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Mar 5, 2019 · Franz Mesmer's hypnotic health craze. Employing his theories of animal magnetism, Franz Mesmer conducts a therapy session with his patients positioned around a large baquet. Photograph by...
Mesmerism, named after its chief theoretician and practitioner, Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815), also known as Animal Magnetism, was one of the most popular medical theories of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
Franz Anton Mesmer ( / ˈmɛzmər / MEZ-mər; German: [ˈmɛsmɐ]; 23 May 1734 – 5 March 1815) was a German physician with an interest in astronomy. He theorized the existence of a process of natural energy transference occurring between all animate and inanimate objects; this he called "animal magnetism", later referred to as mesmerism.
