EMDR and Mesmerism: a comparative historical analysis

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¹Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA. rjm@wjh.harvard.edu

Journal of Anxiety Disorders

|May 4, 1999

Abstract:

Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) is among the fastest growing interventions in the annals of psychotherapy. Although many psychologists have commented on its presumably unusual origins and dissemination, history reveals its many parallels with Mesmerism, a previous therapy that spread rapidly throughout 18th century Europe and America. The purpose of this article is to document the many striking similarities between the history of Mesmerism and the history of EMDR.

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