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initiating action.
    parts.” The fountains were controlled
    about philosophy, science,
    by a fountaineer, and here Descartes
    and mathematics. From 1612
    found an analogy for the mind. He
    to 1628, he contemplated,
    traveled, and wrote. In 1649,
    explained: “There is a reasoning
    he was invited to teach Queen
    soul in this machine; it has its
    Christina of Sweden, but her
    principal site in the brain, where it
    early-morning demands on his
    is like the fountaineer who must be
    time, combined with a harsh
    at the reservoir, whither all the
    climate, worsened his health;
    pipes of the machine are extended,
    he died on February 11, 1650.
    when he wishes to start, stop, or in
    Officially, the cause of death
    some way alter their actions.”
    was pneumonia, but some
    While philosophers still argue as
    historians believe that he
    to whether the mind and brain are
    was poisoned to stop
    somehow different entities, most
    the Protestant Christina
    psychologists equate the mind
    converting to Catholicism.
    with the workings of the brain.
    However, in practical terms, the
    Key works
    distinction between mental and
    1637 Discourse on the Method
    physical health is a complex one:
    Descartes illustrated the pineal
    1662 De Homine (written 1633)
    the two being closely linked when
    gland , a single organ in the brain
    1647 The Description of the
    mental stress is said to cause
    ideally placed to unite the sights and
    Human Body
    sounds of the two eyes and the two
    physical illness, or when chemical
    1649 The Passions of the Soul
    ears into one impression.
    imbalances affect the brain. ■

    22
    D ABOBE FRMEZ
    ARIA (1756–181 !
    9)
    IN CONTEXT
    APPROACH
    T he practice of inducing state, but its use as a healing
    trance states to promote
    therapy was largely abandoned until
    healing is not new. Several
    the German doctor Franz Mesmer
    ancient cultures, including those of
    reintroduced it in the 18th century.
    Hypnosis
    Egypt and Greece, saw nothing
    Mesmer’s treatment involved
    BEFORE
    strange about taking their sick to
    manipulating the body’s natural, or
    “sleep temples” so they could be
    “animal,” magnetism, through the
    1027 Persian philosopher and
    cured, while in a sleeplike state, by
    use of magnets and suggestion.
    physician Avicenna (Ibn Sina)
    suggestions from specially trained
    After being “mesmerized,” or
    writes about trances in The
    priests. In 1027, the Persian
    “magnetized,” some people suffered
    Book of Healing.
    physician Avicenna documented
    a convulsion, after which they
    1779 German physician Franz
    the characteristics of the trance
    claimed to feel better.
    Mesmer publishes A Memoir
    on the Discovery of Animal
    Magnetism .
    AFTER
    1843 Scottish surgeon James
    …combines with the
    Braid coins the term “neuro-
    A gentle request or
    highly concentrated
    commanding order…
    mind of a subject…
    hypnotism” in Neurypnology .
    1880S French psychologist
    Emile Coué discovers the
    placebo effect and publishes
    Self-Mastery Through
    Conscious Autosuggestion.
    1880S Sigmund Freud
    investigates hypnosis and its
    In this state
    the subject becomes
    apparent power to control
    …to induce a state of
    more susceptible
    “lucid sleep”
    unconscious symptoms.
    to the power of
    (hypnotic trance).
    suggestion.

    PHILOSOPHICAL ROOTS 23
    See also: Jean-Martin Charcot 30 ■ Sigmund Freud 92–99 ■ Carl Jung 102–07 ■ Milton Erickson 336
    A few years later, Abbé Faria, a
    Portugese-Goan monk, studied
    Mesmer’s work and concluded that
    it was “entirely absurd” to think
    that magnets were a vital part of the
    process. The truth was even more
    Nothing comes from the
    extraordinary: the power to fall into
    magnetizer; everything comes
    trance or “lucid sleep” lay entirely
    from the subject and takes
    with the individuals concerned.
    place in his imagination.
    No special forces were necessary,
    Abbé Faria
    because the phenomena relied only
    upon the power of suggestion.
    Lucid sleep
    Faria saw his