Description
Book SynopsisFranz Anton Mesmer's concept of animal magnetism exercised a profound influence on key European and American thinkers. Mesmer, who saw in his discovery the secret of health, had hoped to recover the harmony between man and nature by harnessing the power of magnetic fluids. In calling attention to the existence of a second self that surfaces in the
Table of Contents*Frontmatter, pg. i*Contents, pg. vii*List of Illustrations, pg. viii*Preface, pg. ix*1. From Mesmer to Freud: Animal Magnetism, Hypnosis, and Suggestion, pg. 1*2. Salvation by Electricity: Science, Poetry, and "Naturphilosophie", pg. 45*3. Thunder, Lightning, and Electricity: Moments of Recognition in Heinrich von Kleist's Dramas, pg. 82*4. Blindness and Insight: Visionary Experience in the Tales of E.T.A. Hoffmann, pg. 121*5. The Metaphysics of the Will: Voyeurs and Visionaries in Balzac's "Comedie humaine", pg. 152*6. Masters and Slaves: The Creative Process in Hawthorne's Fiction, pg. 189*7. From Science Fiction to Psychoanalysis: Henry James's "Bostonians," D. H. Lawrence's "Women in Love," and Thomas Mann's "Mario and the Magician", pg. 230*Appendix. Mesmer's Propositions, pg. 273*Index, pg. 277
