Musical Hypnosis: Sound and Selfhood from Mesmerism to Brainwashing

Music has longbeen associatedwith trance states, but very little has beenwritten about the modernwestern discussion ofmusic as a form of hypnosis or ‘brainwashing’. However, fromMesmer’s use of the glass armonica to the supposed dangers of subliminal messages in heavy metal, the idea thatmusic can overwhelm listeners’ self-control has been a recurrent theme. In particular, the concepts of automatic response and conditioned reflex have been the basis for amodel of physiological psychology in which the self has been depicted as vulnerable to external stimuli such as music. This article will examine the discourse of hypnotic music from animal magnetism and the experimental hypnosis of the nineteenth century to the brainwashing panics since the ColdWar, looking at the relationship between concerns about hypnotic music and the politics of the self and sexuality.