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

美国的催眠术提供了一个在国家建设的重要时期研究科学和社会的机会。催眠术在19世纪中期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，由于其电磁神经力量和无法解释的恍惚，在接触它的人身上激起了敬畏、惊愕和创造力的感觉。这种莫名其妙的催眠状态究竟是什么？一个新的科学发现？宗教启示？灵丹妙药？一个骗局?大多数美国人都是在公共演讲中遇到催眠的，在那里他们经历了一种对心灵的科学调查、社区戏剧和公共医疗诊所的迷人融合。在这些演讲的舞台上，激发美国人生活的持久紧张关系上演了：神圣与世俗，信仰与怀疑，想象力与理性主义。研究催眠术打开了一扇通往冲突的大门，这些冲突塑造了并继续塑造着美国文化。科学与社会专业发展奖学金（PDF）的一个主要目标是研究话语催眠，以理解这种“公共科学”的示范是如何被用来构建知识的。第二个目标是研究催眠术对19世纪心理学的贡献。催眠练习（诱导一个人进入恍惚状态，改变思维、感觉和身体功能）的核心是开创性的“实验”事件，由此产生了发现和应用。可以用于科学研究的动态身心现象，用于自我提升和治疗的强大“心灵力量”，以及在催眠师和入迷者之间传递的强烈的“同情”感，被整合成一种有趣的人性观，“播下”了19世纪的几种治疗方法（如催眠）和三个宗教派别。催眠对美国心理学发展的影响尚不清楚。pdf基金将在2008- 2009年学术休假期间支持PI的研究和培训。项目方法论是历史研究，对时期文本、论文、期刊和科学史史学的批判性分析。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。课程将涉及科学史的研究方法和史学。与教师（特别是教师发起人Sally Gregory Kohlstedt）的磋商将指导PI的研究。这个PDF的成果是在科学史/社会科学史会议上的三次报告，以及一本关于美国催眠的书的三章（将于2010年完成）。PI获得的知识和技能将用于改善圣凯瑟琳学院学生的心理学史和科学史教学。拟议的研究将促进对前几代美国人所持的人性观的理解，这种观点对19世纪产生了广泛的影响。它将阐明催眠术的公开表达，探索它在那个时代的科学知识建设中的作用，并促进对由此衍生的心理身心实践和社会动力学理论的理解。有了这种训练和休假的支持，PI将能够以一种更准确、更复杂的历史编纂方式研究和撰写美国催眠术的历史，并为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研究、传播和教学仍将是PI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.