ABSTRACT
The history of hypnosis in children starts with Mesmer. One of the first patients he treated was seventeen-year-old Maria Theresa Paradies, a blind pianist, whose sight he restored by direct suggestion. Her blindness was apparently hysterical in nature. Cases like this in 1777 and shortly thereafter quickly established Mesmer's reputation and great popular interest was aroused in mesmeric phenomena. Another important case of that period was that of Victor Race, a twenty-three-year-old shepherd boy, who was treated by the Marquis de Puysegur, one of Mesmer's students. Victor was a somnambulist and his case is of particular interest in that it makes the first mention and description of somnambulism, as it is still defined. Interestingly enough, Victor was able to determine what type of treatment should be used with him and how he could go about getting better. The story is included in most of his historical texts.
