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A Brief Biography of
Franz Anton Mesmer Though it is a common belief that hypnosis was first used as a channel to the unconscious by Freud and his psychoanalytic cohort, the practice dates back much earlier, to the work of Franz Anton Mesmer. Mesmer’s practice of using magnets to heal an individual’s ‘animal magnetism’ soon evolved into a hypnosis-like procedure. His research paved the way for future psychologists to delve deeper into the unconscious, and to explore such issues as suggestion and imagination in the role of the mind in the healing of the body. Mesmer was born in the Austrian town of Iznag on May 23, 1734. He completed his early studies at a monastic school, and then attended the University of Dilligen in Bavaria. For several years, Mesmer studied at various universities, preparing for first the priesthood, and then for a career as a lawyer before he began his medical studies in 1760 at the University of Vienna (Kelly, 1991). Mesmer successfully completed his dissertation in 1766 and earned his medical degree. The title of his dissertation was, The Influence of the Planets on the Human Body (Mesmer, 1980). His dissertation was a scientific explanation of the effect of celestial bodies on earthly ones – or, more aptly, the effect of gravity on physiology. Mesmer’s explanation for the notion that gravity does affect the human body was, simply, fluid. It was believed that the presence of so much fluid in the human body explained not only gravity’s effect, but also magnetism, heat and light. (Kelly, 1991). He likened the movement of fluid within the body to the tides of the seas. Mesmer believed that this universal fluid force affected the bloodstream, the nervous system and the smallest particles of the solids and fluids of the human body. He called this force within the body, Animal Magnetism. After earning his degree, Mesmer began practicing medicine. He married on January 10, 1768. The wealth that his wife brought to their marriage allowed Mesmer to expand and build a larger practice (Kelly, 1991). Following his marriage, the Mesmer mansion became a hub of social and intellectual activity. One example of his place of high regard within Viennese aristocracy is that Mesmer had befriended Leopold Mozart; Mozart’s son, Wolfgang Amadeus first visited Mesmer’s home at the age of twelve to perform an opera that Mesmer had commissioned (Crabtree, 1993). This good rapport with the Viennese aristocrats was not to last for long, however. Despite his claims to engage in solely scientific practices, Mesmer remained true to the beliefs he put forth in his dissertation. He believed that the human body was greatly affected by the magnetic force of planetary movements, and that health could be restored to the body by the careful manipulation of small magnets. On July 28, 1774, Mesmer applied magnets to the body of Franziska Oesterlin, the hysterical cousin of his wife. Mesmer had instructed his patient to swallow a solution containing traces of iron, and then proceeded to manipulate magnets about her legs and stomach (Fuller, 1982). As Mesmer manipulated the magnets, Oesterlin’s symptoms changed (Kelly, 1991). After the apparent disappearance of Oesterlin’s hysteria, Mesmer believed that he had evidence of a new medical technology. The mainstream Austrian medical community refused to hear his argument, however. Despite the lack of acceptance from the medical community, Mesmer’s magnetic healing attracted many individuals who sought some form of a cure for their ailments. After several years, Mesmer was holding group therapy sessions during which his patients would gather around a tub of water into which Mesmer had placed "magnetized" water. With rods coming out from the water for his patients to hold onto, they were "cured" by Mesmer’s healing of their animal magnetism (Kelly, 1991). During these sessions, Mesmer would don a lilac-colored cape, wave a wand at each patient individually, and would play the glass harmonica for the apparent purpose of creating additional healing vibrations (Fuller, 1982). There is evidence which suggests that Mesmer did not neglect formal medical practices, despite his commitment to his beliefs surrounding magnetic healing. Mesmer would first diagnose his patients to determine whether or not they suffered from an organic disorder, which he believed could not be cured with animal magnetism. If it was a problem that he determined to be of psychosomatic origins, however, Mesmer would then treat the ailment with animal magnetism. During an intense session of magnetic healing, Mesmer’s patients would often pass through a "crisis" phase. When a crisis was anticipated, Mesmer worked on his patients in a padded room designed for that purpose (Godwin, 1994). During this time, there is evidence that Mesmer studied such topics as hypnotism, psychosomatic medicine, and the power of suggestion. Mesmer was able to use both his magnetic healing practices and his knowledge of hypnotism to cure a young piano prodigy of her case of hysterical blindness in 1777 (Kelly, 1991). After curing the young pianist, Mesmer faced such scrutiny and disapproval from his colleagues in Vienna that he left the country, and headed to Paris in 1778 to continue to share his theory of animal magnetism. In 1779, Mesmer had clearly outlined 27 key principles of his theory and practice in his book, Reflections on the Discovery of Animal Magnetism (Fuller, 1982). Of these 27 principles, the four which most directly affected his work were:
Though he had initially found widespread support in Paris, Mesmer soon found himself being persecuted as he had in Vienna. Mesmer declared in 1780 that he was going to leave Paris. The Princess de Lamballe and the Duchess de Chaulnes were such supporters of what had come to be known as Mesmerism that they persuaded the Queen to offer Mesmer a generous, lucrative contract to stay in the city. He refused, however, fearing that the Queen would attempt to take control of his practice (Kelly, 1991). At this time, a separate practice of magnetic healing and the principles of animal magnetism was set up by one of Mesmer’s followers, Charles Delson. This brought more attention to Mesmerism. By 1784, Mesmerism had become such a public concern that Louis XVI established two royal commissions to investigate the matter. The King placed top scholars on the commissions, including American, Benjamin Franklin (Fuller, 1982). Several of these scholars even allowed themselves to be magnetized by Delson. The commissions report included case studies of over 100 of Mesmer's patients, 94 of whom had shown marked progress toward healing (Fuller, 1982). An excerpt from the official findings of the commissions is as follows:
Many of Mesmer’s patients believed that the commissions’ findings did a great disservice to the actual practices of Mesmerism. Mesmer left Paris in 1785 a bitter man. After several years of wandering, Mesmer finally returned to Vienna in 1793. He was then accused of belonging to an obscure political plot and was expelled from Austria in 1794. Mesmer acquired a Swiss citizenship and lived in Frauenfeld until 1814, when he moved in with his relatives in Meersburg. He died there on March 5, 1815 (Kelly, 1991). Franz Anton Mesmer died never knowing what profound affect he had on early proto-psychology. His own healing mechanisms, and the criticisms he faced because of those mechanisms, clearly illustrated the power of imagination in the process of healing. Mesmer, in essence, set the stage for the role of the mind in regard to the illness of the body to expand. His work also allowed for the unconscious mind to become an integral part of what would become psychology. One of Mesmer’s followers, the Marquis de Puysegur, took the basic principles of animal magnetism, and moved them away from the debate raging over the motion of fluid within the body, and instead turned the emphasis to the relationship between the patient and the physician. Puysegur magnetized his patients until they reached an unusual, sleep-like state of consciousness. They were, in effect, "mesmerized," (Fuller, 1982). Puysegur discovered that, below waking human consciousness, there was a realm that was different, and in some ways superior, to anything then understood by man. Decades of examination and rudimentary documentation of these below-conscious trances ensued until Sigmund Freud employed such trances into his psychoanalytic practice, thus serving to mainstream a long-disputed treatment (Fuller, 1982). Freud renamed the mesmerizing trances, "hypnosis." Hypnotism is still employed by some psychologist and psychiatrists today, though its validity has recently again been called into question.
References Crabtree, A. (1993). From Mesmer to Freud. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. Fuller, R.C. (1982). Mesmerism and the American Cure of Souls. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press. Godwin, J. (1994).The Theosophical Enlightenment. Albany, New York: State Iniversity of New York Press Kelly, W. L. (1991). Psychology of the Unconscious. Buffalo, New York: Prometheus Books. Mesmer, F.A. (1980).Mesmerism: A translation of original scientific and medical writings of F.A. Mesmer (Bloch, G., Trans.). Los Altos, California: William Kaufmann, Inc.
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