Animal magnetism describes a kind of personal charisma that seems almost involuntary, a pull that one person exerts over others without appearing to try. It is most often used of sexual or romantic attraction, the sense that someone has a physical presence or charm that other people find hard to resist. The phrase carries a suggestion of something instinctive and bodily rather than reasoned, as if the attraction worked on the senses the way an actual magnet pulls iron.
What’s the origin of the phrase ‘animal magnetism’?
The phrase is a direct translation of the French “magnétisme animal,” and its pseudoscientific sense came first, well before the romantic or charismatic sense familiar today. It began as a medical theory devised in the eighteenth century by the German physician Franz Mesmer. Mesmer did not settle on the name straight away. He first proposed a universal healing force he called “animal gravitation,” and only after revising his theory did he rename it “animal magnetism,” finding that the force shared many characteristics associated with ordinary mineral magnetism, such as that of lodestones and compass needles.
Sources differ slightly on the exact dating of Mesmer’s work: one general dictionary source puts his development of healing by animal magnetism in 1775, while Merriam-Webster gives 1781 as the first use of the term itself, a gap that likely reflects the difference between when Mesmer worked out the underlying theory and when the specific wording entered use. Mesmer’s idea was that a subtle, invisible fluid flowed through all living bodies and could be manipulated by a trained practitioner (often by passing the hands near a patient) to cure illness. This practice, widely known as mesmerism, was a medical and quasi-scientific claim, not a description of someone’s charm or sex appeal. It was later largely absorbed into and renamed as hypnosis.
The shift from Mesmer’s clinical theory to today’s figurative meaning happened gradually, as the vivid image of an invisible, irresistible force pulling people together proved too good to leave to medicine. Once animal magnetism had entered everyday English as a term for an almost physical pull between people, the original medical theory faded from common use while the phrase itself survived, carrying only the sense of a powerful, instinctive personal attraction.