Mesmerism and Hypnotism

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Mesmerism and Hypnotism
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FRANZ ANTONMESMER(1734-1815)
Member of Bavarian Academy of Sciences 1775
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Leyden Jarsstored electricity
Benjamin Franklin c. 1750
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Animal Magnetism
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In the throes of a crisis
Bibliothèque Nationale Paris
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The Mesmeric Trance
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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).

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• King Louis XVIs 1784 commission of the
  Academy of Sciences, and Academy of Medicine.
• FINDINGS
• 1No Mesmeric fluid
• 2Effects due to the Imagination
• 3Mesmerism produced erotic and sexual dangers
  for women who were more excitable
• 4Effects more pronounced in crowds

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The Magic Finger, or Animal Magnetism French,
18th century
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The Magnetisers Our Faculties are in
rapport! French 18th century
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Marquis de Puységur (1751-1825)
Society of Harmony group of Mesmers
Followers Victors trance as Waking Somnabulism
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Puységurs Will

• 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.

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John Elliotson (1791-1868) Chair of
Medicine University College, London resigned his
university post due to mesmeric practice,1835
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British 19th Century
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The Magnetic Doctor Charles Émile
Jacques 1843
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Caricature by Honoré Daumier
Robert Macaire magnétiseur
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A Séance of Magnetism Honoré Daumier 1868
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Portrayal of Cancerous Breast Removal of Madame
Plantin 1828 James Esdaile used mesmerism as
an anaesthetic Calcutta, India 1845
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JAMES BRAID(1795-1860) Scottish
surgeon Neurypnology, or the Rationale of
Nervous Sleep 1843 hypnotism
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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

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Trilby a novel by George Du Maurier 1894
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1871 Stage Production
2005 Musical
Serialized by Wilkie Collins 1859-1860, London
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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.

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Hypnosis produced by the sudden stretching of
the hand Illustration by Gilbert, taken from
'La Nature' (Paris, 1881)
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Inducing hypnosis (1881)
Illustration by Gilbert, taken from 'La Nature'
(Paris, 1881)
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From Mesmer to Freud Magnetic Sleep and the
Roots of Psychological Healing Adam Crabtree