Page:Psychology and preaching.djvu/233

 SUGGESTION 21$

relatively speaking, these three adjectives describe three very distinct types of disposition.

In the light of what has been said we may formulate two fundamental laws of normal suggestibility.

I. Suggestibility varies, other things being equal, in versely as the insistence of the personality upon maintaining its autonomy. The passive are the most suggestible of the three types. The aggressive have little susceptibility to this kind of influence unless the suggestions given run parallel with their strong passions or settled purposes ; and then their susceptibility will depend upon the degree to which their ra tional powers have been developed. The stubborn or neg atively resistant type seem wholly and abnormally preoccu pied with the desire to maintain their independence. They are &quot; contrary,&quot; and this contrariness seems to arise out of the fact that with them the normal tendency to differentiate themselves from others can realize itself not through posi tive and constructive action, but only by setting themselves in opposition to others. They have a personality highly enough developed to be jealous of its independence, but not highly enough developed to manifest and satisfy self-feeling in creative action. They can maintain the consciousness of personal autonomy only by jealously resisting others. They are not easily susceptible to direct suggestion because they are perpetually on the defensive. As with a besieged city, every avenue of approach is guarded and every gate is locked. They can be taken only by consummate strategy. Suggestions from others arouse opposition simply because they come from others. Being deficient in aggressive, crea tive energy themselves, they realize that they cannot follow the suggestions of others without sinking into merely passive echoes of their social environment. The only way in which they can be managed is through the method of what may be called counter-suggestion a suggestion in one direction may be given them in order to awaken their resistance and cause them to react in the opposite direction. To this kind

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