Luys — Applicazioni Terapeutiche della Fascinazione alla Charité/en

This page documents the therapeutic applications of fascination developed by Prof. Jules Bernard Luys at the Hôpital de la Charité (Paris, 1886-1897), drawn from the Revue d'Hypnologie (1890) and the Leçons cliniques.

ISI-CNV Drive Sources:

Luys' Therapeutic Principle

For Luys, fascination is above all a **therapeutic tool**. He writes in the program of the Revue d'Hypnologie:

«We will show that with these [methods] one can determine a special anesthesia in certain subjects, by virtue of which they can undergo certain surgical operations without pain, and that in pregnant women, with preparatory training in fascination, one can render her anesthetic at the moment of childbirth and have her give birth without pain. We have already obtained this happy result with three women who had no awareness of their delivery.»

The mechanism is the **controlled disequilibration of nerve currents**: fascination redistributes nervous energies — cutaneous anesthesia is the byproduct of this redistribution, and can be exploited therapeutically.

Treatment Categories

Anesthesia for Surgical Procedures

Fascination produces complete and instantaneous anesthesia — «it can be applied as an alternative to chloroform for certain operations». Luys uses it especially for:

Minor surgical procedures
Painless childbirth (already documented with three women in 1889)
Treatment of chronic pain (neuralgia, arthritis)

Chronic Diseases of the Nervous System

From the Leçons: «In paralytic ataxic subjects, I have seen the methodical applications of these mechanical hypnotization procedures produce surprising effects: recovery of motor strength, cessation of fulgurant pains, return of sleep, and in a word, very clear and lasting improvements.»

Transfert as a Rebalancing Technique

The **transfert** is Luys' original technique for shifting pathological states:

Principle: in the lethargic state, by applying a magnet to one side of the body, a **contracture, hemianesthesia, or paralysis** passes from the affected side to the opposite side — or can be transferred to a different subject.

Documented clinical applications:

Hemianesthesia → shifted to the healthy side, then eliminated by suggestion
Paralysis → shifted, then combated with the strength of the healthy side
Delusional idea (refusal to eat) → eliminated via a «transfert agent» subject

Healing through Suggestion

In the fascination phase, subjects are completely suggestible. Luys uses:

Direct healing suggestions: «Upon waking you will no longer be insensitive» (David/hemianesthesia case)
Behavioral suggestions: eating regularly (anorexic tuberculous patient — +1 kg/week for 6 weeks)
Physiological suggestions: menstruation induced with temporal suggestion
Post-fascination suggestions with a fixed deadline

The 12 Clinical Cases from the Bulletin (December 1889)

See the complete documentation in Prof. Jules Bernard Luys — La Fascinazione Terapeutica alla Charité.

In summary:

Patient No.	Diagnosis	Treatment	Result
Louis Ward 1	Brachial monoplegia (alcoholic)	Fascination	Cured (Dec. 20)
Louis Ward 2	Paralysis agitans (Parkinson's)	Rotating mirrors	Cure maintained 10 months
Louis Ward 3 — A.	Epilepsy	Fascination every 4 days	From 3 attacks/day → almost zero
No. 28	Mercury tremor + deafness	Fascination + transfert	Tremor greatly improved, deafness cured
No. 31	Left ulnar neuralgia	Transfert (without fascination)	Pain disappears instantly; relapses in the evening; progressive with daily sessions
No. 32	Chronic neck tic	Mirrors → transfert + magnet	Cured for 6 months; relapse → almost instantaneous improvement
No. 27 — G., 19 years	Morphine-addicted epileptic, delusional idea (refusal to eat)	Suggestion via transfert agent	Eats immediately after suggestion
No. 29	Left hand tremor	Fascination + transfert	Strength 11 kg → 28 kg (right: 32 → 44 kg)
No. 30 — Vig., 48 years	Paralysis agitans from fright	Fascination	Cured, able to work, in 2 months
No. 13 — Andral Ward	Amenorrhea	Temporal suggestion	Menstruation arrived in the prescribed period
Andral Ward — Blepharospasm	Blepharospasm (18 years)	Rotating mirrors	Greatly improved in 15 days
Andral Ward — E.	Grand hysteria + convulsions, used as transfert agent	Transfert	Attacks decreased in frequency and intensity

The Exceptional Case: Painless Childbirth

Documented by Dr. De Grandchamps in the Revue d'Hypnologie.

Ernestine B., 17 years old, May 1, 1889: first childbirth, in a state of fascination with a rotating mirror. Suggestion: «You will push vigorously with each contraction, but you will no longer feel the pain.» Then: «You will feel the urge to push every minute.» Then: «Stop; do not push anymore.»

Result: no cries, baby of 3.8 kg, mother upon waking: «Where did my belly go?»

Already achieved with three other women. Luys concludes: «This modification of the state of the nervous system produced by the rotating mirror has only distant relations with the classical states of grand hypnotism... It is a superficial state, easy to induce, without any danger.»

The Collection of Elements from the Transfert Agent Patient

One of Luys' most original discoveries: using a hypnotic subject as a **transfert agent** to influence a non-hypnotizable or resistant patient. The suggestion is «transmitted» from the hypnotic subject to the patient, bypassing the latter's resistances.

Case No. 27: patient with a delusional idea of poisoning, had refused all food for 3 days. Luys' direct suggestions — completely useless. A subject in a state of hypnosis tells the patient to eat → the patient obeys immediately.

Luys comments: «There is perhaps in this fact the rudiment of a new method for the cure of certain delusional ideas.»

Continuity with Donato and Connection with ISI-CNV

Luys is the transition point between Donato's public demonstration and modern hospital clinical practice. Where Donato fascinated in the theater, Luys fascinated in the hospital. The method is the same — the ébranlement, the trilogy of anesthesia/catalepsy/suggestibility — but the application is systematically therapeutic.

In the Paret Method this line is rejoined: Marco Paret has developed the understanding of therapeutic fascination — catalepsy as a state that opens to the rebalancing of the parasympathetic system, direct fascination as a tool for accessing deep non-pathological states, suggestibility as a vector for change.