f at all
but spoken in a low voice to a colleague in the room. Sometimes we have
to trick those who suffer by "negativism," that is by an obstinacy which
exaggerates that of the ordinary stubborn man. In such cases the
suggestion not to perform an action works best if we want the action
performed. There is hardly an end to the list of such methods for
bringing beliefs and attitudes with suggestive power to the mind of the
sufferer. Definitely to describe the conditions under which the one or
the other form ought to be applied would be no wiser than to tell a
statesman what steps are to be taken in every possible diplomatic
situation. The instinctive selection of the right means among the many
possible ones characterizes both the true statesman and the true doctor.

So far we have spoken only about the character of the suggestion,
presupposing that the receiver remains in his natural state. This
presupposition is certainly often entirely correct, but as far as it is
correct, the results of the suggestion vary greatly with the different
individuals. On the whole, we might say that such suggestions given to
the subject in his normal state are effective only when the subject is
by nature a suggestible being. In considering the psychology of
suggestion, we recognized at once that the degree of natural
suggestibility varies excessively. The non-suggestible mind is only to a
slight degree influenced by any of these proposed forms of suggestion as
long as the suggestibility itself is not heightened. To be sure, the
question whether the person is suggestible by nature or not cannot be
settled simply by his own impression. Many of the most suggestible
persons believe firmly that they are superior to any suggestive
influence.

To bring suggestions to greater effectiveness and to exert their
influence practically upon every possible subject, we have thus not only
to give suggestions or to advise autosuggestion but in both cases we
have to secure, especially for the naturally less suggestible patients,
a somewhat heightened suggestibility. Yet no one can overlook that some
of the methods which we described have in themselves the tendency to
reenforce the mental suggestibility. Those methods of emphasis and
order, of assurance and make-believe, of practical training and of
awakening counter-ideas, of persuasion and even of reasoning, wherever
they are in a high degree successful probably always gain a certain part
of their success