Difference between revisions of "Animal Magnetism"

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Animal magnetism was a system of healing theorized by the Austrian physician and astrologist Franz Mesmer in the late 18th century. While discredited as a medical technique even within Mesmer's lifetime, Mesmer's students used the practice to explore the psychosymptomatic relationship between mind and body, eventually giving rise to practices of somnambulitic sleep, hypnosis, and psychotherapy.

Animal Magnetism: A System of Healing

Mesmer began generalizing a salutatory relationship between celestial bodies and human wellness in his 1766 Dissertation upon the Influence of the Stars on the Human Body. In this text, Mesmer used Newtonian physics to argue that the gravity of the planets influenced the human body and illness (Tinterow 31). Mesmer took up work as a physician, only to be dismayed by standard--and often painful--medical practices such as bleeding and blistering (Pintar and Lynn 13). Seeking gentler forms of treatment, Mesmer began experimenting with magnets, hoping to bring about an “artificial tide” in his patients.

Dissertation on the Discovery of Animal Magnetism

Mesmer's elaborated upon these ideas in his 1779 dissertation, Mémoire sur la Découverte du Magnétisme Animal or Dissertation on the Discovery of Animal Magnetism, in which he asserts a fully formed concept of animal magnetism:

I maintained that just as the alternate effects, in respect of gravity, produce in the sea the appreciable phenomenon which we term ebb and flow, so the INTENSIFICATION AND REMISSION of the said properties, being subject to the action of the same principle, cause in animate bodies alternate effects similar to those sustained by the sea. By these considerations I established that the animal body, being subjected to the same action, likewise underwent a kind of ebb and flow. I supported this theory with different examples of periodic revolutions. I named the property of the animal body that renders it liable to the action of heavenly bodies and of the earth ANIMAL MAGNETISM. I explained by this magnetism the periodical changes which we observe in sex, and in a general way those which physicians of all ages and in all countries have observed during illnesses (qtd. in Tinterow 35)

According the Mesmer, the healing system of animal magnetism is founded on one essential truth: "that nature affords a universal means of healing and preserving men" (Mesmer/Tinterow 33). Mesmer details the mutual influence between the Heavenly Bodies, the Earth and Animate Bodies, suggesting a field of "universally distributed and continuous fluid" motivating organic life itself. This universal fluid was a fundamental apparatus of animal magnetism, and Mesmer theorized it as "quite without vacuum and of an incomparably rarefied nature, and which by its nature is capable of receiving, propagating and communicating all the impressions of movement" (Mesmer 54). Ebb and flow massaged this movement between the magnetic poles of human, organic and celestial bodies. Bodies possess both negative and positive poles, which may be "communicated, propagated, stored, concentrated and transported, reflected by mirrors and propagated by sound" (Mesmer 55). Given these properties, it seems the “fluid” of animal magnetism not only operated like a liquid, but also maintained some elements of light, air and electricity, all of which were being more formally theorized in the late 18th century.

Cartesian "Animal Spirits"

This curious intermingling of elements recalls some aspects of Descartes’ concept of “animal spirits” which he elaborates in his 1662 text “Treatise on Man.” Here, the “animal spirit” is a “certain very fine wind, or rather a very lively and very pure flame” which emanates from the pineal gland, circulates in the body through arteries and drives movement through this circulation. (Descartes, 105) It should be noted that Descartes distinguishes the “animal spirit” from blood, and “animal spirits” specifically have an animating capacity. Similarly, Mesmer’s “animal magnetism” moves the body through circulation and flow, and is an activating force. It seems Mesmer’s “animal magnetism” has a denser quality, however, especially in its ability to be stored and transported. In making reference to the tides, he is clearly operating under the idea that there is a liquid element at play in “animal magnetism.” Both seem to attempt to situate classical elements, such as air, water, and fire, as operative within the human body.

Animal Magnetism as Mediation

As a force theorized as both naturally abundant and uninhibitedly available, Mesmer's "all-penetrating fluid" was a means of transfer in the macro-mediation of universal harmony dubbed "animal magnetism". Mesmer himself played no small role in this process of mediation; he functioned as its human operator, bestowed with the unique (but not sole) capacity to direct universal fluid into others through his own immensely potent animal magnetism. Illness, as understood by Mesmer, was a disruption of an individual's inner harmony and fluid flow, and he believed that he could, mentally and physiologically, self-produce enough magnetic force to artificially imitate celestial forces and reset the magnetic direction of a patient.

In many ways, Mesmer's process of healing patients through the application of animal magnetism was a mediation based in the equilateral harmonization of all organic nodes in the network of existence. Mesmer's theorization of the fluid as universal and equally present in all places at all times suggests a cosmic refutation of the classical model of the Great Chain of Being. Rather than understanding animal magnetism as a force from above spreading downward (like the natural ladder--scala naturae--of the Medieval period), Mesmer envisions a wetware of biopower, a constellation of forces in which any two bodies may operate or manipulate the influence of animal magnetism. Animal magnetism, in this sense, is a decentralized--rather than hierarchical--network, although this should not suggest a level field of access to Mesmer's universal fluid (Mesmer guarded his secrets religiously for fear that those untrained would pollute his theories). In animal magnetism, the harmonization of the body becomes the balanced universe writ small, even as it operates as a physiological foreshadowing of the unconcentrated theories of power to be proposed by Foucault and Deleuze.

The analogy of the ocean could not be more apropos: Mesmer's universal fluid lacked discrete streams, routes or channels--it was diffuse rather than vectoral, indiscriminate rather than intentional. However, animal magnetism was able to pass between any two or more bodies, via said fluid. Different bodies had different natural charges, and different capacities to retain or manage their own charge. Thus, while universal fluid itself may reflect a decentralized wetwork, the harmonization of the universal fluid via the practice of animal magnetism still required a secondary apparatus to secure the direct application of said harmonization: Mesmer himself. Mesmer functioned as the operator of a unique process of protocols that opened the human gateways for freely moving universal fluid. His first step was to locate the "blockage" in his patient, then apply correct measures of magnetic force to the patient. Finally, a blockage had to be pushed out through the "crisis", which often mirrored a seizure, hysterical fit, or orgasmic epilogue.

The Blockage

The practice of animal magnetism sought the ideally harmonized body, a body in which magnetic ebbs and flows pass unobstructed through the patient. The expression of physical symptoms of illness, then, were merely bodily testaments to a cosmic imbalance; illness had no specific relationship to the organs or systems of the body. The body was thus a barometer of its own celestial harmony. Mesmer addressed illnesses as “blockage”, an interruption of the flow of magnetic action that created an unnatural impediment in the patient’s body. Mesmer's goal was to clear the blockage and restore the body to harmony, at which point the work of animal magnetism was complete—Mesmer believed only ill bodies were sensitive to magnetism (Crabtree 7). As far as Mesmer was concerned, physicians could aid the sick, but not through cures or medicine; if any improvement occurred, it was through sheer accident that the physician had brought animal magnetism to bear on the patient.

What precisely was “blocked” in the patient is somewhat ambiguous in Mesmer's own accounts; nonetheless, it was clear to him that blockage prevented the harmonious “ebb and flow” of human magnetic properties. The blockage, in this sense, is the inversion of the crisis.

Magnetic Poles, Magnetic Passes, and Mesmer as Magnetic Arbitrator

Once Mesmer determined a blockage existed, he set out to provoke its clearance through techniques of the magnetic pass. For Mesmer, the body functioned like a compass, replete with all the magnetic properties therein. As he writes in his 1779 Dissertation: A non-magnetized needle, when set in motion, will only take a determined direction by chance, whereas a magnetized needle, having been given the same impulse, after various oscillations proportional to the impulse and magnetism received, will regain its initial position and stay there (Mesmer 36). Unmagnetized, the body could fall prey to the direction of "chance", failing to find its true and harmonious direction. Properly magnetized, however, the body had the capacity to not only be restored to its true direction, but to retain its direction. Like a magnet, the body also had magnetic poles, for which he claimed, "different and opposite poles may likewise be distinguished, which can be changed, communicated, destroyed and strengthened" (Mesmer 55). He considered his hands to be a north and south magnetic pole in which he would send a current of magnetic fluid through one hand, into the patient, and back through his opposite hand. Despite the implications of a feedback loop, Mesmer never considered the possibility for the quality of the magnetic current to change in relation to the patient's inner blockage or harmony.

Mesmer made some use of magnets in his early practice, but discontinued them when colleagues accused him of fraud and suggested that the magnets, not Mesmer, were the crucial source of healing properties. These accusations occurred during the 1773 treatment of Franzl Oesterlin, Mesmer's first patient to be treated entirely via animal magnetism. Oesterlin suffered from “various hysterical symptoms, including convulsions, vomiting, aches, fainting, hallucinations, paralysis, and trance” (Crabtree 5). He put three magnets on her body: one on her stomach and on each leg (the fact that this centralizes the uterus of his female patient should not be overlooked). The reaction to the magnets “caused severe pain” but the treatment “resulted in an improvement in her condition that lasted for several hours” (Crabtree 6). For Mesmer, the magnets were merely conductors, mineral tuning forks that enabled him to focus his practice, but conductors he nonetheless dispensed with in order to claim autonomy in his practice.

After moving his practice to Paris and taking on large groups of patients, his work became more performative and grandiose (he frequently practice in a dark room, wearing a velvet robe and wielding a magnetic wand), and so to did his actions become more gestural and symbolic of actual physical manipulation. Mesmer used his hands to make close passes that traversed the length of a patient's body (magnétisation à grand courant), as well a passes from a distance (passes longitudinales) whereby the magnetic force was transmitted through his fingers held in the shape of a pyramid or through a brass or iron wand (Crabtree 14).

By forgoing any aiding substance and treating his body as a site of animal magnetism, Mesmer marked himself in a unique position in relation to universal fluid. Mesmer was not necessarily a mediator of animal magnetism, in the sense that he did not take it from a higher source and dispense it to a lower source. As stated previously, magnetic properties existed between any and all sets of bodies; the celestial magnetic relationship was fundamentally rhizomatic. However, Mesmer was a mediator in that he was able to intercede on behalf of individuals when this relationship became unharmonious. It is precisely the tension between Mesmer's role as an arbitrator of the body versus a gatekeeper of wellness that resonates so deeply with the late 18th century struggle between Medieval scientific thought and Rational scientific thought. Mesmer is caught decidedly at the crux between the empirical expectation that his work as a physician was to diagnose illness and produce a cure (turning the body into an object of his evaluation) and the therapeutic reality that his research produced no data of the body. Only the patient could speak to their own wellness, and Mesmer desired no knowledge of the patient's body, as the patient's body was ultimately not the source of illness. Despite its performative nature, this was not a mediation that one could derive information from physical signifiers. This problem of Mesmer's non-existent knowledge of the body has salient epistemological consequences, as the 18th century was identified by the rising tide of biopower, particularly in the arbitration between the state and the “health” of the masses.

The Crisis

Miscellany Crap

Arriving in France in 1778, Mesmer brought a fully articulated concept of animal magnetism to bear upon the Parisian medical and courtly society. His practice ballooned in the span of 6 months, and it is at this moment that the practice of manipulating animal magnetism took on a truly social dimension.

"an 'antimedical' movement movement was already afoot in the 1770s that was attempting to promote reliance on the healing powers of nature rather than the radical interventions of physicians [...] The antimedical movement attempted to make the relationship between patient and physician more personal, insisting that the ill person be regarded not as a passive receptor of medical action but as an active participant in the healing process" (Crabtree 15). (Perhaps cite from Foucault and the Lectures on Psychiatric Power alchemical processes of nature)

To Be Added Into Choice Locations:)

-A source calls Animal Magnetism “a failed or aborted therapeutic technology” (Lanska & Lanska, 314).

From: Crabtree, Adam. Animal Magnetism, Early Hypnotism, and Psychical Research, 1766-1925. NY: Kraus International Publications, 1988.