mesmerism means the method or power of gaining control over someone's personality or actions, as in hypnosis or suggestion. Lexicurio rates it Distinctive — a strength score of 68 out of 100.
Why this word is great
MESMERISM — [Noun] The method or power of inducing a hypnotic state, historically through the now-discredited theory of an invisible fluid or 'animal magnetism.' From the French *mesmérisme*, from the surname *Mesmer* (after Franz Anton Mesmer, 1734–1815, a German physician who developed the theory of animal magnetism) + the suffix *-ism*, denoting a practice or system. Unlike 'hypnosis' (a general, clinical term for a trance) or 'suggestion' (a broad influence of thought), mesmerism implies a specific, theatrical ritual of control rooted in a discredited science—a systematic doctrine with the trappings of Enlightenment reason. It is the slow, deliberate pass of hands over a patient's body without touch, the glittering focus of a pocket watch swinging on its chain, and the charged silence of a salon where collective belief becomes a palpable force—the old, haunting spectacle of authority performing its own legitimacy.
noun
- The method or power of gaining control over someone's personality or actions, as in hypnosis or suggestion.“What is the secret mesmerism which friendship possesses, and under the operation of which a person ordinarily sluggish, or cold, or timid, becomes wise, active, and resolute, in another's behalf?”
- The state induced by hypnotic methods (especially that of Mesmer himself).“...the fact stood proven that I had seen it in my vision. Lawks! ...When the magician's engagement closed there was but one person in the village who did not believe in mesmerism, and I was the one. All the others were converted, but I was to remain an implacable and unpersuadable disbeliever in mesmerism and hypnotism for close upon fifty years.”