Medicine: Unlock It

Two British doctors described last week an extraordinary case of the medical use of hypnosis, in which the patient held himself in unnatural and seemingly most uncomfortable positions for a total of seven weeks, with nary a complaint. The case history, as reported by Psychiatrist Denys Kelsey and Surgeon John N. Barron in the British Medical Journal: a man of 24 had lost part of his right foot in an accident; to help repair the damage, skin was to be grafted in two stages—first from his abdomen to his left forearm, then to the foot. The surgeons feared that the usual...