Autosuggestion is a psychological technique related to the
placebo effect
A placebo ( ) is a substance or treatment which is designed to have no therapeutic value. Common placebos include inert tablets (like sugar pills), inert injections (like Saline (medicine), saline), sham surgery, and other procedures.
In general ...
, developed by
apothecary
''Apothecary'' () is a mostly archaic term for a medical professional who formulates and dispenses '' materia medica'' (medicine) to physicians, surgeons, and patients. The modern chemist (British English) or pharmacist (British and North Ameri ...
Émile Coué
Émile Coué de la Châtaigneraie (; 26 February 1857 – 2 July 1926) was a French psychologist and pharmacist who introduced a popular method of psychotherapy and self-improvement based on optimistic autosuggestion.
Considered by Charles Baud ...
at the beginning of the 20th century. It is a form of self-induced
suggestion
Suggestion is the psychological process by which a person guides their own or another person's desired thoughts, feelings, and behaviors by presenting stimuli that may elicit them as reflexes instead of relying on conscious effort.
Nineteenth-ce ...
in which individuals guide their own thoughts, feelings, or behavior. The technique is often used in
self-hypnosis
Self-hypnosis or auto-hypnosis (as distinct from hetero-hypnosis) is a form, a process, or the result of a self-induced hypnotic state.
Frequently, self-hypnosis is used as a vehicle to enhance the efficacy of self-suggestion; and, in such case ...
.
Typological distinctions
Émile Coué
Émile Coué de la Châtaigneraie (; 26 February 1857 – 2 July 1926) was a French psychologist and pharmacist who introduced a popular method of psychotherapy and self-improvement based on optimistic autosuggestion.
Considered by Charles Baud ...
identified two very different types of self-suggestion:
* intentional, "''reflective autosuggestion''": made by deliberate and conscious effort, and
* unintentional, "''spontaneous auto-suggestion''": which is a "natural phenomenon of our mental life … which takes place without conscious effort
nd has its effectwith an intensity proportional to the keenness of
urattention".
In relation to Coué's group of "spontaneous auto-suggestions", his student
Charles Baudouin
Charles Baudouin (; 26 July 1893 – August 25, 1963) was a French psychoanalyst and pacifist. His psychoanalytical work combined Freudianism with elements of the thought of Carl Jung and Alfred Adler.
Biography
Baudouin was born in Nancy, F ...
(1920, p. 41) made three further useful distinctions, based upon the sources from which they came:
* "Instances belonging to the representative domain
(sensations, mental images, dreams, visions, memories, opinions, and all intellectual phenomena)."
* "Instances belonging to the affective domain
(joy or sorrow, emotions, sentiments, tendencies, passions)."
* "Instances belonging to the active or motor domain
(actions, volitions, desires, gestures, movements at the periphery or in the interior of the body, functional or organic modifications)."
Émile Coué
Émile Coué
Émile Coué de la Châtaigneraie (; 26 February 1857 – 2 July 1926) was a French psychologist and pharmacist who introduced a popular method of psychotherapy and self-improvement based on optimistic autosuggestion.
Considered by Charles Baud ...
, who had both B.A. and B.Sc. degrees before he was 21, graduated top of his class (with First Class Honours) with a degree in pharmacology from the prestigious
Collège Sainte-Barbe
The Collège Sainte-Barbe is a former college in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, France.
The Collège Sainte-Barbe was founded in 1460 on Montagne Sainte-Geneviève (Latin Quarter, Paris) by Pierre Antoine Victor de Lanneau, teacher of religiou ...
in Paris in 1882. Having spent an additional six months as an intern at the
Necker-Enfants Malades Hospital in Paris, he returned to Troyes, where he worked as an
apothecary
''Apothecary'' () is a mostly archaic term for a medical professional who formulates and dispenses '' materia medica'' (medicine) to physicians, surgeons, and patients. The modern chemist (British English) or pharmacist (British and North Ameri ...
from 1882 to 1910.
"Hypnosis" à la Ambroise-Auguste Liébeault and Hippolyte Bernheim
In 1885, his investigations of
hypnotism
Hypnosis is a human condition involving focused attention (the selective attention/selective inattention hypothesis, SASI), reduced peripheral awareness, and an enhanced capacity to respond to suggestion.In 2015, the American Psychologica ...
and the power of the
imagination
Imagination is the production or simulation of novel objects, sensations, and ideas in the mind without any immediate input of the senses. Stefan Szczelkun characterises it as the forming of experiences in one's mind, which can be re-creations ...
began with
Ambroise-Auguste Liébeault
Ambroise-Auguste Liébeault (1823–1904) was a French physician and is considered the father of modern hypnotherapy. Ambroise-Auguste Liébeault was born in Favières, a small town in the Lorraine region of France, on September 16, 1823. He compl ...
and
Hippolyte Bernheim
Hippolyte Bernheim (17 April 1840, in Mulhouse – 2 February 1919, in Paris) was a French physician and neurologist. He is chiefly known for his theory of suggestibility in relation to hypnotism.
Life
Born into a Jewish family, Bernheim recei ...
, two leading exponents of "''hypnosis''", of Nancy, with whom he studied in 1885 and 1886 (having taken leave from his business in Troyes). Following this training, "he dabbled with ‘hypnosis’ in Troyes in 1886, but soon discovered that their Liébeault's techniques were hopeless, and abandoned ‘hypnosis’ altogether".
[Yeates, 2016a, p.12.]
Hypnotism à la James Braid and Xenophon LaMotte Sage
In 1901, Coué sent to the United States for a free book, ''Hypnotism as It is'' (i.e., Sage, 1900a), which purported to disclose "secrets
f thescience that brings business and social success" and "the hidden mysteries of personal magnetism, hypnotism, magnetic healing, etc.". Deeply impressed by its contents, he purchased the French language version of the associated correspondence course (i.e., Sage, 1900b, and 1900c), created by stage hypnotist extraordinaire, "''Professor Xenophon LaMotte Sage, A.M., Ph.D., LL.D., of Rochester, New York''" (who had been admitted into the prestigious ''Medico-Legal Society of New York'' in 1899).
In real life, Xenophon LaMotte Sage was none other than
Ewing Virgil Neal (1868-1949), the multi-millionaire,
calligrapher
Calligraphy (from el, link=y, καλλιγραφία) is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instrument. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "t ...
,
hypnotist
Hypnosis is a human condition involving focused attention (the selective attention/selective inattention hypothesis, SASI), reduced peripheral awareness, and an enhanced capacity to respond to suggestion.In 2015, the American Psychologica ...
, publisher,
advertising
Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a ...
/
marketing
Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to emph ...
pioneer (he launched the career of
Carl R. Byoir
Carl Robert Byoir (1886 — 3 February 1957) was an influential practitioner in the field of public relations. He created and organized one of the world's largest public relations firms in 1930.
Early life
Byoir was born to Jewish immigrant paren ...
), pharmaceutical manufacturer, parfumier, international businessman, confidant of
Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in 194 ...
, Commandatore of the
Order of the Crown of Italy
The Order of the Crown of Italy ( it, Ordine della Corona d'Italia, italic=no or OCI) was founded as a national order in 1868 by King Vittorio Emanuele II, to commemorate the unification of Italy in 1861. It was awarded in five degrees for civi ...
, Officer of the
Legion of Honour
The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon, ...
, and fugitive from justice, who moved to France in the 1920s.
Sage's course supplied the missing piece of the puzzle — namely, Braid-style hypnotic inductions — the solution for which had, up to that time, eluded Coué:
:: "Coué immediately recognised that the course’s Braid-style of hypnotism was ideal for ''mental therapeutics''. He undertook an intense study, and was soon skilled enough to offer hypnotism alongside his pharmaceutical enterprise. In the context of Liébeault’s ‘hypnosis’, Braid’s hypnotism, and Coué’s (later) discoveries about autosuggestion, one must recognise the substantially different orientations of Liébeault’s "''suggestive therapeutics''", which concentrated on imposing the coercive power of the operator’s suggestion, and Braid’s "''psycho-physiology''", which concentrated on activating the transformative power of the subject’s mind."
Although he had abandoned Liébeault's "''hypnosis''" in 1886, he adopted Braid's ''hypnotism'' in 1901; and, in fact, in addition to, and (often) separate from, his auto-suggestive practices, Coué actively used Braid's hypnotism for the rest of his professional life.
Suggestion and Auto-suggestion
Coué was so deeply impressed by Bernheim's concept of “suggestive therapeutics” — in effect, "an imperfect re-branding of the ‘dominant idea’ theory that
Braid
A braid (also referred to as a plait) is a complex structure or pattern formed by interlacing two or more strands of flexible material such as textile yarns, wire, or hair.
The simplest and most common version is a flat, solid, three-strande ...
had appropriated from
Thomas Brown"
— that, on his return to Troyes from his (1886-1886) interlude with Liébeault and Bernheim, he made a practice of reassuring his clients by praising each remedy's
efficacy
Efficacy is the ability to perform a task to a satisfactory or expected degree. The word comes from the same roots as ''effectiveness'', and it has often been used synonymously, although in pharmacology a pragmatic clinical trial#Efficacy versu ...
. He noticed that, in specific cases, he could increase a medicine's efficacy by praising its effectiveness. He realized that, when compared with those to whom he said nothing, those to whom he praised the medicine had a noticeable improvement (this is suggestive of what would later be identified as a "''
placebo response
A placebo ( ) is a substance or treatment which is designed to have no therapeutic value. Common placebos include inert tablets (like sugar pills), inert injections (like saline), sham surgery, and other procedures.
In general, placebos can aff ...
''").
: "Around 1903, Coué recommended a new patent medicine, based on its promotional material, which effected an unexpected and immediate cure (Baudouin, 1920, p.90; Shrout, 1985, p.36). Coué (the chemist) found “
y subsequentchemical analysis in his laboratory
hat there wasnothing in the medicine which by the remotest stretch of the imagination accounted for the results” (Shrout, ibid.). Coué (the hypnotist) concluded that it was cure by suggestion; but, rather than Coué having cured him, the man had cured himself by ''continuously telling himself the same thing that Coué had told him''."
The birth of "Conscious Autosuggestion"
Coué discovered that subjects could not be hypnotized against their will and, more importantly, that the effects of hypnotic suggestion waned when the subjects regained consciousness. He thus eventually developed the Coué method, and released his first book, ''Self-Mastery Through Conscious Autosuggestion'' (published in 1920 in England and two years later in the United States). He described autosuggestion itself as:
Although Coué never doubted pharmaceutical medicine, and still advocated its application, he also came to believe that one's mental state could positively affect, and even amplify, the pharmaceutical action of medication. He observed that those patients who used his mantra-like conscious suggestion, "Every day, in every way, I'm getting better and better", (French: ''Tous les jours, à tous points de vue, je vais de mieux en mieux''; lit. 'Every day, from all points of view, I'm getting better and better') — in his view, replacing their "thought of illness" with a new "thought of cure", could augment their pharmaceutical regimen in an efficacious way.
Conceptual difference from Autogenic Training
By contrast with the conceptualization driving Coué's auto-suggestive self-administration procedure — namely, that constant repetition creates a situation in which "''a particular idea saturates the microcognitive environment of 'the mind'…''", which, then, in its turn, "is converted into a corresponding ideomotor, ideosensory, or ideoaffective action, by the ''ideodynamic principle of action''", "which then, in its turn, generates the response" — the primary target of the entirely different self-administration procedure developed by
Johannes Heinrich Schultz
Johannes Heinrich Schultz (June 20, 1884 – September 19, 1970) was a German psychiatrist and an independent psychotherapist. Schultz became world-famous for the development of a system of self-hypnosis called autogenic training.
Life
He stu ...
, known as ''
Autogenic Training
Autogenic training is a desensitization-relaxation technique developed by the German psychiatrist Johannes Heinrich Schultz by which a psychophysiologically determined relaxation response is obtained. The technique was first published in 1932. S ...
'', was to affect the
autonomic nervous system
The autonomic nervous system (ANS), formerly referred to as the vegetative nervous system, is a division of the peripheral nervous system that supplies viscera, internal organs, smooth muscle and glands. The autonomic nervous system is a control ...
, rather than (as Coué's did) to affect 'the mind'.
The Coué method
The Coué method centers on a routine repetition of this particular expression according to a specified ritual, in a given physical state, and in the absence of any sort of allied mental imagery, at the beginning and at the end of each day. Coué maintained that curing some of our troubles requires a change in our subconscious/unconscious thought, which can only be achieved by using our imagination. Although stressing that he was not primarily a healer but one who taught others to heal themselves, Coué claimed to have affected organic changes through autosuggestion.
["Émile Coué." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2008. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 26 Dec. 200]
/ref>
Underlying principles
Coué thus developed a method which relied on the belief that ''any idea exclusively occupying the mind turns into reality'', although only to the extent that the idea is within the realm of possibility. For instance, a person without hands will not be able to make them grow back. However, if a person firmly believes that his or her asthma is disappearing, then this may actually happen, as far as the body is actually able to physically overcome or control the illness. On the other hand, thinking negatively about the illness (e.g. "I am not feeling well") will encourage both mind and body to accept this thought.
Willpower
Coué observed that the main obstacle to autosuggestion was Self-control, willpower. For the method to work, the patient must refrain from making any independent judgment, meaning that he must not let his will impose its own views on positive ideas. Everything must thus be done to ensure that the positive "autosuggestive" idea is consciously ''accepted'' by the patient, otherwise one may end up getting the opposite effect of what is desired.
Coué noted that young children always applied his method perfectly, as they lacked the willpower that remained present among adults. When he instructed a child by saying "clasp your hands" and then "you can't pull them apart" the child would thus immediately follow his instructions and be unable to unclasp their hands.
Self-conflict
Coué believed a patient's problems were likely to increase if his willpower and imagination opposed each other, something Coué referred to as "self-conflict." As the conflict intensifies, so does the problem i.e., the more the patient consciously wants to sleep, the more he becomes awake. The patient must thus abandon his willpower and instead put more focus on his imaginative power in order to fully succeed with his cure.
Effectiveness
With his method, which Coué called "''un truc,"'' patients of all sorts would come to visit him. The list of ailments included kidney problems, diabetes, memory loss, stammering, weakness, atrophy and all sorts of physical and mental illnesses. According to one of his journal entries (1916), he apparently cured a patient of a uterus
The uterus (from Latin ''uterus'', plural ''uteri'') or womb () is the organ in the reproductive system of most female mammals, including humans that accommodates the embryonic and fetal development of one or more embryos until birth. The uter ...
prolapse
In medicine, prolapse is a condition in which organs fall down or slip out of place. It is used for organs protruding through the vagina, rectum, or for the misalignment of the valves of the heart. A spinal disc herniation is also sometimes call ...
as well as "violent pains in the head" (migraine
Migraine (, ) is a common neurological disorder characterized by recurrent headaches. Typically, the associated headache affects one side of the head, is pulsating in nature, may be moderate to severe in intensity, and could last from a few hou ...
).
Evidence
Advocates of autosuggestion appeal to brief case histories published by Émile Coué describing his use of autohypnosis to cure, for example, enteritis and paralysis from spinal cord injury.
Autogenic training
Autogenic training
Autogenic training is a desensitization-relaxation technique developed by the German psychiatrist Johannes Heinrich Schultz by which a psychophysiologically determined relaxation response is obtained. The technique was first published in 1932. S ...
is an autosuggestion-centered relaxation technique influenced by the Coué method. In 1932, German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
psychiatrist Johannes Schultz developed and published on autogenic training. Unlike autosuggestion, autogenic training has been proven in clinical trials and, along with other relaxation technique
A relaxation technique (also known as relaxation training) is any method, process, procedure, or activity that helps a person to relax; to attain a state of increased calmness; or otherwise reduce levels of pain, anxiety, stress or anger. Relaxa ...
s, such as progressive relaxation
Progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) is a non-pharmacological method of deep muscle relaxation, based on the premise that muscle tension is the body's psychological response to anxiety-provoking thoughts and that muscle relaxation blocks anxiety. ...
and meditation
Meditation is a practice in which an individual uses a technique – such as mindfulness, or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity – to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally cal ...
, has replaced autosuggestion in therapy. The co-author of Schultz's multi-volume tome on autogenic training, Wolfgang Luthe, was a firm believer that autogenic training was a powerful approach that should only be offered to patients by qualified professionals. Its effectiveness has been confirmed in several studies.
See also
Footnotes
References
Baudouin, C. (Paul, E & Paul, C. trans.), ''Suggestion and Autosuggestion: A Psychological and Pedagogical Study Based on the Investigations made by the New Nancy School'', George Allen & Unwin, (London), 1920.
* Carpenter, W.B.
"On the Influence of Suggestion in Modifying and directing Muscular Movement, independently of Volition", ''Royal Institution of Great Britain, (Proceedings), 1852'', (12 March 1852), pp. 147–153.
* Conroy, M.S. (2014). The Cosmetics Baron You've Never Heard Of: E. Virgil Neal and Tokalon (Third, Revised Edition). Englewood, CO: Altus History LLC.
Coué, E. (1912). "De la suggestion et de ses applications" (‘Suggestion and its Applications’), ''Bulletin de la Société d'Histoire Naturelle et de Palethnologie de la Haute-Marne'', 2(1), pp.25-46.
Coué, E. (1922a). ''La Maîtrise de soi-même par l'autosuggestion consciente: Autrefois de la suggestion et de ses applications''. (‘Mastery of One’s Self through Conscious Autosuggestion: Formerly “Suggestion and its Applications”’) Emile Coué, (Nancy), 1922.
Coué, E. (1922b). Self Mastery Through Conscious Autosuggestion. New York, NY: American Library Service
(A complete translation, by unknown translator, of Coué (1922a).)
Coué, E. (1922c). Self Mastery Through Conscious Autosuggestion. New York, NY: Malkan Publishing Company
(A partial translation of Coué (1922a) by Archibald S. Van Orden).
* Coué, E. (1923). ''My Method: Including American Impressions''. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Page & Company.
* Coué, E., & Orton, J.L. (1924). ''Conscious Auto-Suggestion''. London: T. Fisher Unwin Limited.
* Guillemain, H. (2010), ''La Méthode Coué: Histoire d'une Pratique de Guérison au XXe Siècle'' (‘The Coué Method: History of a Twentieth Century Healing Practice’). Paris: Seuil.
* Noble, D.
''Elements of Psychological Medicine: An Introduction to the Practical Study of Insanity Adapted for Students and Junior Practitioners'', John Churchill, (London), 1853.
Noble, D. (1854). Three Lectures on the Correlation of Psychology and Physiology: III. On Ideas, and Their Dynamic Influence, ''Association Medical Journal'', Vol.3, No.81, (21 July 1854), pp.642-646.
* Orton, J.L., ''Hypnotism Made Practical (Tenth Edition)'', Thorsons Publishers Limited, (London) 1955.
Rapp, D. (1987). “Better and Better—”: Couéism as a Psychological Craze of the Twenties in England. ''Studies in Popular Culture'',10(2), 17-36
X. LaM. (1900a). ''Hypnotism as It is: A Book for Everybody (Sixth Edition)'', New York State Publishing Company, (Rochester), 1900.
* Sage, X. LaM. (1900b). ''Un Cours Par Correspondance Sur Le Magnétisme Personnel, Hypnotisme, Mesmérisme, Calmánt Magnétique, Thérapeutiques Suggestives, Psycho-Thérapeutique, Etc, Etc. par X. LaMotte Sage, A.M., Ph.D., LL.D. (Edition Revisée)'', New York Institute of Science, (Rochester), 1900.
* Sage, X. LaM. (1900c). ''Cours Supérieur Traitant du Magnétisme Personnel, de l’Hypnotisme, de la Thérapeutique Suggestive, et de la Guérison pour le Magnétisme, par X. LaMotte Sage, A.M., Ph.D., LL.D.'', New York Institute of Science, (Rochester), 1900.
* Shrout, R.N., ''Modern Scientific Hypnosis: From Ancient Mystery to Contemporary Science'', (Wellingborough), Thorsons, 1985.
* Westphal, C., & Laxenaire, M. (2012). Émile Coué: Amuseur ou Précurseur? (‘Émile Coué: Entertainer or Forerunner’), ''Annales Médico-Psychologiques, Revue Psychiatrique'', 170(1), pp. 36–38
doi=10.1016/j.amp.2011.12.001
* Yankauer, A., The Therapeutic Mantra of Emile Coué, ''Perspectives in Biology and Medicine'', Vol.42, No.4, (Summer 1999), pp. 489–495
doi=10.1353/pbm.1999.0012
Yeates, Lindsay B. (2016a), "Émile Coué and his ''Method'' (I): The Chemist of Thought and Human Action", ''Australian Journal of Clinical Hypnotherapy & Hypnosis'', Volume 38, No.1, (Autumn 2016), pp. 3–27.
Yeates, Lindsay B. (2016b), "Émile Coué and his ''Method'' (II): Hypnotism, Suggestion, Ego-Strengthening, and Autosuggestion", ''Australian Journal of Clinical Hypnotherapy & Hypnosis'', Volume 38, No.1, (Autumn 2016), pp. 28–54.
Yeates, Lindsay B. (2016c), "Émile Coué and his ''Method'' (III): Every Day in Every Way", ''Australian Journal of Clinical Hypnotherapy & Hypnosis'', Volume 38, No.1, (Autumn 2016), pp. 55–79.
{{refend
Hypnosis
Positive mental attitude