“the wizard from vienna” franz anton mesmer author: vincent buranelli by: taylor knuckey
TRANSCRIPT
WHO IS MESMER?
18th century doctor who laid the foundation for modern psychiatry
First person to investigate idea of hypnotherapy
Famous for process “Animal Magnetism”
Therapeutics later referred to as “Mesmerism”
EARLY LIFE
Born in the small village Iznang, Germany
May 23, 1734
Very catholic based family
Went to school as a child run by monks
EDUCATION
1743 – Bavaria – studying to become a Catholic priest
1750 – Bavaria at the University of Dillingen for philosophy for four years
1754 – Bavaria at University of Ingolstadt for theology
1759 – University of Vienna, Austria for Law
1760 – University of Vienna, Austria for medicine
1766 - Earned Doctor of Medicine degree
DEVELOPMENT OF SCIENTIFIC IDEAS
Science of medicine era was dominated by physicians Van Swieten, De Haen, and Stoerck
Interests always resorted in science
Preferred general ideas to limited concepts
Believed good evidence existed for its reality
Education - modern and scientific thought
“The Influence of the Planets on the Human Body”
Medical dissertation
Explained the influence of the sun, moon, and planets on the earth and their effect of gravitation on human physiology
Believed gravitational attraction of the planets affected human health through an invisible fluid or magnetic force found in the human body and throughout nature
Believed that magnetic power could be used to heal people
Everyone has a magnetic charge or fluid inside which he referred to as “Animal Magnetism”
ANIMAL MAGNITISM
“Animal Magnetism” was the name Mesmer gave this invisible magnetic cosmic fluid
Belief that all living beings had magnetic fields running through them which could be manipulated for healing or other purposes
Theorized that disease was caused by an imbalance of this invisible magnetic fluid which resulted in “obstacles” in the fluid’s flow through the body
Developed methods to restore the magnetic fluid’s flow of the body so diseases would be cured
ANIMAL MAGNITISM continued
These obstacles could be broken by “crises”
Initially, used magnets to come into contact with a patient
Mysterious fluid displayed by the magnet entered the body of the patient and healed him of his illness or disease
Once magnetic flow was restored in patient to normality, the patients’ disease was cured and their obstacle no longer existed
This method of curing people known as “Mesmerism”
MESMERISM: THE TRANCE
Trance of Mesmerism” is also known as “Mesmerism” — “to mesmerize” or “to throw in a trance”
Ability and control to throw subjects into a state between sleep and wakefulness
Normal thinking processes stopped functioning
Able to cause paralysis, drowsiness, sleep, and semiconscious states in his patients
Subject in a trance could obey his commands
Today - Controlled Hypnotism
MESMERISM: THE TRANCE
18th century
Mozart featured Mesmerism to opera audiences
Mesmer performed shows
Thousand melodramas
18th CENTURY VIENNA
“City of musicians, patrons of musicians, and audiences intoxicated with music”
January 10, 1768—Married Maria Anna von Bosch
Member of the Austrian aristocracy
Very wealthy
Established physician clinic in Vienna
Private practice in his home
PATIENTS
Majority women
Individuals and group therapy
Patients would undergo convulsions
Crisis rooms
FIRST STEPS IN ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY
Francisca Oesterlin
Suffered from a form of psychosomatic illness
Franzl resisted Mesmer’s treatments until new theory of neuroses
Neuroses Theory gave rise to school abnormal psychology
Strong connection of his animal magnetism theory
Ebb-and-Flow Effect - Tidal effect in the nervous system
Patient was being bothered by the effect of the universal fluid, or animal gravitation, ebbing and flowing through her body
Case led him to magnetism
FRANZL TREATMENT
Franzl — First person to be mesmerized
Experimented with magnets
Turned the “current” in different directions
Generated artificial tides in her nervous system
Treatment was first insight to a possible cure of hysteria
Hypnotic trance
Cured her hysteria
Classical case of hypnosis
RESULTS
Reputation of healer
Continued to take in more patients, work more cures, and became the talk of Vienna
Told patients he was healing them with animal magnetism flowing through their bodies
Cured mental and nervous afflictions ranging from deep depression to hysterical paralysis
CURING OF DEAF PATIENT
Patient had gone deaf during a thunderstorm
Received hearing back
Method - Mesmer held his hands over his ears and put him in a hypnotic trance
Believed his universal fluid could not only pass through humans but pass through physical objects
SCANDAL OF THE BLIND PIANIST
Maria Paradis
Hired by Maria’s parents to cure her of her blindness
Uncertain techniques used
Symptoms of hysteria began to clear up
Mesmer asserts that he managed to cure her and managed to make Maria "see" images of faces and movements
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQ32ReqIFGU
SCANDAL OF VIENNA
Parents accused Mesmer of holding their daughter against their will and subjecting her to dangerous experiments
Parents withdrew daughter from study
Believed Mesmer had seduced her
Maria relapsed back into her illness
Mesmer was interested in women as patients
Mesmer’s reputation badly damaged by the incident
Accused by Viennese physicians of fraud
PARIS - SOCIETY OF HARMONY
1778 - Left Austria and settled in Paris
Mesmer’s institution, medical school, and clinic
Students purposed advanced theories of Mesmerism
Learned how animal magnetism acted on the nervous system and the vital organs
Watched practical application of animal magnetism to patients in the clinic
Professional men and clergy attended Mesmerian Institute
Success at the Society of Harmony brought Mesmer’s Mesmerism to its fullest elaboration
1779 published Memoir
1784 - INVESTIGATION
King Louis XVI commissioned an investigation of animal magnetism
Led by scientists and physicians
Described as first placebo – controlled trial
Replication of Mesmer’s session of hugging curative magnetized trees
Results reported that Mesmer was unable to support his scientific claims
Disapproval of Mesmerism - Paris Faculty of Medicine, Royal Society of Medicine, and the French Academy of Sciences
Mesmerism movement declined
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Bx8ZWZY9ls
REJECTION OF PARIS Continued his practice but again attracted resentment
and great jealousy from medical profession
Animal magnetism constantly rejected by the scientific and medical corporations of Paris
Forced to leave Paris
Continued to travel extensively through central Europe
Suffered from psychosomatic problems
Stressed from pass failures and rejection in Vienna and Paris
Biography, Short History of Animal Magnetism
Set up clinic in spa near Liege in the Belgian Ardennes
Focused attention on patients
1785 - TURNING POINT
Traumatic experiences - Society of Harmony
Continued to see patients – less successful
Decided to never launch another resolute campaign for the validation of animal magnetism
Traveled
Wife abandoned him after waiting eight years for his return
1798 - 1802
Lived in Paris and Versailles
Remained distant from politics and Mesmerism
Medical Mesmerism was being developed by other men in ways he did not approved
French Revolutionary War period
MESMER’S LAST YEARS
Left Paris in 1802
Moved to London to start still another practice
Practice failed
Moved to Switzerland
Died in Switzerland on March 5, 1815
FROM MESMERISM TO HYPNOTISM
Of Mesmer’s original system, the following can and must be said:
“Animal magnetism” is a myth. There is no such cosmic fluid as Mesmer imagined.
Animal magnets are therefore a myth.
Nothing physical passes form hypnotist to subject.
The Mesmerian crisis is a myth. No physical action-reaction takes place in the nervous system, at least in Mesmer’s sense.
The Mesmerian trance is a reality.
The trance can be handled scientifically. Mesmer was wrong in his scientific theory, but he made it possible for scientists to take the trance away from the occultists. “
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUzZOGTkOtM
HYPNOTISM Faults: Right facts and the wrong theory
If it had not been for his theory, he might never have effected his remarkable cures, investigated their meaning, or persuaded others to join him in a search for explanation
Scientific hypnosis would not have been developed if it were not for Mesmer
James Braid-Replaced “Mesmerism” with “Hypnotism”
Scientific methods of inducing lucid sleep
“It will be observed, for reasons adduced, I have now entirely separated Hypnotism from Animal Magnetism. I considered it to be merely a simple, speedy, and certain mode of throwing the nervous system into a new condition, which may be rendered eminently available in the cure of certain disorders. I trust, therefore, it may be investigated quite independently of any bias, either for or against the subject, as connected with mesmerism.”
QUESTIONS? If it was later stated that animal magnetism was a myth
and there is no such thing as cosmic fluid, why do you think that people engaged in his medical practice of mesmerism?
Do you believe that Mesmer actually believed in Mesmerism and what he theorized? Or was he doing it to get attention? A swindler?
Do you think Mesmer’s theories and practices are significant to modern day psychology? Or why was Mesmer’s theories and practices significant to modern day psychology?