Sydney James Van Pelt (born 1 February 1908 in Melbourne;Lectuur-repertorium: 1952–1966 Supplement bij de Tweede Uitgave. Bd. 3. Algemeen Secretariaat voor Katholieke Poekerijen, Antwerpen 1970. † 7 January 1976Tribute to Sidney J. Van Pelt (1976)) was an Australian medical practitioner and a pioneer of modern medical hypnosis and hypnotherapy.
Family The son and only child of John Thomas Van Pelt (1878-1932),Deaths: Van Pelt, The Argus, (Monday, 12 September 1932), p.1. and Bertha Florence Van Pelt, née Reid,Marriages: Van Pelt—Reid, The (Launceston) Examiner, (Wednesday, 23 October 1907), p.1. he was born in Windsor, Victoria on 1 February 1908.Births: Van Pelt, The Prahran Telegraph, (Saturday, 28 March 1908), p.1.
Medicine Graduating M.B.B.S. from the University of Melbourne in December 1933,Conferring of Degrees, The Age, (Tuesday, 26 December 1933), p.5. he was appointed to the staff of The Alfred Hospital, Melbourne at the end of 1933. He served for a time in the Royal Navy, as a Surgeon Lieutenant-Commander.Personal, The West Australian, (Thursday, 7 February 1935), p.14.The Navy List: December 1940, pp.119, 966. After the war, he had a practice in Harley Street.
Hypnotism Having first encountered hypnotism in Melbourne, in 1932,American Hypnotist in Suit Conducts own Defence, The Brisbane Telegraph, (Wednesday, 26 March 1952), p.8. he was the founding editor of the British Journal of Medical Hypnotism, President of the British Society of Medical Hypnotists, and a member of the (U.S.) Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis.Popular Science: Van Pelt, The Dungog Chronicle and Gloucester Advertiser, (Saturday, 11 September 1954), p.3.
In 1952 he was commissioned by the British Minister of Health, the Home Office and the National Association of Mental Health to assist in the adoption of the U.K. Hypnotism Act 1952.
Publications How to conquer nerves. London, Skeffington / Roy Publishers, 1954. Waking hypnosis. Hove : Courtenay Press, 1954. Hypnotic suggestion: its role in psychoneurotic and psychosomatic disorders: A thesis. New York: Philosophical Library, 1956. Modern hypnotism: key to the mind. Westport, Conn., : Associated Booksellers, 1956. Secrets of hypnotism. Wilshire Book Co., 1958. Hypnotism and the power within. New York: Wehman Bros., 1958. Hypnotism. London: W. & G. Foyle, 1960. With Gordon Ambrose and George Newbold: Medical Hypnosis: New Hope For Mankind. London: Gollancz, 1953. New edition: Medical hypnosis handbook. Wilshire Book Co., 1965.
Footnotes
References Degrees Conferred, 23 December 1933: Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery, Annual Report, 1933—1934, The University of Melbourne, p.1234. Medico-Legal: Doctors in Slander Suit, British Medical Journal, Vol.2, No.5056, (30 November 1957), pp.1313-1314.