Karl Hansen — Il Magnetizzatore Danese/en

Carl Hansen (Denmark, 19th century) is the Danish stage magnetizer that Donato mentions in his journal Le Magnétisme as the figure who, in 1880, revived public hypnotism in Europe after twenty years of oblivion, "according to Braid's procedures, slightly modified."

The Historical Role: The Spark of 1880

Donato's journal describes the situation with historical precision: hypnotism had been abandoned by official science after Braid. It was Hansen who, in 1880, returned to practicing hypnotism publicly before European audiences. His performances in Vienna and Germany triggered a chain reaction: the German physiologists Heidenhain, Berger, Schneider, Grützner, Opitz, Ruhlmann, and others, seeing Hansen at work, resumed the study of the subject and published several monographs.

Sigmund Freud, a medical student in Vienna at the time, attended Hansen's demonstrations at the Ringtheater in Vienna — it was the spark that led him to take an interest in hypnosis and psychology.

The Method: Rotation and the Jerk

Di Pisa describes Hansen's method in the book L'Ipnosi dalla A alla Zeta as "highly effective but dangerous": the Dane spins the subjects in a circle, abruptly stops one, tilts their head back while staring very closely. Sleep is achieved instantly.

This method of "encephalic congestion" as a preparation for fascination is the same that Dr. Brémaud would later adopt as a variant of the Donato method for resistant subjects — with the difference that Brémaud made it more controlled and safe.

The Relationship with Donato

Hansen and Donato are contemporaries and follow parallel paths in the same period. Donato credits Hansen with bringing hypnotism back to the European stage in 1880 — the same year Donato held his first scientific lecture before the doctors of the Canton of Vaud. The two represent two traditions: Hansen the Nordic tradition, more brutal and physical; Donato the Latin tradition, more subtle and psychic.

Sources

• Donato (Alfred d'Hont), Le Magnétisme — Journal de Psycho-Physiologie, Paris 1886 — fasc. 1-50, fasc. 50-104, fasc. 104-154, fasc. 154+
• Prof. Erminio Di Pisa, L'Ipnosi dalla A alla Zeta, chapter on theatrical methods

See also

• Donato — Il Padre della Fascinazione
• Donato — La Rivista Le Magnétisme (1880-1886)
• Prof. Erminio Di Pisa — Ipnosi con lo Sguardo

Donato e la Fascinazione — Navigazione ISI-CNV

★ INDICE GENERALE WIKI ★★ CORPUS FONTI DONATO — Riferimento accademico ISI-CNV mondiale Il personaggio Donato (1845-1900) — Vita e opera Come tutto iniziò: il Canonico Mouls (1874) L'autobiografia: come diventò magnetizzatore Cosmopolitan ca.1890: episodi biografici esclusivi Il metodo ★ GUIDA COMPLETA AL METODO Tecnica precisa: l'ébranlement e le fasi La scienza: segni fisiologici non simulabili La rivista 1880-1886 (fonte primaria) Moréty/Paret — Storia critica completa

I protagonisti della rivista Canonico Mouls — lo scopritore di Donato Baron du Potet — il maestro delle passes (1820) Charles Lafontaine — predecessore (1840) Karl Hansen — contemporaneo danese Dottor Marc Dufour — testimone scientifico Losanna 1880 Edouard Cavailhon — primo libro sulla fascinazione (1881) Professor Heidenhain — avversario confutato Dottor Ladame — il plagiario L'eredità Charles Lafontaine — Il Magnetizzatore Franco-Svizzero John Braid — la versione corretta: spettatore di Lafontaine Beauregard -- tradizione egiziana, critica a Lafontaine, loggia in Egitto Tradizione europea: da Mesmer a Paret Erminio Di Pisa → Paret / Paret Method La Palla di Luce — eredità diretta di Donato