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Article ID: CBB067953438

La condamnation du mesmérisme revisitée (2021)

Belhoste, Bruno (Author)

Revue d'Histoire des Sciences Humaines
Volume: 39
Pages: 187-214

DOI: 10.4000/rhsh.6602

URI: https://journals.openedition.org/rhsh/6602

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Controversies and disputes Expertise Mesmerism Medicine 18th century France Société Royale de Médecine

L’article revient sur les enquêtes officielles qui ont conduit à la condamnation du magnétisme animal en 1784. Il s’attache principalement à étudier comment ont été constituées les deux commissions chargées d’enquêter, la commission royale et la commission de la Société royale de médecine, comment se sont déroulées les enquêtes elles-mêmes, sous forme d’observations dans la clinique du docteur Deslon, un disciple de Mesmer, puis sous forme d’expériences sur des sujets isolés (certaines en simple aveugle), et, enfin, comment les rapports ont été préparés et rédigés. L’objectif est de montrer, à partir des nombreux documents produits à cette occasion, la complexité et les contradictions des enquêtes, les divisions entre les enquêteurs et, finalement, la fragilité des conclusions auxquelles ils sont parvenus. L’article illustre ainsi, sur un cas célèbre, la difficulté d’arriver à des certitudes quand il s’agit d’évaluer des traitements médicaux. This article rereads the official inquiries that led to the condemnation of animal magnetism in 1784. It focuses on how the two investigating committees, the Royal Commission and the Commission of the Royal Society of Medicine, were constituted; how the investigations themselves were carried out, in the form of observations in the clinic of Dr Deslon, a disciple of Mesmer, and then in the form of experiments on isolated subjects (some of them for placebo effect); and finally how the reports were prepared and written. The aim is to show, on the basis of the numerous documents produced on this occasion, the complexity and contradictions of the investigations, the divisions between the investigators, and the fragility of the conclusions they reached. Using this famous case, the article thus illustrates the difficulty of arriving at certainties when it comes to evaluating medical treatments.

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