DVD]. Berlin: Wild Bunch

- Oxford Dictionary (2017) Definition of Repression in English. Available at: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/repression (Accessed: 17/02/17)

- Oxford Royale Academy (2014) 14 Literary Terms and Techniques to Deepen your Understanding of English. Available at: https://www.oxford-royale.co.uk/articles/literary-terms-english.html (Accessed: 17/02/17)

- Silent Hill (2006) Directed by Christophe Gans [DVD]. Culver City: Tristar

- Stevenson, R., L. (1886) Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Harvard: C. Scribner’s Sons.

- Sucker Punch (2011) Directed by Zack Snyder [DVD]. Los Angeles: Warner Brothers Inc.

- The Matrix (1999) Directed by A. and L. Wachowski [DVD]. Los Angeles: Warner Brothers Inc.

- Victorian Era (2017) Sexual Repression in the Victorian Era. Available at: http://www.victorian-era.org/sexual-repression-in-the-victorian-era.html (Accessed: 17/02/17)

- Winter, A. (2000) Mesmerized: Powers of Mind in Victorian Britain. Chicago: University of Chicago Press

- Your Name (2016) Directed by Makoto Shinkai [DVD]. Tokyo: Toho

Overall I am happy with how this essay conveys my understanding of how/why I wrote my essay in relevance to animation.

I feel that there is a slight shift in tone between the contextualisation and the animation paragraphs, I feel that this is due to me shifting my mindset from a more factually based clinical one to an expressive one. I don’t feel like it throws off the overall flow of the paper.

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joshua-gray-b2b2-jekyll-and-hyde · 8 years ago

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First Draft on Analysis

Introduction

Repression is defined as “the restraint, prevention, or inhibition of a feeling, quality, or thought.” In the original text repression plays an important role in the progression of the story; Jekyll’s desire to repress and then later his inability to completely repress his true nature is what allows Hyde to take control initially, the short story building on this with the POV character actively seeking out a means to fully repress the man that haunts him.

Pathetic Fallacy is “a literary device wherein the author attributes human emotions and traits to nature or inanimate objects.” throughout the novella Stevenson confers human characteristics to the weather; most notably through the use of the fog/mist to help set tone for a scene. The short story uses the fog to convey the persistence and oppressive nature of the pursuer he wishes to repress.

Dreams are defined as “a succession of images, thoughts, or emotions passing through the mind during sleep.” Dreams play a key role in the original novella and the short-story; the novella was influenced largely by a dream that the author had, and the extensive use and symbolism of dreams within the source text provided inspiration for the short-story.

The essay will explore animation techniques and styles that could be used to best explore these three core themes and propose ideas of how particular scenes in the short-story could be animated.

Contextualisation

A dominant aspect of Victorian society was the belief that sexual desires of any sort were if not unhealthy at least sinful; “Though men, too, were pushed to control their natural instincts, they were considered too weak to control them, this led to a flourishing prostitution business.” (Victorian Era, 2017). This theme of sexual repression due to the Victorian social construct is alluded to in the novella. Jekyll created the potions with the intention to indulge in pleasures that he “regarded and hid them with almost a morbid sense of shame” (Stevenson,1886, pg 67). It is never directly made clear what these pleasure are, but it can be inferred that they are of a sexual nature. It is the repression of Jekyll’s desires that leads him to create the potions in the first place as an outlet for his own fantasies that starts the events of the novella and his inability to repress his desires is what leads to Hyde eventually taking full control of his body; the short-story provides a possible means which Jekyll pursued in order to further repress his desires and by extension Hyde.

Animation

The short story was written with the intention of it being an extract from an “extra” chapter of the narrative of the novella that is from the POV of Jekyll, with this in mind when thinking of animating said sequence it should be assumed that this story is just a “scene” in a larger animation. When writing this story I imagined that the over-arching animation that this story is present in would be animated in the format of 2D digital, taking inspiration from the style and colour pallet of the representation of Victorian London from 1997’s “A Christmas Carol”, whilst taking a darker direction focusing on a more dark and grimey industrial era aesthetic.

The first paragraph of the short story begins with the hypnotic suggestion to imagine a white room, again as this story is written with the intention of being part of a larger narrative the animation of this scene would start shortly before this suggestion, inducing Jekyll into a lucid state before asking him to “Imagine a white room”. When animating this hypnosis scene I would want to cut between the faces hypnotist and Jekyll whilst the suggestion was taking place, similar to the hypnosis sequence found in the movie “Mr. Nobody” (2009), although in this sequence the cuts back and forth are merged with intermittent flashbacks, whereas in my animation I would want the cuts to build up to a point in which Jekyll slumps back into his seat, as he does the camera cutting to a POV shot of his eyelids closing over a blurry scene.

The last sentence of the first paragraph, “feel as light as a feather floating away from my body, then suddenly I am drawn towards a dazzling light.” , is the point at which in my animation I would choose to shift style to a much more free and loose “hand-drawn” aesthetic similar to the time travel sequences found in the “Your Name” (2016), having an ethereal form exit Jekyll’s body and float away, leaving the rest of the scene behind before fading to a white space, similarly to the sequence in “Howl’s Moving Castle” (2004) in which one of the characters runs through a magic portal and is transported to a space full of black before coming to a new room.

I envisioned the the white room to be in homage to the “construct” scenes found in 1999’s “The Matrix”, Jekyll finding himself in a “sea of white, not a single thing to be seen.”, similar to how Neo finds himself in an expansive white space. I would also take reference from how the Matrix uses camera pans to reveal things that were previously not there for the scene in which Jekyll turns around and finds himself in his “laboratory as it once was”.

The aesthetic of the animation would become more vibrant and exuberant at this point emphasising the “happy” tone of this segment of the short story, and giving the animation an “other-worldly” sense similar to the “dream” sequences from “Sucker Punch”. (2011) This visual style would last up until the point at which Jekyll is looking into the cheval glass and it distorts, rippling in a fluid motion, and Hyde looks back at him. From this point the scene would undergo an almost nightmarish change, taking inspiration from the janitor scene in the movie “Silent Hill” (2006) in which the walls start to rot and decay away, the scene around Jekyll would start to slowly degrade around him, getting darker as fog creeps “in through windows now barred, the only light coming from the crackling embers of the hearth, shadows dancing in the darkness.”.

I did not write my conclusion because at this point I am again over the word count for this section of the Essay.

As I move into my next draft I will have to cut some information to bring me back under, I am looking towards cutting information on the contextualisation of repression as it is something that I do not discuss later in the animation section.

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joshua-gray-b2b2-jekyll-and-hyde · 8 years ago

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Second Draft of Story

“The incident in the white room”

This iteration of the short story is in essence the same narrative as before with a few of the unnecessary lines cut and the overall length trimmed down as much as possible without effecting the overall impact of the narrative.

I am happy to move forward with my analysis of the short story as it is now, I do not think I could improve it much further without once again going over the word count.

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joshua-gray-b2b2-jekyll-and-hyde · 8 years ago

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Feedback From Session

After taking my first draft in to discuss with Lindsey, the first point she mentioned was the length of the story. It currently reaches around 700 words, which is 200 words over the word count.

That being said, she thought the overall structure of the narrative with solid and that the narrative itself was engaging and gripping. Some lines that are essentially “fluff” can be easily removed to help lower my word count without harming the effect of the overall narrative. She mentioned that the limit is 550 words at most for the story so I need to get it under that point, but otherwise try to keep the structure as similar as possible, as the narrative beats happen at the correct points.

She did also mention that without the context that I gave after she had initially read it the narrative was hard to grasp, but she mentioned that it also gives the narrative charm and invites the reader to go back and read over it again to confirm what they have just read.

She seemed to think that the context of the narrative was sound, noting that whilst it may not have been entirely possible at the time of the novella, I am writing a “speculative fiction” of the novella, therefore I am free to do what I want with it.

I am happy to move forward with the proposed changes and Intend to start on my first draft of the analysis next week.

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joshua-gray-b2b2-jekyll-and-hyde · 8 years ago

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Animation Reference for Essay

youtube

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joshua-gray-b2b2-jekyll-and-hyde · 8 years ago

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Film Reference for Essay

youtube

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joshua-gray-b2b2-jekyll-and-hyde · 8 years ago

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First Draft of Story

“The incident in the white room”

“Imagine a white room” the voice encourages. “Think of nothing else, only the room, let everything else melt away.” I do my best to clear my mind but it feels as if there is a shadow looming over me, something on the edge of my vision as I try to conjure up the view of this white room in my mind’s eye. “Breathe in.” the voice draws my attention. “Slowly now, good, in and out.” the voice seems more and more capturing as time goes on. “Let go of everything, feel as if you are drifting away” the voice tells me. My body starts to tingle and I feel as if I am bubbling away like one of my experiments, slowly dissolving into nothingness. Panic begins to form in me as this sensation crawls up my chest. “Good good, keep still now” the voice reassures. “Breathe in, breathe out.” the voice has me ensnared. “Now find yourself in the white room”. With these final words I am encaptured, enslaved to do as the voice commands. I feel as I am light as a feather floating away from my body, then suddenly I am drawn towards a dazzling light.

I open my eyes, and yet at the same time I know I have not. A shiver runs through me that does not register in my body. “What an odd sensation” I think to myself. All around me is a sea of white, not a single thing to be seen. “Think of somewhere familiar and imagine yourself there” the voice emerges, soundless but yet I know the words have been said. I turn around and suddenly I am in my laboratory as it once was, light gleaming through the polished cupola, the room busy with boxes and apparatus, feelings of invention and exploration in the air. “Tell me what you can see” the voice asks. “I am in my laboratory as fresh as the day I had first re-purposed it” another voice answers. My voice, but yet I have said nothing. I continue through the theatre, “It’s all so perfect, everything as it should be” I think, happiness flooding over me, threatening to drown me in its embrace.

I notice the door to my office, the red baize a comforting sight for the first time in months. Wandering over I ponder how long it had been since I last enjoyed a visit here. “I see a door” my voice states. “Open it” the voice suggests. I brazenly step into the room and take in the surroundings, light spilling in from the windows overlooking the greenery of the court. My focus settles on the cheval glass. I peer into it, marking my features for I look as I once did, back before any of this business started, no trace of the sleepless nights I have suffered. As if following my thoughts the image ripples and distorts until suddenly he is there looking back at me, smirking, taunting me with his gaze.

Fear grips me and I jump back, throwing my arms for protection. The room has changed around me, fog creeping in through the windows now barred with iron, the only light coming from the crackling embers of the hearth, shadows dancing in the darkness. “He is here, the man I must forget” my voice drones on, monotone with no trace of the fear that chills me down to the marrow. “Leave the room.” the voice commands. I all but sprint out of the room into the laboratory, now dark and dingy fog permeating the very walls, thick and heavy, threatening to suffocate me. “Close the door.” the voice says. I am more than happy to oblige it, slamming the door with all my might. “You hold the key in your hand, now lock it!” A key appears in my hand out of nothing, and I force it into the tumblers, screeching as I twist I turn the lock until it finally catches.

I aimed for a slightly Stevenson-esq tone when writing this, something that I don’t feel I have fully achieved, but I don’t think I could have pushed it any further without going massively further over the word count than I already am.

At around 700 words, I think I am going to give up on the Stevenson tone in the next iteration and focus on creating a more concise version of events.

There are a few awkward lines in this draft that I feel need to be re-worked or removed, such as “My body starts to tingle and I feel as if I am bubbling away like one of my experiments, slowly dissolving into nothingness.”.

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joshua-gray-b2b2-jekyll-and-hyde · 8 years ago

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Contextual Research

Sigmund Freud, known as the founding father of modern psychoanalysis, set up his clinical practice in Vienna, 1886, the same year that the novella was published. (BBC History, 2014) Therefore I feel my take on the narrative does also combine some level of reality in the sense that It could have happened, even though it would have been highly unlikely.

Mesmerism was popularised by Franz Friedrich Anton Mesmer (Goldsmith, 1943) and found incredible popularity in London during the Victorian Era, it was the predecessor to modern day Hypnosis, and very little was truly understood as to how it worked. "Magnetizers” (practitioners of mesmerism) of the time thought that there was a natural energetic transference that occurred between all animated and inanimate objects known as animal magnetism (Crabtree,1988), and this force was what they controlled to get their subjects to preform certain tasks.

In 1843 the Scottish physician James Braid (Kroger, 2009) was an important and influential pioneer of hypnotism and hypnotherapy. He is regarded by many as the first genuine "hypnotherapist" and the "Father of Modern Hypnotism"

He was inspired by the stage demonstrations of animal magnetism in Manchester by Charles Lafontaine on November 13, 1841 to pursue the study of what came to be known as hypnotism. (Yeates, 2013)

He proposed the term “Neurohypnology” in Febuary 1842 (TMG, 1842), for a technique derived from animal magnetism; this was then refined to what we now know today as Hypnotism, and this is now considered the usual meaning of mesmerism.

Braid was the first to use the terms hypnotism, hypnotise and hypnotist in English, derived from the terms hypnotique, hypnotisme, hypnotiste coined by the French magnetist Baron Etienne Félix d'Henin de Cuvillers (1755–1841) at least as early as 1820.

Braid, was the first person to use "hypnotism" in its modern sense (Kroger, 2009), referring to a "psycho-physiological" theory rather than the "occult" theories of the magnetists.

References:

-BBC History (2014) Sigmund Freud Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/freud_sigmund.shtml (Accessed: 06/02/17)

-Crabtree, A. (1988) Animal magnetism, early hypnotism, and psychical research, 1766-1925: an annotated bibliography. Kraus International Publications.

-Goldsmith, M., L. (1943) Franz Anton Mesmer: A History of Mesmerism. Doubleday, Doran, Incorporated.

-Kroger, W.S. (2009) The Practice of Hypnotism. Robertson.

-Stevenson, R., L. (1886) Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Harvard: C. Scribner's Sons.

-TMG (1842) "Mr. Braid’s Lecture on Neurypnology" , The Manchester Guardian , 16 March 1842, p.4

-Yeates, L.B. (2013) James Braid: Surgeon, Gentleman Scientist, and Hypnotist, Ph.D. Dissertation, School of History and Philosophy of Science, Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences, University of New South Wales. 2013

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joshua-gray-b2b2-jekyll-and-hyde · 8 years ago

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Research into Hypnotic Psychoanalysis - “Control Room Hypnosis”

There are many different versions of this technique, but all seem to reference a “control room” in which the subject is told to visualise a space that reflects themselves and their lives from which they can regulate their lives.

“The client is guided by the hypnotherapist to identify specific controls and to make adjustments to them, always for their own greater good. Sometimes the therapist may give direct instruction about the shape, size and type of controls to be found; other therapists encourage the client to interact, asking them to describe shape, size, colour etc and to give feedback. In this scenario the client has the control and the types of equipment described may reflect their life experience e.g. someone with an engineering background may have wheels, cogs and pulleys; a young person may have gaming consoles or computer pads etc, but each client is unique.” (Stagg, 2015)

Control Room Technique (Biggs, Vile, 2006) :

Computer Technique (Brann, 2015) :

White Room Metaphor (Brann, 2015) :

In clinical usages hypnosis has been shown to help reduce death anxiety in terminally ill patents. Patents are asked to envision a white room, and once “inside” the white room they are told to imagine a door. They are told to go stand/sit by the door a listen to the sounds of a party going on on the other side. They are told that all of the people relevant to their lives are on the other side of the door, and then are prompted to discuss parties in general with the therapist. If the patient so wishes, they are invited to open the door and join in the party, before being asked to come back to the white room and describe all they saw/felt/heard.

Using the description of what the patient saw the therapist is able to to make conclusions and give more helpful suggestions before terminating the suggestion, and bringing the patient back to full consciousness.

All of these techniques involve placing the target into a lucid dream-like state and asking them to imagine a room of some kind in which for the therapy to take place, therefore this is what I will use as a basis for my narrative.

References:

Biggs, J., Vile, A. (2006) Ad and Jo's Guide to Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy. Lulu.com

Brann, L. (2015) The Handbook of Contemporary Clinical Hypnosis: Theory and Practice. John Wiley & Sons.

Stagg, A., M. (2015) The benefits of the control room technique. Available at :http://www.hypnotherapy-directory.org.uk/hypnotherapist-articles/the-benefits-of-the-control-room-technique (Accessed: 06/02/2017).

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joshua-gray-b2b2-jekyll-and-hyde · 8 years ago

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Citable Research Into Mesmerism

“...mesmerism [Has] been practised widely and continuously from the 1830′s to the 1860′s and beyond...” (Mesmerized: Powers of Mind in Victorian Britain, page 5)

This quote gives a general timescale for when the practice of Mesmerism was around. As Freud did not set up his clinic until 1886, It is not too far out to assume that mesmerism was still practised during the time the novella takes place.

“Mesmerism was pervasive in Victorian society. Taking hold in Britain so much later than elsewhere in Europe, it appealed to the early Victorians as a very new and exciting science of life and mind.” (Mesmerized: Powers of Mind in Victorian Britain, page 5)

This quote is not exactly necessary, but it gives context to the idea that mesmerism was prevalent in the Victorian Era.

“Mesmerism’s British career began in Ernest with a series of experiments that consumed the attention of London in the spring of 1838.″ (Mesmerized: Powers of Mind in Victorian Britain, page 5)

Again not a necessary quote, but details when Mesmerism began in Britain.

“Mesmerism [can be treated] as a prior incarnation of psychoanalysis, [bridging the gap in history between] Mesmer and Freud.” (Mesmerized: Powers of Mind in Victorian Britain, page 10)

I think this quote could be important for my paper as I intend to describe a form of hypnotic psychoanalysis in my story, this quote helps give it context.

“Mesmerism [can be better looked at as] a fragile set of practises whose meaning was very much up for grabs. As for the phenomena these practices produced... [they are best described as] ...an “altered state” of mind to that of a state of lucid “unconsciousness” (Mesmerized: Powers of Mind in Victorian Britain, page 10)

Another good quote for context, namely the fact that it mentions lucid unconsciousness which is the basis for hypnosis.

“...modern concepts of the unconscious, heavily influenced by Frued and his followers, have changed this term in a way that makes it misleading when applied to the early-mid Victorians. The notion of the “unconscious” did not exist in the relevant sense until fairly late in the century.” (Mesmerized: Powers of Mind in Victorian Britain, page 10-11)

A less relevant quote, but shows the bridge between Mesmer and Freud.

“The divergence between Victorian notions of plausibility and ours is one of the most interesting features of these practices.” (Mesmerized: Powers of Mind in Victorian Britain, page 11)

“What is relevant in history is not whether they happened but whether they could happen in Victorian eyes” (Mesmerized: Powers of Mind in Victorian Britain, page 11)

These two are interesting quotes that I would like to work into my paper as they hold true to the theme of my story.

- Winter, A. (2000) Mesmerized: Powers of Mind in Victorian Britain. Chicago: University of Chicago Press

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