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Abstract
James Braid (1795-1860), the natural philosopher, gentleman scientist, structured thinker, and well-respected Manchester surgeon, who, having encountered magnetic demonstrator Charles Lafontaine in 1841, conducted his own experimentum crucis, in the process of which he not only debunked Lafontaine’s claims of ‘magnetic agency’, but also discovered neuro-hypnotism. This article examines Braid’s subsequent lectures, conversazioni, and publications, highlighting his ‘boundary-work’ in defining hypnotism’s unique identity, establishing its exclusive territory, extending its unique borders, and defending its disciplinary appropriateness. It also describes the nature, form, and motivation behind the separate, unwarranted, personal and professional attacks made one after another in 1842, by a powerful and well-connected cleric and a group of Manchester professional rivals within the Medical Section of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, and examines the extent to which Braid was forced to conduct another sort of ‘boundary-work’: defending his own person, rather than defending his theories, techniques, and practices alone.
