Jules Liégeois

Jules Joseph Liégeois (30 November 1833 — 14 August 1908) was a French jurist and a Professor in the law faculty at the University of Nancy, known for his work as a member of the Nancy School of Hypnosis and his investigations into hypnotism, somnambulism, and hypnotic suggestion, especially in relation to the issues of hypnotism and crime.

The son of Joseph-Martin Liégeois (1797-1854), and Anne-Rosalie Liégeois (1810-1890), née Tabutiaux, Jules Joseph Liégeois was born at Damvillers, Meuse, France on 30 November 1833.^[1] He married Hélène Marie Henriette Peiffer (1842-1935) in 1867. They had two children.

He defended his doctoral dissertation, Du prêt à intérêt en droit romain et en droit français ('Interest-bearing loans in Roman law and French law'), at the University of Nancy in 1863. He served as professor of Administrative law at Nancy University from 1865 to 1904, and then became an honorary professor.

Centred on the theories and practices of the Nancy physician, former animal magnetist, and medical hypnotist, Ambroise-Auguste Liébeault (1823–1904),^[2] the "Nancy School", also known as the "Suggestion School" — in order to distinguish it, and its position that "hypnosis" was a state similar to sleep, and was produced by suggestion, from that of the "Hysteria School", or "Salpêtrière School", centred on the theories and practices of Jean-Martin Charcot, a neurologist at the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris, which held that "hypnosis" was a pathological state similar to hysteria — included Prof. Jules Liégeois, of the Nancy University's faculty of Law, the Nancy neurologist and physician, Hippolyte Bernheim (1840–1919), and Prof. Henri-Étienne Beaunis (1830–1921), the chair of Physiology at Nancy University (who believed that hypnotism offered a valuable experimental method to philosophers, that was the equivalent of physiology's vivisection).^[3] Over a number of years, severally and collectively, they investigated many aspects of hypnotism and hypnotic suggestion.^[4]

As an academic and jurist interested in the legal question raised, for instance, in the case of M. Emile X—, "as to the possibility of anyone exercising such an influence over another person as to make him or her irresponsible for the acts committed under that influence, even though those acts may be crimes",^[5] Liégeois's experiments concentrated on parallels with somnambulism,^[6] and investigated a wide range of applications of hypnotic suggestion.^[7] He was especially interested in the extent to which it was possible that (otherwise innocent) subjects could be induced, by means of hypnotic suggestion, to commit crimes, thefts, and even murders.^[8]

"[In the mid-1880s, in addition to concerns relating to the possibility] of rape under hypnotic sleep ... another type of moral concern associated with hypnotism was gaining public attention abroad: the possibility of inciting people under hypnosis to commit criminal acts. It was Jules Liégeois, the French lawyer associated with the Nancy School of hypnotism, who in 1884 first pointed to this danger in a report for the French Academy of Moral and Political Sciences."^[9]

Gauld (1992, p.497) identifies these as "hypnotic crimes", wherein the hypnotic subject was both the "victim" and the "agent" of the crime — with the suggestion-delivering operator, rather than the suggestion-complying subject, being the actual "criminal". In relation to Liégeois (1889), Leaf's positive review concluded that "no student of hypnotism can afford to neglect this important work".^[10] According to Binet and Féré (1888, p.372):

"It is possible to suggest to a subject in a state of somnambulism fixed ideas, irresistible impulses, which he will obey on awaking with mathematical precision. The subject may be induced to write down promises, recognitions of debt, admissions and confessions, by which he may be grievously wronged. If arms are given to him, he may also be induced to commit any crime which is prompted by the experimenter. ...
These facts show that the hypnotic subject may become the instrument of a terrible crime, the more terrible since, immediately after the act is accomplished, all may be forgotten — the crime, the impulse, and its instigator."

Liégeois' investigations culminated in his (1889) magnum opus, De la suggestion et du somnambulisme dans leurs rapports avec la jurisprudence et la médecine légale ('On suggestion and somnambulism in their relation to jurisprudence and legal medicine'), within which he concentrated in great detail upon the legal implications of hypnotism, hypnotic phenomena, and hypnotic suggestion.^[11]

"There can be no crime, or delict, where the accused was in a state of madness, at the time of the action; or when he has been constrained by a force which he had not the power to resist." — Article 64: French Penal Code.^[12]

In December 1890, Michel Eyraud, aged 47, and Gabrielle Bompard, aged 21, were jointly tried in Paris for the murder of Toussaint-Augustin Gouffé in July 1899. Eyraud had already admitted his guilt; and, so, the trial was entirely concerned with the part played by Bompard. Henri-Robert, Bompard's advocate, argued that she had been hypnotized by Eyraud, her co-accused; and therefore, as his involuntary accomplice, could not be held responsible for Gouffé’s murder:^[13]

"The chief point at issue, however, was the degree of responsibility of Bompard, and whether there were sufficient grounds for believing that the series of complicated acts involved in the crime could be performed under hypnotic suggestion." — The Lancet, 3 January 1891.^[14]

A number of experts gave evidence; the most influential being neurologist and Charcot-disciple Georges Gilles de La Tourette who argued that any such thing was impossible.^[15] Although found guilty, due to what were considered to be "extenuating circumstances",^[14] Bompard was sentenced to 20 years in prison with hard labour: her accomplice, Eyraud, was executed by guillotine on 3 February 1891.

Noting that ever since 1888, in relation to the "theories of Nancy", Bernheim had theorised "from the physiological point of view", whilst he (Liégeois) had theorised from the "moral and judicial sense",^[16] he delivered a four-hour (uninterrupted) opinion as an expert witness:

Dr. Liégeois of Nancy gave evidence at great length regarding the hypnotic theory put forward by Bompard and her counsel. He stated that he and his colleague, Dr. Bernheim, found that in a state of profound hypnotism there was a complete absence of will in the subject, and that any suggestion made by the hypnotiser passes into the subject and inspires him or her to action. He gave instances of hypnotic subjects being excited to commit thefts, to fire a pistol at a friend, &c. As regards the present case, he thought there was reason to believe that Bompard might have acted under hypnotic suggestion. The fact of her having passed the whole night near the body of a man who had been murdered suggested that she was under some secret influence. In view of the proofs given that she was readily hypnotisable, and his conviction that it was possible for Eyraud to have hypnotised her to act as his accomplice, he thought the jury could not ignore this theory." — The Lancet, 3 January 1891.^[14]

In 1904, Liégeois conducted various experiments upon Gabrielle Bompard. As result of Liégeois' experiments, "an officer of the Department of Justice, who was present at the seance ... [said that he was convinced that in] the case of Gabrielle Bompard [there was a] genuine hypnotic irresponsibility of crime".^[17]

He became a corresponding member of the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques (Academy of Moral and Political Sciences) in 1899.

He was made a Chevalier (Knight) of the Légion d'honneur (Legion of Honour) in 1906.^[18]

He died when "he was run over and killed by a motor car before the eyes of his wife, with whom he was walking on a quiet country road"^[19] in the thermal spa town of Bains-les-Bains on 14 August 1908.^[20]

• Damvillers (1909). A bronze bust of Jules Liégeois, the creation of the Nancy sculptor Ernest Bussière (1863-1913), was erected upon a granite pedestal in the public square of Damvillers on 24 October 1909.^[21] The bronze bust was removed and melted down by the Germans during their First World War occupation of Damvillers. A replica cast iron bust was re-installed on the original granite pedestal in Danvillers in 1997.^[22]
• Bains-les-Bains (1909): A bronze bust of Jules Liégeois, also by Bussière, was erected upon a granite pedestal in 1909 (with a similar inscription to that of the Damvillers monument) in the park of the thermal establishment at which Liégeois was a regular spa guest.^[23]
• Nancy (1909): A plaster version of the same bust, by Bussière, is on display in the reception rooms of the Faculty of Law at Nancy University.^[24]

• Actus reus – In criminal law, the "guilty act"
• Agency (philosophy) – Capacity of an actor to act in a given environment
• Automatism (law) – Legal defence; the criminal was unaware of their actions during the crime
• Causality – How one process influences another
• Culpability – Degree to which one is morally or legally responsible for a crime
• Hypnosis – State of increased suggestibility
• Ideomotor phenomenon – Concept in hypnosis and psychological research
• Mens rea – In criminal law, the "guilty mind"
• The Nancy School of Hypnosis – French school of psychotherapy from 1866
• Posthypnotic amnesia – Inability in hypnotic subjects to recall events that took place while under hypnosis
• The Salpêtrière School of Hypnosis – French school of psychotherapy from 1882Pages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets
• Somnambulism – Sleeping phenomenon combined with wakefulness
• Suggestibility – Inclination to accept the suggestions of others
• Suggestion – Psychological process of guiding a person