In keeping with mesmerism and hypnotism as the themes of the last prize (a copy of Adam Crabtree’s From Mesmer to Freud), I selected Alison Winter’s seminal study Mesmerized. Powers of Mind in Victorian Britain for the next draw. Published in 1998 by University of Chicago Press, Winter’s meticulously researched study continues to set the standard for historically sophisticated explorations of the rise and fall of mesmerism as a medical practice and bone of metaphysical, religious and political contention.
With its strict focus on Victorian Britain, Winter’s book brings out crucial nuances in past debates and polemics over mesmerism and its widely reported marvels, reconstructing a fascinating time when (to borrow from the publisher’s blurb) “apparently reasonable people twisted into bizarre postures, called out in unknown languages, and placidly bore assaults that should have caused unbearable pain all while they were mesmerized”.
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By no means uncritical of mesmerism, Winter does an admirable job of reconstructing past controversies in a balanced and fair manner, and ultimately questions popular assumptions of mesmerism as a self-evident ‘pseudo-science’. With its focus on important wider contexts, and by reminding us of the central role of mesmerism and other supposedly ‘occult’ practices for educational reforms pushed by science professionalizers like Thomas H. Huxley, Mesmerized therefore nicely complements Crabtree’s From Mesmer to Freud, whose focus is more on concepts and ideas within a cross-national perspective.
As always, all current and new patrons of Forbidden Histories will enter the prize draw. If you’re not already a FH supporter (in which case you’ll enter the draw automatically), just make a pledge on Patreon by Sunday, 8 September 2019 (10pm GMT) to qualify.
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From its inception in 2013, Forbidden Histories has been a labour of love. I currently receive no funding for my research and pay all expenses to run this website, produce Youtube videos, and promote FH out of my own pocket. (Sadly, ad revenue and Amazon and AbeBooks affiliate commissions do not even begin to cover the costs of running FH.)
If you value my research and outreach work, and if you would like to help keep Forbidden Histories going, please consider a pledge on Patreon. Starting at $2 a month, your patronage will come with various rewards and can be cancelled any time.
Some of the ongoing projects your pledge will support are, for example:
- my book (to be published by Stanford University Press), which reconstructs the formation of modern psychology in Europe and the US in response to research into spiritualism, altered states of consciousness and other controversial phenomena
- two book chapters I was invited to write for edited volumes, to be published by Oxford University Press and Routledge respectively;
- an extensively researched reconstruction of William James’ studies of the trance medium Leonora Piper (drawing on newly discovered archival material at Cambridge and various collections in the USA), to be completed and submitted in two parts to a leading history of science journal;
- the planned annotated research guide to important archival material on the history of science and magic at Cambridge University
With many thanks for your support and all my best,
Andreas Sommer
