Anton Mesmer—Inventor of Hypnotherapy

Anton Mesmer (1734–1815) was born into a family of modest means in South Germany. He studied medicine in Vienna and joined the medical faculty at the University of Vienna in 1767. He soon developed his concept of ‘animal magnetism’ based on the ideas of the astronomer Maximilian Hell. Specifically, he postulated that an invisible fluid in the body determined our health, acted according to the laws of magnetism, and could be influenced from the outside. Mesmer began treating patients and soon provoked a scandal that made him leave Vienna and move to Paris in 1778. In Paris, his therapy was an immediate success and Mesmer became rich and famous. Yet he failed to get his method recognised by the Royal Academies. When even Marie Antoinette became a devotee, King Louis XVI ordered a commission of experts to investigate. It concluded that Mesmer’s method did not withstand scientific scrutiny. Mesmer then left Paris and eventually ended up back in South Germany, where he died in 1815.