franz anton mesmer

19 Pages·2016·4.74 MB·English

FRANZ ANTON
MESMER:
THE WIZARD OF
VIENNA
Chloe Kauffman
A YOUNG MESMER
• Born May 23, 1734 in Iznag, • During his childhood he was
a Swabian town in the able to mingle with high
frontier region where lake born aristocrats Johannes
Constance divides Franziskus Schwenk von
Switzerland and Germany. Stauffenberg and Damian
Hugo von Schönborn who
• His parents were Anton
taught Mesmer how to
Mesmer and Maria Ursula
conduct himself among
Michel who were devote
royals.
Catholics.
• In 1743 a 9 year old Mesmer
• Not much is known about
entered a monk ran school
his home life but we do
to prepare him for University
know they lived above
and then Priesthood thanks
poverty and had a
to von Schönborn who
respectable status.
agreed with Mesmer’s
mother that such a smart
child should be a priest.
EDUCATION
• In 1750 Mesmer went from • It was during this time Mesmer
Monastic school to the University realized that he had no aptitude
of Dillingen in Bavaria where he or interest to continue with the
studied philosophy for 4 years. church so he turned to law
school at the University of Vienna
• He then went to the University of
in 1759.
Ingolstadt in Bavaria to study
theology. • He began medical studies in
Vienna which continued for 6
• When reading Descartes,
years.
Mesmer came across a point
that really grabbed his attention: • Mesmer got the best medical
medicine could be turned into education in all of Europe. He
an exact science by extending completed his course, passed his
cosmological laws to the examinations, and wrote his
physiology of the human body. dissertation called, A Physio-
Medical Inquiry Concerning the
Influence of the Planets. In later
years he referred to it as the,
Influence of the Planets on the
Human Body.
DR. MESMER’S VIENNA
• As a physician and • The Eulenschenks, Bosches,
psychologist he believed in and Mesmers were a very
one idea- idéé fixe of the powerful clan with influence
cure of psychosomatic through the capital of the
illness by animal magnetism. Holy Roman Empire.
• Mesmer began observing • 1767-1773 wasn’t a
patients in the clinic taking significant period in
notes on every ailment Mesmer’s life. He simply ran
possible. his private practice from his
home where he had an
• January 10, 1768 he married
office, dispensary, and
Maria Anna von Bosch who
laboratory.
was 10 years older than him.
• Mesmer had the reputation
as a fashionable Viennese
physician with taste for
science and music.
FIRST STEPS INTO ABNORMAL
PSYCHOLOGY
• Francisa Oesterline was a • July 28, 1774, is the first record
woman in her 20’s that was a of using Mesmer using
cousin to Frau Mesmer. Franzl, magnets for treatment.
as they called her, could not
• This marked an important
care for herself because of
time for Mesmer: possible
her hysterical fever.
cure for hysteria and the
• Mesmer followed all the beginning of the quarrels,
traditional treatments for controversies, and feuds that
hysteria such as: bleeding, he would deal with for the
purging, and blistering but rest of his life.
nothing seemed to work.
• The first marked quarrel being
• Maximillian Hell, a professor of when Mesmer reported to
astronomy at the University of Hell his successes. Hell turned
Vienna, to manufacture a around and wrote an article
number of magnets in claiming he was the one to
specific shapes. show Mesmer how to treat
Franzl.
FIRST STEPS INTO ABNORMAL
PSYCHOLOGY
• Mesmer found many things, • In 1779 the Memoir on the
even nonmagnetic objects, Discovery of Animal Magnetism
functioned as conductors and finished her story to her cure.
gave the same results. Mesmer
• Mesmer performed his technique
concluded that he was in fact
for the first time for a Dutch
an animal magnet.
physician who was an expert in
medical biology(he discovered
• Mesmer took to Storeck, head
photosynthesis) and was known
of the Faculty of Medicine and
for experimenting with magnets.
personal physician to the
empress of Vienna, to review • Mesmer made an untrue
his work and make a decision conclusion that he was
on animal magnetism. convinced and a supporter
when in fact Ingenhousz warned
• Refusing defeat, Mesmer wrote,
him NOT to publicize his work due
Letter to a Foreign Physician on
to fear of ridicule.
January 5, 1775 to Dr. Johann
Unzer. When she rejected his
findings, Mesmer had his utter
copied and distributed to
German Universities and beyond.
FIRST STEPS INTO ABNORMAL
PSYCHOLOGY
• What Mesmer really did discover at • When treatments did fail Mesmer
this point was the power of claimed it was because not all
suggestion and how to put a people are subject to animal
patient into hypnotic trance. magnetism and some even
possessed a countervailing force
• Mesmer tried to make work
that repelled it
prominent in the medical
community with no success so he • Mesmer couldn’t give all of his
went to the public. patients individual attention so he
started experimenting with group
• Mesmer became so popular that
therapy.
he was requested to treat notable
patients and even went on tour • Mesmer’s pride was still hurt by
from 1775-76 through his Swabian Hell’s disapproval of his magnetism
homeland, Bavaria, Switzerland, so he dropped the magnets all
and Hungary. together.
• Mesmer is called a wizard for the
first time in print while treating the
Baron Hareczky de Hoka of
Hungary who suffered from throat
spams.
THE BLIND PIANIST
• Maria Theresa Paradies was • Mesmer’s diagnosis was, “It
born in 1759 and was a was a complete amaurosis
normal and healthy child attended by spasms of the
until the age of 3 when she eye. As a consequence, she
suddenly woke up blind. suffered from deep
depression and obstruction
• Mesmer 1st heard of Maria
of the spleen and liver,
as a young medical student
which caused her to go into
so he knew her condition
transports of delirium bad
and what other
enough to make her fear
professionals had tried.
she was losing her mind.”
• The Paradies turned to
• Mesmer began the
Mesmer in 1777 as a last
treatment by building a
hope even though they
rapport with Maria so that
had been warned against
there was a bond of trust
it.
between them and in hope
her emotions would help in
the cure.
THE BLIND PIANIST
• By the time Mesmer got to treat • Professor Joesph Bart an
Maria her eyes were horribly ophthalmologist, Maria’s
distorted, forced out of previous Dr. and now Mesmer’s
alignment, and swollen due to all rival, believed that since he
the past “treatments” from failed to cure Maria so did
doctors. Mesmer because she would
mislabel items.
• Mesmer’s treatments for Maria
included: locating centers of • Maria refused to leave treatment
sensitivity on her head, cupping that was working and she feared
his hands above her ears, brining her home life. When Maria’s
his fingertips in a stroking motion parents came to get her, all hell
from the occiput to the broke loose.
forehead, and making circular
movements with his thumbs
around her eyes.
• Mesmer convinced her parents
that she needed to be seen daily
and under close supervision, so
Maria moved to Mesmer’s clinic
THE BLIND PIANIST
• The scandal of Vienna was born. • Maria died in 1824 at the age of 65,
The Paradieses claimed Maria was she never regained her sight.
held against their will, some said he
• The scandal and failure
was performing dangerous
surrounding Maria drove Mesmer
experiments, or that he was a
out of Vienna. Mesmer’s marriage
wizard doing strange things, and
was strained after 6 years of living
above all what he did with his
different lives .
female patients behind closed
doors. • There were now only 2 categories:
those who agreed with him were
• May 2, 1777, the rumors got back
his friends and those that
to the empress and so Storeck
disagreed or were uncommitted
wrote to Mesmer that he had to
were enemies.
stop his practice immediately and
to return the girl. • Mesmer would go to the
intellectual capital of Europe: Paris
• Maria’s father regained control of
to be the Austrian ambassador.
Maria by promising she could
return to treatment whenever she
needed. Maria never returned and
ultimately relapsed.