American Mesmerism: Science, Society, and the "Manipulation of Mental States" in the Mid-Nineteenth Century

在国家建设的开创性时期，美国的迷恋提供了一个研究科学和社会的机会。19世纪中叶，催眠术突然进入美国人的意识，同时渗透到宗教、科学、医学和新兴的流行文化活动领域。这种有争议的做法，以其电磁神经力和莫名其妙的恍惚状态，激起了接触过它的人的敬畏、惊愕和创造力。这种莫名其妙的催眠究竟是怎么回事？一项新的科学发现？宗教启示？非凡的灵丹妙药？恶作剧？大多数美国人在公开演讲中遇到了迷恋，在那里他们经历了对心灵的科学调查、社区剧场和公共医疗诊所的迷人融合。在这些演讲舞台上，激活美国生活的持久紧张局势上演：神圣与世俗，信仰与怀疑，想象力与理性主义。研究迷恋打开了一扇通往冲突的大门，这些冲突塑造了美国文化，并将继续塑造美国文化。这个科学与社会职业发展奖学金(PDF)的主要目标是研究迷恋引发的话语，以理解这种“公共科学”示范是如何被用来构建知识的。第二个目标是考察迷幻主义如何对19世纪心理学做出贡献。催眠实践的核心(诱导一个人进入恍惚状态，改变了思维、感觉和身体功能)是开创性的“实验”事件，发现和应用就是从这个事件中产生的。可以用来进行科学研究的动态心身现象，自我提升和治愈的强大“精神力量”，以及着魔和着迷的人之间传递的强烈的“同情”情绪，都被纳入了一种有趣的人性观点，这一观点“播种”了几种19世纪的疗法(如催眠)和三个宗教派别。迷恋如何影响美国心理学的发展还没有被很好地理解。PDF基金将在2008-2009年的学术休假期间支持PI的研究和培训。项目方法论是科学史上的历史研究、对时期文本、论文和期刊的批判性分析以及史学。培训部分将在明尼苏达大学的科学、技术和医学史(HSTM)项目中进行。课程将涉及科学史中的研究方法和史学。与教员(特别是教员赞助人Sally Gregory Kohlstedt)的协商将指导PI的研究。这本PDF的产品是科学史/社会科学史会议的三个演示文稿，以及一本关于美国迷恋的书(将于2010年完成)的三个章节。公社所掌握的知识和技能将用于改进圣凯瑟琳学院学生的心理学史和科学史教学。拟议中的研究将促进对前几代美国人对人性的看法的理解，这一观点广泛影响了19世纪。它将阐明催眠术的公开表达，探索它在那个时代科学知识构建中的作用，并促进对从它衍生出来的心理-身体实践和社会动力学理论的理解。通过这种培训和休假支持，PI将能够以更准确、更复杂的史学方式研究和撰写美国催眠术的历史，并对心理学史做出重大贡献。在奖学金结束后很长一段时间内，心理学和科学史的学术、传播和教学仍将是国际和平协会的中心目标。

American mesmerism affords an opportunity to study science and society during a seminal period in the building of the nation. Bursting into American consciousness in the mid-nineteenth century, mesmerism simultaneously penetrated religious, scientific, medical and burgeoning popular cultural spheres of activity. The controversial practice, with its electro-magnetic nerve forces and inexplicable trances, incited feelings of awe, consternation, and creativity in people who came in contact with it. What on earth was this inexplicable mesmeric trance? A new scientific discovery? A religious revelation? A remarkable cure-all? A hoax? Most Americans encountered mesmerism in public lectures where they experienced a beguiling fusion of scientific investigation of the mind, community theater, and public medical clinic. On those lecture stages enduring tensions activating American life played out: sacred and secular, belief and skepticism, and imagination and rationalism. Studying mesmerism opens a portal to conflicts that shaped and continue to shape American culture.A prime objective of this Science & Society Professional Development Fellowship (PDF) is to examine the discourse mesmerism provoked to understand how this demonstration of "public science" was used to construct knowledge. A second objective is to examine how mesmerism contributed to nineteenth-century psychology. The core of mesmeric practice (inducing a person into trance altered thinking, feeling, and bodily functions) is the seminal "experimental" event from whence discoveries and applications emanated. Dynamic mind-body phenomena that could be manipulated for scientific inquiry, potent "mind-powers" for self-enhancement and healing, and intense feelings of "sympathy" that passed between the mesmerist and the entranced were incorporated into an intriguing view of human nature that "seeded" several nineteenth-century therapies (such as hypnosis) and three religious sects. How mesmerism impacted the development of American psychology is not well understood.PDF funding will support research and training for the PI during a 2008-9 academic sabbatical. Project methodology is historical research, critical analysis of period texts, papers, and periodicals, and historiographies in the history of science. The training component will take place at the University of Minnesota's History of Science, Technology and Medicine (HSTM) program. Coursework will address research methods and historiography in the history of science. Consultations with faculty (especially faculty sponsor Sally Gregory Kohlstedt) will guide the PI's research. Products of this PDF are three presentations at history of science/history of social science conferences and three chapters toward a book on American mesmerism (to be completed by 2010). Knowledge and skills acquired by the PI will be used to improve instruction in the history of psychology and the history of science for students at the College of St. Catherine. Proposed research will advance understanding of a view of human nature held by previous generations of Americans that broadly impacted the nineteenth century. It will elucidate mesmerism's public expression, explore its role in the construction of scientific knowledge in its era, and advance understanding of the psychological mind-body practices and theories of social dynamics that were derived from it. With this training and sabbatical support, the PI will be able to research and write the history of American mesmerism in a much more accurate, historiographically sophisticated way and contribute substantially to the history of psychology. Scholarship, dissemination, and teaching in the history of psychology and history of science will remain a central goal for the PI long after the conclusion of the fellowship.