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Marquis de Lafayette

Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette

1757–1834 · French

role:French aristocrat, military officer, and statesman; member of the Société de l'Harmonie Universelle and a documented financier and propagator of Mesmer's animal magnetism

nationality:French

connection:Lafayette subscribed to Mesmer's Société de l'Harmonie Universelle and was a documented patron of the practice in Paris during the early 1780s. On his return to the United States in 1784 he attempted to introduce mesmerism into American medical and political circles. He wrote to George Washington commending the practice; Washington responded with cautious interest but Benjamin Franklin (then in Paris and shortly to chair the royal commission that disconfirmed the protocol) advised against the project. Lafayette's role in the case is illustrative of the network through which the Paris elite circulated mesmerism into wider European and American social circuits. His connection is documented in his correspondence and in standard biographical literature.

confirmed:yes

APPEARS IN CASES

mesmer-animal-magnetism-1778-1784 financier

NOTES

The Marquis de Lafayette (1757-1834), French aristocrat, hero of the American Revolution, and statesman of the early French republics, was a subscriber to Mesmer’s Société de l’Harmonie Universelle and a propagator of mesmerism. He attempted in 1784 to introduce the practice into American political and medical circles via correspondence with George Washington and other contacts. The attempt failed; Franklin’s negative reaction (and shortly thereafter the public report of the royal commission Franklin chaired) effectively ended the American mesmeric initiative. Lafayette’s role in the case is documented in his correspondence and in standard biographies of him and of Mesmer.