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 | Main Concepts |
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| | Hypnosis |
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| | Terminology |
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| | Hypnotherapy |
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Suggestion
Definition
Suggestibility
Suggestibility and hypnosis
Definition
Suggestion is the name given to the psychological process by which one person may guide the thoughts, feelings or behavior of another.
In nineteenth century 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 brought that other idea to mind. Early scientific studies of hypnosis by scientists led to the extension of the meaning of these words in a special and technical sense.
Directives or propositions that were accepted by the subject were called "suggestions". By contrast, if they were not accepted the directives or propositions concerned were not considered to be "suggestive". This created a problem: directives or propositions could only be deemed "suggestive" or "non-suggestive" retrospectively. Subjects who accepted the offered "suggestions" were said to be "suggestible" (with all of this term's connotations of mindless gullibility, rather than cognitive and imaginative talent). Other sorts of suggestion may be merely implied by a gesture, a glance, or the overheard chance remark made to a third person, are often described as "non-verbal suggestion".
Suggestion and hysteria were linked by neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot and psychologist Pierre Janet of the so-called Paris School towards the end of the nineteenth century.
Dr. Charcot
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The hypnotists of the so-called Nancy school (who spoke of "suggestive therapeutics") gave general currency to the doctrine that the most essential feature of the hypnotic state is the extent to which the hypnotized subject accepts, believes, and acts in accordance with every directive or proposition offered to them by the hypnotist.
Modern scientific study of hypnosis separates two essential factors: "trance" and suggestion. The state of mind induced by "trance" is said to come about via the process of a hypnotic induction; essentially instructions and suggestions that an individual will enter a hypnotic state. Once a subject has entered hypnosis, suggestions are given which can produce the effects sought by the hypnotist. Commonly used suggestions on measures of "suggestibility" or "susceptibility" (or, for those with a different theoretical orientation, "hypnotic talent") include suggestions that one's arm is getting lighter and floating up in the air, or the suggestion that a fly is buzzing around your head. The "classic" response to an accepted suggestion that one's arm is beginning to float in the air is that the subject perceives the intended effect as happening involuntarily.
Hands floating
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Suggestions, however, can also have an effect in the absence of hypnosis. These so-called "waking suggestions" are given in precisely the same way as "hypnotic suggestions" (i.e., suggestions given within hypnosis) and can produce strong changes in perceptual experience.
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Suggestibility
A person is deemed to be suggestible if they accept and act on suggestions by others.
A person experiencing intense emotions tends to be more receptive to ideas and therefore more suggestible. Young children are generally more suggestible than older children who are more suggestible than adults.
However, psychologists have found that individual levels of self-esteem, assertiveness, and other qualities can make some people more suggestible than others; i.e. they act on others' suggestions more of the time than other people. This has resulted in this being seen as a spectrum of suggestibility.
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Suggestibility and hypnosis
The extent to which a subject may or may not be "suggestible" has significant ramifications in the scientific research of hypnosis and its associated phenomena, as well as in the efficacious application of hypnotherapy. It is also significant that in many hypnotic applications, the technical terms "suggestible" and "susceptible" can be considered to be interchangeable.
It is important to recognize that many scholars and practitioners use the wider term clinical hypnotherapy which is a clinical intervention in which "therapy" is conducted upon a hypnotized subject. Simply because there are many circumstances in which clinical hypnotherapy can be efficacious.
According to some theoretical explanations of hypnotic responses, hypnotic subjects do not actually enter a different psychological or physiological state; but, rather, simply acting on social pressure — and, therefore, it is easier for them to comply than to disobey. In fact, hypnosis corrects the individual state of consciousness.
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