Lassaigne (1819-1885)

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Le véritable abbé Faria, grand magnétiseur

Il magnetismo animale tra scienza, politica e religione. Nuove fonti e ipotesi di ricerca

Late Victorian Gothic: mental science, the uncanny and scenes of writing

“Franz Anton Mesmer and the Rise and Fall of Animal Magnetism: Dramatic Cures, Controversy, and Ultimately a Triumph for the Scientific Method”

In the late eighteenth century, Franz Anton Mesmer (1734%u20131815) promulgated animal magnetism as a pervasive property of nature that could be channeled as an effective therapy for a wide variety of conditions. His claims of dramatic therapeutic success were supported by glowing testimonials, in some cases from socially prominent individuals. However, mainstream medical practitioners, professional societies, and political bodies rejected Mesmer and his treatment, and ultimately moved to eliminate Mesmer%u2019s practice and that of his disciples. In retrospect it is clear that traditional physicians in the late eighteenth century had little to offer their patients therapeutically that had any real possibility of benefit, and instead, often harmed their patients with their treatments, whereas Mesmer could demonstrate cases %u201Ccured%u201D by his treatment that had previously failed all conventional approaches. While one might be tempted to dismiss his therapeutic successes as only applicable to hysterical or imagined illness, some of his patients went on to lead quite functional lives when before they were deemed hopeless invalids, a point that even his detractors acknowledged.

A historical approach to psychical research: the case of Alexis Didier (1826-1886)

De Mesmer à Puységur. Magnétisme animal et transe somnambulique, à l'origine des thérapies psychiques

At the close of the century of the Enlightenment, the development of animal magnetism (with Franz Anton Mesmer), followed by artificial somnambulism (with the marquis de Puységur) offered to a number of people whose illnesses could not be helped by medicine a new approach to care, a specific way of working, which was often effective though ambiguous, and which is still worth discussing today. This approach could be unpicked so as to reveal the way in which the workings of the mind interacted in a reciprocal way with the body, thus bringing into play other means of self-healing. The article traces the historical development of these new therapies, whose effectiveness was in large part connected to the emotional relationship between a therapist and a patient. This process suggests a discovery of the power of the imagination over reality and a dimension hitherto unknown in the human nature.

Un savoir occulté ou pourquoi le magnétisme animal ne fut-il pas pensé «comme une branche très curieuse de psychologie et d'histoire naturelle»?

The article covers two historical moments when animal magnetism was condemned by French academic authorities, in 1784 and in 1837. It attempts to understand the complex reasons which motivated the sidelining of this knowledge from which hypnosis (magnetic somnambulism) meanwhile originated. It offers cultural, political and social hypotheses to explain these condemnations.

Hysteria and Enlightenment. Mesmer, Mozart and Marie-Therese von Paradis