General psychology from the personalistic standpoint / by William Stern ; translated by Howard Davis Spoerl.

  • Stern, William, 1871-1938.
Date:
1938
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: General psychology from the personalistic standpoint / by William Stern ; translated by Howard Davis Spoerl. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    482/620 (page 456)
    information that Brand X exists, but also the attitude, disguised and undisguised, that it is particularly good and cheap, in a word, worth buying. The suggested attitude may gradually become so embedded in the consciousness of a smoker that its origin is entirely forgotten; he demands Brand X in the stores, not because he remembers that it was recommended by advertisements, but because he now has an immediate belief in its value. The attitude which proceeds from the suggestive factor S must in some way be a perceptible phenomenon in order to influence R. On the other hand, it is not necessary for an actual inner attitude of this kind to be present in S. Derisive, spurious, imaginary attitudes can have as much suggestive effect as the genuine. It is of no conse- quence for the effectiveness of the advertisement whether or not the manufacturer of the new brand of cigaret is really convinced of its special goodness. The prosecuting attorney who puts to the witness the suggestive question “Didn’t the man have a knife in his hand?” need not believe at all in the correctness of the evidence “knife in the defendant’s hand”; but the witness believes that the prosecutor believes it, and the question has suggestive effect.1 The contagious influence of imaginary attitudes doubtless has a rightful place in life; the effect of art, and of dramatic art in particular, depends to a large extent upon it. But in serious affairs it can wreak considerable disaster. Blind acceptance of the attitude advanced is of the very nature of suggestion. For this reason suggestive people may be encouraged to play upon the suggestibility of others through hypocritical attitudes. Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur. Perhaps the fundamental psychological difference between the leader and the demagogue lies in the fact that the former transfers his genuine atti- tudes to the adherents, while the latter communicates hypocritical attitudes in order to fascinate his followers. 3. AUTOSUGGESTION In “autosuggestion” the factors A and R are combined in the same person and are represented only by two different functions. Here again a too broad view of the concept must be avoided; not all self- influencing is of the nature of suggestion. An individual who by persistent exertion of will overcomes a fault, a bad habit, or an idiosyn- crasy, practices not autosuggestion but self-education. Autosugges- tion occurs only when the effect proceeds not from one’s own determi- nation and impulsion but from some mental attitude that is in itself independent of will, e.g., when wishes, fears, and expectations are transformed into belief in the reality of their content. 1 Other examples have been given above; see p. 16g (Binet’s bottle test) and p. 320 (telling fairy stories).