Mesmerise

The English verb mesmerise derives from the name of the influential German doctor Franz Mesmer (1734-1815). From the late eighteenth to the mid nineteenth century Mesmer’s theory of an energy in all living beings, which he called animal magnetism, was widely publicised and debated, becoming known as mesmerism. In its purest form this held that all illness could be cured by applying the animal magnetism of a person possessing strong magnetism, such as Dr Mesmer. He eventually fled Vienna for Paris as controversy grew over the success, or lack of success, of the cures he offered. Dr Mesmer later fled Paris as well after offering his mesmerising services to the upper echelons of Parisian society and encountering controversy once again.

In England a leading reforming doctor, John Elliotson, promoted and showcased mesmerism from the 1830s onward as a cure-all for physical illness, as detailed in the biography The Mesmerist. Some practices of mesmerism with practical application were later named hypnotism by Scottish doctor James Braid (1795-1860), and before the introduction of anaesthetic drugs in the mid nineteenth century, hypnotism was successfully used for pain relief in surgery and dentistry. In its day mesmerism, and to this day hypnotism, feature in popular literature and entertainment as a plot device far exceeding its actual real world abilities, usually featuring a malefactor taking total control of a victim. In current therapeutic practice hypnotherapy and the power of suggestion are in fact often successfully applied to mental conditions to achieve various client goals such as stopping smoking or speech therapy.

Something that is mesmerising is arrestingly fascinating, and someone who is mesmerised is transfixed, fascinated, or rooted to the spot by something, a bit like a rabbit in the headlights. To mesmerise someone implies that by some unseen power one paralyses, fascinates, transfixes or controls them.