HM
was advised to try mesmeric treatment, the experimental therapeutic practice of the re-alignment of spirits which had been promoted by Franz Anton Mesmer
as early as 1778, and which was popular in Britain throughout...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text
Elizabeth Inchbald
The medical practice of animal magnetism (something like hypnotism) was popularised by Franz Anton Mesmer
, who arrived in Paris two months before this play opened, and was popularly connected with the sexual exploitation of...
Timeline
February 1778: Franz Anton Mesmer, inventor of animal magnetism,...
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February 1778
Franz Anton Mesmer
, inventor of animal magnetism, arrived in Paris to promote his theory.
Darnton, Robert. Mesmerism: and the End of the Enlightenment in France. Harvard University Press, 1968.
3-4
6 November 1841: Charles MacKay's Extraordinary Popular Delusions...
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6 November 1841
Charles MacKay
's Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds described a mesmeric session in terms highly suggestive of the sexual stimulation of the predominantly female devotees. It was published in three volumes; the...
1876: By this date, women healers were so popular...
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1876
By this date, women healers were so popular among spiritualists that one consultation often cost as much as a guinea.
Owen, Alex. The Darkened Room: Women, Power, and Spiritualism in Late Nineteenth-Century England. Virago, 1989.
