Recherches, expériences et observations physiologiques sur l'homme dans l'état de somnambulisme naturel, et dans le somnambulisme provoqué par l'acte magnétique
period treatise · 1811
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SUMMARY
Puységur's 1811 treatise setting out his physiological doctrine of somnambulism, distinguishing natural sleepwalking from the 'somnambulisme provoqué par l'acte magnétique' (the lucid sleep induced by magnetizing). It is the mature statement of the surrogate mechanism at the centre of this case: that the magnetizer's action induces a distinct sleep-like state in which the subject speaks, responds to direction, and (Puységur claimed) perceives the cause of illness. Wellcome Collection catalogue record (work kr9m6fac) gives the imprint 'Paris: J.G. Dentu, 1811' and the author authority for Puységur (1751-1825).
NOTES
The 1811 Recherches is Puységur’s systematic exposition of magnetic somnambulism after more than two decades of practice. It is the primary source for the mechanism stage of the case: the reframing of Mesmer’s universal magnetic fluid into the production of an induced lucid sleep, the state from which the nineteenth century would later isolate suggestion and hypnosis. The Wellcome Collection holds and catalogues the work (kr9m6fac), establishing the 1811 Paris (J.G. Dentu) imprint and Puységur’s authorship.