Mesmerism and Hypnotism

FRANZ ANTONMESMER

(1734-1815)

Member of BavarianAcademy of Sciences

1775

Leyden Jars—stored electricity

Benjamin Franklin c. 1750

Animal Magnetism

In the throes of a crisis

Bibliothèque Nationale Paris

The Mesmeric

Trance

Mesmeric Principles• A subtle physical fluid fills the universe and

forms a connecting medium between man, the earth, and heavenly bodies, and between people

• Disease originates from the unequal distribution of this fluid in the human body, and recovery is achieved when equilibrium is restored.

• This fluid can be channeled, stored and conveyed to other persons

• In this way, crises can be provoked, and patients cured.

(Ellenberger, p. 62).

King Louis XVI’s 1784 commission of the Academy of Sciences, and Academy of Medicine.

FINDINGS:

1—No Mesmeric fluid

2—Effects due to the Imagination

3—Mesmerism produced erotic and sexual dangers for women who were more “excitable”

4—Effects more pronounced in crowds

“The Magic Finger, or

Animal Magnetism”

French, 18th century

The Magnetisers:“Our Facultiesare in rapport!”

French 18th century

Marquis de Puységur (1751-1825)

Society of Harmony:group of Mesmer’s

Followers

Victor’s trance asWaking Somnabulism

I believe in the existence within myself of a power.

From this belief derives my will to exert it.

The entire doctrine of Animal Magnetism is contained in the two words: Believe and want.

I believe that I have the power to set into action the vital principle of my fellow-men; I want to make use of it; this is all my science and all my means.

Believe and want, Sirs, and you will do a much as I.

Puységur’s Will

John Elliotson (1791-1868)

Chair of MedicineUniversity College,

London

resigned his universitypost due to

mesmeric practice,1835

British19th Century

“The Magnetic Doctor”

Charles Émile Jacques1843

Caricature byHonoré Daumier

Robert Macaire magnétiseur

A Séance of Magnetism

Honoré Daumier1868

Portrayal of CancerousBreast Removal

of Madame Plantin1828

James Esdaile used mesmerism as an

anaestheticCalcutta, India 1845

JAMES BRAID(1795-1860)

Scottish surgeon

Neurypnology, or the Rationale of Nervous Sleep

1843

“hypnotism”

Psycho-physiological Theories of Mesmerism

• Mesmerism as mental reflex• “Will” not functioning• Subject engages in automatic behavior,

called an automaton• Directly responsive to external stimuli,

leading to immediate action: Ideo-motor action

• Insane more prone to these responses

– William Carpenter, British physiologist– Thomas Huxley, British evolutionist

Trilbya novel

by GeorgeDu Maurier

1894

Serialized by Wilkie Collins 1859-1860, London

1871 Stage Production

2005 Musical

Hypnotism as a Modelfor Social Interaction

Gabriele Tarde, French sociologist

Laws of Imitation, 1890

“I shall not seem fanciful in thinking of the social man as a veritable

somnambulist….Society is imitation and imitation is a kind of somnambulism.”

Hypnosis produced by the sudden stretching

of the hand

Illustration by Gilbert, taken from 'La Nature'

(Paris, 1881)

Inducing hypnosis (1881)

Illustration by Gilbert, taken from 'La Nature'

(Paris, 1881)

From Mesmer to Freud:Magnetic Sleep and the

Roots of Psychological Healing Adam Crabtree