Franz Anton Mesmer

Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815), Austrian physician, known for inducing a trancelike state, called mesmerism, as a curative agent. Franz Friedrich Anton Mesmer was born near Konstanz, Germany, and educated at Vienna University. About 1772 he asserted the existence of a power, similar to magnetism, that exercises an extraordinary influence on the human body. This power he called animal magnetism, and in 1775 he published an account of his discovery, claiming that it had medicinal value. Mesmer successfully used his new system, which was a type of hypnotism, to cure patients. His technique received some support among members of the medical profession. In 1785 the French government was induced to appoint an investigative commission composed of physicians and scientists, but the committee's report was unfavorable to Mesmer's theory. Mesmer subsequently fell into disrepute and spent the rest of his life in obscurity. Since Mesmer's day the subject has been elevated from the domain of charlatanism to that of scientific research. The mesmeric trance is today identified as hypnosis, and its value in the management of certain medical conditions has been widely recognized.