title: [History of healing; animal magnetism].
abstract: From 1791, patients in our country were treated according to the theory of animal magnetism or mesmerism, elaborated by the physician Mesmer (1734-1815). An invisible substance was supposed to be the medium linking cosmic phenomena with life on earth. By distributing this substance harmoniously over a patient's body, a magnetizer could cure that patient. Subsequently, it was also believed that the treatment induced somnambulism (or hypnosis) and gave the patient 'inner vision': insight into his own ailment and consequently, into the desired treatment. Owing to lack of good long-term results, magnetism after a few years was dropped from the regular circuit.
authors.affiliation: Trimbos-instituut, Utrecht.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Vijselaar
mesh_terms: D000529:Complementary Therapies / Q000266:history*; D005060:Europe; D049671:History, 18th Century; D049672:History, 19th Century; D006801:Humans; D006990:Hypnosis / Q000266:history*
vernacular_title: Geschiedenis van het genezen; het dierlijk magnetisme.