THE CONDITIONS AND LAWS OF SUGGESTION
In order to bring to the fore subconscious activities with their
reflex, automatic psycho-motor reactions by removal of the upper
consciousness I have found requisite, in my investigations, the
following conditions:
_Normal Suggestibility,--Suggestibility in the Normal, Waking
State._
(1) Fixation of the Attention.
(2) Distraction of the Attention.
(3) Monotony.
(4) Limitation of Voluntary Activity.
(5) Limitation of the Field of Consciousness.
(6) Inhibition.
(7) Immediate Execution of the Suggestion.
_Abnormal Suggestibility,--Suggestibility in Hypnotic and Trance
States_:
(1) Fixation of the Attention.
(2) Monotony.
(3) Limitation of Voluntary Activity.
(4) Limitation of the Field of Consciousness.
(5) Inhibition.
The nature of abnormal suggestibility, the result of my
investigations, is a disaggregation of consciousness, a cleavage
of the mind, a cleft that may become ever deeper and wider,
ending in a total disjunction of the waking, guiding, controlling
guardian-consciousness from the automatic, reflex, subconscious
consciousness....
Normal suggestibility is of like nature,--it is a cleft in the
mind. Only here the cleft is not so deep, not so lasting as in
hypnosis or in the other subconscious trance states. The split is
but momentary. The mental cleavage, or the psycho-physiological
disaggregation of the superior from the inferior centers with their
concomitant psychic activities is evanescent, fleeting, often
disappearing at the moment of its appearance.
The following laws of suggestibility were formulated by me:
I. _Normal suggestibility varies as indirect suggestion and
inversely as direct suggestion._
II. _Abnormal suggestibility varies as direct suggestion and
inversely as indirect suggestion._
A comparison of the conditions of normal and abnormal
suggestibility is valuable, since it reveals the nature of
suggestibility, and discloses its fundamental law. An examination
of the two sets of conditions shows that in abnormal suggestibility
two conditions, distraction of attention and immediate execution
are absent, otherwise the conditions are the same. This sameness
of conditions clearly indicates the fact that both normal and
abnormal suggestibility flow from some one common source, that they
are of like nature, and due to similar causes.
Now a previous study led us to the conclusion that the nature of
abnormal suggestibility is a disaggregation of consciousness,
a slit produced in the mind, a crack that may become wider and
deeper, ending in a total disjunction of the waking, guiding,
controlling consciousness from the reflex consciousness. Normal
suggestibility is of a like nature. It is a cleft in the mind. The
cleft is not so deep, not so lasting as it is in hypnosis, or in
the state of abnormal suggestibility. The split is but momentary,
disappearing almost at the very moment of its appearance.
This fleeting, evanescent character of the split explains why
suggestion in the normal state, why normal suggestibility requires
immediate execution as one of its indispensable conditions. We
must take the opportunity of the momentary ebb of the controlling
consciousness and hastily plant our suggestion in the soil of
reflex consciousness. We must watch for this favorable moment, not
let it slip by, otherwise the suggestion is a failure. Furthermore,
we must be careful to keep in abeyance, for the moment, the ever
active waves of the controlling consciousness. We must find for
them work in some other direction, we must divert, we must distract
them. That is why normal suggestibility requires the additional
conditions of distraction and immediate execution. For in the
waking state the waking, controlling consciousness is always on its
guard, and when enticed away, leaves its ground only for a moment.
In normal suggestibility the psychic split is but faint; the
lesion, effected in the body consciousness, is superficial,
transitory, fleeting. In abnormal suggestibility, on the contrary,
the slit is deep and lasting,--it is a severe gash. In both cases,
however, we have a removal, a dissociation of the waking from the
subwaking, reflex consciousness, suggestion becoming effected only
through the latter. For suggestibility is the attribute of the
subwaking, reflex consciousness.
A comparison of the two laws discloses the same relation. The two
laws are the reverse of each other, thus clearly indicating the
presence of a controlling, inhibiting, conscious element in one
case, and its absence in the other. In the normal state we must
guard against the inhibitory, waking consciousness, and we have to
make our suggestion as indirect as possible. In the abnormal state,
on the contrary, no circumspection is needed; the controlling,
inhibitory, waking consciousness is more or less absent. The
subwaking, reflex consciousness is exposed to external stimuli, and
our suggestions are therefore the more effective, the more direct
we make them.
Suggestibility is a function of disaggregation of consciousness, a
disaggregation in which the subwaking, reflex consciousness enters
into direct communication with the external world. The general law
of suggestibility is:
_Suggestibility varies as the amount of disaggregation, and
inversely as the unification of consciousness._