Ambroise-Auguste Liébeault

Ambroise-Auguste Liébeault (1823-1904) was a French physician and is considered the father of modern hypnotherapy. Ambroise-Auguste Liébeault was born in Favières, a small town in the Lorraine region of France, on September 16, 1823. He completed his medical degree at the University of Strasbourg in 1850, at the age of 26. He then established a practice in the village of Pont-Saint-Vincent, near the town of Nancy. He made many advancements for the field of hypnosis and hypnotherapy, such as co-founding the Nancy School School of Hypnosis. The Nancy School is based around a hypnosis-centered approach to therapy in contrast to the previously used hysteria-centered approach, which was used by the Paris School as well as the Salpetriere Hospital. The Nancy school was distinguished by being considered a "Suggestion School" and the Salpetriere Hospital was considered the "Paris School" or the "Hysteria School". A main, fundamental belief of the Nancy School was that hypnosis was a normal phenomenon in contrast to the previous thought that hypnosis was a product of hysteria. In addition to the foundation of the Nancy School, Liébeault published several books on his theories, techniques, and results in working with hypnosis. On February 18, 1904 he died in the town of Nancy, leaving behind a strong legacy and influence on the still developing field of hypnosis and hypnotherapy.

Liébeault was born in Favieres in Meurthe-et-Moselle, France on September 16, 1823. His father was Jean Nicolas Liébeault, a financially stable land owner and farmer, and his mother was Jeanne Fauconnier. He was the youngest sibling in his family, with five older brothers, and was the only one to pursue higher education. His family could afford to send him to seminary school, and later medical school. Liébeault's father died when he was ten years old and later attended seminary school in his honor. In 1844, at the age of 21, Ambroise chose to leave seminary school and study medicine at Strasbourg.

Liébeault, while studying medicine at Strasbourg, read a book on animal magnetism and was immediately interested. He decided to incorporate the techniques he had read about into his own medical practice. In the town of Nancy he established a practice where he could use his medical degree. He decided to experiment with some of the techniques that had interested him. He began by trying to see whether or not he could successfully hypnotize willing patients to alleviate their varying ailments. He offered to treat patients with hypnosis for free, or by standard methods for the normal amount of money. It was unpopular to begin with but as he succeeded it at it and became more advanced in treating illnesses with hypnotherapy it eventually became popular among the locals. In the following years he developed a unique and unorthodox approach to hypnotherapy which lead to getting attention from other professionals interested in the topic.

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