Fisiopsicologia dell'Ipnotismo — Morselli e Tanzi (1889)/en
The "Experimental Contribution to the Psychophysiology of Hypnotism — Research on Pulse and Respiration in Suggestive States of Hypnosis" is the scientific essay published in 1889 by Prof. Enrico Morselli and Dr. Eugenio Tanzi from the Psychiatric Institute of Genoa, extracted from the Rivista di Filosofia Scientifica.
It is the direct sequel to the 1886 book: the research was conducted in Turin in 1887 and presented to the Royal Academy of Medicine of Turin and the Medical Congress of Pavia. It contains graphic measurements of pulse and respiration during fascination and hypnotic states — objective instrumental proofs.
ISI-CNV Drive Source: Fisiopsicologia dell'Ipnotismo — PDF (Drive)
The Central Thesis: Fascination is Psychological, Not Neurological
The essay fits into the great debate of the era between the **School of Charcot** (Salpêtrière, Paris), which considered hypnosis a neurosis, and the **School of Bernheim** (Nancy), which considered it a psychological phenomenon based on suggestion.
Morselli and Tanzi side with Nancy and demonstrate with graphic measurements that:
- «The initial and fundamental state of hypnosis, corresponding to Liébault's "charme" and Donato's fascination, [is] a "condition of pure credulity."»
Conclusion: «The dominant law, generative and modifying of all hypnotic phenomena, was that of psychic association.»
The Measurements: Pulse and Respiration During Fascination
With Marey's pneumograph and Mosso's aerosphygmograph, Morselli and Tanzi graphically record:
Hypnotic state without suggestions: pulse and respiration more regular than in wakefulness — anideism, anesthesia, abulia. The silent psychic life allows the organic life to regain its uniformity.
Hypnosis with suggestion of weight: violent and immediate modifications of pulse and respiration — the idea of supporting a weight manifests itself in muscular work with measurable effects on the entire nervous system.
Suggestion of drunkenness: respiratory and circulatory effects «sudden, intense, evident» — the hallucination of being drunk produces the same physiological modifications as real drunkenness.
Suggestions of psychosis (melancholy, mania, stupor): the tracings correspond surprisingly to those of real psychiatric patients — suggestion reproduces symptom by symptom the entire clinical evolution of a psychosis in a few instants.
Importance for Understanding Fascination
The essay scientifically demonstrates what Donato had always claimed: fascination is a psychic phenomenon, not a physical one. It requires no fluids, no neurosis, no pathology. It requires **suggestion** — which in Donato translates into the imposingness of the gaze, the certainty of the will, the surprise of the ébranlement.
The measurements of pulse and respiration during fascination confirm that the state produces real, objective, non-simulable physiological effects — just like the pupillary dilations documented by Tanzi alone in 1886. Together, these two studies constitute the most solid scientific basis ever produced on the reality of Donato's fascination.
Sources
- PDF Drive ISI-CNV
- Prof. Enrico Morselli — Il Magnetismo Animale, la Fascinazione e gli Stati Ipnotici (1886)
See also
- La Pupilla nella Fascinazione — Morselli e Tanzi (1886)
- La Fascinazione come Fenomeno Psicofisiologico — Donato e la Scienza
- Donato — Il Padre della Fascinazione
| Donato e la Fascinazione — Navigazione ISI-CNV | |
|
Il personaggio
Il metodo |
I protagonisti della rivista
L'eredità
|