Mesmer, << MEHZ muhr, >> Franz Anton (1734-1815), an Austrian physician, pioneered in the practice of hypnosis. He developed a theory called “animal magnetism,” later named mesmerism. Mesmer believed that a mysterious fluid penetrates all bodies. This fluid allows one person to have a powerful, “magnetic” influence over another person.
Mesmer was born on May 23, 1734, at Iznang in Austria. His first name has often been given as Friedrich because of a mistake in an early book about him. Mesmer studied medicine in Vienna. He went to Paris to lecture and practice in 1778. His sessions, or séances, in which he supposedly “magnetized” patients, created a sensation. But the medical profession considered him a fraud. Mesmer died on March 5, 1815. His theories have been discarded, but hypnosis has been accepted as a subject for scientific study and as a means of treating certain disorders. See Hypnosis (History) .
