Franz Mesmer: Animal Magnetism, the Baquet and Ben Franklin's Blind Tests

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!

Franz Anton Mesmer, born in 1734 near Lake Constance, studied medicine in Vienna and in 1766 wrote a dissertation on the influence of the planets on the human body that scholars say was largely lifted from Richard Mead's 1704 work. Marriage to the wealthy widow Anna Maria von Posch made him a patron of Viennese society, and legend has him hosting the premiere of 12-year-old Mozart's Bastien und Bastienne in his garden. In 1774 he and astronomer Maximilian Hell treated Franziska Osterlin with iron and magnets, and when her symptoms eased, Mesmer concluded the healing force came from him. He called it animal magnetism.

In 1775 he explained away the exorcist Johann Joseph Gassner's cures as natural magnetism, a moment historian Henri Ellenberger links to the birth of dynamic psychiatry. The failed treatment of blind pianist Maria Theresia Paradis drove him from Vienna to Paris in 1778, where his group sessions became a sensation. In 1784 King Louis XVI appointed a commission including Benjamin Franklin, Antoine Lavoisier and Joseph-Ignace Guillotin to test his claims.

His idea of illness as blocked flow and the crisis of shaking and convulsions he tried to provoke
The baquet, an oak tub of iron filings and bent iron rods with patients roped together around it
A mocking scene in Mozart's Cosi fan tutte and the glass harmonica music played during treatments
Blindfold tests, Lavoisier's water cups and a boy collapsing at a supposedly magnetized tree in Franklin's garden
How the Marquis de Puysegur continued the trance work and James Braid named it hypnotism in 1843

Det här avsnittet är hämtat från ett öppet RSS-flöde och publiceras inte av Podme. Det kan innehålla reklam.

Avsnitt(16184)

The Art of Adult Friendship: Why Quality Matters More Than Quantity

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In this episode of pplpod, we explore how our understanding of friendship changes as we grow old...

9 Nov 18min

Summer Explained: The Science, History, and Traditions of the Warmest Season

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In this episode of pplpod, we explore summer, the season most closely associated with sunshine, ...

7 Nov 18min

Sir Patrick Stewart: From Shakespeare to Star Trek, the Life and Legacy of a Legend

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In this episode of pplpod, we explore the extraordinary life of Sir Patrick Stewart, the acclaim...

7 Nov 49min

Larry David: The Genius of Social Awkwardness, Seinfeld, and Curb Your Enthusiasm

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In this episode of pplpod, we explore the life and career of Larry David, the comedian, writer, ...

6 Nov 38min

Why Australian Shepherds Aren't From Australia

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In this episode of pplpod, we explore the history of the Australian Shepherd, an intelligent, en...

5 Nov 45min

Labrador Retriever: From Newfoundland Fishing Dogs to Modern-Day Heroes

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In this episode of pplpod, we explore the remarkable history of the Labrador Retriever, one of t...

4 Nov 53min

Discovering Ireland: A Journey Through History, Culture, and the Wild Atlantic Way

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In this episode of pplpod, we explore Ireland through the philosophy of slow travel: go slower, ...

3 Nov 48min

Willie Hutch: An Overnight I'll Be There Lyric and The Mack's Soundtrack

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!William McKinley Hutchins was born in Los Angeles in December 1944 and raised in Dallas, where h...

2 Nov 21min