Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 1097

ARMAND MARIE JACQUES CHASTENET DE PUYSEGUR (1751-1825) Recherches, expériences et observations physiologiques sur l'homme dans l'etat de somnambulisme naturel, et dans le somnambulisme provoque par l'acte magnétique. J. G. Dentu et chez l'auteur 1811 430 [1] pp. 19.1 cm.

The Marquis de Puységur was a wealthy, distinguished, and fashionable member of French society who had no medical training. He had early been won over to Mesmer's (see No. 1013) theories and became his ardent pupil and co-worker. Of philanthropic disposition, he and his brother, Jacques Maxime Paul, practiced magnetic therapy on their estate near Soissons and did not accept fees for their treatments. It was while working with mesmerism that he discovered what he called somnambulism which eventually evolved into today's hypnotism. Although the mesmeric trance was an unwanted phenomenon in Mesmer's therapy, the Puységur brothers recognized that the trance provided an opportunity to muster the mind's power to aid the patient. Even before Mesmer abandoned his practice in 1785, the Marquis was collecting data on somnambulism and he developed a therapeutic regimen which involved what today we would call posthypnotic suggestion. In the present work he discusses his research and observations with somnambulism and induced somnambulism. Included are a number of interesting case histories used to illustrate his theories and experiences.

See Related Record(s): 1013

Cited references: Wellcome III, p. 331