Mesmerism and Hypnotism. FRANZ ANTON MESMER (1734-1815) Member of Bavarian Academy of Sciences 1775.
-
date post
22-Dec-2015 -
Category
Documents
-
view
236 -
download
1
Transcript of Mesmerism and Hypnotism. FRANZ ANTON MESMER (1734-1815) Member of Bavarian Academy of Sciences 1775.
Leyden Jars—stored electricity
Benjamin Franklin c. 1750
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
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
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
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)