Animal magnetism
Animal magnetism , also called mesmerism , is the name of a force in humans that was postulated in the 18th century and that is analogous to electromagnetism and that was propagated by Franz Anton Mesmer (1734–1815). The term is derived from the Latin animal ("creature, living being, animal"). Mesmer himself also spoke of "animal magnetism". The healing method derived from this (also called hypnotism ), which also used hypnosis techniques (" mesmerizing "), has meanwhile received great public attention. It was of considerable medical and humanistic significance at the time, but has been increasingly rejected since the middle of the 19th century. Subsequent techniques are of marginal importance in alternative medicine and esotericism .
History of origin
Medical use of magnets was widespread in medicine during Mesmer's time. Eight years after his dissertation De planetarum influxu , which also shows the genesis of animal magnetism, Mesmer treated the 29-year-old “Jungfer Oesterlin” with magnets for the first time on July 28, 1774. "The worst conditions for her were that the blood rushed violently into the head, causing terrible tooth and earache, which were associated with madness, anger, vomiting and fainting," he reported. He attempted treatment by attaching steel magnets to her during a seizure. However, he did not attribute the temporary absence of symptoms after this very painful treatment to the magnets, but rather to another, invisible force based on a spontaneous inspiration. He first used the term animal magnetism when he noted that he perceived a cyclical course in the complaints. He explained this by a "kind of ebb and flow, which the animal magnetism causes in the body".
Mesmer hoped to revolutionize medicine with his theory. In doing so, however, he displayed a quasi-religious certainty, which the literature of his critics sometimes referred to as delusional, about the correctness of his theory, with which he immunized himself against criticism.
Concepts of animal magnetism
In 1771, Mesmer believed he had discovered what medical research of the past centuries had sought unsuccessfully for: a central agent in the human organism to control nerves, muscles and body fluids.
The invisible principle, which he called fluid , all-flood or fire of life (because of its ability to melt blockages), should flood the universe and all organisms. It works in the human body "by the currents of the general fluid flowing through the nerves to the innermost organism of the muscle fever and determining its functions". It should be possible to steer this principle by taking appropriate precautions or by contact with suitable healers ( magnetizers ). This seemed to be the key to salvation, because the stagnation of this circulation was the cause of all diseases for Mesmer. This is only solved by a healing crisis , which is why his magnetic healing methods had the goal of creating such a crisis artificially.
Mesmer's theory in context
In his concept of animal magnetism, Mesmer takes up popular scientific topics of his time such as electricity, gravity and magnetism. As the history of ideas predecessor Mesmer often Paracelsus and the English physician Robert Fludd specified (1574-1637), during the preparatory work for the magnetic cure the polymath Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680), a Jesuit priest , is credited with already covered by a mineral and a animal magnetism spoke. There is also a great similarity with the Scottish doctor William Maxwell ( Medicina magnetica , 1679) and his panvitalist idea that the soul is a spirit that overcomes physical limits. He also reported on his own invention of cures with magnetic water. Mesmer, however, denied having read Maxwell.
Mesmer himself was referring to Isaac Newton . This had propagated a force of attraction between all masses ( gravitation ) and was based on a kind of ether . In a similar way, Mesmer assumed an ether, the very fluid in which forces between living bodies act on one another.
His starting point was the fact, discovered in the 18th century, that certain arrangements of different metals and liquids create a fluidum that stimulates nerves and muscles. Without knowledge of the electromagnetic phenomena, Mesmer and other scientists resorted to “ vitalistic ” models: They assumed they had found an invisible “vital substance” that flows through the organism and can also be emitted by suitable, medially gifted people. Indian and Chinese performances, which were already en vogue in the big cities of Europe at that time, could not be ruled out. At least the idea of the vital substance that flows through the body is identical to the Indian conception of prana and the Far Eastern conception of chi .
Mesmer developed the idea that his fluidum was based on the theory that was common at the time and which goes back to the Swiss doctor Albrecht von Haller (1708–1777) that excessive mechanical or electrical tension in the nerves causes illnesses (we still speak of the “excessive nerve costume” today) could be unevenly distributed in the patient and he must try to compensate for this. (This model may have its roots in ancient humoral pathology . However, the four juices are not identical to the one animal magnetism, but four kinds of forms such as bile and blood, which are supposed to shape the character of humans due to their mixed proportions.) In summary, this Theory and practice as conceived by Mesmer, presented by Karl Christian Wolfart ( Mesmerism ). It should explain and underpin the healing process practiced by Mesmer.
Mesmer's practical treatment
Individual therapy
The practical approach used by Mesmer is therefore cited in the original from Christian Wolfart's book, because individual misinterpretations are possible in the presentation of the presentation.
Tracking down the focus of the disease according to Mesmer is described as follows:
"1. The first application is done with the hand by guiding it over the blocked part, which is usually noticeable by a slight warmth perceived inside the hand, and letting it linger there. "
The triggering of the healing crisis according to Mesmer is described as follows:
“If you have made sure of it for the time being, then you constantly touch the cause of the disease, maintain the symptomatic pain until you turn it into critical. In this way one supports nature's efforts against the cause of the disease and leads it to a salutary crisis, the only means of healing from the ground up. "
Mesmer used the following methods to transmit the magnetic healing currents to those seeking help: laying on of hands, strokes of air (French: passes ). The treatment of a woman with difficulty falling asleep in Meersburg was recorded in an instruction: the doctor used both hands without touching the patient and stroked from the top of the head over both arms to the fingertips, then to the toes; never against the flow of energy.
Group therapy
Several people were magnetized at the same time in a meeting (séance). For this purpose, Mesmer used closed vats (French: baquets ) filled with sand or iron filings , which he magnetized and used to store the magnetic energy. Knotted ropes were tied around the tub, which the patients used to connect to the tub and to each other in order to transmit the flow of energy. Iron bars protruded from the lid of the vat. They were directed by the patients on the sick or painful parts of the body. Mirrors hung on the wall, Mesmer played the glass harmonica or went to the patients in particular need of healing to heal by hand.
Treatment success through magnetic healing currents
The Karlsruhe physics professor Johann Lorenz Böckmann published the journal Archive for Magnetism and Somnambulism in eight volumes from 1787 , in which he documented patient histories from Baden, Württemberg, Bremen and abroad and treatment successes through magnetic healing currents. The Berlin medical professor Karl Christian Wolfart published the medical-surgical weekly paper Askläpieion from 1811 , in which he also described the healing successes of magnetism.
Reactions to Mesmer's Theory
His theory, which was rejected by several contemporaries, and the treatment methods he developed ( magnetic cure ) are both referred to as mesmerism , the application as healing magnetism . Animal magnetism had an enormous impact on the history of ideas and influenced, among other things, Schelling's natural philosophy . Mesmerism plays a paradoxical role in the history and long-delayed recognition of anesthesia . Until 1847, the use of laughing gas as a party drug and the resistance to Mesmer's methods, which today are largely explained with hypnotic effects, delayed the introduction of anesthesia into conventional medicine. Afterwards, attempts were made to remove the ground from mesmerism with the now scientifically recognized inhalation anesthesia. Orthodox medicine only accepted anesthesia at a time when mesmerism threatened to become serious competition.
Contemporary healing methods as a basis
In Mesmer's time, the medical endeavor was to keep the patient's humors in balance. Common treatments were: medication, diet changes, surgery, emetics and laxatives, enema injections, cupping, and bloodletting.
Commissions
In 1784, a scientific commission convened by the French government, including Antoine Laurent de Lavoisier and Benjamin Franklin , declared mesmerism to be ineffective. His healing successes are a product of the patient's imagination (in today's terminology a “ placebo effect”) and imitation. Only the botanist Antoine Laurent de Jussieu published a minority vote expressing a positive judgment on Mesmer's method; however, it is not based on a fluid, but on the transfer of body heat.
In 1816 a chair for animal magnetism was established in Berlin and Bonn.
The Catholic Church declared the "abuse" of mesmerism, ie the occult use in the form of "fortune telling", "prophecies", "clairvoyance" etc. in 1856 to be an "error". The "pure act of application", on the other hand, was by no means declared morally illegal.
successor
After Mesmer had retired, his pupil, the French nobleman Marquis de Puységur , took over the public treatments and found countless imitators. Regardless of scientific judgment, mesmerism remained very popular among the French and German upper classes. Several schools and professional societies were founded between 1780 and 1790. Under Napoleon it was suppressed as aristocratic occultism , but flourished again immediately after Napoleon's fall. In Germany he went into the mainstream of romanticism or romantic science, especially medicine . Based on the “fluidal” concepts of Mesmer, Chauncy Hare Townshend published the Facts in Mesmerism in 1841 , a standard work of English-language mesmeristic literature. Townshend added its own biophysical model based on neurophysiological knowledge to Mesmer's theories.
Social component
Since the mesmeristic healing approach has societal utopian potential (the communal experience of the fluid should generate feelings of solidarity and enable social action), its ideas also emerge in socio-political discourse. Mesmer himself expressly advocated the application of his teaching to social conditions and in 1814 published a draft constitution for Switzerland. Central values of the work were harmony and naturalness, above all the ability to tune in to nature. Education and medicine should play an important role in this. The secret Order of Harmony founded by Mesmer and the social circles of Mesmerists ( harmonious societies ) also saw themselves as the basis of social development.
Effect on the history of ideas
Animal magnetism was incorporated into numerous philosophical approaches. According to Peter Sloterdijk , Schelling's natural philosophy can be understood as a comprehensive rationalization of animal magnetism. Even Schopenhauer spoke positively and addressed in the context of his metaphysics of the will of the topic. Friedrich Schlegel devoted himself in his diaries in detail to the magnetic treatment of a Viennese countess. Johann Gottlieb Fichte also devoted himself to the field and took part in the magnetic meetings of Professor Karl Christian Wolfart in Berlin. Dietrich Georg von Kieser , who also had personal contact with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , tried to put animal magnetism on a scientific basis - in the sense of romantic natural philosophy. He saw in him the “telluric force” (“most general force of earth life”) at work (see illustration) . In literary terms, mesmerism was intensified in the age of Romanticism and its worldview, which was shaped by belief in ghosts and miracles. The proximity of the hypnotic state of consciousness to the dream, which at that time was assigned a special meaning, probably also played a role. Works in which animal magnetism emerges include The Facts in the Waldemar Case by Edgar Allan Poe , The Magnetizer by ETA Hoffmann , Das Käthchen von Heilbronn by Heinrich von Kleist , Mesmerisque Revelations by Edgar Allan Poe, Mario and the Magician by Thomas Man , The Other Side by Alfred Kubin and The Magic Tree by Peter Sloterdijk . In Mozart's opera Così fan tutte , the shrewd Despina appears as a doctor and uses a magnet that she claims to have received from Doctor Mesmer to cure the alleged suffering of Ferrando and Guglielmo, who allegedly committed suicide. Per Olov Enquist's early novel The Fifth Winter of the Magnetizer interweaves historical and fictional sources on the magnetic healing arts. The German rock group Scorpions produced an LP album in 1980 with the suggestive title Animal Magnetism .
Mesmerism today
Mesmer's teaching and / or methods still live on today in various directions:
- Occultism: In spiritualistic practices, Mesmer's theory is given as the basis, although this was a declared enemy of spiritual healing and claimed scientific nature for itself.
- Alternative medicine and parapsychology : Since 1980, systematic research in the field of parapsychology has been devoted to, among other things, Mesmer's teaching and declared him a pioneer in scientific parapsychology, as his publications were based on observations and experiments.
- Psychology and psychosomatic medicine: Since the suggestive power was soon recognized as the actual operating principle of Mesmer's methods , these were further researched by Charcot and Freud, among others , and are now part of deep psychological psychotherapy as hypnotherapy . Suggestive procedures have also found their way into psychosomatic medicine, in whose history of ideas mesmerism is now considered to be the link between the experiences of Paracelsus and Freud 's psychoanalysis .
- Use of language: In the English language, the verb to mesmerize is used for 'bewitching / enchanting', 'captivating (communicatively, charismatically)' and ' hypnotizing '.
literature
- E. Benz: Franz Anton Mesmer and the philosophical foundations of "animal magnetism". Wiesbaden 1977.
- Bernadett Bigalke: Life reform and esotericism around 1900. The Leipzig alternative-religious scene using the example of the international theosophical fraternization . Eragon-Verlag, Würzburg 2016, ISBN 3-95650-143-8 .
- Reinhard Breymayer : Between Princess Antonia von Württemberg and Kleist's Käthchen von Heilbronn . News on the field of magnets and tension of Prelate Friedrich Christoph Oetinger , Noûs-Verlag Thomas Leon Heck, Dußlingen 2010; ISBN 978-3-924249-51-9 . [About the charisma of the Kabbalah connoisseur and magnetism sympathizer Oetinger on the environment of Hölderlin , Hegel and Heinrich von Kleist.]
- Robert Darnton : Mesmerism and the end of the Enlightenment in France , Ullstein, Frankfurt a. M./Berlin 1986; ISBN 3-548-35235-9
- Gerhard Eis : Irreal magnetism in pre-romantic specialist literature. In: Medical monthly. Volume 18, 1964, pp. 66-69; also in: Gerhard Eis: Before and after Paracelsus. Investigations into Hohenheim's ties to tradition and news about his followers. Stuttgart 1965 (= Medicine in History and Culture. Volume 8), pp. 168–176.
- Joseph Ennemoser: Instructions for Mesmeric Practice , JG Cotta'scher Verlag, Stuttgart and Tübingen 1852
- Werner E. Gerabek : Magnetism, animalistic (animal M., organic M., life magnetism, mesmerism). In: Werner E. Gerabek, Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil , Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , p. 882 f.
- Tilman Hannemann: The Bremen magnetizers. A dream of enlightenment , Kleio Humanities, Bremen 2007, ISBN 978-3-9811211-2-4
- Justinus Andreas Christian Kerner : Franz Anton Mesmer from Swabia, discoverer of animal magnetism. Memories of the same, along with news from the last years of his life in Meersburg on Lake Constance . Literary Institute, Frankfurt 1856
- Alexander Ferdinand Kluge: Attempt to portray animal magnetism as a remedy . Secondary school bookshop, Berlin 1818 ( digitized version )
- Isabella Frances Romer: Sturmer, a tale of mesmerism. To which are added other sketches from life , London 1841 ( digitized version )
- George Sandby: Mesmerism and Its Opponents. With a narrative of cases , London 1848 ( digitized version )
- Heinz Schott : Franz Anton Mesmer and the History of Mesmerism , Stuttgart 1985
- Heinz Schott: Dr. Franz Anton Mesmer (1734–1815): doctor and natural philosopher, discoverer of animal magnetism. Gaienhofen village workshop, episode 08-1999. In cooperation with the Hermann-Hesse-Höri-Museum Gaienhofen on Lake Constance.
- Franz Josef Schelver: System of general therapy in the principle of magnetic healing art. Frankfurt am Main 1831. (Lectures on the system of magnetic healing art).
- Alissa Walser : In the beginning there was night music , Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-492-05361-7
- Katharine Weder: Kleist's magnetic poetry. Experiments of Mesmerism , Göttingen 2008.
- Heinrich Werner: "The guardian spirits or strange looks of two female seers into the world of spirits", JG Cotta'sche Buchhandlung Stuttgart and Tübingen 1839
- Alison Winter : Mesmerized. Powers of Mind in Victorian Britain. Chicago 1998, ISBN 0-226-90219-6 .
- Karl Christian Wolfart (ed.): Mesmerism or system of interactions. Theory and application of animal magnetism as general medicine for the preservation of man , Nicolai, Berlin 1814 (reprint Amsterdam 1966, excerpts as e-text )
- Gereon Wolters (Ed.): Franz Anton Mesmer and Mesmerism . Konstanz University Press, Konstanz 1988, ISBN 3-87940-335-X
Web links
- Mesmerism and Romantic Medicine
- Joseph Philippe François Deleuze (1753–1835): Instruction pratique sur le magnétisme animal ( online )
Individual evidence
- ↑ Bernadett Bigalke: Life reform and esotericism around 1900. The Leipzig alternative-religious scene using the example of the "International Theosophical Fraternization" . Eragon-Verlag, Würzburg 2016, ISBN 3-95650-143-8 , p. 80-82 .
- ↑ Bernadett Bigalke: Life reform and esotericism around 1900. The Leipzig alternative-religious scene using the example of the "International Theosophical Fraternization" . Eragon-Verlag, Würzburg 2016, ISBN 3-95650-143-8 , p. 82 .
- ↑ See also Gerhard Eis: Irreal Magnetism in the Pre-Romantic Period. 1968.
- ↑ Bernadett Bigalke: Life reform and esotericism around 1900: The Leipzig alternative-religious scene using the example of the "International Theosophical Fraternization" . Eragon-Verlag, Würzburg 2016, ISBN 3-95650-143-8 (For the history of ideas connection to Paracelsus and Kirchner see p. 77.).
- ↑ Mesmerism or system of interactions, theory and application of animal magnetism as general medicine for the preservation of man. With the portrait of the author and 6 copper plates , ed. by Karl Christian Wolfart, Berlin, Nikolai 1814 (reprint: EJ Bonset, Amsterdam 1966, II. Abth., 13th chapter, 4th application, 2nd paragraph, p. 115); Original as e-text at BSB - Bavarian State Library digital, MDZ - Munich Digitization Center Digital Library
- ↑ Mesmerism or system of interactions, theory and application of animal magnetism as general medicine for the preservation of man. With the portrait of the author and 6 copper plates , ed. by Karl Christian Wolfart, Berlin, Nikolai 1814 (reprint: EJ Bonset, Amsterdam 1966, III. Abth., Chapter 9, Special types of proceedings, 2nd paragraph, pp. 180-181); Original as e-text at BSB - Bavarian State Library digital, MDZ - Munich Digitization Center Digital Library
- ↑ a b Thomas Warndorf: "The duty to work for the benefit of all humanity". The doctor Franz Anton Mesmer. In: Museumsverein Meersburg (ed.): Meersburg traces. Verlag Robert Gessler, Friedrichshafen, 2007. ISBN 978-3-86136-124-4 , pp. 56-65.
- ↑ Heinz Schott: Dr. Franz Anton Mesmer (1734–1815): doctor and natural philosopher, discoverer of animal magnetism. Village workshop in Gaienhofen, episode 08-1999, pp. 4-7.
- ^ Exhibition in Meersburg, Heilig-Geist Spital Magic of Healing. The miraculous explorations of FA Mesmer from April 24th to September 27th 2015. Information sheet: How exactly does Mesmer's healing method work?
- ↑ Thomas Knubben: The healing tub of Franz Anton Mesmer. In: Harald Derschka and Jürgen Klöckler (eds.): Der Bodensee. Nature and history from 150 perspectives. Jan Thorbecke Verlag, 2018. ISBN 978-3-7995-1724-9 . Pp. 152-153.
- ↑ Karl Bittel: The famous Mr. Doct. Mesmer. 1734-1815. In his footsteps on Lake Constance in Thurgau and in the margraviate of Baden with some new contributions to Mesmer research. Aug. Feyel, printing and publishing house, Überlingen 1939. pp. 12–13, 18.
- ↑ Too much fear of heterodox schools, can prevent medical innovation , M. Hänggi, article in Swiss medical journal / Bulletin des médecins suisses / Bollettino dei medici svizzeri • 2005; 86: No. 32/33
- ^ Exhibition in Meersburg, Heilig-Geist Spital Magic of Healing. The wondrous explorations of the FA Mesmer from April 24th to September 27th, 2015. Information sheet: Bloodletting and enema injection - The state of the art of healing.
- ^ Corinna Treitel: A Science for the Soul: Occultism and the Genesis of the German Modern. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London 2004, p. 35.
- ↑ See also Walter Artelt : Der Mesmerismus in Berlin (= treatises of the humanities and social science class of the Academy of Sciences and Literature in Mainz. Born 1965, No. 6).
- ↑ Heinrich Denzinger: Compendium of the creeds and church teaching decisions . 38th ed. Herder, 1999. No. 2823-2825, pp. 778/9
- ↑ See also Sabine Kleine: The rapport between animal magnetism and hypnotism. In: Würzburg medical history reports. Volume 13, 1995, pp. 299-330; here: pp. 304–306.
- ^ Peter Sloterdijk: Spheres. Volume 1, Suhrkamp, Frankfurt 1998, p. 243 ff.
- ^ Jacob Melo, O Passe ed. Federação Espírita Brasileira, 1998
- ↑ Jacob Melo ( Memento from December 26, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ See also Robert Jütte : History of Alternative Medicine. From folk medicine to today's unconventional therapies. CH Beck, Munich 1996, ISBN = 3-406-40495-2, pp. 103-114 ( mesmerism and spiritual healing ).
- ↑ Mesmerize. In: PONS (online dictionary). PONS Gmbh., Accessed on July 1, 2019 .