David Armando

Situated at the crossroads of social, cultural and political history and the history of science and medicine, mesmerism is a subject with strong interdisciplinary implications. Mesmer's doctrine and treatments, based on the circulation of a supposed universal fluid (‘animal magnetism’) and the reciprocal influence it produced between animate bodies, have been indicated by some scholars as a turning point towards modern psychodynamic systems, while others have assigned him a relevant place within the cultural origins of the French Revolution.

This study, which is part of a collaborative research, aims to combine both approaches and to exploit new sources in order to provide an exhaustive reconstruction of the spread and evolution of mesmerism, both as a medical doctrine and therapy and as a social movement, as well as the reaction it provoked and its implications in France and abroad. Moreover, this apparently minor phenomenon and the controversies it generated will be taken as a lens through which to study the cultural, social and political transformations at the crucial turn of the eighteenth century, to address broader questions concerning the relationships between mind and body, reason and imagination, individual and society, therapist and patient, and to trace the genealogy of a number of contemporary issues, including the definition of the boundaries between science and pseudoscience, and the spread of transformation instances as well as irrational beliefs and conspiracy theories in moments of crisis.