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https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/21159
Title: | 'A Portion of Truth': Demarcating the Boundaries of Scientific Hypnotism in Late Nineteenth-Century France | Contributor(s): | Hajek, Kim (author) | Publication Date: | 2017 | Open Access: | Yes | DOI: | 10.1098/rsnr.2017.0010 | Handle Link: | https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/21159 | Abstract: | In 'fin-de-siècle' France, hypnotism enjoyed an unprecedented level of medico-scientific legitimacy. Researchers studying hypnotism had nonetheless to manage relations between their new 'science' and its widely denigrated precursor, 'magnètisme animal', because too great a resemblance between the two could damage the reputation of 'scientific' hypnotism. They did so by engaging in the rhetorical activity of boundary-work. This paper analyses such demarcation strategies in major texts from the Salpêtrière and Nancy Schools - the rival groupings that dominated enquiry into hypnotism in the 1880s. Researchers from both Schools depicted 'magnètisme' as 'unscientific' by emphasizing the magnetizers' tendency to interpret phenomena in wondrous or supernatural terms. At the same time, they acknowledged and recuperated the 'portions of truth' hidden within the phantasmagoria of 'magnètisme'; these 'portions' function as positive facts in the texts on hypnotism, immutable markers of an underlying natural order that accounts for similarities between phenomena of 'magnètisme' and hypnotism. If this strategy allows for both continuities and discontinuities between the two fields, it also constrains the scope for theoretical speculation about hypnotism, as signalled, finally, by a reading of one fictional study of the question, Anatole France's 'Monsieur Pigeonneau'. | Publication Type: | Journal Article | Source of Publication: | Notes and Records: the Royal Society journal of the history of science, 71(2), p. 125-139 | Publisher: | The Royal Society Publishing | Place of Publication: | United Kingdom | ISSN: | 1743-0178 0035-9149 |
Fields of Research (FoR) 2008: | 220206 History and Philosophy of Science (incl. Non-historical Philosophy of Science) 200511 Literature in French |
Fields of Research (FoR) 2020: | 500317 Philosophy of science (excl. history and philosophy of specific fields) 500204 History and philosophy of science 470516 Literature in French |
Socio-Economic Objective (SEO) 2008: | 970121 Expanding Knowledge in History and Archaeology 970120 Expanding Knowledge in Language, Communication and Culture 950504 Understanding Europe's Past |
Socio-Economic Objective (SEO) 2020: | 130704 Understanding Europe’s past 280113 Expanding knowledge in history, heritage and archaeology |
Peer Reviewed: | Yes | HERDC Category Description: | C1 Refereed Article in a Scholarly Journal |
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Appears in Collections: | Journal Article |
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open/SOURCE02.pdf | post-peer review version (hidden) | 217.25 kB | Adobe PDF Download Adobe | View/Open |
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