Talk:Autosuggestion

Please review article summary

The article summary only says that Autosuggestion "is a psychological technique", "has not been proven", and that somebody believes in it. These are things that a quick reader doesn't care about. What does autosuggestion mean? This is missing. 156.62.3.26 (talk) 22:20, 13 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Evidence and clinical trials?

The evidence section says: "In the early 20th century, Emile Coue used autosuggestion to cure patients; his work is evidence to support the existence of autosuggestion and the power of the human mind". How is "his work" evidence? In the early 20th century, people also used radium water to "cure" patients, resulting in painful death. Also, the "clinical trials" talks about a different technique, and says very little about autosuggestion itself. Destynova (talk) 03:00, 5 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

 In the early 20th century they also has limited means of determining if someone was 'cured'. The way they were diagnosed was by asking them how they felt, so of course placebo-like effects would appear to be strong. I'd like to see studies in which two people with very similar metabolics also share a very similar bone fracture. Then have one of them do the auto-suggestive mantras and compare the healing rate of the fractures over time. Eventually I think we'll come to realize that placebo effects aren't nearly as strong as those who promote them like to tell us they are.

Willpower

Coue is wrong about the lack of 'willpower' by which children are more susceptible to autosuggestion than adults. It has nothing to do with willpower, it has to do with intimidation. Children are intimidated by adults and want to please them. They also assume adults know what they are talking about, especially ones with 'doctor' credentials! So when Coue tells them they can't unclasp their hands, they simply do as they are told. A similar effect is at the root of Loftus' false-memory experiments. Loftus doesn't implant false memories, she uses peer pressure from family members and friends to tell the person who can't remember the false memory that they're wrong. When everyone you know is telling you you're wrong, you're going to accept that sooner or later because resisting requires too much energy. And whether it happens sooner or later is not a mechanism of willpower, but rather of ego. willpower is a word to describe what happens when a person decides to do something on their own volition, not when someone is messing with them. When someone is gaslighting you (which is essentially what Coue was doing to those children), your sense of self is what protects you from your reality being distorted. Willpower is nothing more than a euphemism for stubbornness in this context. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 154.5.215.119 (talk) 02:52, 18 March 2019 (UTC)[reply]