The Romantic and Modern Practice of Animal Magnetism: Friedrich Schlegel's Protocols of the Magnetic Treatment of Countess Lesniowska

For six years, Friedrich Schlegel kept a diary of the magnetism therapy of his friend the Countess Franziska Lesniowska. The Countesss illness was marked by repetitive symptoms often related to memories of past events; she experienced phenomena similar to what Freud later called the uncanny return of repressed content. However, Schlegel believed she was clairvoyant and that her symptoms were incomplete expressions of a beautiful future. An examination of the diary reveals that the esoteric interests that marked Schlegels late phase were more significant than generally acknowledged and that his interest in magnetism illuminates an aesthetic aspect of the history of psychoanalysis. (LJ)