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MesmerFranz Anton Mesmer (1734 - 1815) was a Viennese physician who used hypnotic techniques, which he called animal magnetism, in the treatment of psychiatric patients. The evolution of Mesmer's ideas and practices led the physician James Braid (1795-1860) to develop hypnosis in 1842.
One of Mesmer's most significant successes was in the documented case of Maria Theresia Paradis. Although Miss Paradis was born with normal vision, she developed hysterical blindness. She had intense pain from spasms in the eyes and also suffered with states of delirium. Following years of failed treatments which included leeches, blistering and diuretics, Mesmer managed to produce favourable progress within weeks. Unfortunately for Mesmer and Miss Paradis, when her parents found out, they demanded that she return home as a substantial disability pension would have been forfeited upon her recovery. When she refused to return home, her father struck her and denounced Mesmer as a quack. Her blindness returned, and she continued to receive her pension. Mesmer was publicly declared a charlatan.
Mesmer was well before his time. Although he successfully treated many of his patients on whom traditional treatments did not work, he had no realization of the psychological nature of his therapy. Unfortunately, his personality and mystical nature of therapy only served to bring him into disrepute, and when committee of scientists, including Benjamin Franklin, Antoine Lavoisier and John Guillotine, were sent to investigate him they came to the conclusion that he was a charlatan.
Mesmer's failure to convince his contemporaries of medical or scientific worth of his theories did not deter many people from pratising his techniques, and the term "mesmerism" is still widly used today. |
