Imperceptible signs: remnants of magnÉtisme in scientific discourses on hypnotism in late nineteenth‐century france*

This article interrogates the relations among hypnotism, magnétisme, and the domain of the wondrous through close analysis of scientific texts on hypnotism. In question is the notion that somnambulist subjects possessed hyperacute senses, enabling them to perceive usually imperceptible signs, and thus inadvertently to denature researchers’ experiments (a phenomenon known as unconscious suggestion). The article explores researchers’ uncritical and unanimous acceptance of these ideas, arguing that they originate in a holdover from magnétisme. This complicates our understanding of the continuities and discontinuities between science and a precursor “pseudo‐science,” and, more narrowly, of the notorious Salpêtrière‐Nancy “battle” over hypnotism.

Source: Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences - July 1, 2015 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: KIM M. HAJEK Tags: Original Article Source Type: research