Education
He completed his medical degree at the University of Strasbourg in 1850 at the age of 26.
He completed his medical degree at the University of Strasbourg in 1850 at the age of 26.
The Nancy school held that hypnosis was a normal phenomenon induced by suggestion, in contrast to the earlier schools of thought, which considered hypnotic trances as manifestations of magnetism, hysteria or psycho-physiological phenomenon. Ambroise-Auguste Liébeault was born in Favières, a small town in the Lorraine region of France, on 16 September 1823. He then established a practice in the village of Pont-Saint-Vincent, near the town of Nancy.
Later his institution became the central point for what became known as the Nancy School with the collaboration of Doctor Hippolyte Bernheim, a renowned professor at the Medical School in Nancy.
Liébeault was indirectly influenced by the ideas of Abbé Faria (1746-1819), Alexandre Jacques François Bertrand (1795-1831). He died on February 18, 1904 at the age of 80.
In their turn, Sigmund Freud and Émile Coué came to the Nancy School, and were influenced by Liébeault. Whilst Coué studied quite extensively with Liébeault (and Bernheim) at Nancy, over an extended period of time, Freud simply visited Nancy and observed Bernheim at his work.
Otto Georg Wetterstrand (1845-1907) was also greatly influenced by Liébeault.