Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T10:59:52.443Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Murder under hypnosis*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

Ruth Harris
Ruth Harris*
Affiliation:
St John's College, Oxford
*
†Address for correspondence: Miss Ruth Harris,, St John's College, Oxford 0X1 3JP.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Synopsis

This article discusses the trial of a woman accused of murder in 1890 whose defence rested on the claim that she acted unconsciously under the hypnotic influence of her older lover. This relatively banal case brought together two rival schools of French psychiatry – that of J.-M. Charcot in Paris and that of Hippolyte Bernheim in Nancy – and provided a wide-ranging examination of views on the nature of unconscious mental activity as well as the social, political and professional implications that their theories on hypnotism and hysteria contained. Discussions on women's sexuality, family relations, crowd behaviour and political radicalism all played a part in the debate and are examined through the case study that the trial of Gabrielle Bompard permits. Moreover, the trial shed incidental light on the campaign by physicians against amateur healers and hypnotists whom they blamed for unleashing a wave of mass hysteria through their theatrical representations. The episode was one important element in the struggle for the passage of the law of 30 November 1892, which outlawed amateur practitioners and established the medical monopoly over healing in France.

Type
Research Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 15 , Issue 3 , August 1985 , pp. 477 - 505
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1985

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

This article is included in The Anatomy of Madness, Vol. 2, edited by W. F. Bynum, R. Porter and M. Shepherd (Tavistock: London, 1985).

References

Notes

The details of this murder trial were discovered in the judicial dossier at the Archives de la Seine (henceforth AS) D2U8 263, which contains over 2000 pieces of manuscript material. Unfortunately, approximately 400 of these are missing, but many may be found in printed form in journals and will be cited as such in the following notes.

1 For press coverage of morgue viewing, cf. Archives de la Préfecture de la Seine BA/85; Petit Journal, 24 Nov. 1889; Le Figaro, 28 Nov. 1889.

2 The École de Nancy was in fact a very small group, consisting of Hippolyte Bernheim, an internist by training; Ambroise Liébault, a local practitioner–philanthropist; Henri-Étienne Beaunis, physiologist and forensic expert; and the lawyer and professor of administrative law at Nancy, Jules Liégeois. The greatest influence of Bernheim's doctrine was in fact felt abroad; cf. Ellenberger, Henri F., The Discovery of the Unconscious: The History and Evolution of Dynamic Psychiatry (New York: Basic Books, 1970), 85–89.Google Scholar

3 For Charcot and his school, cf. the following introductory biographies: Bailey, Pearce, J.-M. Charcot 1825–1893, His Life – His Work (London: Pitman Medical, 1959)Google Scholar; Owen, A. R. G., Hysteria, Hypnosis and Healing: The Work of J.-M. Charcot (London: Denis Dobson, 1971)Google Scholar. For a general introduction to debates on hypnosis in France: Barrucand, Dominique, Hisloire de l'hypnose en France (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1967)Google Scholar. For the first statement of doctrine on hysteria, cf. Richer, Paul, Études cliniques sur la grande hyslérie (Paris: A. Delahaye et E. Lecrosnier, 1881)Google Scholar; Didi-Humberman, Georges, Invention de l'hystérie: Charcot et l'iconographie photographique de la Salpêtrière (Paris: Les Éditions Macula, 1982).Google Scholar

4 Affaire Gouffé-Procès Eyraud-Bompard, published in Paris by the Gazette des Tribunaux, 1890, 128.

5 For an account of the debate over the magnetizers showing the passionate interests at stake for both sides, see Delboeuf, Joseph, Magnétiseurs et médecins (Paris: F. Alcan, 1890).Google Scholar

6 Affaire Gouffé, 130. In mocking tones Paul Brouardel equated the lack of experimental rigour of the Nancians with spiritualist mumbo jumbo.

7 Pressat, André, ‘L'hypnotisme et la presse’, Rev. hypno. 4 (1890), 230.Google Scholar

8 See Nye, Robert A., The Origins of Crowd Psychology, Gustave LeBon and the Crisis of Mass Democracy in the Third Republic (London: Sage Publications, 1975)Google Scholar; Barrows, Susanna, Distorting Mirrors: Visions of the Crowd in Late-Nineteenth Century France (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981)Google Scholar; and Moscovici, Serge, L'Âge des foules, un traité historique de psychologie des masses (Paris: Fayard, 1982).Google Scholar

9 For the eloquent summation defence see the lawyer's pronouncements in Affaire Gouffé, 161–171. The defence largely rested on his moral incapacity because of the weakness induced by love.

10 For the details of Eyraud's disreputable life, cf. ‘L'Affaire Gouffé’, Arch. d'anth. crim. 6 (1891), 4–8.Google Scholar

11 Some of the most amusing accounts of Eyraud's exploits came from the Parisian inspectors sent to apprehend the famous murderer. They followed him from New York to Canada, returning whining despatches to their superior head of the Sûreté, M. Goron. AS D2U8 263, in particular pièces 1583, 1585, 1590.

12 Cf. Le Figaro, 21 July 1890.

13 Anonymous, Un crime célèbre, mémoires secrets de Michel Eyraud (Paris: Librairie populaire illustré, 1890), 9.Google Scholar

14 For Garanger's reaction to the extortion attempt, cf. AS D2U8 263, pièce 1596.

15 In the psychiatrists' report, the doctors asserted that Gabrielle Bompard herself was prompted to go to the police after reading about the murder in the Petit Journal. For them this illustrated the enormity of her vanity, not mental incapacity. Cf. Brouardel, P., Motet, A. and Ballet, G., ‘L'affaire Gouffé’, Arch. d'anth. crim. 6 (1891), 76–83.Google Scholar

16 During the pre-trial investigation she invented two other accomplices and then retracted her statement. Cf. AS D2U8 263, pièce 590.

17 For discussion of this possibility cf. AS D2U8 263, pièce 625.

18 For the police investigation into the parental home in Lille cf. ibid., pièce 707e.

19 ibid. For the nuns' depositions cf. pièces 711e and 713.

20 Adrien R., rentier hypnotized Bompard frequently and maintained that she was unbalanced, cf. ibid., pièce 613; for Dr Sacreste's description of her neuropathic state, cf. ‘Affaire Gouffé’, Arch. d'anth. crim. 72–73.

21 For Marie Félicie M…'s appreciation of Bompard's sanity and wicked nature, cf. AS D2U8 263, pièce 654.

22 Affaire Gouffé, 104–107.

23 AS D2U8 263, pièces 653, 654, 659.

24 ibid. pièce 653.

25 Cf. McMillan, James F., Housewife or Harlot: The Place of Women in French Society, 1870–1914 (London: Harvester Press, 1981)Google Scholar for a survey of the role of women in France and the dichotomized appraisal of their roles. For an overview of medical appreciations of women and their contribution to furthering and upholding these dichotomies cf. Knibiehler, Yvonne and Fouquet, Catherine, La Femme et les médecins: analyse historique (Paris: Hachette, 1982)Google Scholar. Cf. also, Michaud, Stéphane, ‘Science, droit, religion: trois comes sur les deux natures’, Romantisme 13 (1976), 23–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

26 For the elaborate murder preparations, cf. AS D2U8 263 passim, in particular pièces 1660–1780.

27 For Eyraud's description of the murder cf. pièce 1782. Throughout the trial, both Gabrielle Bompard and Eyraud maintained that they had not intended to kill their victim, wishing only to steal his money. Premeditation, however, was established by the elaborate murder preparations made in the apartment before the crime, so this claim was quickly dismissed by the court. Also, Bompard denied ever putting the silk cord around Gouffé's neck, asserting throughout that Eyraud had strangled Gouffé with his bare hands. This testimony was also largely disregarded because of the evidence of her willing collaboration in the crime, but there was never positive proof from the autopsy that Gouffé had been hanged since the corpse was in an advanced state of putrefaction when found.

28 ‘Acte d'accusation, Affaire Gouffé’, Arch, d'anth. crim. 12. Their booty included a gold piece of 100 f, a bank note of 50 f, a watch and chain, a ring with two little diamonds and a tortoise-shell pince-nez.

29 Fouillé, Alfred, ‘Le physique et le mental à propos de l'hypnotisme’, Revue des deux mondes 2 (1891), 437.Google Scholar

30 For Ribot's evaluation of the bankruptcy of philosophy in France until the 1870s and why he began the Revue Philosophique (first edition in 1876), cf. ‘Philosophy in France’, Mind 2 (1877), 366–386.Google Scholar

31 These classic monographs of the 1880s include Les Maladies de la mémoire (Paris: G. Baillière, 1881)Google Scholar, Les Maladies de la volonté, 2nd edn (Paris: F. Alcan, 1884)Google Scholar, and Les Maladies de la personnalité (Paris: F. Alcan, 1885).Google Scholar

32 For Ribot's early interest in English associationist psychology, cf. La Psychologie anglaise contemporaine, 2nd edn (Paris: G. Baillière, 1875).Google Scholar

33 Spencer, H., Principes de psychologie, transl. Ribot, T. and Espinas, A. (Paris: 1873).Google Scholar

34 For Ribot's introduction to the work of Gustav Fechner, Wilhelm Wundt and Hermann Helmholtz, cf. La Psychologie allemande contemporaine (Paris: G. Baillière, 1879).Google Scholar

35 Ribot, , Les Maladies de la volonté, 66.Google Scholar

36 The most famous clinical pamphlet on this issue was Magnan's, ValentinLeçons cliniques sur la dipsomanie (Paris: A. Delhaye and Lecrosnier, 1884)Google Scholar. All examples of this type of work stressed the uncontrollable and bestial effects of alcohol, in particular absinthe, and what it did to mental and neurological functioning. For work on drugs cf., for example Guimball, H., Les Morphinomanes (Paris: J. B. Ballière et fils, 1891).Google Scholar

37 Ribot, , Les Maladies de la volonté, quoting Richet, 113.Google Scholar

38 Charcot began his medical career with work on chronic rheumatism and diseases of the aged in the 1850s and 1860s, cf. Oeuvres complètes, vol. VII, Maladies des Veillards, Goutte et Rheumatisme (Paris: Lecrosnier et Babé, 1890)Google Scholar. He made his reputation with his famous neurological work, vol. IV, Leçons sur les localisation dans les maladies du cerveau et de la moelle épinière (Paris: Félix Alcan, 1893)Google Scholar, and vol. II Leçons sur les maladies du système nerveux (Paris: Félix Alcan, 1894).Google Scholar

39 For a discussion of the relationship of psychiatry to politics, cf. Goldstein, Jan‘The hysteria diagnosis and the politics of anticlericalism in late-nineteenth-century France’, Jour. Mod. Hist. 54 (1982), 209–239.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

40 For Charcot's discussion of hysteria in the Oeuvres complètes, cf. Leçons sur les maladies de système nerveux, Vol. 1 (Paris: Louis Bataille, 1892), 276–448Google Scholar, and all of vol. III of the same title (Paris: Lecrosnier et Babé, 1890). In these works Charcot concentrated on the physiological and clinical aspects of hysteria and rarely discussed the psychological manifestations of the disease. Once in lesson 16 vol. III he did describe a case of spiritualist infection among a family of children, for which he prescribed separation to prevent further ‘mental contagion’, 229–238. In Hémorraghie et ramollissement du cerveau, métallothérapie et hypnotisme, électrothérapie (Paris: Lecrosnier et Babé, 1890)Google Scholar Charcot described hypnotism, and emphasized the neurological and physiological aspects of the condition, i.e. cutaneous insensibility, neuromuscular hyperexcitability, transference of contractures and the diverse stages of grand et petit hypnotisme. These works clearly demonstrate his ‘epiphenominalist’ approach when discussing hypnotism and hysteria; the difficulty, however, is that only a part of Charcot's research has ever been published, and it is possible that less strictly ‘scientificè observations on the cultural, psychological and emotional aspects of hysteria were not included by the disciples who compiled his notes and lectures. The last area which must be taken into account in assessing Charcot's epiphenominalism is his work on traumatic paralyses. Charcot conceded that these were the result of ideas ‘blocking’ normal motor functioning, cf. Leçons, vol. III, 335–337Google Scholar. Given this view, it is difficult to understand his profound hostility to the more far reaching ‘ideodynamismè of the Nancy School, except by explaining it by his insistence that such phenomena were related only to morbid states.

41 For an illuminating discussion of similar developments in England, cf. Clark, Michael J., ‘The rejection of psychological approaches to mental disorder in late-nineteenth-century British psychiatry’, in Madhouses, Mad-Doctors, and Madmen: The Social History of Psychiatry in the Victorian Era, ed. Scull, A., pp. 271–312 (London: Athlone Press, 1981).Google Scholar

42 For a full and comprehensive discussion of the medico-legal doctrine of the Paris School, cf. de la Tourette, Georges Gilles, L'hypnotisme et les états analogues au point de vue médico-légal (Paris: E. Plon, 1887).Google Scholar

43 ibid. 91.

44 Affaire Gouffé, 99. During the trial Brouardel forcefully made this point by citing the following hypnotic experiment: two hysterics were requested to remove their clothes, but only one realized the command, the other hesitating out of a sense of modesty. For an examination of similar ideas and experiments in Britain, cf. Perry Williams' Cambridge Ph.D. dissertation (1985), ‘The making of Victorian psychical research: an intellectual élite's approach to the spiritual world’, particularly 183–196.

45 Cf. de la Tourette, Gilles, L'hypnotisme…au point de vue médico-légal, 321–382Google Scholar for the Paris School's views on crime and hypnotism.

46 Affaire Gouffé; for Brouardel's tirade against Nancian doctrine and its leniency towards crime, cf. 130–132.

47 Bernheim, Hippolyte, Le Docteur Liébault et la doctrine de la suggestion,Conférence faite sous les auspices de la Société des amis de l'université de Nancy,12 Dec. 1906,1.Google Scholar

48 See Kissel, P., ‘L'école neuro-psychiatrique de Nancy: Le professeur Bernheim’, Médicine de France 68 (1960), 11–13.Google Scholar

49 Bernheim, , Le Docteur Liébault, 1–13.Google Scholar

50 Bernheim, Hippolyte, Hypnotisme, suggestion et psychothérapie (Paris: Octave Doin, 1891), in particular 239–497.Google Scholar

51 ibid. 165–202. For Bernheim's specific remarks on the illusory nature of Charcot's hysteria, and the three stages of hypnotism, cf. 167 and 169.

52 Bernheim, , Le Docteur Liébault, 12.Google Scholar

53 Bernheim, Hippolyte, De la suggestion dans l'état hypnotique et dans l'état de veille (Paris, Octave Doin, 1884), 6.Google Scholar

54 Liégeois, Jules, ‘De la suggestion hypnotique dans ses rapports avec le droit civil et le droit criminel’, Séan. trav. acad. sci. mor. pol. 120 (1884), 220.Google Scholar

55 Liégeois, Jules, ‘L'hypnotisme, la défense nationale et la société’. Rev. hypno. 6 (1892), 298–304.Google Scholar

56 Liégeois, Jules, Origines et théories économiques de l'association des travailleurs (Nancy: Imprimerie de l'académie de Stanislas, 1872), 54.Google Scholar

57 Liégeois, Jules, Projet de Fondation à Paris d'un Institut psychique international: psychologie expérimentale-hypnologie (Nancy: Imprimerie de Kreis, n.d.).Google Scholar

58 His system was developed further in Liégeois, Jules, De la suggestion et du somnambulisme dans leurs rapports avec la jurisprudence (Paris: Octave Doin, 1889).Google Scholar

59 For an analysis of Charcot's loosening hold on French practitioners, cf. Déjérine, J.-J., ‘Hypnotisme et suggestion’, Rev. hypno. 5 (1891), 224–231.Google Scholar

60 Pressat, , ‘L'hypnotisme et la presse’, 227–230.Google Scholar

61 Unpublished manuscript cited through the permission of Tridon, Madame, Nancy, , Les Souvenirs inédits de Henri-Étienne Beaunis (1830–1921), 424–427.Google Scholar

62 ibid. 426.

63 ibid.

64 Auguste Motet was a frequent psychiatric expert in the Cour d'Assises in the last two decades of the nineteenth century. Head of the maison d'education corectionnelle in Paris, he was also a frequent contributor to the Ann. hyg. pub. med. leg. and was a specialist in matters relating to crime and insanity. Gilbert Ballet was a professeur agrégé at the Faculty of Medicine at the time of the trial, and was to write a book with A. Proust called L'Hygiène neurasthénique. By 1900, he was one of France's most important alienists, an expert not only in the treatment of ‘neuroses’, but also a leading spokesman on all institutional, professional and theoretical problems connected with the insane.

65 ‘Rapport de MM. Brouardel, Motet and Ballet, Affaire Gouffé’, Arch. d'anth. crim. 6 (1891), 68–72.Google Scholar

66 ibid., on 80 she described her subjugation to Eyraud.

67 ibid. 77.

68 For a contemporary analysis of the difficult philosophical and moral questions raised by the notion of ‘moral blindness’, cf. Lévy-Bruhl, L., ‘La responsabilité des criminels’, Rev. pol. lit. (3rd ser.) 65 (1890), 643–648.Google Scholar

69 Affaire Gouffé, 100.

70 ‘Rapport de MM. Brouardel, Motet, Ballet, Affaire Gouffé’, cf. 78–80 for their discussion of her nervous condition and hysteria.

71 Bérillon, Edgar in ‘Bulletin: l'hypnotisme à la Cour d'assises’, Rev. hypno. 5 (1891), 194–195Google Scholar, pointed out the contradictions of the Parisian stance.

72 Affaire Gouffé, 114.

73 ibid. 115.

74 Mesnet, U.-A.-E., ‘Autographisme et stigmates’. Rev. hypno. 4 (1890), 320–335.Google Scholar

75 Affaire Gouffé, 121Google Scholar. This case will be discussed in detail in the following section.

76 Affaire Gouffé, 116. In this instance Liégeois was referring to the famous case of a certain Didier that had occupied Motet in 1880–1881. On 26 January, the Chambres des appels de police correctionnelle revoked the judgement condemning Didier for ‘le délit d'outrage public à la pudeur’ after an experiment was carried out by Motet. The physician had claimed that this ‘pauvre diable’ had been in a spontaneous condition seconde when the police had arrested him for masturbating in a public urinal. Motet had the man relive the scene of the crime by inducing a somnambulic trance, without, however, having Didier repeat his indecent act. Cf. Motet, A., ‘Accès de somnambulisme spontané et provoqué’, Ann. hyg. pub. méd. lég. (3rd ser.) 5 (1881), 214–225.Google Scholar

77 Affaire Gouffé, 122–123.

78 For Liegéois' extended interpretation of Gabrielle Bompard's state of mind and behaviour, cf. ibid. 124–127.

79 ibid. 131.

80 Bernheim, Hippolyte, ‘Discussions et polémique: L'épilogue d'un procès célèbre’, Rev. hypno. 5 (1891), 270–272.Google Scholar

81 Cf. Smith, Roger, Trial by Medicine: Insanity and Responsibility in Victorian Trials (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1981), particularly 124–142Google Scholar for examples of Victorian trials in which evidence of moral depravity was often considered insufficient grounds by jurors for a plea of insanity.

82 The most virulent attack came from de la Tourette, Gilles, ‘Discussions et polémique: l'épilogue d'un procès célèbre’, Rev. hypno. 5 (1891), 241–249.Google Scholar

83 ‘Oú est-il?’, L'Est Républican 25–26 Dec. (1890).

84 Unpublished manuscript, Étienne Beaunis, II, 426.

85 ibid. 427.

86 ‘Les drames vécus. La confession de Gabrielle Bompard’, Le Journal, 8 Dec. 1903.

87 Liégeois, , ‘De la suggestion hypnotique dans ses rapports avec le droit civil et le droit criminel’, 173.Google Scholar

88 Archives de la Seine Inférieure, Cour d'assises, Ull, pièces 61, 63, 64.

89 ibid., passim.

90 Brouardel, Paul, ‘Accusation de viol accompli pendant le sommeil’, Ann. hyg. pub. méd. lég. (3rd ser.) 1 (1879), 39–57Google Scholar. For details of the trial, cf. Journal de Rouen, 20 August (1878), 1–2.

91 Liégeois, Jules, ‘L'hypnotisme et les suggestions criminelles’, in Congrès international de neurologie, de psychiatric d'électricité médicale et d'hypnologie, ed. Drfils, Croz (Paris: Félix Alcan, 1898), 208.Google Scholar

92 Affaire Gouffé, 128.

93 Liégeois, Jules, ‘Hypnotisme et criminalité’, Rev. philo. 33 (1892), 233–272Google Scholar, cf. in particular 272–273.

94 Liégeois, , Congrès international de neurologie, 208.Google Scholar

95 For a suggestive discussion of the perception of the working-class character, its base urges and lifestyle from the ‘scientific perspective’, cf. Bone, Jean, Mythologies de l'herédité au XIXe siècle (Paris: Éditions Galilée, 1981)Google Scholar; cf. also, Gay, Peter, Bourgeois Experience-Victoria to Freud, Education of the Senses (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984)Google Scholar, for a recent interpretive account of sexual morality in nineteenth century bourgeois society.

96 For the idea of servants as having a pernicious effect on the respectability, health and sanctity of the foyer familiale in the eighteenth century, cf. Donzelot, Jacques, The Policing of Families: Welfare vs the State, transl. Hurley, Robert (London: Hutchinson, 1979), 9–20.Google Scholar

97 Cf. the case of Fille C__, June 1985 AS D2U8 178 who actually did try to poison the infant entrusted to her care because of the bad treatment she had suffered at the hands of her employers.

98 Cf. Fille C__'s case, April 1886 AS D2U8 195, who, after having been evicted by her master when his brother moved into the house, tried to murder her former employer because of the venereal disease she had contracted from their relations.

99 There were countless cases of such abandonments, the most striking being that of Veuve B__ July 1887, AS D2U8 217. After her lover left her and married a respectable wife, she not only harassed the spouse in the street, but ultimately vitriolized and murdered the husband, disfiguring him beyond recognition. She received a penalty of life at hard labour.

100 Cf. McLaren, Angus, Sexuality and Social Order: The Debate over the Fertility of Women and Workers in France, 1770–1920 (New York: Holmes and Meier, 1983), 44–64.Google Scholar

101 Bellanger, A. R., Le Magnétisme: vérités et chimeres de cettec science occulte; Un drame dans le somnambulisme, épisode historique, les tables tournantes, etc. (Paris: Chez Guilhermet, 1852), 207–290Google Scholar; the date of this event is not cited.

102 Brouardel, Paul, ‘Une femme, peut elle avoir rapports inconscients pendant le sommeil?’, Ann. hyg. pub. méd. lég. 63 (1900), 46–47.Google Scholar

103 Charcot, Jean-Martin, ‘Accidents hystériques graves survenus chez une femme à la suite d'hypnotisations pratiquées par un magnétiseur dans une baraque de fête’, Rev. hypno. 4 (1890), 8.Google Scholar

104 ‘L'Affaire Chambige’, Revue des grands procès contemporains, ed. Lèbre, G. (Paris: Chevalier-Mareq, 1889), 21–101.Google Scholar

105 ibid. 76–78.

106 ibid. 22.

107 Liégeois, , Congrès international de neurologie, 208Google Scholar. ‘Through suggestion, the [women] could be inspired towards the lowest sentiments, the vilest propensities, the most shameful acts.’

108 Cf. Armengaud, A., La Population française au XIXe siècle (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1971), 47–61Google Scholar. Between 1872 and 1911, the French population grew from 36 103 000 to 39 605 000, an increase of 3–5 million in 39 years, with an average annual rise of 89 700. At the same time the German Empire gained a yearly average of about 600000 people with a population of 41 058 792 in 1871 and 64925993 in 1910. France in this period was the European country with the slowest population growth.

109 McLaren, , Sexualty and Social Order, in particular 93–168.Google Scholar

110 Gabriel Tarde, the crowd theorist and ‘interpsychologist’, was fascinated by the connections between the ‘hypnotiè and dangerous effect of love and sexuality in couples as well as in crowds. For examples of this, cf. his ‘Affaire Chambige’, Arch, d'anth. crim. 4 (1859), 92–105Google Scholar; cf. also Tarde's, ‘L'amour morbide’. Arch, d'anth. crim. 5 (1890), 585–595Google Scholar, in which he wrote, ‘What is love if not a malady.’ Finally, cf., ‘Les crimes des foules’, Arch, d'anth. crim. 7 (1892), 353–386Google Scholar, in which he stressed the same hypnotic and sexual link that made crowds lose control over their actions as well as their duties as good citizens.

111 For the background to this law and its significance, cf. Léonard, J., La médecine entre les pouvoirs et les savoirs: Histoire intellectuelle et politique de la médecine francaise au XIXe siècle (Paris: Aubier Montaigne, 1981), 275–302.Google Scholar

112 Affaire Gouffé, 130.

113 Pressat, , ‘L'hypnotisme et la presse’, 226.Google Scholar

114 Brouardel explained how the proposal to outlaw magnetizers jeopardized the passage of the 30 Nov. 1892 law on medical practice so that, in the end, the article on amateur hypnotic healing was left purposely vague in order to push the bill through without further delay; their right to heal was later upheld in Mans, but in 1892, magnetizers were successfully prosecuted in Lille and Paris; cf. Brouardel, P., La profession médicate au commencement du XXeme siècle (Paris: Baillière et fils, 1903), 96.Google Scholar

115 de la Tourette, Gilles, L'hypnotisme et les états analogues au point de vue médico-légal, 298–383, and in particular 383–450Google Scholar. For Charcot's anti-magnetizer position, cf. Oeuvres complètes, vol. ix, 479–480.Google Scholar

116 Pressat, , ‘L'hypnotisme et la presse’, 225.Google Scholar

117 Bérillon, Edgar, ‘Hypnotisme utile et hypnotisme dangereux’, Rev. hypno. 3 (1888), 2.Google Scholar

118 ‘Correspondence et chronique: Les dangers de l'hypnotisme – Une lettre de A. Pitres de Bordeaux’, Rev. hypno. 3 (1888), 65.Google Scholar

119 DrGuérmonprez, , Congrès international de L'hypnotisme expérimental et thérapeutique, tenir à Paris du 8 au 12 août 1889, arguments préséntes (Lille: L. Quarre, 1889), 16.Google Scholar

120 Premier congrès international de l'hypnotisme, 8–12 août, Paris 1889, ‘Rapport de M. le docteur Ladame’, 30.

121 Ibid.

122 Gilles de la Tourette, citing Ladame, L'hypnotisme et les états analogues au point de vue médico-légal, 450.

123 Premier congrès international, ‘Rapport de M. le docteur Ladame’, 44.

124 Delboeuf, , Magnétiseurs et médecins, 31.Google Scholar

125 One of the most extensively-cited cases was of a supposed rape in Switzerland after a mesmeric performance. Cf. ‘La névrost hypnotique devant la médecine légale: Du viol pendant le sommeil hypnotique’, Ann. hyg. pub. méd. lég. (3rd ser.) 7 (1882), 518–533Google Scholar. The accused, however, was released due to lack of evidence. For a passionate defence of Donato and an accusation of fabricated cases of insanity and crime in the wake of theatrical presentations, see Premier congrès international, ‘Rapport de M. Delboeur’, 56.

126 Goldstein, ‘The hysteria diagnosis.’

127 Congrès international de 1889, le magnétisme humain appliqué au soulagement et à la guérison des maladies: rapport général d'après le compte rendu des séances du congrès (Paris: George Carre, 1890).Google Scholar

128 For an example of the tirade fired by the amateurs at Charcot's School, cf. Rouxel, J., Rapports de magnétisme et du spiritisme (Paris: Librairie des sciences psychologiques, 1892), 257–313.Google Scholar

129 Cf. Cavilhon, Edouard, Le fascinateur magnétique (Paris, Dentu, 1882)Google Scholar, with a preface by Donato; Donato, Professer, Courspratique d'hypnotisme et de magnétisme (Paris: Librairie illustré, Jules Tallandier, n.d)Google Scholar. For the best summary of Donato's theory and technique, cf. ‘Discours de Donato', Congrés international de magnétisme humain, 427–442.

130 Morselli, Enrico, Il magnetismo animate: La fascinazione e gliipnotici (Turin: Roux and Farale, 1886).Google Scholar

131 See Delboeuf, Magnétiseurs et médecins.

132 Cavilhon, , Le fascinateur magnètique, 32.Google Scholar

133 Congrès international de magnétisme humain, ‘Discours de Donato’, 431.

134 Ibid. 432.

135 Gautier, Emile, ‘Chronique’, Le Figaro, 5 09 1889.Google Scholar

136 Rouxel, , Rapports de magnétisme et du spiritisme, 297Google Scholar. The word doctoralisme pertains both to an academic degree and the attitude of pomposity assumed to go with it.

137 Delboeuf, , Magnétiseurs el médecins, quoting Ladame, 16.Google Scholar

138 Nye, The Origins of Crowd Psychology; Barrows, Distorting Mirrors; Moscovici, L'Âge des foules.

139 Nye, , The Origins of Crowd Psychology, 61–63.Google Scholar

140 Pressat, , ‘L'hypnotisme et la presse’, 230.Google Scholar

141 For an introduction to the beginnings of criminal anthropology and its formulation in France, cf. Nye, Robert, ‘Heredity or milieu: the foundations of European criminological theory’, his 67 (1976), 335–355.Google Scholar

142 For an example of this, cf. Tarde, Gabriel, ‘Les crimes des foules’, Arch, d'anth. crim. 7 (1892), 353–386.Google Scholar

143 La Foule criminelle, essai de psychologie collective, transl. from the Italian by Vigny, Paul (Paris: Félix Alcan, 1892).Google Scholar

144 Les Lois d'imitation (Paris: Félix Alcan, 1890)Google Scholar, and for his later work on the public, popular opinion and mass communication, see L'opinion et la foule (Paris: Félix Alcan, 1901).Google Scholar

145 Fournial, Henry, Essai sur la psychologie desfoules: considèr ations médico-judiciaires sur les responsabilités collectives (Paris: G. Masson, 1892).Google Scholar

146 LeBon's, Gustave most famous and influential work is La psychologie desfoules (Paris: Félix Alcan, 1895).Google Scholar

147 For the classic work done on hallucinations, cf. Brierre de Boismont, A., Des hallucinations, 3rd edn (Paris, G. Baillière, 1862).Google Scholar

148 For an excellent contemporary history of these ideas, cf. Dumas, George, ‘Contagion mentale: epidémies mentales – folies collectives – folies grégaires’, Rev. philo. 71 (1911), 225–244, 384–407.Google Scholar

149 Tarde, Gabriel, ‘Qu'est-ce qu'une société’, Rev. philo. 18 (1884), 501, 509.Google Scholar ‘Je crois me conformer…à la méthode scientifique la plus rigoreuse en cherchant à éclairer le complexe par le simple, la combinaison par l'élement, et expliquer le lien social mélangé et compliqué… par le lien social à la fois très pur et très réduit à sa plus simple expression, lequel, pour l'instruction du sociologiste, est réalisési heuresement, dans l'état somnambulique…La société, c'est limitation, et l'imitation c'est une éspéce de somnambulisme.’