Freud's early work in psychology and psychoanalysis endeavored
to understand and cure the human mind by means of hypnosis.
Freud's initial exposure to hypnosis in a clinical setting was
over the winter of 1885-1886, when he studied in Paris with
Jean-Martin Charcot, a renowned French professor of neurology.
Charcot's work centered on the causes of hysteria, a disorder
which could cause paralyses and extreme fits. He soon discovered
that the symptoms of hysteria could be induced in nonhysterics
by hypnotic suggestion and that the symptoms of hysterics could
be alleviated or transformed by hypnotic suggestion. This ran
contrary to the then-prevalent belief that hysteria had
physiological causes; it suggested that a deeper, unseen level
of consciousness could affect an individual's conscious conduct.
Freud subsequently collaborated with Josef Breuer, who applied
hypnosis not just to cause or suppress the symptoms of hysteria
but to actually divine the root causes. In his work with Anna O,
he found that by tracin