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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: STE-SUS |
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SUGGESTION . By the older British writers on psychology the words " suggest " and " suggestion " were used in senses very close to those which they have in common speech; one idea was said to suggest another when it recalled that other to mind or (in the modern phrase) reproduced it. Modern studies in mental pathology
special
It is also becoming widely recognized that the suggestibility of hypnosis and of hysteria is conditicned by a peculiar state of the brain, namely a cerebral or mental dissociation, which in hypnosis is temporarily induced by the operations of the hypnotist, and in hysteria arises from some deficiency of energy in the whole psycho-physical system. In respect to these points there is now a wide consensus of opinion among the leading authorities; but as to the range and scope of suggestion in our mental life great differences of opinion still obtain. We may distinguish three principal views. Firstly, it is maintained by a number of physicians (notably by Professor Pierre Janet, whose profound studies of hysterical patients are justly celebrated) that all hypnotizable persons are hysterical and that suggestibility is a condition peculiar to hysterical subjects. In view of the assertions in recent
contracture, hyperaesthesia, increased power of recollection, hallucinations (q.v.), &c.; and they regard dissociation as the process by which the submerged and supernormal faculty (or faculties) that they postulate is liberated from the dominance of the normal waking self. A third view has been rapidly gaining ground and is now predominant. It connects itself with, and bases itself upon, the view of Professor Bernheim and his colleagues of the Nancy school of hypnotism. According to this view all men are normally suggestible under favourable conditions, and the hypnotic subject and the hysteric patient differ from the normal human being chiefly in that their normal suggestibility is more or less (sometimes very greatly) increased, owing to the prevalence of the state of cerebral dissociation. According to this third view, suggestion may be defined as the communication of any proposition from one person (or persons) to another in such a way as to secure its acceptance with conviction, in the absence of adequate logical grounds for its acceptance. The idea or belief so introduced to the mind of the recipient is held to operate powerfully upon his bodily and mental processes in proportion to the degree of its dominance over all other ideas or mental processes; and the extraordinary character of the effects, both bodily and mental, of suggestion in hypnotic and hysterical subjects is held to be due to the fact that, in these conditions of mental dissociation, the dominance of the suggested idea is complete and absolute; whereas in the absence of such dissociation the operation of the suggested idea is always subject to some weakening or inhibition through the influence of many opposed or incompatible tendencies and ideas, even if these do not rise into explicit consciousness. This third view seems justified by the facts that no sharp
drawn
If, then, we recognize, as we must, that the alogical production of conviction is the essence of suggestion, and that this frequently occurs in normal minds as well as in those suffering from various degrees of dissociation, it becomes necessary to define the conditions that favour the operation of suggestion in normal minds. These conditions are resident
(a) Defect of knowledge: the defect may be quantitative or qualitative, i.e. it may consist in the lack of knowledge or of firmly established beliefs about the subject of the proposition, or it may consist in the lack of systematic organization of such knowledge as the mind possesses. The well-trained mind is relatively insuggestible,.firstly because it possesses large stores of knowledge and belief; secondly, because this mass of know-ledge and belief is systematically organized in such a way that all its parts hang together and mutually support one another. On the other hand, the young child, the uncultured adult, and especially the savage, are apt to be suggestible in regard to very many topics, first, because they have relatively little know-ledge; secondly, because what little they have is of a low degree of organization; i.e. it does not form a logically coherent system whose parts reciprocally support one another. Suggestion in such cases may be said to be conditioned by primitive credulity or the suggestibility of ignorance. (h) But the same person will not be found to be equally suggestible at all times under similar external conditions. There are changes of mental state which, without overstepping the limits of the normal, condition varying degrees of increased suggestibility. A man is least suggestible when his mind works most efficiently, when he is most vigorous and most wide awake; every departure from this state, due to fatigue, bodily ill-health, emotional perturbation,49 drugs or any other cause, favours suggestibility. (c) Persons of equal degrees of knowledge or ignorance will be found, even at their times of greatest mental efficiency, to be unequally suggestible owing to differences of native disposition; one person is by nature more open than another to personal influence, more easily swayed by others, more ready to accept their dicta and adopt their opinions for his own. Differences of this kind are probably the expression of differences in the native strength of one of the fundamental instinctive dispositions of the human mind, an instinct which is called into play by the presence of persons of superior powers and the excitement of which throws the subject into an attitude of submission or subjection towards the impressive personality. Considered from the side of the agent, suggestion is favoured by whatever tends to render him impressive to the subject or patientgreat bodily strength or stature, fine clothes, a confident manner, superior abilities of any kind, age and experience, any reputation for special
Conditions very favourable to mass-suggestion prevailed during the middle ages of European history; for these " dark ages " were characterized by the existence of dense populations, among whom there was free intercourse but very little positive knowledge of nature, and who were dominated by a church wielding immense prestige. Hence the frequent and powerful operations of suggestion on a large scale. From time to time fantastic beliefs, giving rise to most extravagant behaviour, swept over large areas of Europe like virulent epidemicsepidemics of dancing, of flagellation, of hallucination, of belief in the miraculous powers of relics or of individuals, and so forth. In these epidemics all the conditions favourable to normal suggestion were generally present in the highest degree, with the result that in great numbers of persons there were produced the more extreme effects of suggestion, such as are usually associated with the hysterical or hypnotic state. At the present time similar manifestations occur in a . modified form, as e.g. the popular pilgrimages to Lourdes, Holywell and other places that from time to time acquire reputations for miraculous curative powers. Auto-suggestion.Although auto-suggestion does not strictly fall under the definition of suggestion given above, its usage to denote a mental process which produces effects very similar to those producible by suggestion is now so well established that it must be accepted. In auto-suggestion a proposition is formulated in the mind of the subject rather than communicated from another mind, and is accepted with conviction in the absence of adequate logical grounds. Generally the belief is initiated by some external event or some bodily change , or through some interpretation of the behaviour of other persons; e.g. a man falls on the road and a wagon very nearly passes over his legs, perhaps grazing them merely; when he is picked up, his legs are found to be paralysed. The event has induced the conviction that his legs are seriously injured, and this conviction operates so effectively as to realize itself. Or a savage, suffering some slight indisposition, interprets the behaviour of some person in a way which leads him to the conviction that this person is compassing his death by means of magical practices; accordingly he lies down in deep despondency and, in the course of some days or weeks, dies, unless his friends succeed in buying off, or in some way counteracting, the malign influence. Or, as a more familiar and trivial instance of auto-suggestion, we may cite the case of a man who, having taken a bread pill in the belief that it contains a strong purgative or emetic, realizes the results that he expects.End of Article: SUGGESTION If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
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