Franz Anton Mesmer and the Rise and Fall of Animal Magnetism: Dramatic Cures, Controversy, and Ultimately a Triumph for the Scientific Method

Lanska, Douglas J.; Lanska, Joseph T.

doi:10.1007/978-0-387-70967-3_22

Cited by 35 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…As long as patients expect the therapy to work, they will get better (Cuijpers and Cristea 2016). The placebo effect might explain why some exotic treatments, such as Mesmer's animal magnetism (Lanska and Lanska 2007), acupuncture (Derry et al 2006), homeopathy (Grams 2019), swimming with dolphins, or dancing the Argentine tango, appear to be effective (Cuijpers and Cristea 2016).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neuropsychopharmacotherapy: Complementary Treatments

Moises¹

2020

NeuroPsychopharmacotherapy

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neuropsychopharmacotherapy: Complementary Treatments

Moises¹

2020

NeuroPsychopharmacotherapy

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“…By the mid-1780s, the popularity of Mesmerism among the public alarmed physicians and the government (Lanska and Lanska 2007). By then, orthodox practitioners did indeed see Mesmer as an economic threat to their own practices.…”

Section: Comparison With the Earlier Controversy Over Mesmerismmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Proponents of animal magnetism mounted a counterattack to the Commission report using a barrage of hundreds of lay articles and pamphlets, including scornful critiques of the Commission report and compilations of testimonials (Lanska and Lanska 2007). Mesmer threatened to leave France to avoid the spreading conflicts but was persuaded by supporters to stay at least temporarily so his departure would not imply his acceptance of the Commission's findings.…”

Section: Comparison With the Earlier Controversy Over Mesmerismmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The anti-Perkinist documentary record in Great Britain is also extensive, and includes the following: (1) The initial salvos from Haygarth and his associates in 1800 and later The purpose of this article is to examine and categorize the rhetorical arguments used on both sides of this conflict, and particularly the ones used by Perkinists in a disinformation campaign in response to their opponents who provided scientific evidence against the utility of the tractors in the form of then-novel controlled trials using sham instruments. 6 The arguments used in the conflict over Perkins' metallic tractors followed those used in a similar controversy in France over animal magnetism in the 1780s (Mesmer [1779(Mesmer [ ] 1948(Mesmer [ , [1779(Mesmer [ ] 1980(Mesmer [ , 1781Franklin et al [1784] 1997, Franklin et al [1784] 2002a, Franklin et al [1784 2002b; Lanska 2007, 2014) and foreshadowed those in the modern controversy over acupuncture, another instrument-based therapy for pain; the animal magnetism and acupuncture controversies also concerned the interpretation of clinical trials using sham controls (Franklin et al [1784] 1997, Franklin et al [1784] 2002a, Franklin et al [1784 2002b; Brinkhaus et al 2006;Haake et al 2007;Lanska and Lanska 2007;Cherkin et al 2009;Madsen et al 2009;Berman et al 2010;Lanska and Lanska 2014). Extensive disinformation campaigns were employed more recently with multiple fraudulent therapies for COVID-19 (Freckelton 2020;Bramstedt 2021;Mackey et al 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Disinformation by Proponents of Perkins’ Patent “Metallick Tractors” (1798–1806) to Sway Public Opinion in Britain in Favor of a Fraudulent Therapy

Lanska

2024

Histories

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In 1796, American physician Elisha Perkins patented “metallick Tractors” for the treatment of various ailments, particularly those associated with pain. They were subsequently rapidly and widely disseminated in the United States and Great Britain based on testimonials and deceptive marketing tactics. Dissemination was facilitated by endorsements from prominent physicians, politicians, and clergymen; quasi-theoretical, handwaving explanations of efficacy based on Galvani’s then-current experiments; and the procedure’s apparent safety and simplicity. However, blinded placebo-controlled trials in Great Britain using sham devices demonstrated that the therapy was ineffective. In response, in the period from 1798 to 1806, Perkinists unleashed a barrage of disinformation (ad hominem attacks, misleading arguments, unethical propaganda tactics, and poetic and graphic satire) to sway public opinion in favor of the fraudulent therapy and against its critics. The disinformation slowed the abandonment of “tractoration”, but higher-level scientific argumentation ultimately prevailed. The Perkinist disinformation campaign had antecedents with the Mesmerist disinformation campaign in the mid-1780s. Similar propaganda tactics are still widely employed to encourage the purchase and use of disproven or fraudulent therapies, as evidenced by propaganda from adherents of acupuncture in response to negative clinical trials and from supporters of unsafe and ineffective therapies promulgated during COVID-19.

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“…The principles of hypnosis have been previously established by Franz Anton Mesmer, (1734–1815) who created the so-called “Animal magnetism,” a pervasive property of nature that could be used as an effective therapy for a wide variety of conditions and its therapeutically application—the “mesmerization” ( Lanska and Lanska, 2007 ).…”

Section: From Middle Ages To the 18th Centurymentioning

confidence: 99%

Historical roots of histrionic personality disorder

2015

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Histrionic Personality Disorder is one of the most ambiguous diagnostic categories in psychiatry. Hysteria is a classical term that includes a wide variety of psychopathological states. Ancient Egyptians and Greeks blamed a displaced womb, for many women’s afflictions. Several researchers from the 18th and 19th centuries studied this theme, namely, Charcot who defined hysteria as a “neurosis” with an organic basis and Sigmund Freud who redefined “neurosis” as a re-experience of past psychological trauma. Histrionic personality disorder (HPD) made its first official appearance in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders II (DSM-II) and since the DSM-III, HPD is the only disorder that kept the term derived from the old concept of hysteria. The subject of hysteria has reflected positions about health, religion and relationships between the sexes in the last 4000 years, and the discussion is likely to continue.

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Franz Anton Mesmer and the Rise and Fall of Animal Magnetism: Dramatic Cures, Controversy, and Ultimately a Triumph for the Scientific Method

Cited by 35 publications

References 31 publications

Neuropsychopharmacotherapy: Complementary Treatments

Neuropsychopharmacotherapy: Complementary Treatments

Disinformation by Proponents of Perkins’ Patent “Metallick Tractors” (1798–1806) to Sway Public Opinion in Britain in Favor of a Fraudulent Therapy

Historical roots of histrionic personality disorder

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