Franz mesmer definition1/7/2024 ![]() ![]() Many patients claimed that they were cured and felt better. JOHANNA MAYER: I mean, probably not, although it depends– it depends on what you mean by work, though, right? Because to be clear, Franz Anton Mesmer was a crank. But the thing was a ton of them claimed to emerge from these sessions healed. And he even had this magnetic iron wand that he would use to supposedly move around this fluid.Īnd these treatments could be really disturbing to witness. He would wave his arms over their bodies. He would pace around wearing this purple silk robe. He would bring groups of patients into these dimly lit, eerily decorated rooms. So that was Mesmer’s first breakout treatment.Īnd from there, things really escalated. But according to Franzl she said that she first felt pain and then that changed to burning heat and then suddenly, her afflictions just went away. And then he took magnets and he ran them all up and down her stomach and legs trying to unblock this fluid.Īnd to be clear, this should not have caused any sort of sensation. ![]() So first, he asked Franzl to drink this iron-rich concoction. Perfect opportunity to test out this animal magnetism theory, see if there’s anything to it. So Franzl walks into Mesmer’s office one day. And just nothing that they were trying was working to cure her. And poor Franzl had a whole host of afflictions that were plaguing her, everything from a toothache to convulsions to occasional bouts of paralysis. So his first breakout treatment was with this woman named Franzl Osterlin. JOHANNA MAYER: Well, Ira he did all sorts of really weird stuff. ![]() IRA FLATOW: What did he do to his patients? And so they called what he was doing “mesmerism.” So this doctor was said to have mesmerized his patients. They refused to validate animal magnetism. So the cure for that would be to figure out some way to unblock it, just like a plumbing issue, kind of.īut the term “mesmerize” actually came from this doctor’s critics. So he thought that it would ebb and flow just like the tides and you ran into trouble when this fluid would get blocked inside a person. And Mesmer believed that gravity affected this supposed fluid in us, also. But the idea behind it, Mesmer believed, was that there was this invisible fluid that flowed in all people.Īnd at the time, Newton’s law of gravitation was actually a relatively recent thing. It’s because it’s not really a real thing. IRA FLATOW: In a bar maybe, but not in terms of practicing it. And he practiced this very strange form of medicine called animal magnetism. JOHANNA MAYER: Well, it actually comes from a person, namely a Dr. So where does the word “mesmerize” come from? And joining us to tell us more is Johanna Mayer, producer and host of Science Diction, right here in Brooklyn, New York. Well, the origin of this word is the subject of the first episode of the new season of Science Diction, our podcast about words and the science stories behind them. What do you think of when you hear the word “mesmerize?” Hypnosis, perhaps? Or maybe something so beautiful you can’t take your eyes off it? But hey, not if you’re driving or walking, OK? IRA FLATOW: I want to do a little exercise here. Find more episodes from previous seasons and subscribe to Science Diction here!.Joining Ira to talk about the story behind “mesmerize,” and what else is coming this season is Science Diction host, Johanna Mayer. The story behind the word “mesmerize,” and other words about mind control are the focus of season three of Science Diction, a podcast about words and the science behind them from Science Friday. Mesmer made enemies in high places, labeling him a con, and calling his type of practice “mesmerism.” His critics, however, weren’t so sure about that. Mesmer claimed his treatments cured everything from toothaches to deafness. ![]() In the 18th century, a man named Franz Anton Mesmer came to Paris with a plan: to practice a controversial form of medicine involving magnets and gravity. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, and sign up for our newsletter. Science Diction is a bite-sized podcast about words-and the science stories behind them. A French oil painting from the late-1700s of “Mesmeric therapy.” Credit: Wellcome Collection/ CC BY 4.0 ![]()
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