[Romantic magnetism: The patient. The woman. The republic]

This paper, based on case studies, aims to present some aspects of the animal magnetism that developed in the Germany of the first decades of the nineteenth century. These aspects constitute, or at least imply, important innovations within the framework of contemporary medical practice and consist of: the recognition of the importance of the words of patients and their own knowledge of their bodies; the emergence of the figure of woman as an independent and singular subject in which the aspects indicated above are emphasized; and, finally, the latent potential of this medical theory for reform within the framework of policy.