Page:Psychology and preaching.djvu/16

 CONTENTS

CHAPTER X SUGGESTION

Distinction between normal and abnormal suggestion. Ihree types of organisms the aggressive, the stubborn (or resistant), and the passive. Suggestibility varies in versely as the insistence of the organism on its autonomy. Varies inversely as the mental equipment and organization. Suggestible classes children, women (about certain mat ters), those who have lived in a narrow environment those without stable mental life. Normal suggestion should be indirect. Securing the confidence of the subject important. High emotion increases suggestibility. Im portance of repetition. Suggestion as contrasted with ra tional persuasion, which should be the aim of the preacher.

��CHAPTER XI ASSEMBLIES 236

The accidental concourse. Psychology of the street throng. The inspirational gathering. Three stages of psychic fusion. The passing of the assembly into the sec ond and third stages a process of inhibiting rational con trol. Individuals not equally susceptible to crowd-sugges tion. Methods of promoting psychic fusion close seat ing of the people, concerted bodily movement, singing, passionate oratory. Emotions best adapted to produce fusion fear, anger, the tender feeling, the sentiment of liberty, the love of old things. Is the process of psychic fusion conducive to genuine religious experience? The psychology of the deliberative body.

��CHAPTER XII MENTAL EPIDEMICS 265

The sweep of a common emotional excitement over a social group. Results either from like response to same stimuli or from communication of feeling, or from both. The mental epidemic is wave-like. Each wave of collective emotion is followed by a reaction in the opposite direc tion. Two powerful mental epidemics can not occur at the

�� �