nhale deeply, and after training this movement
complex of joyful expression, speak the dreaded word at the height of
the movement a new feeling combination clusters about the sound and may
overcome the antagonism. Sometimes you will give to the desirable idea
sufficient strength by mere repetition, sometimes you force the
attention better by unusual accentuation, connecting the suggestion with
a kind of shock. From here it is only one step to the suggestion in the
form of a sharp order which breaks down the resistance just by its
suddenness and loudness, supported perhaps by a quick arm movement which
gives a cue for imitative reflexes. In the case of a youngster even a
slap may add to the nervous shock; also a sudden clapping of the hands
may favor effectiveness of the suggestive order.

Often it is wise to give the suggestion, not from without but to
prescribe it in the form of autosuggestions. For instance, advise the
patient not only to have the good will and intention of suppressing a
certain fixed idea or by producing a certain inhibited impulse but to
speak to himself in an audible voice, every morning and every evening,
saying that he will overcome it now. Here, too, the autosuggestion may
become effective by the frequency of the repetition or by the urgency of
the expression or by the accompanying motor reactions. As a matter of
course any associations which reenforce the idea may be used for
assistance. Especially near-lying is the appeal to the man's conscience,
but just such associations which touch the idea of the own personality
and its deepest layers of feelings are always risky. They may touch and
stir up old memories which interfere with success or they may awaken a
feeling of contrast between duty and fulfillment which may disturb the
whole equilibrium. If the physician knows that the good-will of the
patient is insufficient to overcome the pathological disturbance, he
ought not to make him feel ashamed or guilty, and that not only for
moral reasons but also for strictly psychotherapeutic reasons.

In certain easily recognizable cases, it is essential to give the
suggestion with avoidance of any emphasis, only as a hint, passing as if
the suggestion almost slipped from the tongue of the doctor without his
real intention. The hysteric who is resisting the suggestion which is
intentionally given to her is sometimes surprisingly trapped by a
half-hidden suggestion, perhaps not spoken to the patient hersel