Franz Mesmer

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Friedrich Anton Mesmer (1734-1815) appeared in Vienna at the end of the 18th century. He was bom near Lake Konstanz, at Iznang in Swabia, a gamekeeper's son. Unusually for a healer, he qualified as a physician and gained four doctorates. In Vienna, he met a Jesuit priest called Maximillian Hehl, the same eccentric astronomer with an interest in the paranormal who had tried to study the method of Gassner.

Through him Mesmer developed his interest in astronomy. Hehl told Mesmer of the cures he had brought about using a magnet. Mesmer himself then copied this method to try to cure one of his patients, where all other forms of treatment had failed. Tellingly, the success of the treatment on this and further patients always involved Mesmer telling his patient what exactly was expected to occur.

He developed a large practice, married a wealthy widow and lived in an impressive house on the Danube. His salon was frequented by such illustrious company as Haydn, Mozart and Gluck.

It was at this point that he began to develop his ideas on what he chose to call 'animal magnetism'. It was Mesmer who managed to draw attention to the notion of mental healing as distinct from religion. He substituted the notion of animal magnetism for religion in his practices, and after studying the techniques of Gassner, as Hehl had done before him, Mesmer came to the conclusion that he had stumbled on the same method that Gassner had utilized.

He demonstrated his use of magnetic passes around the body in the treatment of illness. The passes first of all provoked a crisis: 'An attempt by nature to resist the illness' in Mesmer's words. This would manifest itself as hysteria in the patient. This technique is now better known as catharsis, a technique appropriated later by Sigmund Freud and Bleule. Mesmer at first employed magnets to this end, but later he discovered that his treatment was just as effective without their use.

The person whose repute or personal charisma can induce the mental condition of concentration, obeisance, and positive expectation can presently disregard the application of passes and magnets and oil, as Mesmer did. When magnetic therapy became popular, Hehl claimed to have been the first to use it. This led to a dispute between Hehl and Mesmer, which Mesmer won, perhaps unfairly.

He postulated that he injected a magnetic fluid into the patient. He inspired a faithful coterie but failed to be accepted by the medical establishment. He also advanced the idea that a psychic ether pervades space. This ether is then subject to tides that are caused by heavenly bodies. These tides run through all organic bodies, i.e. humankind. The free passage of these tides in the body is responsible for good health. Conversely, their blockage leads to ill health.

Although his salon was popular among the rich and fashion-conscious Viennese, an eighteen-year-old patient of Mesmer's, called Maria Paradies, managed to provoke a scandal by claiming to have fallen in love with him after he allegedly restored her sight. Mesmer was forced to leave Vienna, ostensibly because he was a fraud. Mesmer's arrival in Paris in 1778 caused a sensation. Waving his hands over his patients' faces and gazing deeply into their eyes, he would 'mesmerize' them with an iron rod and put them into a deep trance.

He had now taken to administering his treatment to groups rather than lone individuals, realizing the power of collective psychology that could be activated in his treatments. Indeed, he called this the 'contagion effect'. He would also increase the use of ritual in his treatment, placing his patients in a dimly lit room and entering wearing a lilac cloak and waving a yellow wand.

He was also to find a receptive audience in Paris with Empress Marie Theresa of Austria's daughter, Marie Antoinette, who became a disciple and Mesmer's patron. She offered Mesmer a chateau and a lifetime pension if he would disclose the secrets of his success. He declined. What Mesmer really wanted was acceptance from the medical profession.

Mesmer offered to submit his powers to the tests of the medical profession but was rebuffed. Eventually, a commission was set up in August 1784 in France to study Mesmer's success, which took an unenthusiastic view of his abilities and thereby marginalized him. The commission concluded that while many of Mesmer's abilities could be well substantiated, his success was due not to animal magnetism but to the suggestibility of his patients. The commission branded Mesmer a fanatic and a mystic, and admittedly some of his patients were observed to be badly affected by Mesmer's methods. Yet he still managed to make a considerable fortune from his practices. He died at the age of eighty in Switzerland.