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Maria Theresia von Paradis

1759–1824 · Austrian

role:Austrian pianist, singer, and composer; the most-documented early patient of Franz Anton Mesmer in Vienna

nationality:Austrian

connection:Von Paradis lost her sight in early childhood. She was treated by Franz Anton Mesmer in Vienna in 1777, before his move to Paris. Mesmer reported a temporary restoration of partial sight; the report was contested by other Vienna physicians, and von Paradis's family eventually removed her from his care. The case became one of the principal early documented controversies around Mesmer's practice and is the earliest detailed patient-history record in the Mesmer literature. Von Paradis went on to a substantial career as a concert pianist and composer, performing and composing across European capitals into the 1810s. Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 18 (K. 456) is sometimes attributed to her commission, though the attribution is contested in modern musicology.

confirmed:yes

APPEARS IN CASES

mesmer-animal-magnetism-1778-1784 patient

EXTERNAL REFERENCES

NOTES

Maria Theresia von Paradis (1759-1824) is the most-documented early patient of Franz Anton Mesmer. Treated in Vienna in 1777 (before Mesmer’s move to Paris), her case became one of the principal early documented controversies around the practice. The treatment and its disputed outcome are described in Mesmer’s Mémoire sur la découverte du magnétisme animal (1779) and in the contemporaneous Vienna medical literature. She is included here as the earliest named clinical-case figure in the Mesmer record; the Paris client list that followed her case ran into the hundreds but is documented chiefly by initials and social descriptor rather than by name.