Fact and Fable in Psychology

by Joseph Jastrow

VI

The early decades of the present century witnessed a revival of interest in animal magnetism. Those whom the Revolution had turned away from their favorite studies returned to them; new societies were organized; journals in the interest of the science were founded; it was recognized by various governments and scientific associations; the Berlin Academy in 1818 offered a prize of 3000 marks for the best memoir on the subject; Mesmer was brought forth from his obscurity, and many of the distinctive traits of his system were reintroduced and amplified. The movement was no longer confined to France, but spread all over Europe, and even reached America. Its most continuous connection was, however, still with Paris, and mainly with the learned societies to which Mesmer had appealed in vain.

In contrast to the dominant belief in the miraculous endowment of "somnambulic" subjects, there were a few who presented the subjective nature of the phenomena. The career of Faria, a priest of Portuguese extraction, who resided long in India, is regarded by some as occupying an important place in the history of hypnotism. The Abbé Faria came to Paris in 1814 and gave public exhibitions, in which he produced many of the typical hypnotic phenomena, and explained them as dependent not at all on his own powers, but entirely upon the susceptibility and the faith of his subjects. He rejected alike any belief in a personal influence or in a magnetic or other fluid. He simply asked his subjects to think determinedly of sleep, or to look at the back of his hand; and then in an authoritative voice he would call out "dormez," emphasizing the command by pressing his hand on the subject's forehead. By such simple means he put to sleep three or four of every five subjects, and that within a minute or two. He demonstrated the production of forced movements, the deprivation of control of simple movements, the false perceptions of sense, etc., all as products of suggestion, and indeed anticipated many of the typical phenomena of modern hypnotism. Faria's career was prematurely curtailed by an unfortunate incident; an actor succeeded in feigning sleep in one of his performances, and forthwith branded him as an impostor. If we may credit certain accounts, his position practically anticipated that of Braid; but, according to others, while impressed with the value of verbal suggestion, he was not free from the prevailing mysteries and dogmas of somnambulism. In 1819 Bertrand delivered a course of public lectures on animal magnetism, notable for their appreciation of the rôle of suggestion in their production. For example, he sent a magnetized letter to his patient which, when applied to the body, produced the desired symptoms; but a second letter, not magnetized, but supposed to be so, and a third letter, written by a friend in imitation of Bertrand's handwriting, were equally efficacious. These are, however, some of the exceptional exponents of the doctrines, which in the main were concerned with the miraculous element of somnambulism introduced by Puységur and his followers.

It is to be noted that in the revival of hypnotism the scene of operation was transferred from the baquet and salle des crises to the hospital; the subjects are no longer persons of fashion seeking release from ennui, but patients of the poorer classes, suffering mainly from one or other of the protean forms of nervous derangement. Some very remarkable subjects were discovered at the Salpêtrière by Georget and Rostan, and the former inserted a chapter on somnambulism in his textbook of physiology. In 1820 Husson authorized magnetism at the Hôtel Dieu; and within a brief time somnambules were to be found at almost all the hospitals of Paris. The phenomena presented were those introduced by Puységur; patients became somnambulic, prescribed for themselves and others, perceived by an internal sense the details of their own anatomy, foresaw the future, and developed a variety of abnormal sensibilities. Baron Du Potet, who experimented extensively at the Hôtel Dieu, was convinced that his subjects could perceive his silent wish and obey his unexpressed command. In Germany appeared eccentric systems of "Tellurism" and "Siderism," and the occult was rampant. The mysterious and extreme phenomena were accentuated, and the value and genuineness of the entire somnambulic condition were made to rest upon the demonstrability of miracles. Here and there a few of the simpler phenomena, such as insensibility to pain, were produced, but in the main these were neglected.

Of this type were the observations that, through the zeal of Dr. Foissac, the Academy of Medicine was called upon to consider in 1825. He offered to exhibit his subjects, claiming for them all the supernormal powers above indicated—that, indeed, "they were possessed of the genius that had inspired Hippocrates." The work of this commission was not free from dissensions; and five years elapsed before they were able to submit a report. The report was extremely favorable to the magnetists, and urged that, while some of the effects produced were too trivial to serve as evidence of a new system, and while others could be explained as due to the action of the imagination, "some results depend solely upon magnetism and cannot be produced without it." The commission corroborated the physiological and other effects that had been already recorded,—such as quickening of respiration and circulation, the induction of tremors and convulsive movements, insensibility to pain and to ordinary stimuli, the rapport between subject and operator, the continuity of memory in successive magnetic states; but the chief stress was laid upon the more wonderful operations. Of these they certified as genuine, reading with closed eyes, the prediction of the course of disease, clairvoyance, and general mental exaltation. They also testified to the value of the therapeutic effects, and conclude that the "academy should recognize and encourage researches into magnetism as an interesting branch of psychology and natural history." The report was read, but met with such decided disapproval that it was withheld from the public. Its fundamental error was the supposition that the demonstration of so unaccountable a phenomenon as reading without the use of the eyes was necessary to or could establish the existence of animal magnetism; they also erred through ignorance of the extreme rigidity of conditions necessary to exclude the endless possibilities of deception, conscious and unconscious, and of the remarkable subtlety and hyperæsthesia of hysterical and hypnotic subjects.

The next scene upon the stage of the Academy of Medicine was enacted in 1837. At this time, the painless extraction of a tooth from a patient in a somnambulic condition aroused considerable attention, especially as the operator, Dr. Oudet, was a member of the Academy. Other painless surgical operations upon magnetized patients were reported. At about this time, Dr. Berna directed the attention of the Academy to his subjects, for whom he claimed such powers as reading with closed eyes. To test these claims a commission of nine was appointed, and reported promptly, July 17, 1837. This report was negative in the extreme. It raised the objection that everything was made to rest upon the testimony of these somnambulists; it declared that even the proofs of insensibility were defective, and flatly denied the existence of the condition of somnambulism. The alleged interpretation of the will of the operator was referred to unconscious suggestion; the attempt at reading with the eyes closed and the recognition of objects applied to the occiput was either a total failure, or depended for its small measure of success upon the shrewd guesses of the subjects, whose honesty was regarded as not above suspicion. "We are at a loss what to think of a somnambulist who described the knave of clubs on a blank card, who transformed the ticket of an academician into a gold watch with a white dial plate inscribed with black figures, and who, if she had been pressed, would perhaps have gone on to tell us the hour marked by this watch." The commission of 1837, even more specifically than that of 1825, was called upon to consider alleged marvels; and this circumstance should be taken into account in applying to them, as may properly be done, the same criticism as was directed against former commissions. They, too, have mistaken the real issue, and their justifiable skepticism regarding such facts as reading without the use of the eyes unduly biased their judgment in regard to the simpler and readily verifiable phenomena.

The next step was certainly a practicable one; Burdin, a member of the Academy, offered a prize of three thousand francs to any one who could read without the use of the eyes. The offer was open for two years, and subsequently the time was extended. Considering the large number who had claimed this power, few offered themselves for examination; and these either clearly failed to meet the test (being detected in the manipulation of the bandage, and the like), or those who had the somnambulists in charge refused to conform to the conditions required by the examiners; and so the prize was never awarded. The Academy then voted, October 1, 1840, to refuse from that time on to give any consideration to questions relating to animal magnetism.