Book Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1906 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER IV IMITATION AND SUGGESTION IN SOCIETY What is suggestion? What shall be said of its place in society, and of Tarde's suggestion theory of imitation? The peculiar influence of one individual over another is most easily remarked in abnormal subjects, and especially in the hypnotic state. These phenomena readily attract attention because of their unusual character; later, attention is broadened, until psychologists now discuss suggestion as a generic influence in mental life, even in minor phenomena of normal experience. The course of thought here illustrates well Spencer's "law" of the order of scientific advance, according to which discoveries are first made among striking or practically important phenomena, and proceed later to the less obvious and the more abstruse. In the work of Binet and Fere (Animal Magnetism, 1888), in the books of Moll (Hypnotism, i89o), Loewenfeld (Der Hypnotismus, 1901) and other specialists, and in various general treatises on Psychology, historical evidence can be found to substantiate this point. In recent times, suggestion came to psychological note as an explanation for hypnotic phenomena, advanced by the school of Nancy in opposition to Charcot's following at the Salpetriere. During the last fifteen years suggestion has been elaborately studied, in the waking as well as in the hypnotic state, among normal men and women as well as among obviously abnormal characters, and among children as well as adults. It is curious to observe how students differ when they come to define the phenomenon they are studying. Several pages could be filled with different definitions of suggestion, in some cases markedly opposed. Loewenfeld cites nineteen definitions, and his list is by no means complete. Opinions differ...