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Mesmer
Derek Forrest
a
a
Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland
Published online: 31 Jan 2008.
To cite this article: Derek Forrest (2002) Mesmer, International Journal of Clinical and
Experimental Hypnosis, 50:4, 295-308, DOI: 10.1080/00207140208410106
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00207140208410106
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MESMER
DEREK FORREST'
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Trinity College, Dublin, Irelnnd
Abstract:This introductory article provides a brief outlineof Mesmer's
life and the main influenceson his work. His theory, that a gravitational
influence from sun and moon affected not only the tides but periodicity
in physiological functioning,led him to investigatethe use of magnets,
which also operated at a distance and which might channel this universal fluid and lead to modification in a patient's condition. It was but a
short step to discover that magnets were unnecessarybecause the fluid
appeared to be transmissiblefrom one person to another and to lead to
a variety of therapeutic effects. His conviction in the correctness of his
theory, coupled with a charismatic personality, led him to encounter
enthusiasm and opposition over the course of the 10 years that elapsed
between his first treatment of a patient by magnetic therapy and his
dPnouement at the hands of the Franklin Commission.
A remark by Ebbinghaus that psychology has a long past but a short
history applies with particular force to hypnosis. Its origins must lie in
the mists of prehistory; its later role in religious and healing practices has
been surmised from Egyptian, Greco-Roman, and Eastern sources. Its
history, however, is conventionally dated to begin with Franz Anton
Mesmer's "discovery" of animal magnetism in 1774.
In order to appreciate the significance of that event, we need to consider it in the context of the thinking of his predecessors and the behavior
of his contemporaries insofar as these influences are known, or can reasonably be presumed, to have acted on Mesmer himself.
An immediately obvious limitation to such an investigation lies in the
paucity of our knowledge of Mesmer's early life and the attitudes and
beliefs of his family that he may have imbibed or rejected. The bare facts
indicate that he was born in 1734 at Iznang, a small Austrian town situated at the western end of Lake Constance.The third of nine children in a
strongly Catholic family, their circumstances were humble but not seriously deprived. His father worked for the Bishop of Constance as a
gamekeeper or forester. There were educational advantages from such
employment, and one son became a priest, a profession for which Anton
was also intended. Froma monastic school, he went to the Bavarian universities of Dillingen and Ingolstadt, both Jesuit institutions. Besides
philosophy and theology, he was exposed to Copernican astronomy and
Manuscript commissioned May 1,2001; final revision received September 10,2001.
'Address correspondence to Prof. Derek Forrest, 24 Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland.
The Intrrnational [ournal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, Vol. 50, No. 4, October 2002 295-308
DOI. 10.1177/002071402237716
02002 The International [ o m m l of Clinical and Expcrinrmtnl Hypnosis
295
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DEREK FORREST
Cartesian mathematics, his preference for the sciences becoming clearly
apparent and involving the rejection of a religious vocation. He cast
around for a profession outside the church, taking a year to investigate
the possibility of a career in law at the University of Vienna, before transferring to the medical school.
When Mesmer began his studies there in 1760, the Vienna Medical
School had become firmly established with an outstanding faculty. The
Empress Maria-Theresa had been instrumental in renovating the teaching by bringing Gerhard van Swieten from Leiden to act as her personal
physician and then to head the school in 1748.Van Swieten had been the
star pupil of Hermann Boerhaave (1668-1738)’ whose revolutionary
approach to medicine involved the rejection of much Hippocratic and
Galenic theory and the introduction of clinical teaching. Van Swieten’s
own contribution was to expand Boerhaave’s epigrammatic aphorisms
into 18 volumes, to ensure that his master’s teaching permeated the
Vienna School and to expand facilities and staff. Among those
appointed, mention should be made of Anton de Haen, another pupil of
Boerhaave, whose use of the thermometer and electrotherapy were
innovative and whose meticulous case histories became models for
Mesmer. Another of van Swieten’s appointees was Anton von Stoerk,
the professor of pharmacology, who was to assume the presidency of the
faculty after van Swieten’s death in 1772 and who was to become
involved in controversy over Mesmer ’s procedures.
Mesmer’s medical education lasted 6 years and culminated in a short
thesis entitled, “Physico-Medical Dissertation on the Influence of the
Planets” (Mesmer, 1766/1971, pp. 32-48). In it, Mesmer is at pains to
repudiate the ”superstitions of the astrologers” and to make clear that
this was no work of astrology. Such a topic would, in any case, never
have been tolerated by van Swieten, and it is a reflection of Mesmer‘s
own scientific preference that two thirds of the thesis is strictly astronomy, with an account of the work of Newton on gravitation and Kepler
on planetary movement. In its final third, the thesis becomes medically
relevant. Mesmer argues for an extension of the fact of the gravitational
effect by the sun and moon on the tides and atmosphere to the notion
that a similar effect may be manifested in the human body. Although he
acknowledges the importance of Richard Mead‘s (1704)theory of atmospheric tides causing periodicity in physiological functioning, he does
not indicate that the 23 exemplars taken from a wide range of authors are
all except one derived from Mead (Pattie,1956).Neither does he indicate
that some passages are copied almost word for word from that author.
Plagiarism was not condemned so harshly then as it is today, but, as
Pattie (1967)has pointed out, the significance is in Mesmer’s reliance on
Mead, a Newtonian follower, rather than on one or another of the devotees of magnetic medicine-a point to which we shall return.
MESMER
297
In addition to Mead’s atmospheric effects, Mesmer refers to another
force:
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which is the cause of universal gravitation and which is, very probably, the
foundation of all corporeal properties; a force which, indeed, in the smallest fluid and solid particles of our organism strains, relaxes and agitates
the cohesion, elasticity, irritability, magnetism and electricity, a force
which can in this connection be called nnimal gravitation (Mesmer, 1766/
1971,p. 40).
Commentators have noted the similarity with the closing sentences of
Newton’s Principiu Muthematicu, although Newton refused to speculate
about the causes of gravitation. Nor did Newton refer to magnetism,and
Mesmer mentions it only in this obscure passage.
The influence of celestial configurations is not only relevant to disease. Our bodies are harmonized by means of animal gravitation with
the astral plane,
. . . not in a uniform and monotonous manner, but, as with a musical instrument furnished with several strings, the exact tone resonates which is
in unison with a given tone. Likewise,human bodies react to stellar configurations with which they are joined by a given harmony. (Mesmer, 1766/
1971, p. 44).
Mesmer’s final plea is for physicians to turn their attention to the
ways in which we are influenced by the movements of celestialbodies, to
conduct research into these as causes of sickness and to discover ways of
alleviating their effects. That does not, however, appear to have been his
own immediate goal. Instead, he began an orthodox medical practice
from a large mansion in a smart district of Vienna. His financial position
had improved by reason of his marriage in 1768 to Maria Anna von
Bosch, a rich and aristocratic widow, who, at the age of 44,was 10 years
older than Mesmer. Her wealth and social position enabled Mesmer to
move in fashionable Viennese society and acquire tastes that were to be
satisfied in the future only by maintaining a high income. It is also a tribute to his self-confidence that from humble origins in a socially stratified
society, he became able to more than hold his own in an aristocratic milieu. His musical skills were partially responsible for his early acceptance: he played the cello and the clavichord and was particularly expert
on the glass harmonica, an old instrument recently improved by
Benjamin Franklin, which he was to lake to Paris for its contribution to
the ambience of his group therapy. Musical soirees were a feature of his
household, with visits from composers, such as Gluck and the Mozart
family. Mesmer’s great interest in music was apparent in his frequent
references to harmony in the discussion of his theories.
Arelatively fallow period of about 5years followed;Mesmer was considered a sound practitioner who was using the accredited treatments of
the time, namely, bleeding, purging, and blistering. He was on good
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DEREK FORREST
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terms with von Stoerk, whose advice he could follow about drugs, and
he was following De Haen in using electrotherapy. None of these measures was, however, effective in bringing about a lasting cure of a particular patient whose symptoms showed a remarkable regularity in their
periodic occurrence. Allowing for Mesmer ‘s tendency to exaggerate the
severity of the illnesses of those he treated, it is apparent that Fraulein
Oesterlin had a variety of gross hysterical symptoms:
A young woman of twenty-eight years, who lived in my house and who
had suffered from nervous debility from her youth, was attacked by terrible convulsions over a period of two years. Her hysterical fever caused
continual vomiting, inflammation of the bowels, stoppage of urine, excruciating toothache, earache, melancholy, depression, delirium, fits of
frenzy, catalepsy, fainting fits, blindness, breathlessness, paralyses lasting
some days, and other symptoms.
I applied the most efficacious remedies known; not leaving her out of my
sight, frequently rescuing her from death’s door, and I usually restored her
within three or four weeks without obtaining a lasting cure; recovery did
not last long before she fell ill again (Mesmer, 1775/1971, p. 50).
The cyclical nature of her illness was so apparent that Mesmer became
able to forecast the onset of the next attack; his patient seemed to be a perfect exemplar of the theory of periodicity put forward in his medical thesis. The therapeutic solution, he thought, must lie in the discovery of an
agent that would enable him to control the ebb and flow of the gravitational fluid.
He was led to employ magnets mainly by analogy between their
properties and that of what he called “the general system.” That is to say,
a magnet seems to exert attraction at a distance rather like the gravitational effect of the sun and moon. He was also aware of the use of magnets in Britain, France, and Germany, where dubious claims had been
made for their efficacy in curing stomach- and toothache.
Artificial magnets had become widely available since first made by
John Canton in 1750, and Mesmer obtained several variously shaped
pieces from the workshop of Father Maximilian Hell, who taught astronomy at the university and was a believer in magnetic medicine. Two
horseshoe magnets were fixed to Fraulein Oesterlin’s feet, and a heartshaped magnet was placed on her breast. Her response was immediate,
with tearing pains running up her legs and down from her breast. In
spite of her protests, Mesmer applied more magnets to her lower limbs,
and the pains descended through her body. After an uncomfortable
night of pain, with copious sweating on her side, which was paralyzed,
the attack was over, and she became temporarily unaffected by the
magnets.
The procedure had to be repeated on the following day and continued
daily over at least 3 weeks; Mesmer concluded that the magnets were
influencing the movement of the universal fluid in the patient’s body.
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299
Apart from an occasional relapse, the patient was pronounced finally
cured about a year later and had by then become insensitive to the presence of magnets.
A therapist‘s first success with a novel treatment is almost bound to
affect his or her later theorizing and procedures, and Mesmer was no
exception to this generalization.The periodicity in Fraulein Oesterlin‘s
symptoms convinced him that he was right to link illness to celestial
changes. The magnet’s role in intensifying her attacks and in controlling
the location of pain convinced him that it was in some way affecting the
animal gravitational influence, and the cure itself seemed to follow
peaks or crises in her sickness. This was consistent with contemporary
thinking of the need for a fever to precede a cure, and Mesmer was to
come to regard a crisis as a sine qua non for therapeutic success. Many illnesses are, of course, self-limiting,and it is often when symptoms reach a
peak that a therapeutic intervention is made, and recovery ascribed to it
rather than believing that the symptoms are about to diminish.
Mesmer was later at pains to point out that the magnets used on this
first occasion were merely shaped convenientlyfor the site of their application, and he rejected the sympathetic magic reflected in the claim
made by Hell that the shapes were crucial to their success and that it was
the lack of attention to this factor that was responsible for previous failures elsewhere (Mesmer, 1779/1971, p. 64).
Mesmer’s report of his first magnetic treatment was accompanied by
a brief account of experiments he had been making in the presence of
Hell and others in an effort to understand the nature of animal gravitation, or “animal magnetism,” as he now called it (Mesmer, 1775/1971,
p. 49). From the effect it had, the mineral magnet seemed to channel animal magnetism,but it was not unique in that respect. Paper, bread, wool,
silk, leather, stone, glass, water, various metals, wood, human beings,
and dogs, in short, everything he touched, could convey the magnetic
fluid. He claimed he had stored bottles with it in the same way as one can
store electrical fluid.
Although the account is unclear, he also seems to have asked a group
of 10 onlookers to approach Fraulein Oesterlin individually, and he
seemed to find differences among them in their magnetic makeup. One
member of the group was insusceptible and blocked the magnetic fluid,
whereas one other could not approach within 10 paces of the patient
without causing the patient severe pain. Mesmer claimed that he himself
could cause pain in any part of the patient he chose, even when he was
hidden behind a wall.
In his first written account of his method, Mesmer states that he has
already been able to cure menstrual disorders, hemorrhoids, a case of
paralysis, and a variety of hysterical complaints, and he was then trying
it with other conditions (Mesmer, 1775/1971). Since it had been only 6
months since he began Fraulein Oesterlin’s treatment-too soon to claim
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a permanent cure in her case-it is not surprising that his request to
Anton von Stoerk for him to examine Mesmer‘s evidence was refused.
Mesmer was, however, probably correct in attributing the rebuttal to von
Stoerk’s conservatism and to his fear that the Medical Faculty might be
compromised by publicity. It was also the case that von Stoerk was a
close friend of Father Hell, and a controversy had arisen between Hell
and Mesmer over priority in the discovery and the nature of the magnetic influence, with Hell rejecting the notion of any universal fluid.
Mesmer was, however, to progress quite rapidly in the opposite direction; he informs us that by 1776 he no longer relied on magnets at all and
that he had completely ceased to use electrotherapy (Mesmer, 1779/
1971, p. 69).
The magnetic fluid was chiefly communicated from Mesmer to the
patient by means of touch. The application of a healer’s hand to the body
of a patient was a common therapeutic procedure found in many countries over many centuries. It was sometimes associated with the induction of a trance state, as in the yogic practice of jnhr-phoonkn. More commonly, it was mere contact with an individual to whom special powers
were ascribed. Christ’s laying on of hands was in an Old Testament tradition; the touch of the English sovereign from the time of the reign of
Edward the Confessor (1042-1066) to that of George I(l714-1727) was
thought to cure scrofula-indeed, belief in the healing power of themonarch survived in Norfolk into the 20th century, with sufferers before the
Second World War pressing around George VI in the hope of a cure
(Hibbert, 1988). Valentine Greatrakes, the 17th-century Irish ”stroking
doctor,” is yet another famous example. Thus, Mesmer’s use of his
hands was in no way original, unlike his theoretical basis for the practice
of the transmission of the magnetic fluid through touch. The operator no
longer cured solely because he was a socially powerful individual, who,
as Edmonton (1986) has suggested, held the fate of the people in his
hands. Now the operator was conceived as a source of magnetic force
that interacted with the patient’s own magnetism to redistribute it optimally. For the first time, there was in Mesmer’s practice some degree of
mutuality in the curative process, a mutuality that was to be made more
explicit in the procedures of his pupils.
The optimal arrangement for the presumed transmission of the fluid
entailed the operator and the patient sitting face to face with their feet
and knees touching. This contact between the left side of one person and
the right side of the other was thought to link their opposite magnetic
poles, completing a circuit. The operator then made long stroking movements with his hands from the shoulders down the arms to the hands,
where the patient’s thumbs were held momentarily. Sometimes the
passes were continued to the feet, and occasionally one hand was placed
on the abdomen and one on the back in order to saturate the trunk. Then,
depending on the specific complaint, attention would be directed to the
MESMER
301
body part concerned or to the site of the organ considered responsible,
and passes concentrated there.
Mesmer explained matters as follows:
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In a man on his own, when one part suffers, his whole life force is turned
upon it to destroy the cause of the suffering.It is the same when two men
act upon each other. Their whole united force acts upon the diseased part,
with a strength proportional to the increase of mass (Mesmer, 1785).
Mesmer’s early demonstration that action at a distance was also effective, especially pointing with the finger or with an iron rod at a localized
source of discomfort,had obvious similarities with characteristicsof the
”electric fluid.” This is especially obvious when Mesmer writes of condensing and storing the magnetic fluid in a tub, or baquet, and thus working at what was effectivelyone remove from the patient. The baquet was
developed as an aid to group treatment and was modeled on the popular
Leyden jar, an early form of capacitor, or “condenser,“ of which Mesmer
must first have heard from his Dutch teachers. Various baquets were developed but were of similar construction, typically consisting of a shallow tub, up to 15 feet in diameter, holding bottles of water previously
”magnetized”by Mesmer’s hands, immersed in more magnetized water
usually containing iron and stone. Bent iron bars protruded from the lid,
and were applied to the source of pain. Persons sitting around the baquet
were loosely tied together by a rope, which led from the tub and was supposed to convey the magnetic fluid through the group.
The baquet was not fully developed until Mesmer had settled in Paris.
His move from Vienna was brought about by the difficulties he was
experiencing with the Medical Faculty, jealousy over his notoriety and
popularity, and opposition from von Stoerk. The famous case of Maria
Theresa von Paradis was probably the last straw (Mesmer, 1779/1971).
Aged 18, this gifted hysterical daughter of a dysfunctional family had
been blind from the age of 3. Her father was private secretary to the
Empress, who had provided the talented young pianist with a pension.
Mesmer took her into his house, where he began treatment in January
1777. There seems little doubt that she partially recovered her vision;
many of her reported experiences during the cure match reports from
patients who are blind from birth and recover sight as adults after an
operation for congenital cataract (Forrest,1974).The recovered vision of
these patients and von Paradis was of an unstable nature, with a loss of
distance perception and size constancy. The parents’ delight at their
daughter’s cure was short-lived; possibly alarmed by slanderous accusations about Mesmer’s relationship with his patient and also by fears
that she would lose her pension if her blindness were cured, they tried to
remove her after a violent scene, which caused a relapse. Von Stoerk then
ordered Mesmer to return her to her parents. After a further month’s
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treatment, which restored the patient’s condition, he did so, but she
became blind again in the family environment. She was later to become
well known as a competent blind pianist on the European concert platform, being sufficiently talented for Mozart to compose his Concertoin B
Flat Major no. 18 especially for her.
Attempts to produce cures of this dramatic kind were not Mesmer’s
priority. He sought recognition of the importance of his discovery. Three
months of solitude in the country were occupied with trying to find a
way to formulate his theory, to present it to scientific and medical audiences. Upon his arrival in Paris, Mesmer lost no time in arranging to
speak to the Academy of Sciences and to the Royal Society of Medicine.
He was rewarded by general incomprehension:
I felt indeed how difficult it was, by reason alone, to prove the existenceof
a principle of which people had not the slightest conception.With this in
mind, I thereforeyielded to the request made to me to show the reality and
the usefulness of my theory by the treatment of a few serious maladies
(Mesmer, 1779/1971,p. 75).
Patients included those suffering from paralyses, chronic vomiting,
and unspecified complaints, supposedly due to stoppages in the spleen
or other organs, all of whom Mesmer claimed to have cured. Objections
were readily made to the reality of these cures, mainly on the grounds
that nothing was known as to the condition of the patients before treatment began.
Mesmer’s later, more sophisticated suggestion for a comparison of
two randomly chosen groups, each consisting of 12 patients, one group
to be treated by conventional methods and the other by animal magnetism, was also to be rejected (Mesmer, 1781/1971).
Mesmer always treated all diseases, including many still incurable
today; thus, the odds were weighted against him. The fact that some
patients got better was probably due to a combination of factors, including the strong suggestive component, reinforced around the baquet by
the other patients, the supportive benevolent presence of Mesmer himself with his message of hope and a promise of a healthy future, and, last
but not least, the avoidance of the barbaric orthodox treatments of the
day.
Mesmer was unfortunate in having arrived in Paris when the newly
formed Royal Society of Medicine was at loggerheads with the conservative Paris Medical Faculty, and his naive supposition that the two bodies
would cooperate in evaluating his treatment was soon proved wrong.
Rebuffed by all the official bodies, he had to fall back on the printed
word; his theory appeared in the form of ”Twenty-SevenPropositions”
as an addendum to his 1779memoir. Some of the propositions were woefully obscure and even incoherent, and it is unnecessary to reproduce
them all here. The following choice of the most important ones should
give a flavor of the whole (Mesmer, 1779/1971, pp. 76-78).
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MESMER
303
1. Amutual influence exists between heavenly bodies, the earth, and living
things.
2. A universally distributed fluid, so continuous as to admit of no vacuum
anywhere, of incomparable subtlety, and by its nature capable of receiving, propagating, and communicating all motion, is the means of this influence.
7. All the properties of matter and of living organisms depend on this
agent.
8. The animal body experiences the alternating effects of this agent, which
enters the substance of the nerves and affects them directly.
10. This property of the human body, which makes it responsive to the influence of the heavenly bodies, and to the reciprocal action of the bodies
around it, shown by its analogy with the magnet, led me to call it animal
magnetism.
18. I have said that not all animate bodies are equally susceptible. There are
some, although they are very rare, that have a property so opposed as to
destroy all the effects of animal magnetism in other bodies.
21. This system will produce new explanations of the nature of fire and
light, of the theory of gravitation, of ebb and flow, of the magnet and of
electricity.
23. One can see from the facts that this principle, following the practical
rules I shall set forth, can cure nervous ailments directly and other ailments indirectly.
27. Finally, this doctrine will make it possible for the physician to diagnose
the health of each individual and to shield him from the illnesses to
which he may be exposed. The art of healing will thus reach its ultimate
perfection.
The propositions show little advancement on Mesmer’s doctoral thesis, although now systematized a n d applied more precisely to medicine.
Proposition 18was foreshadowed in his early finding that some individuals did not respond to his attempts to magnetize them; it appears to be
in direct contradiction to Proposition 7. With regard to Proposition 23, it
should be borne in mind that, in common with other physicians, Mesmer
regarded all illnesses as bodily illnesses; it w a s not until the next century
that Reynolds (1855) w a s to draw a distinction between organic and
functional disorders.
O n e senses desperation in Mesmer’s failure to convey to others what
he believed he had discovered:
In order to be understood I have to use images, comparisons, approximations. . . . Animal magnetism should be considered as an nrtificid sixth
sense. Senses cannot be defined or described: they are felt. One would try
in vain to explain color theory to a man blind from birth. It would be necessary to make him see; that is to say, experience (Mesmer, 1781/1971,
pp. 102-103).
The argument that experience must precede understanding is a familiar one, found in a variety of esoteric groups from Zen Buddhists to psy-
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choanalysts, and one that is difficult to reconcile with a scientific approach. In other respects, though, Mesmer’s theory had the trappings of
science: the analogy with invisible electricity, the discovery of invisible
gases in the atmosphere, the multiplicity of other fluidic theories lent respectability to the theory or at least did not render it absurd in the context
of contemporary science. But science itself was in turmoil. As Zilboorg
reminds us: “The eighteenth century, despite the fact that we think of it
as primarily the great century of rationalism and enlightenment, was actually a multicolored century of contrasts, of turbulence, of passionate
struggles and confused rearrangements of thought” (Zilboorg & Henry,
1941, p.280).
Mesmer’s critics claimed that Mesmer had plagiarized his theory
from the early magnetists. Michel Thouret, his principal adversary in the
Royal Society of Medicine, traced direct influences from Paracelsus,
Fludd, and especially Maxwell (Thouret, 1784),but Mesmer denied this
ancestry, although he acknowledged coincidental similarities with
Maxwell‘s theories (Mesmer, 1784/1971). There is no reason to doubt
Mesmer’s good faith: He regarded himself as a scientific mechanist,
whose intellectual forebearswere Newton and Mead. As was clear in his
propositions, he was, and remained, in no doubt that he had made a
major contribution to science, and not only to physiology and medicine
but even to physics: ”I dare to flatter myself that the discoveries I have
made. . .will push back the boundaries of our knowledge of physics, as
did the invention of microscopes and telescopes for the age which precedes our own” (Mesmer, 1799/1971, p. 294).
Mesmer was certainly no politician; the political and social implications of animal magnetism had largely escaped him until the contacts
with Nicholas Bergasse and the formation of the Society of Universal
Harmony. He impetuously tumed down a most liberal and final offer
from Louis XVI-a substantial annuity and the gift of money to buy or
rent a chateau, in which he could establish a training clinic, in exchange
for taking on three nominated pupils and a promise not to leave France.
All that was deemed insufficientrecognition of the importance of his discovery. He expressed a similar sentiment in an inappropriately familiar
letter to the queen, which in combination with a democratic attitude
toward his patients must have caused consternation in court circles.
The formation of the Society of Universal Harmony, that amalgam of
training course and secret society, must have seemed to Mesmer a good
alternative to the spumed royal offer. But the affairs of the Society were
never harmonious and offered him little more than monetary compensation for his failed attempts to obtain official recognition. There is little
doubt that he was under great strain at this time, the final blow coming
with the reports of the Franklin Commission in 1784.It is hard to believe
that a mere 10 years had elapsed since, as an obscure physician, Mesmer
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305
had first treated Fraulein Oesterlin with magnetic therapy. Now he had
reached the end of his attempts to obtain official recognition in France.
His last memoir is chiefly remarkable for his acceptance of the supposed paranormal aspects of somnambulism and his claim to have anticipated his pupil Puyskgur in the discovery of that state (Mesmer, 1799/
1971). Mesmer must certainly have observed many instances of sleeplike states around the baquet, but he made nothing of them. Indeed, they
were the antitheses of the violent crises he sought. Such complete crises
were uncommon, occurring in only about 25 percent of patients in his
own practice (Laurence & Perry, 1988). Accepting that there was evidence for some cures, this statistic impIies either that they occurred in a
minority of cases or that cures occurred without crises. By avoiding any
interaction with patients in a sleeping state, Mesmer lost the opportunity
to engage in verbal dialogue with them, for which Puysegur deserves
full credit. Mesmer’s was always a somatic dialogue, although he was
not averse to making preliminary suggestions as to the symptoms the
patient would feel when the crisis occurred (Servan, 1784).These shared
expectations of operator and patient were doubtless important in determining the form the crisis would take, although Mesmer is unlikely to
have been aware of this possibility. After Puys6gur, the mesmeric crisis
more or less disappeared, and verbal interaction became more usual.
However, the concept of the mesmeric fluid was a robust survivor,
directed now by the willpower of the operator and thus imbued with a
psychological aspect and no longer a purely physical phenomenon. The
theory was able to withstand all experimental demonstrations of the
nonexistence of the magnetic fluid because no other theoretical explanation of hypnotic phenomena existed. Even when Faria and later Braid
located hypnotizability within the subject and denied the power of the
operator, the theory was not buried. It surfaced again as late as 1885 in
the confines of the [email protected],where Binet and Ferk began using horseshoe magnets to transfer movements and perceptions from one side of
the body to another (Wolf, 1973). But then Charcot, like Mesmer, was
somatically oriented, albeit with a much more sophisticated neurology,
and it required a Bernheim to provide a purely psychological theory of
hypnosis.
Mesmer ’s remarkable personality was crucially responsible for the
extent of kus influence. In general, his behavior resembled that of a manicdepressive and was typified by great activity and self-aggrandizement,
followed by periods of inaction and flight. There can be little doubt that
at the height of his mood swings he had the charisma of a great religious
or political leader, and he had a psychological makeup in common with
many such.
An imposing presence, the need for absolute loyalty on the part of his
followers, the suspicion of those who did not accept his views, and the
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DEREK FORREST
readiness to perceive conspirators among them, these were all characteristic of the man. There are many instances of his benevolence toward the
poor and the sick, often giving them money to sustain them between visits to the baquet (Hervier, 1784). In contrast, he felt no compunction in
obtaining whatever he could from those who could afford it.
The strength of belief in his own doctrines and, in particular, in the
curative powers of animal magnetism never deserted him. It was this
conviction that carried many with him and gave hope to those who had
found other treatments ineffectual. Ultimately, his importance for the
history of hypnosis lies in his attempt to secularize the phenomena he
produced, to provide an explanation that appeared perfectly feasible in
the light of 18th-centuryknowledge and to open the way for subsequent,
more fruitful, scientific enquiry.
REFERENCES
Edmonton, William E. (1986).The inrtrrction ofhypnosis. New York Wiley.
Forrest, D. W. (1974).Von Senden, Mesmer, and the recovery of sight in the blind. Americiiri
fotirnnl of Psyclioloyy, 87, 719-722.
Hervier, C. (1784).Lettre srir In dtcolivcrtedrr rrinpittisnir ntii~rinl,li M. Court lie Grbrliii [Letter
to M. Court de Gebelin on the Discovery of Animal Magnetism]. Pekin: Coutourier.
Hibbert, C. (1988). The Evglish: A socinl history. London: Paladin.
Laurence, J. -R., & Perry, C. (1988).Hypnosis, zuill, nnd meniory. New York: Guilford.
Mesmer, F. A. [Caullet de Veaumorel](1785). Apliorisnres de M. Mrsrtiiv dict2s li I ’ n s s ~ ~ r i i bdc
l~k~
SL’S 2li.ves [Aphorisms of M. Mesmer dictated to the assembly of his pupils]. Aphorism
238. Paris: n. pub.
Mesmer, F. A. (1971). Dissertation physico-mPdicale sur 1’ influence des planStes. In R.
Amadou (Ed.), LPmngnftismenniinnl (pp. 32-45). Paris: Payot Press. (Original work published 1766)
Mesmer, F.A. (1971). Lettre de M. Mesmer, docteur en medecine a Vienne, a M. Unzer,
docteur en medecine, sur I’usage medicinal del‘aimant [Letter from M. Mesmer, doctor
of medicine at Vienna, to M. Unzer, doctor of medicine, on the medicinal use of the magnet]. In R. Amadou (Ed.), Le riingnitisrtie aniriinl (pp. 49-52). Paris: Payot Press. (Original
work published 1775)
Mesmer, F. A. (1971).Memoire sur la dkouverte du magnetisme animal [Dissertation on
the discovery of animal magnetism]. In R. Amadou (Ed.), Le mngriitisme nnimnl (pp. 5979). (Original work published 1779)
Mesmer, F. A. (1971).Prkcis historique des faits relatifs au magnetisme animal jusques en
avril 1781 [Historical account of the facts relating to animal magnetism until April
17811. In R. Amadou (Ed.), Le mngnifismeanimal (pp. 93-194). (Original work published
1781)
Mesmer, F. A. (1971).Lettre A M. Vicq d’Azyr, 16 aotit 1784 [Letter to M. Vicq d,Azyr, 16
August 17841. In R. Amadou (Ed.), Le magnitisme animal (pp. 244-247). (Original work
published 1784)
Mesmer, F. A. (1971). Memoire de F. A. Mesmer, docteur en medecine, sur ses decouvertes
[Dissertation of F. A. Mesmer, doctor of medicine, on his discoveries]. In R. Amadou
(Ed.), Le magiiefisme anininl (pp. 291-319). (Original work published in 1799)
Pattie, F. A. (1956).Mesmer’s medical dissertation and its debt to Mead’s De imperio solis
ac lune. Jorirnnl of the History $Medicine nnd Allied Sciences, 72,275-287.
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Pattie, F. A. (1967).A brief history of hypnotism. In J. E. Gordon (Ed.), Handbook ofclinical
and Experimental Hypnosis. New York Macmillan.
Reynolds,J. R. (1855).The diagnosis of diseases ofthe brain, spinal cord, nerves and their appendages. London: Churchill.
Servan, J. M. A. (1784).Doutes d'un provincial proposis ?I MM. les midecins coniniissionnires
chargis par le Roi de I'examen du magn6tismeanimal [Doubtsof a provincial put forward to
the medical commissionerscharged by the King with the examinatiotiof animal magnetism]. Lyons, France: Prault.
Thouret, M. A. (1784).Recherches et doutes sur le magnitisme nnimal [Research and doubts
about animal magnetism]. Pans: Prault.
Wolf, T. H. (1973).Alfred Binet. London: University of Chicago Press.
Zilboorg, G., & Henry, G. W. (1941).A History ofMedicnl Psychology. New York: Norton.
Mesmer
Derek Forrest
Zusammenfassung: Dieser einleitende Artikel enthalt eine kurze Ubersicht
iiber das Leben Mesmers und die Haupteinflusse auf sein Werk. Ausgehend
von der Theorie, dass die Anziehungskrafte von S o m e und Mond nicht nur
Ebbe und Flut, sondem auch die Ablaufe von physiologischen Funktionen
beeinflussen, untersuchte er die Wirkung von Magneten, die, da sie ebenfalls
aus der Feme wirken und dieses universale Fluidum kanalisieren konnten,
dadurch Veranderungen im Zustand eines Patienten hervorrufen. Nach
kurzer Zeit verwarf er die Anwendung von Magneten, denn das Fluidum
schien von einer Person auf die andere iibertragbar und erzielte anscheinend
eine Reihe von therapeutischen Effekten. Seine Uberzeugung von der
Richtigkeit seiner Theorie und seine charismatische Personlichkeit brachten
ihm in dem Zeitraum von 10Jahren zwischen seiner ersten Behandlung einer
Patientin mithilfe der Magnettherapie und der Verwerfung seines Verfahrens
durch die konigliche Untersuchungskommission ("Franklin Commission")
sowohl begeisterte Anhanger wie auch Gegner.
ROSEMARIEGREENMAN
University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN,U S A
Mesmer
Derek Forrest
Risume: Cet article preliminaire donne un apercu de la vie de Mesmer et des
grands courants qui ont influence ses travaux. Sa theorie sur l'influence de la
gravitation du soleil et de la lune qui pouvait affecter non seulement les
marees mais aussi periodicit6 d u fonctionnement physiologique l'a conduit a
Ctudier l'utilisation des aimants, qui fonctionnaient Pgalement a distance et
qui pourraient canaliser ce fluide universe1 et le mener a la modification de
1'Ctat d'un patient. I1 s'agissait d'un premiere ktape qui amenait a dkcouvrir
que les aimants Ctaient inutiles, parce que le fluide semblait Gtre transmissib l e d'une personne 2 l'autre et conduisait
une varikte d'effets
thkapeutiques. Sa conviction dans la justesse de sa thhorie, couplee h une
personnalite charismatique, I'a men6 a rencontrer I'enthousiasme et
308
DEREK FORREST
l’opposition dans les 10 annkes qui se sont ecoulees entre son premier traitement d’un patient par la therapie magnktique et son denouement au sein de la
Commission de Franklin.
VICTOR SIMON
Psychosomatic Medicine b CIinicnl Hypnosis
Institute, Lille, France
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Mesmer
Derek Forrest
Resumen: Este articulo introductorio provee un resumen breve de vida de
Mesmer y las principales influencias en su obra. Su teoria de que una
influencia gravitacional del Sol y la Luna afectan no s610 la marea sino
tambikn la periodicidad en el funcionamiento fisiol6gico lo condujo a
investigar el us0 de imanes, que tambien operan a distancia y pueden
canalizar este fluido universal y modificar la condici6n del paciente. No le
tom6 mucho descubrir que 10s imanes n o eran necesarios porque
aparentemente el fluido se podia transmitir de una persona a otra y producia
una variedad de efectos terapeuticos. Su convicci6n de que su teona era
correcta, acoplada a una personalidad carismitica, lo llevaron a encontrar
entusiasmo y oposici6n en el curso de 10s 10 aiios que transcurrieron entre su
primer tratamiento de un paciente por terapia magnetica y su denouement a
manos de la Comisi6n Franklin.
ETZEL CARDENA
University of Texas, Pan American,
Edinburg, TX, USA