Body: | Propositions Concerning Animal Magnetism
(Mémoire sur la découverte du magnétisme animal)
Franz Anton Mesmer
Mesmerism
1779 AD
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Introduction:
In 1779 AD, Franz Anton Mesmer, founded "Mesmerism" where a man could
transmit animal magnetism to another and bring about an instant cure for
"diseases of the nerves". The idea that a person has been "mesmerized" or
that something is "mesmerizing" are verbs that owe their origin to this
charlatan quack. Mesmer believed he and his disciples, had the ability to
transmit a magic power to cure insanity from their body to another. For 70
years, Mesmerism became a prosperous and lucrative trade as forerunners of
today's junk science, pop-psychologists who jump on any new thing that the
public will pay money for. James Braid put the Mesmerizers out of business
in 1843 when he discovered it was mere hypnotism. There are many modern
images of mesmerism in today's culture, like the way the Emperor from Star
Wars, zapped Luke with electricity coming from his hands. Even today's
hypnotists mislead audiences that they possess some inherent power they are
able to transmit from their hands to the person being hypnotized. Since
hysteria is all in the mind, Mesmer found a deceptive, but effective cure
in Mesmerism. The placebo and nocebo effects are well documented forms of
simple hypnotism, which is nothing more than the power of suggestion. In
Acts 8, Simon the sorcerer was called "the great power of god". However
when he saw the apostle Peter lay his hands on a man and impart one of the
9 supernatural powers listed in 1 Cor 12, Simon converted to Christianity
and gave up his "Mesmerism". (Propositions Concerning Animal Magnetism,
Franz Anton Mesmer, Mesmerism, 1779 AD)
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Psychiatrists and Psychologists are like hypnotists:
1. Modern psychiatrists seem unaware of what psychoanalysts know
well, namely how powerful are the words that a patient hears from an
authority figure like a psychiatrist. The opportunity here for suggestion,
coercion and manipulation are quite real. Patients are often looking to
psychiatrists for answers and definitions as they struggle with questions
such as who am I or what is happening to me. Of course we all struggle with
these questions, and the human condition is such that there are no
definitive answers, and anyone who comes along claiming they have answers
is essentially a fraud. Biologic psychiatry promises easy answers to a
public hungry for them. To give a patient nothing but a diagnosis and a
pill demonstrates arrogance, laziness and bad faith on the part of the
psychiatrist. Any psychiatrist needs to be continually aware of the very
real possibility that they are or can easily become agents of social
control and coercion. (Against Biologic Psychiatry, Dr. David Kaiser,
Psychologist, Psychiatric Times, December, Dec. 1996, Vol. XIII, Issue 12)
Two additional means of suggestive influence exist for those already
in psychological treatment: one subtle and almost imperceptible, and the
other, directive and hypnotic-like. Psychologically-prone clients,
believing that the therapist has specialized knowledge, often search their
psychologists' behavior, moods and remarks for hidden cues, which will
influence their thinking and actions. Even the slightest reaction or
response can have a great influence. As Frank notes: "The very subtlety and
unobtrusiveness of the therapist's influencing maneuvers, coupled with his
explicit disclaimer that [the psychologist] is exerting any influence, may
increase his influencing power." (Manufacturing Victims, Dr. Tana Dineen,
2001, p 201)
The study of hypnosis has much to contribute to the understanding of
the psychologically-prone personality, which is susceptible not only to the
indirect cues inherent in psychological treatment, but also to the
hypnotic-like suggestions of psychologists. (Manufacturing Victims, Dr.
Tana Dineen, 2001, p 202)
For the "good therapist" designation, it would seem that two
characteristics are important. The first is that the psychologist must
exude an aura of warmth, attentiveness, kindness, caring and trust; be "a
genuinely nice person". The other quality of this goodness is "power."
Kottler, in describing what he called The Compleat Therapist, writes: "it
hardly matters which theory is applied or which techniques are selected in
making a therapy hour helpful . . . What does matter is who the therapist
is as a human being - for what every successful healer has had since the
beginning of time is charisma and power." He continues: "Perhaps more than
any other single ingredient, it is power that gives force to the
therapist's personality and gives weight to the words and gestures that
emanate from it. It was the incredible power that radiated from the
luminaries in our field that permitted them all to have such an impact on
their clients... nobody would have listened to them if not for their
energy, excitement and interesting characteristics that gave life to their
ideas." (Manufacturing Victims, Dr. Tana Dineen, 2001, p 126)
Individuals with a psychologically-prone personality are more apt to
be open to such suggestions, whether or not abuse ever occurred, since
fantasy-prone individuals are particularly susceptible to distortions in
their memory. Bryant reports a study intended to investigate the
relationship between fantasy-proneness and the age at which reported
childhood sexual abuse occurred. The subjects, women who had reported
sexual abuse in childhood, were assessed for their tendency to become
imaginatively involved in internal events, and the extent to which fantasy
played a role in their adult functioning. Bryant not only confirmed a
correlational relationship between fantasy-proneness and reports of
childhood abuse, he also found that "reports of abuse at a younger age are
associated with higher levels of fantasy proneness." (Manufacturing
Victims, Dr. Tana Dineen, 2001, p 203)
Rather, they see it as leading to "the necessity of mourning... in
the resolution of traumatic life events." According to Herman, "failure to
complete the normal process of grieving perpetuates the traumatic reaction"
for which some time imagining that you were sexually abused, without worry
about accuracy or having your ideas make sense." Others give clients the
instruction to "ground the experience or event in as much knowledge as you
have and then let yourself imagine what actually might have happened."
Corydon Hammond, past president of the American Society of Clinical
Hypnosis, presupposing abuse, will typically say to a person: "You know, I
know a secret about you." (Manufacturing Victims, Dr. Tana Dineen, 2001, p
223)
(Propositions concerning animal magnetism)
Franz Mesmer believed he had power to cure insanity
(It was simple hypnosis)
Mémoire sur la découverte du magnétisme animal, (Propositions Concerning
Animal Magnetism), Franz Anton Mesmer, Mesmerism, 1779 AD
Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815)
MD Vienna, physician of Vienna and Paris ; founder of mesmerism
Report of Dr. Benjamin Franklin and other Commissioners, charged by the
King of France with the examination of the animal magnetism, as now
practised at Paris. Translated from the French, 1785 London, Johnson pp.
19-28, 97-8, 105-6
The General And Particular Principles of Animal Electricity And Magnetism,
&C. In Which Are Found Dr. Bell's Secrets And Practice, As Delivered To His
Pupils, 1785 AD
REPORT ON MESMERISM
M. Mesmer [Memoire sur la decouverte du magndtisme animal, Geneva & Paris
1779] has described the agent he professes to have discovered, and to which
he has given the appellation of animal magnetism, in the follow-ing manner.
'It is a fluid universally diffused; the vehicle of a mutual influence
between the celestial bodies, the earth and the bodies of animated beings;
it is so continued as to admit of no vacuum; its subtlety does not admit of
illustration; it is capable of receiving, propagating and com-municating
all the impressions that are incident to motion ; it is susceptible of flux
and reflux. The animal body is subject to the effects of this agent; and
these effects are immediately produced by the agent insinuating itself into
the substance of the nerves. We particularly discover in the human body
qualities analogous to those of the loadstone; we distinguish in it poles
different and opposite. The action and the virtue of the animal magnetism
are capable of being communicated from one body to another, animated or
inanimate; they exert themselves to considerable distances, and without the
least assistance from any intermediate bodies : this action is increased
and reflected by mirrors; it is communicated, propagated and augmented by
sound; and the virtue itself is capable of being accumulated, concentrated
and transferred. Though the fluid be universal, all animal bodies are not
equally susceptible of it; there even are some, though very few, of so
opposite a nature, as by their mere presence to supersede its effects upon
any other contiguous bodies.
`The animal magnetism is capable of curing immediately diseases of the
nerves, and mediately other distempers; it improves the action of
medicines; it forwards and directs the salutary crises so as to subject
them totally to the government of the judgment; by means of it the
physician becomes acquainted with the state of health of each individual,
and decides with certainty upon the causes, the nature and the progress of
the most complicated distempers; it prevents their increase, and effects
their extirpation, without at any time exposing the patient, whatever be
his age, sex or constitution, to alarming incidents, or unpleasing
consequences .. . In the influence of the magnetism, nature holds out to us
a sovereign instrument for securing the health and lengthening the
existence of mankind'.
Such is the agent, with the examination of which the commissioners have
been charged . . . and whose properties are avowed by M. Deslon, who admits
all the principles of Al. Mesmer .. .
M. Deslon undertook to the commissioners, in the first place, to evince the
existence of the animal magnetism; secondly, to communicate to them his
knowledge respecting this discovery; and thirdly, to prove the utility of
this discovery and of the animal magnetism in the cure of diseases.
After having thus made themselves acquainted with the theory and practice
of the animal magnetism, it was necessary to observe its effects. For this
purpose the commissioners adjourned themselves, and each of them repeatedly
witnessed the public method of M. Deslon. They saw in the centre of a large
apartment a circular box, made of oak, and about a foot or a foot and an
half deep, which is called the bucket (Baguet. The diameter of this box is
usually large enough to admit of fifty persons standing round its
circumference.); the lid of this box is pierced with a number of holes, in
which are inserted branches of iron, elbowed and moveable. The patients are
arranged in ranks about this bucket, and each has his branch of iron, which
by means of the elbow may be applied to the part affected; a cord passed
round their bodies connects them one with the other : sometimes a second
means of communication is intro-duced, by the insertion of the thumb of
each patient between the forefinger and thumb of the patient next him; the
thumb thus inserted is pressed by the person holding it; the impression
received by the left hand of the patient, communicates through his right,
and thus passes through the whole circle.
A piano forte is placed in one corner of the apartment, and different airs
are played with various degrees of rapidity; vocal music is sometimes added
to the instrumental.
The persons who superintend the process, have each of them an iron rod in
his hand, from ten to twelve inches in length.
Mr. Deslon made to the commissioners the following declarations. 1st. That
this rod is a conductor of the magnetism, has the power of con- centring it
at its point, and of rendering its emanations more considerable. ally. That
sound, conformably to the theory of M. Mesmer, is also a conductor of the
magnetism, and that to communicate the fluid to the piano forte, nothing
more is necessary than to approach to it the iron rod; that the person who
plays upon the instrument furnishes also a portion of the fluid, and that
the magnetism is transmitted by the sounds to the surrounding patients.
idly. That the cord which is passed round the bodies of the patients is
destined, as well as the union of their fingers, to augment the effects by
communication. 4thly. That the interior part of the bucket is so
constructed as to concentre the magnetism, and is a grand reservoir, from
which the fluid is diffused through the branches of iron that are inserted
in its lid.
The commissioners in the progress of their examination discovered, by means
of an electrometer and a needle of iron not touched with the loadstone,
that the bucket contained no substance either electric or magnetical .. .
The patients then, arranged in considerable number and in successive ranks
round the bucket, derive the magnetic virtue at once from all these
conveyances . . . But especially they are magnetised by the application of
the hands, and by the pressure of the fingers upon the hypochonders and the
regions of the lower belly; an application frequently continued for a long
time, sometimes for several hours.
In this situation the patients offer a spectacle extremely varied in
por-portion to their different habits of body. Some of them are calm,
tranquil and unconscious to any sensation; others cough, spit, are affected
with a slight degree of pain, a partial or an universal burning, and
perspirations; a third class are agitated and tormented with convulsions.
These convul-sions are rendered extraordinary by their frequency, their
violence and their duration. As soon as one person is convulsed, others
presently are affected by that symptom .. .
They are entirely under the government of the person who distributes the
magnetic virtue: in vain they may appear in a state of the extremest
drowsiness, his voice, a look, a sign from him rouses them. It is
impossible not to recognise in these regular effects an extraordinary
influence, acting upon the patients, making itself master of them, and of
which he who superintends the process, appears to be the depository.
These convulsive affections are improperly stiled crises in the theory of
the animal magnetism: according to this doctrine indeed they are regarded
as a salutary crisis, of the same kind as those which nature produces, or
which a skilful physician has the art to excite to facilitate the cure of
diseases .. .
Compression, imagination, imitation are therefore the true causes of the
effects attributed to this new agent, known by the appellation of animal
magnetism, this fluid, which is said to circulate through the human body,
and to be communicated from individual to individual . . . Chimerical
however as it is, the idea is by no means novel. Some authors, particularly
physicians of the last age, have expressly treated of it in various
perform-ances. The curious and interesting enquiries of M. Thouret have
convinced the public, that the theory, the operations and the effects of
the animal magnetism, proposed in the last age, were nearly the same with
those revived in the present. The magnetism is no more than an old
falshood. The theory indeed is now presented, as was necessary in a more
enlightened age, with a greater degree of pomp; but it is not less
erroneous .. .
The commissioners having convinced themselves, that the animal mag-netic
fluid is capable of being perceived by none of our senses, and had no
action either upon themselves or upon the subjects of their several
experiments; being assured, that the touches and compressions employed in
its application rarely occasioned favourable changes in the animal
ceconomy, and that the impressions thus made are always hurtful to the
imagination; in fine having demonstrated by decisive experiments, that the
imagination without the magnetism produces convulsions, and that the
magnetism without the imagination produces nothing; they have con-cluded
with an unanimous voice respecting the existence and the utility of the
magnetism, that the existence of the fluid is absolutely destitute of
proof, that the fluid having no existence can consequently have no use,
that the violent symptoms observed in the public process are to be ascribed
to the compression, to the imagination called into action, and to that
propensity to mechanical imitation, which leads us in spite of our-selves
to the repetition of what strikes our senses. And at the same time they
think themselves obliged to add as an important observation, that the
compressions and the repeated action of the imagination employed in
producing the crises may be hurtful, that the sight of these crises is not
less dangerous on account of that imitation which nature seems to have
imposed upon us as a law, and that of consequence every public process, in
which the means of the animal magnetism shall be employed, cannot fail in
the end of producing the most pernicious effects.
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