Politics of the Strange and Unusual: Mesmerism and the Medical Professional in Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s ‘Dr.Carrick’ (1878)

Abstract

This chapter explores Mary Braddon’s literary treatment of mesmerism in her forgotten short story ‘Dr. Carrick’ (1878), which investigates the ambivalent perception of mesmerism as supernatural quackery or orthodox scientific, therapeutic practice. Using mesmerism to critique the medical establishment, Braddon effectively challenges science’s increasing cultural authority and encroachment on the domestic sphere. Braddon addresses the power dynamics underpinning the relationship between doctor and patient, while extending trenchant social commentary to the medical practitioner. Engaging with Darwinian evolutionary theory relating to morality, Braddon reveals the pernicious personal effects and untenability of the absolute moral integrity essential to the medical practitioner as a man of science.