A mesmeric physician (hypnotist) taking advantage of his female patient. Color lithograph, 1852. Hypnotism was first discovered by the Austrian physician Friedrich Anton Mesmer (1734-1815). He claimed to send his subjects into a trance by his consciously exerted "animal magnetism," their willpower being entirely subordinated to his. Mesmer was denounced as a charlatan in 1785. The American Medical Association currently has no official stance on the medical use of hypnosis. However, a study published in 1958 by the Council on Mental Health of the American Medical Association documented the efficacy of hypnosis in clinical settings.