Tuesday, July 24, 2012

SUGGESTION AND AUTOSUGGESTION (II)


A PSYCHOLOGICAL AND PEDAGOGICAL STUDY BASED UPON THE INVESTIGATIONS MADE BY THE NEW NANCY SCHOOL
BY
Professor at the Jean Jacques Rousseau Institute and Occasional Professor at the University of Geneva
Author of Culture de la Force morale, Symbolisms
1920
TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH BY
EDEN AND CEDAR PAUL
TRANSLATORS' PREFACE
THE dissociation of hypnotism from mysticism and superstition was efficiently begun by two investigators, Alexandre Bertrand[1] and James Braid. Bertrand (Traite du somnambulisme, Paris, 1823 ; Du magne'tisme animal en France, Paris, 1826) insisted especially upon the psychological determinants of the phenomena in question. He maintained that what we now call the hypnotic state was brought about through the influence of the imagination of the patients acting upon themselves. Herein we have the germ of Coup's theory of autosuggestion as expounded in the following pages. Braid, on the other hand (various writings, from 1841 to his death in 1860), inclined at the outset rather to the physiological explanation of what he was the first to term "hypnotism” It is interesting to note that Braid was a pioneer in the therapeutic use of reflective autosuggestion. He describes his own sufferings, in September, 1844, from a severe attack of muscular rheumatism, which had made it impossible for him to sleep for three successive nights. He then hypnotised himself in the presence of two friends.
" At the expiration of nine minutes they aroused me, and, to my agreeable surprise, I was quite free from pain, being able to move in any way with perfect ease. ... I had seen like results with many patients ; but it is one thing to hear o pain, and another to feel it. My suffering was so exquisite that I could not imagine anyone else ever suffered so intensely as myself on that occasion ; and therefore I merely expected mitigation, so that I was truly and agreeably surprised to find myself quite free from pain. ... A week thereafter I had a slight return, which I removed by hypnotising myself once more ; and I have remained quite free from rheumatism ever since, now nearly six years."
The observation is quoted by Arthur Edward Waite in his biographical introduction to Braid on Hypnotism (pp. 45-6). To the contemporary reader, and above all to students of Coue and Baudouin, it is obvious that the essential feature in the cure was not the "hypnotism" but the autosuggestion.
Yet the idea that unconscious autosuggestion is responsible for many of our troubles, moral and physical, was slow to mature. Even to-day, people fail to recognise that they are largely wrong when they speak of "the ills that flesh is heir to," and that they should rather in many cases speak of "the ills that fancy breeds." Still more slowly has come the recognition that in reflective autosuggestion, scientifically applied, we have in very truth the faith that moves mountains. Healers, official and unofficial, have at all times made use of the power of suggestion, but the use has been for the most part unconscious. James Goodhart, in his Harveian lectures on Common Neuroses (1894, p. 129), tells us that There are many conditions in which the cure must come mainly from within, our function in chief being to call out this dormant power." But for Goodhart the "rational treatment" of disease was still to be found in skilled advice as to regimen and the like ; the " dormant power "of reflective autosuggestion was not yet revealed to hisdiscerning gaze. In the most outstanding British work on psychotherapeutics, J. Milne Bramwell's Hypnotism(third edition, 1913), the word autosuggestion is not to be found in the index. Yet Bramwell inclines to accept the theory that the phenomena of hypnotism are chiefly explicable by the conception of "the subliminal consciousness," and he records as the main feature of this theory that "the essential characteristic of the hypnotic state is the subject's power over his own organism." Here we obviously verge upon Coue's teaching. But the affiliations of that teaching can be best understood in the light of a brief analysis of the development of the theory of hypnotism
subsequent to the days of Bertrand and Braid.
* * *
As for the philosophical, psychological, and ethical implications of the new doctrine, yet more interesting (to persons interested in such abstractions) than its bearings upon pedagogy and upon therapeutics, it is not for the translators to add a word here to what Baudouin writes in his eloquent Conclusion on "Suggestion and the Will." Those who like to know whither they are being led, may usefully read this brief philosophical section before approaching the preliminary problem "What is Suggestion" In our opinion the Conclusion is equally valuable as a preamble to the Introduction, and might be read first as well as last. For, after making that intimate acquaintanceship with Suggestion and Autosuggestion which is one of the privileges of a translator, we unhesitatingly endorse the author's claim that the teachings of the New Nancy School are destined, in conjunction with the teachings of psychoanalysis, to effect a renovation of psychology, medicine, and pedagogy. As supplements to Bergsonianism the two will probably achieve the renovation of philosophy as well.
EDEN AND CEDAR PAUL.
LONDON, May, 1920.

[1]Alexandre Jacques François Bertrand, ( 1795 – 1831), was a French physician from Nantes, naturalist, physicist, close to Saint-Simon[2], science writer and columnist. A specialist in somnambulism and animal magnetism , he first defended  and later refuted the theory of "fluid" and became one of the instigators of modern theories of hypnosis .
He also wrote articles and books of extension on the geology , the physical and scientific issues of the day.
Bertrand began to lecture on the subject of mesmerism and conduct experiments after witnessing a public display of mesmerism in 1819. He believed that it was the strength of the patient’s imagination that bought about a cure. From  1819 to 1820 , he gave a public lecture on animal magnetism . First of partisan theories that explain the effect of magnetism by using a universal fluid, Bertrand finally becomes one of the gurus of the current that explains the magnetism by the effects of the imagination.
[2]The Saint-Simon is a doctrine socio-economic and political , whose influence was decisive in the nineteenth century .
It is named after Claude Henri de Rouvroy, Comte de Saint-Simon ( 1760 - 1825 ). The follower or supporter is called "Saint-Simon." It is sometimes considered the founding idea of he French industrial company.
To end the revolutions of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, wars, intolerance, selfishness, and the old regime with its privileged, its inequalities, its injustices, its obscurantism and feudalism, Saint-Simon proposes a change in society. He advocated a fraternal society whose members the most competent (industrial, scientific, artists, intellectuals, engineers ...) task would be to govern France as economically as possible, to make it a prosperous country, where there would be mind business, general interest and common good, freedom, equality and peace.
Spurred on by one of its main representatives, Barthélemy Prosper Enfantin[3] , this doctrine, at its strongest development (circa 1830), takes the form of a sect .
[3]Barthélemy Prosper Enfantin( 1796 – 1864), was one of the main leaders of the movement of Saint-Simon , but is also a writer and entrepreneur, originally including the Suez Canal and the development of railways and director of a body release.

SUGGESTION AND AUTOSUGGESTION (I)


Charles Baudouin ( 1893 –  1963) was a French-Swiss psychoanalyst.
Baudouin was born Nancy, France. In his work, he combined Freudianism with elements of the thought of Carl Jung and Alfred Adler. He died, aged 70, in Geneva.
Charles Baudouin published Suggestion & Autosuggestion (1920), based upon a series of university lectures of Émile Coué. Baudouin himself was an educationalist, psychotherapist and professor of philosophy at the Rousseau Institute and University of Geneva. Prior to the publication of Baudouin’s work in 1920, literature on the New Nancy School was scarce,
He [Coué] was written no more than a few articles in the bulletin of the school, and some papers for psychological congresses. Even scantier are the writings of his pupils. The New Nancy School supplied the elements of an entire psychology, but this psychology remains unwritten.
During his career, he was a Swiss psychoanalyst and Privatdocent at the University of Geneva (1920), founder of the International Institute of Psychagogy and Psychotherapy (1924), director of the review Action et Pensée (Action and Thought) (1931), Chevalier of the Legion of Honor in Paris (1950), and associate professor at the University of Geneva (1962).
Baudouin studied philosophy in Nancy, where he received his degree in 1912. He was a professor of philosophy at the school of Neufchâteau in the Vosges. In 1915 he traveled to Geneva, attracted by the success of the Jean-Jacques Rousseau Institute, where he taught. He wrote his doctoral dissertation, entitled Suggestion et Autosuggestion, at the University of Geneva in 1920.
Baudouin underwent three different analyses: One in 1917 with Dr. Carl Picht, a Jungian analyst, another, a training analysis, with Charles Odier, between 1925 and 1926, and a third with another Jungian, Tina Keller. Fluent in both French and German, Baudouin read the work of Freud and the first psychoanalysts early in his career. He met Freud in Vienna in 1926. In 1929 Baudouin applied for membership in the Société Psychanalytique de Paris, but his request was rejected because of pressure from Henri Flournoy, who insisted that he would join the organization only upon condition that Baudouin not be admitted.
Baudouin spent much of his career trying to reconcile the work of Jung, Freud, and Adler. His earliest work was devoted to suggestion and hypnosis. He later developed an interest in literature and the relation between psychoanalysis and education. Baudouin's literary output throughout his career was considerable.

SUGGESTION AND AUTOSUGGESTION
A PSYCHOLOGICAL AND PEDAGOGICAL STUDY BASED UPON THE INVESTIGATIONS MADE BY THE NEW NANCY SCHOOL
BY
CHARLES BAUDOUIN
Professor at the Jean Jacques Rousseau Institute and Occasional Professor at the University of Geneva
Author of Culture de la Force morale, Symbolisms
1920


Sunday, July 22, 2012

SELF MASTERY THROUGH CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION


Suggestion, or rather Autosuggestion, is quite a new subject, and yet at the same time it is as old as the world. It is new in the sense that until now it has been wrongly studied and in consequence wrongly understood; it is old because it dates from the appearance of man on the earth. In fact autosuggestion is an instrument that we possess at birth, and in this instrument, or rather in this force, resides a marvelous and incalculable power, which according to circumstances produces the best or the worst results. Knowledge of this force is useful to each one of us, but it is peculiarly indispensable to doctors, magistrates, lawyers, and to those engaged in the work of education. By knowing how to practise it consciously it is possible in the first place to avoid provoking in others bad autosuggestions which may have disastrous consequences, and secondly, consciously to provoke good ones instead, thus bringing physical health to the sick, and moral health to the neurotic and the erring, the unconscious victims of anterior autosuggestions, and to guide into the right path those who had a tendency to take the wrong one.
SELF MASTERY
THROUGH
CONSCIOUS AUTOSUGGESTION
by
Émile Coué
1922

Émile Coué
The Master Mind of Autosuggestion
Have you not noticed that the more you try to remember the name of a person which you have forgotten, the more it eludes you, until, substituting in your mind the idea
"I shall remember in a minute" to the idea "I have forgotten",
 the name comes back to you of its own accord without the least effort?
***
C. (Cyrus) Harry Brooks (1890–1951), author of various books on Coué, claimed the success rate of his method was around 93%. The remaining 7% of people would include those who were too skeptical of Coué's approach and those who refused to recognize it.
***
In the general formula the attention is fully absorbed by the idea of betterment. The mind is directed away from all that hinders and impedes and fixed on a positive goal. In the general formula the attention is fully absorbed by the idea of betterment. The mind is directed away from all that hinders and impedes and fixed on a positive goal.
***
For deafness: Having closed the eyes and relaxed body and mind, say to yourself something of this nature :
" From this day forth my hearing will gradually improve. Each day I shall hear a little better. Gradually this improvement will become more and more rapid until, in a comparatively short space of time, I shall hear quite well and I shall continue to do so until the end of my life."
A person suffering from unfounded fears and forebodings might proceed as follows :
" From to-day onward I shall become more and more conscious of all that is happy, positive and cheerful. The thoughts which enter my mind will be strong and healthful ones. I shall gain daily in self-confidence, shall believe in my own powers, which indeed at the same time will manifest themselves in greater strength. My life is growing smoother, easier, brighter. These changes become from day to day more profound; in a short space of time I shall have risen to a new plane of life, and all the troubles which used to perplex me will have vanished and will never return."
A bad memory might be treated in some such terms as these :
" My memory from to-day on will improve in every department. The impressions received will be clearer and more definite ; I shall retain them automatically and without any effort on my part, and when I wish to recall them they will immediately present themselves in their correct form to my mind. This improvement will be accomplished rapidly, and very soon my memory will be better than it has ever been before."
Irritability and bad temper are very susceptible to autosuggestion and might be thus treated :
" Henceforth I shall daily grow more good-humoured. Equanimity and cheerfulness will become my normal states of mind, and in a short time all the little happenings of life will be received in this spirit. I shall be a centre of cheer and helpfulness to those about me, infecting them with my own good humour, and this cheerful mood will become so habitual that nothing can rob me of it."
Asthma is a disease which has always baffled and still baffles the ordinary methods of medicine. It has shown itself, however, in Coue's experience, pre-eminently susceptible to autosuggestive treatment. Particular suggestions for its removal might take this form :
" From this day forward my breathing will become rapidly easier. Quite without my knowledge, and without any effort on my part, my organism will do all that is necessary to restore perfect health to my lungs and bronchial passages. I shall be able to undergo any exertion without inconvenience. My breathing will be free, deep, delightful. I shall draw in all the pure health-giving air I need, and thus my whole system will be invigorated and strengthened. Moreover, I shall sleep calmly and peacefully, with the maximum of refreshment and repose, so that I awake cheerful and looking forward with pleasure to the day's tasks. This process has this day begun and in a short time I shall be wholly and permanently restored to health."
It will be noticed that each of these suggestions comprises three stages : ( 1 ) Immediate commencement of the amelioration. (2) Rapid progress. (3) Complete and permanent cure. While this scheme is not essential, it is a convenient one and should be utilised whenever applicable. The examples are framed as the first autosuggestions of persons new to the method. On succeeding occasions the phrase " from this day forth," or its variants, should be replaced by a statement that the amelioration* has already begun. Thus, in the case of the asthmatic, " My breathing is already becoming easier," etc.
* "to make better" or "to improve upon"
THE PRACTICE OF
AUTOSUGGESTION
BY THE METHOD of Émile Coué
BY
C. HARRY BROOKS