Ambroise-Auguste Liébeault
Encyclopedia
Favières, Meurthe-et-Moselle
Favières is a commune in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department in north-eastern France.- See also :* Communes of the Meurthe-et-Moselle department...
- 1904) was a French physician universally acknowledged as the founder of the famous school
School (discipline)
A school of thought is a collection or group of people who share common characteristics of opinion or outlook of a philosophy, discipline, belief, social movement, cultural movement, or art movement....
that became known as the "Nancy School
Nancy School
The Nancy School was an early French suggestion-centred school of psychotherapy founded in 1866 by Ambroise-Auguste Liébeault, a follower of the theory of Abbé Faria, in the city of Nancy....
", or the "Suggestion School", (in order to distinguish it from the Charcot
Jean-Martin Charcot
Jean-Martin Charcot was a French neurologist and professor of anatomical pathology. He is known as "the founder of modern neurology" and is "associated with at least 15 medical eponyms", including Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis...
and Salpêtrière Hospital
Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital
The Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital is a teaching hospital located in Paris, France. Part of the Assistance publique - Hôpitaux de Paris, it is one of Europe's largest hospitals...
-centred "Paris School", or "Hysteria School") and he is considered by many to be the father of modern hypnotherapy
Hypnotherapy
Hypnotherapy is a therapy that is undertaken with a subject in hypnosis.The word "hypnosis" is an abbreviation of James Braid's term "neuro-hypnotism", meaning "sleep of the nervous system"....
.
The Nancy school held that hypnosis
Hypnosis
Hypnosis is "a trance state characterized by extreme suggestibility, relaxation and heightened imagination."It is a mental state or imaginative role-enactment . It is usually induced by a procedure known as a hypnotic induction, which is commonly composed of a long series of preliminary...
was a normal phenomenon induced by suggestion, in contrast to the earlier schools of thought, which considered hypnotic trances as manifestations of magnetism
Magnetism
Magnetism is a property of materials that respond at an atomic or subatomic level to an applied magnetic field. Ferromagnetism is the strongest and most familiar type of magnetism. It is responsible for the behavior of permanent magnets, which produce their own persistent magnetic fields, as well...
, hysteria
Hysteria
Hysteria, in its colloquial use, describes unmanageable emotional excesses. People who are "hysterical" often lose self-control due to an overwhelming fear that may be caused by multiple events in one's past that involved some sort of severe conflict; the fear can be centered on a body part, or,...
or psycho-physiological phenomenon.
Ambroise-Auguste Liébeault was born in Favières
Favières, Meurthe-et-Moselle
Favières is a commune in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department in north-eastern France.- See also :* Communes of the Meurthe-et-Moselle department...
, a small town in the Lorraine
Lorraine (province)
The Duchy of Upper Lorraine was an historical duchy roughly corresponding with the present-day northeastern Lorraine region of France, including parts of modern Luxembourg and Germany. The main cities were Metz, Verdun, and the historic capital Nancy....
region of France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, on September 16, 1823. He completed his medical degree at the University of Strasbourg
University of Strasbourg
The University of Strasbourg in Strasbourg, Alsace, France, is the largest university in France, with about 43,000 students and over 4,000 researchers....
in 1850 at the age of 26. He then established a practice in the village of Pont-Saint-Vincent
Pont-Saint-Vincent
Pont-Saint-Vincent is a commune in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department in north-eastern France....
, near the town of Nancy.
The Nancy School
Later his institution became the central point for what became known as the Nancy SchoolNancy School
The Nancy School was an early French suggestion-centred school of psychotherapy founded in 1866 by Ambroise-Auguste Liébeault, a follower of the theory of Abbé Faria, in the city of Nancy....
with the collaboration of Dr. Hippolyte Bernheim
Hippolyte Bernheim
Hippolyte Bernheim was a French physician and neurologist, born at Mülhausen, Alsace. He received his education in his native town and at the University of Strasbourg, where he was graduated as doctor of medicine in 1867...
, a renowned professor at the Medical School in Nancy.
Influences
Liébeault was indirectly influenced by the ideas of Abbé FariaAbbé Faria
Abbé Faria , or Abbé José Custódio de Faria, , was a colourful Goan Catholic monk who was one of the pioneers of the scientific study of hypnotism, following on from the work of Franz Anton Mesmer...
(1746-1819), Alexandre Jacques François Bertrand
Alexandre Jacques François Bertrand
Alexandre Jacques François Bertrand was a French physician and mesmerist who was a native of Rennes. He was the father of archaeologist Alexandre Bertrand and mathematician Joseph Bertrand...
(1795-1831).
He was strongly influenced by the ideas of Scottish surgeon James Braid (1795-1860), having been introduced to Braid and his work through the agency of his friendship with Braid's principal French disciple, Étienne Eugène Azam
Étienne Eugène Azam
Étienne Eugène Azam was a French surgeon from Bordeaux who is chiefly remembered for his work in psychology, particularly a case involving a female patient he named "Félida X" who seemed to have "alternating personalities", or what Azam referred to as doublement de la vie.Over a number of years...
(1822-1899) of Bordeaux
Bordeaux
Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...
.
Publications
His first book, "Le sommeil et les états analogues, considérés surtout du point de vue de l'action du moral sur le physique" (Sleep and its analogous states considered from the perspective of the action of the mind upon the body) was published in 1866. It was republished in almost the same form in 1889 as "Le sommeil provoqué et les états analogues" (Induced Sleep and States Analogous to It).Legacy
In their turn, Sigmund FreudSigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis...
and Émile Coué
Émile Coué
Émile Coué de la Châtaigneraie was a French psychologist and pharmacist who introduced a method of psychotherapy and self-improvement based on optimistic autosuggestion....
came to the Nancy School, and were influenced by Liébeault.
Whilst Coué studied quite extensively with Liébeault (and Bernheim
Hippolyte Bernheim
Hippolyte Bernheim was a French physician and neurologist, born at Mülhausen, Alsace. He received his education in his native town and at the University of Strasbourg, where he was graduated as doctor of medicine in 1867...
) at Nancy, over an extended period of time, Freud simply visited Nancy and observed Bernheim at his work.
Otto Georg Wetterstrand
Otto Georg Wetterstrand
Otto Georg Wetterstrand was a Swedish physician and psychotherapist who was a native of Skövde.Wetterstrand studied medicine at the University of Uppsala, and in 1871 received his medical license at Karolinska Institute...
(1845-1907) was also greatly influenced by Liébeault.