Herbert Spiegel
Encyclopedia
Herbert Spiegel was an American psychiatrist who popularized therapeutic hypnosis
as a mainstream medical treatment for patients suffering from pain, anxiety and addictions. He also gained notoriety for his treatment of the woman known as Sybil
, whose case became the subject of a book
, 1976 television miniseries and 2007 television movie
.
Herbert Spiegel was the father of David Spiegel
, M.D., of Stanford University
, who likewise is an expert in hypnosis.
, Spiegel attended the University of Pittsburgh
and the University of Maryland Medical School
. He first learned hypnosis while he was a resident at St. Elizabeths Hospital
in Washington, D.C.
During World War II
, Spiegel used hypnosis as a treatment for pain control while serving as a battalion surgeon with the First Infantry in North Africa. With the use of hypnosis, Spiegel was able to reduce the use of morphine in treating soldiers wounded in battle. He later wrote, "I discovered that it was possible to use persuasion and suggestion to help the men return to previous levels of function" after sustaining severe combat stress.
, where he continued his research and study on hypnosis and taught postgraduate courses on the subject. He was a pioneer in the use of hypnosis as a tool to help patients control pain, stop smoking, eat less, shed phobias and ease anxieties. Spiegel noted that, until the late 1930s, hypnosis had largely been the domain of "quacks," but gave credit to them for keeping the practice alive: "We are in debt to the quacks for keeping it alive until the medical community started to investigate and find out what a useful tool hypnotism is."
In 1965, Spiegel's research on hypnosis using closed-circuit television as a means of mass education or group treatment raised concerns that "unscrupulous operators might confuse and exploit viewers at home" through use of hypnosis by television.
In 1969, Spiegel reported to the American Medical Association's 118th annual meeting on his clinical technique for teaching patients to use "self-hypnosis" that helped one out of five "hard-core" cigarette smokers to give up the habit, and offered some help to many others. Spiegel reported on the theory underlying his "positive" approach to self-hypnosis with an emphasis on respecting and protecting the patient's body:
Spiegel was also a co-director of the Hypnosis Research and Training Foundation in Orlando, Florida
, conducting seminars on therapeutic hypnosis for healthcare practitioners. Spiegel and his son, David Siegel, co-authored the medical textbook, "Trance and Treatment." Spiegel told a reporter in 1977 that he had used hypnosis to help 4,000 patients control obesity, phobias or addiction to cigarettes over the past ten years.
Spiegel's work in the field of hypnosis has been credited with establishing the practice as a legitimate medical therapy. In 1976, the New York News wrote that Spiegel was "one of the people whose work over the past few decades has helped strip away the aura of charlatanism and make hypnosis a respectable medical tool."
In 1981, the UPI ran a feature story on Spiegel's advocacy of hypnosis in which Spiegel was quoted as saying:
Spiegel became the most noted advocate of therapeutic hypnosis in the United States and developed a status as a celebrity. In its obituary of Spiegel, The New York Times wrote: "Broadway actors sought his help to overcome stage fright, singers to quit smoking, politicians to overcome fear of flying. For years he had a regular table at Elaine's
, as well as his own place on the national stage. Dr. Herbert Spiegel's regular table [at Elaine's] was near Woody Allen's at what was a fixture of the New York intellectual and creative scene in the 1960s and '70s."
, whose case became the subject of the book, "Sybil
," the 1976 television miniseries "Sybil starring Sally Field
, and the 2007 television movie "Sybil
" starring Jessica Lange
. In the 1960s, Spiegel saw Mason for approximately four years after Mason's regular therapist, Dr. Cornelia B. Wilbur
, sought Siegel's assistance in sharpening the diagnosis. According to Siegel, Wilbur had diagnosed Sybil at the time as a schizophrenic.
Siegel examined Sybil and discovered that she was highly hypnotizable. Siegel used Sybil for a number of studies and as a demonstration case in his classes on hypnosis at Columbia. He developed a rapport with Sybil and became a surrogate therapist when Wilbur was unavailable. During one of his regression studies, Sybil asked Spiegel, "Well, do you want me to be Helen?" According to Spiegel, Sybil told her that "Helen" was "a name Dr. Wilbur gave me for this feeling." Siegel believed that Wilbur "was helping her identify aspects of her life, or perspectives, that she then called by name. By naming them this way, she was reifying a memory of some kind and converting it into a 'personality.'" Spiegel saw Sybil's "personalities" as game-playing.
Spiegel recalled that Wilbur later came to him with author Flora Rheta Schreiber
and asked him to co-author the book with them. In the course of the discussion, they told him that they would be calling Sybil a "multiple personality." Spiegel recalls telling them, "But she's not a multiple personality!" When Spiegel told Wilbur and Schreiber that it would not be accurate to call Sybil a multiple personality, and that it was not at all consistent with what he knew about her, Siegel recalled that "Schreiber then got in a huff" and said, "But if we don't call it a multiple personality, we don't have a book! The publishers want it to be that, otherwise it won't sell!" Siegel declined to have any involvement in the book and later made public his view that the popularization of the "Sybil" multiple-personality story was "an embarrassing phase of American psychiatry."
Wilbur's diagnosis of multiple personality disorder was later challenged by critics who suggested that Wilbur "had encouraged the woman's behavior."
Hypnosis
Hypnosis is "a trance state characterized by extreme suggestibility, relaxation and heightened imagination."It is a mental state or imaginative role-enactment . It is usually induced by a procedure known as a hypnotic induction, which is commonly composed of a long series of preliminary...
as a mainstream medical treatment for patients suffering from pain, anxiety and addictions. He also gained notoriety for his treatment of the woman known as Sybil
Shirley Ardell Mason
Shirley Ardell Mason was an American psychiatric patient and commercial artist who was reputed to have multiple personality disorder. Her life was fictionalized in 1973 in the book Sybil, and two films of the same name were made in 1976 and 2007...
, whose case became the subject of a book
Sybil (book)
Sybil is a 1973 book by Flora Rheta Schreiber about the treatment of Sybil Dorsett for dissociative identity disorder by her psychoanalyst, Cornelia B...
, 1976 television miniseries and 2007 television movie
Sybil (2007 film)
Sybil is a 2007 American docudrama directed by Joseph Sargent. The teleplay by John Pielmeier is based on the 1973 book of the same name by Flora Rheta Schreiber, which fictionalized the story of Shirley Ardell Mason, who was diagnosed with multiple personality disorder...
.
Herbert Spiegel was the father of David Spiegel
David Spiegel
David Spiegel, M.D., is Associate Chair of Psychiatry at Stanford University, where he is known for his research into breast cancer. He directs the Stanford Center on Stress and Health and is "one of the nation's most respected experts in the clinical uses of hypnosis".David Spiegel is the son of...
, M.D., of Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
, who likewise is an expert in hypnosis.
Early years
Born in McKeesport, PennsylvaniaMcKeesport, Pennsylvania
McKeesport is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, in the United States; it is located at the confluence of the Monongahela and Youghiogheny rivers and is part of the Pittsburgh Metro Area. The population was 19,731 at the 2010 census...
, Spiegel attended the University of Pittsburgh
University of Pittsburgh
The University of Pittsburgh, commonly referred to as Pitt, is a state-related research university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as Pittsburgh Academy in 1787 on what was then the American frontier, Pitt is one of the oldest continuously chartered institutions of...
and the University of Maryland Medical School
University of Maryland
When the term "University of Maryland" is used without any qualification, it generally refers to the University of Maryland, College Park.University of Maryland may refer to the following:...
. He first learned hypnosis while he was a resident at St. Elizabeths Hospital
St. Elizabeths Hospital
St. Elizabeths Hospital is a psychiatric hospital operated by the District of Columbia Department of Mental Health. It was the first large-scale, federally-run psychiatric hospital in the United States. Housing several thousand patients at its peak, St. Elizabeths had a fully functioning...
in Washington, D.C.
During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Spiegel used hypnosis as a treatment for pain control while serving as a battalion surgeon with the First Infantry in North Africa. With the use of hypnosis, Spiegel was able to reduce the use of morphine in treating soldiers wounded in battle. He later wrote, "I discovered that it was possible to use persuasion and suggestion to help the men return to previous levels of function" after sustaining severe combat stress.
Advocate
For many years, Spiegel was a clinical professor of psychiatry at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia UniversityColumbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, where he continued his research and study on hypnosis and taught postgraduate courses on the subject. He was a pioneer in the use of hypnosis as a tool to help patients control pain, stop smoking, eat less, shed phobias and ease anxieties. Spiegel noted that, until the late 1930s, hypnosis had largely been the domain of "quacks," but gave credit to them for keeping the practice alive: "We are in debt to the quacks for keeping it alive until the medical community started to investigate and find out what a useful tool hypnotism is."
In 1965, Spiegel's research on hypnosis using closed-circuit television as a means of mass education or group treatment raised concerns that "unscrupulous operators might confuse and exploit viewers at home" through use of hypnosis by television.
In 1969, Spiegel reported to the American Medical Association's 118th annual meeting on his clinical technique for teaching patients to use "self-hypnosis" that helped one out of five "hard-core" cigarette smokers to give up the habit, and offered some help to many others. Spiegel reported on the theory underlying his "positive" approach to self-hypnosis with an emphasis on respecting and protecting the patient's body:
"To concentrate on not having an itch on your nose is to increase the likelihood of an itch. Likewise, to concentrate on not smoking is to increase your preoccupation with smoking. But, committing yourselves to respect and protect your body distracts attention away from the urge to smoke. It is a way to ignore the urge. When this urge is repeatedly not satisfied by ignoring it, it eventually withers away."
Spiegel was also a co-director of the Hypnosis Research and Training Foundation in Orlando, Florida
Orlando, Florida
Orlando is a city in the central region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat of Orange County, and the center of the Greater Orlando metropolitan area. According to the 2010 US Census, the city had a population of 238,300, making Orlando the 79th largest city in the United States...
, conducting seminars on therapeutic hypnosis for healthcare practitioners. Spiegel and his son, David Siegel, co-authored the medical textbook, "Trance and Treatment." Spiegel told a reporter in 1977 that he had used hypnosis to help 4,000 patients control obesity, phobias or addiction to cigarettes over the past ten years.
Spiegel's work in the field of hypnosis has been credited with establishing the practice as a legitimate medical therapy. In 1976, the New York News wrote that Spiegel was "one of the people whose work over the past few decades has helped strip away the aura of charlatanism and make hypnosis a respectable medical tool."
In 1981, the UPI ran a feature story on Spiegel's advocacy of hypnosis in which Spiegel was quoted as saying:
"The prevalent and wrong attitude in the practice of medicine is use a pill or scalpel or a gadget for problem-solving. Modern medicine puts such extreme emphasis on high technology and drugs that it often overlooks the oldest, and at times the most effective, therapeutic instrument that humans possess — the mind. Medicine resorts to it last instead of first. Hypnosis — which accomplishes alterations in human awareness — is a great way to very directly and quickly get people to alter pain."
Spiegel became the most noted advocate of therapeutic hypnosis in the United States and developed a status as a celebrity. In its obituary of Spiegel, The New York Times wrote: "Broadway actors sought his help to overcome stage fright, singers to quit smoking, politicians to overcome fear of flying. For years he had a regular table at Elaine's
Elaine's
Elaine's was an Upper East Side bar and restaurant, located near the corner of 2nd Avenue and East 88th Street in Manhattan which shut its doors for the last time on May 26th, 2011.-History:...
, as well as his own place on the national stage. Dr. Herbert Spiegel's regular table [at Elaine's] was near Woody Allen's at what was a fixture of the New York intellectual and creative scene in the 1960s and '70s."
"Sybil"
Spiegel also gained notoriety for his role in the treatment of Shirley Ardell MasonShirley Ardell Mason
Shirley Ardell Mason was an American psychiatric patient and commercial artist who was reputed to have multiple personality disorder. Her life was fictionalized in 1973 in the book Sybil, and two films of the same name were made in 1976 and 2007...
, whose case became the subject of the book, "Sybil
Sybil (book)
Sybil is a 1973 book by Flora Rheta Schreiber about the treatment of Sybil Dorsett for dissociative identity disorder by her psychoanalyst, Cornelia B...
," the 1976 television miniseries "Sybil starring Sally Field
Sally Field
Sally Margaret Field is an American actress, singer, producer, director, and screenwriter. In each decade of her career, she has been known for major roles in American TV/film culture, including: in the 1960s, for Gidget or Sister Bertrille on The Flying Nun ; in the 1970s, for Sybil , Smokey and...
, and the 2007 television movie "Sybil
Sybil (2007 film)
Sybil is a 2007 American docudrama directed by Joseph Sargent. The teleplay by John Pielmeier is based on the 1973 book of the same name by Flora Rheta Schreiber, which fictionalized the story of Shirley Ardell Mason, who was diagnosed with multiple personality disorder...
" starring Jessica Lange
Jessica Lange
Jessica Phyllis Lange is an American actress who has worked in film, theatre and television. The recipient of several awards, including two Academy Awards, four Golden Globes and one Emmy, Lange is regarded as one of the première female actors of her generation.Lange was discovered by producer...
. In the 1960s, Spiegel saw Mason for approximately four years after Mason's regular therapist, Dr. Cornelia B. Wilbur
Cornelia B. Wilbur
Cornelia B. Wilbur was an American psychiatrist. She graduated from the University of Michigan in 1930 and was one of eight women medical college graduates in 1939...
, sought Siegel's assistance in sharpening the diagnosis. According to Siegel, Wilbur had diagnosed Sybil at the time as a schizophrenic.
Siegel examined Sybil and discovered that she was highly hypnotizable. Siegel used Sybil for a number of studies and as a demonstration case in his classes on hypnosis at Columbia. He developed a rapport with Sybil and became a surrogate therapist when Wilbur was unavailable. During one of his regression studies, Sybil asked Spiegel, "Well, do you want me to be Helen?" According to Spiegel, Sybil told her that "Helen" was "a name Dr. Wilbur gave me for this feeling." Siegel believed that Wilbur "was helping her identify aspects of her life, or perspectives, that she then called by name. By naming them this way, she was reifying a memory of some kind and converting it into a 'personality.'" Spiegel saw Sybil's "personalities" as game-playing.
Spiegel recalled that Wilbur later came to him with author Flora Rheta Schreiber
Flora Rheta Schreiber
Flora Rheta Schreiber , an American journalist, was the author of the 1973 bestseller Sybil, the story of a woman who suffered from dissociative identity disorder....
and asked him to co-author the book with them. In the course of the discussion, they told him that they would be calling Sybil a "multiple personality." Spiegel recalls telling them, "But she's not a multiple personality!" When Spiegel told Wilbur and Schreiber that it would not be accurate to call Sybil a multiple personality, and that it was not at all consistent with what he knew about her, Siegel recalled that "Schreiber then got in a huff" and said, "But if we don't call it a multiple personality, we don't have a book! The publishers want it to be that, otherwise it won't sell!" Siegel declined to have any involvement in the book and later made public his view that the popularization of the "Sybil" multiple-personality story was "an embarrassing phase of American psychiatry."
Wilbur's diagnosis of multiple personality disorder was later challenged by critics who suggested that Wilbur "had encouraged the woman's behavior."
Writer
Spiegel was the author of several published works. These include:- "Trance and Treatment: Clinical Uses of Hypnosis," co-authored with his son, David SpiegelDavid SpiegelDavid Spiegel, M.D., is Associate Chair of Psychiatry at Stanford University, where he is known for his research into breast cancer. He directs the Stanford Center on Stress and Health and is "one of the nation's most respected experts in the clinical uses of hypnosis".David Spiegel is the son of...
, M.D. - "War stress and neurotic illness," co-authored with Abram Kardiner