Bekhterev hypnosis suggestion telepathy. Hypnosis and suggestion. What is suggestion according to Bekhterev? Suggestion penetrates into the psychic sphere unnoticed and without resistance on the part of the person being suggested.

Hypnosis has been known to people since ancient times. It was used by ministers of religious cults, shamans, healers, magicians, etc.

Research into hypnosis by Bekhterev is associated with the name of F. Mesmer (1734-1815). Mesmer said that in the process of radiating the sick, he noticed how they were being treated by some unknown force emanating from their hands. Mesmer gave it the name “magnetic fluid.” This is a supernatural power that Mesmer transmitted to his patients with the help of certain movements - “passes”.
Magnetic fluid or animal magnetism passes from the one who heals to the healed due to the emergence of a kind of invisible “rapport” channel.
Abbe Fauria used verbal suggestion to put patients to sleep. J. Brad - an English doctor first introduced the concept of “hypnosis”. He also showed that "passes" are not the only way to create a hypnotic state. He said that a state of hypnosis can be induced by fixating the gaze on shiny objects while simultaneously giving verbal suggestion.
J. Brad said that hypnosis does not consist in experiencing a fluid from one person to another, but through changes in the human psyche under the influence of external stimuli.
The following phenomena have been observed under hypnotic influence: anesthesia (lack of sensitivity) and analgesia (no pain).

Hypnosis is usually characterized by a decrease or complete absence of motor activity in the hypnotized person.
There is also such a phenomenon as "catalepsy" - a condition in which the muscles of the euthanized person become waxy and retain any position given to them (a raised arm remains raised).
During the process of hypnosis, the hypnotized person experiences amnesia, that is, forgetting everything that happened to the person during hypnosis.

Post-hypnotic suggestion (temporary suggestion) - the hypnotist carries out the suggestion made by him after a certain predetermined period of time, 1-2 hours after the session. A previously hypnotized person performs these actions exactly while fully awake. Hallucinations can also be hypnotically inspired.

In the 19th century in the 60-70s, two directions emerged in understanding the essence of hypnosis.

1. The teachings of the Paris School led by Charcot.
Hypnosis was understood as a kind of neurosis, or neurotic state, which is expressed in 3 states: lethargy, catalepsy and somnambulism. Hypnosis is induced by physical techniques.

2. The teachings of the Nancy school of Bernheim.
According to this direction, hypnosis is a normal mental phenomenon caused by verbal suggestion, it is a suggested dream, all phenomena in it are the result of mental influences.
An essential feature of hypnosis is its increased suggestibility.

V.M. Bekhterev identified several reasons for the increased suggestibility that occurs during hypnosis:

• Inaction of the mind and will of the euthanized;
• Suggestion in hypnosis has the character of more vivid sensory images than dreams during natural sleep;
• The hypnotist subjugates the will of the hypnotized and enjoys his complete trust;
• Limited perception of the outside world.

Along with external suggestion, the experience of self-hypnosis is also possible. Self-hypnosis is the instillation of mental states by internal factors, the source of which is in the mental sphere of the person subjected to self-hypnosis.

The term telepathy was introduced by English researchers E. Gurney, F. Myers and F. Podmore in 1886. Telepathy is sensing at a distance.

V.M. Bekhterev distinguished 2 forms of awareness mental processes:

— “stages of clarity of consciousness”;
— The presence in the consciousness of various mental processes that differ in their content and relation to the person’s personality, to his “I.”

Within the framework of the concept of consciousness V.M. Bekhterev paid great attention to the phenomena of perception and apperception. Perception- this is the process through which this or that impression reaches consciousness (V.M. Bekhterev).
Apperception- this is the process through which external impressions enter the sphere of clear, “full” consciousness. (V.M. Bekhterev).

Hypnosis involves two people: the hypnotist and the hypnotized. During the session, the patient's personal consciousness is suppressed and the personal consciousness of the hypnotist takes its place. The hypnotist can introduce into the “general consciousness” of the euthanized person any mental content that is transformed there.
"Shared Consciousness" - this is a level of organization of psychophysiological processes where there is still no opposition between the subjective and the objective, and the somatic sphere understands the language of the psyche.

References:
V.M. Bekhterev - Hypnosis, suggestion, telepathy. - M: Mysl, 1994. - 364 p.

Vladimir Mikhailovich Bekhterev (born January 20, old style, 1857 in the village of Sorali, Vyatka province, now the village of Bekhterevo, Elabuga region of Tatarstan; died December 24, 1927 in Moscow) - a major scientist: doctor, neurologist, psychiatrist, psychologist, physiologist and morphologist.

Born into the family of a police officer, he lost his father early; my mother had difficulty finding funds to study at the gymnasium. Graduated from the Medical-Surgical Academy in St. Petersburg; in the spring and summer of 1877 he took part in military operations in Bulgaria (during the Russian-Turkish War of 1877-1878)

On July 24, 1885, he was appointed extraordinary professor and head of the department of psychiatry at Kazan University. He participated in the establishment of Russia's first district psychiatric hospital in Kazan - he introduced useful and interesting work into the course of treatment, and eliminated any forms of violence against patients.

Head the department subject to the organization of a research laboratory. For its creation, the Ministry of Education allocated 1000 rubles and an annual budget of 300 rubles. This was the first psychophysiological laboratory in Russia.

The subject of study was the structure of the brain and nervous tissue. In 1885, Bekhterev described the most important cellular accumulation that is part of the vestibular system.

In the works of 1887-1892. discovered and described the pathways of the spinal cord and brain, showed the connection between individual areas of the cerebral cortex and certain internal organs and tissues - this work brought him world fame.

Bekhterev was one of the first to apply a scientific approach to raising young children: based on studying the movements of infants, he showed that personality formation begins in the first months of life.

In the fall of 1893, Bekhterev moved to St. Petersburg, where he occupied the department of mental and nervous diseases at the Military Medical Academy. He began teaching neuropathology and psychiatry at the academy and the newly opened Women's Medical Institute.

At the Military Medical Academy, he organized one of the world's first neurosurgical departments.

Using public funds, he created the Psychoneurological Institute in 1908, which now bears his name.

During the war, the institute operated on the wounded and provided assistance to people who became mentally ill at the front.

In May 1918, he developed a plan for the creation of the Brain Institute, the leadership of which the Soviet government entrusted to Bekhterev.

Then, in 1918, Bekhterev announced the creation of a new science - reflexology. In his opinion, an objective study of personality is possible based on the study of reflexes.

Based on the law of conservation of energy, a person’s mental energy cannot disappear without a trace, the founder of reflexology argued, therefore, the so-called “immortality of the soul” should be the subject of scientific research.

Bekhterev was not welcome with such conclusions in the Soviet state. On December 24, 1927, during the First All-Union Congress of Neuropathologists and Psychiatrists, Bekhterev died suddenly and unexpectedly.

According to the official version, he was “poisoned from canned food.” The urn with his ashes is buried at the Volkov cemetery in St. Petersburg, the brain is kept at the Brain Institute.

The contribution of Vladimir Mikhailovich Bekhterev to medicine is enormous. In addition to his most famous work - the study of the conductive tracts of the brain and spinal cord - Bekhterev made many discoveries in anatomy and morphology.

As a neurologist, Bekhterev described a number of diseases, one of which (ankylosing spondylitis) is now called “Bekhterev’s disease.”

Studied and treated many mental disorders and syndromes: fear of blushing, fear of being late, obsessive jealousy, obsessive smiling, fear of someone else's gaze, fear of sexual impotence, obsession with reptiles (reptilophrenia) and others.

For more than 40 years, Bekhterev studied and used hypnosis for treatment, while developing the theory of suggestion.

In addition to the dissertation “Experience in clinical research of body temperature in some forms of mental illness,” Bekhterev owns numerous works that are devoted to the description of little-studied pathological processes of the nervous system and individual cases of nervous diseases.

strength to serve humanity, there should be no hesitation. We must be aware of whether we will be with the people who, having won their freedom, want to build their future themselves and call us to participate in this construction.” 1 January 1920 V. M. Bekhterev’s appeal to doctors around the world with a call to protest against the blockade of Soviet Russia was published in newspapers and broadcast on the radio. V. M. Bekhterev was repeatedly elected as a deputy of the Petrograd (and later Leningrad) Council of Workers' Deputies. V. M. Bekhterev died on December 24, 1927 in Moscow during a congress of neuropathologists and psychiatrists, at which he was elected honorary chairman.

V. M. Bekhterev made a major contribution to the development of biological and medical sciences. He created new scientific directions. His activity was so extensive and fruitful that it is hardly possible to list the names of all his scientific works and discoveries in a short essay. In 1925 At the anniversary dedicated to the 40-year professorial activity of V. M. Bekhterev, his student M. P. Nikitin recalled his conversation with one of the foreign scientists, who stated: “I would believe that V. M. Bekhterev alone did this a lot in science and wrote as many scientific papers as he could if he were sure that they could be read in one lifetime.” Various bibliographic reference books indicate that he wrote and published from 600 to 900 scientific works, including more than 10 monographs.

V. M. Bekhterev is a universally recognized classic of modern neuromorphology. He discovered and described a number of formations of the brain and spinal cord, some of which were given his name (Bechterew's vestibular nerve nucleus, etc.). He summarized his research in this area in the monograph “Conducting Pathways of the Spinal Cord and Brain,” which became a classic. The world's leading neuromorphologists considered V. M. Bekhterev the highest authority in this field of science. Some experts seriously said that only two people know the anatomy of the brain - God and Bekhterev.

The scientist also has great merits in the field of neurophysiology. His main efforts in this area were aimed at studying three cardinal problems: the localization of functions in the cerebral cortex, the discovery of combination reflexes (in the terminology of I.P. Pavlov - conditioned reflexes) and the influence of the nervous system on the functions of internal organs. These achievements were summarized in the work “Fundamentals of the Doctrine of Brain Functions,” about which I. P. Pavlov wrote that it “represents a very extensive systematic presentation of the subject indicated in the title, a presentation that is unique in its completeness not only in Russian, but also in foreign literature".

In 1906-1907 in the laboratory of V. M. Bekhterev, a method of motor combination (conditioned) reflexes was developed, which began to be introduced in psychiatric practice (studying the mental activity of children in the ontogenetic aspect, substantiating educational methods, studying the pathogenesis of mental illnesses, treating pathological desires and alcoholism, etc.) .

The study by V. M. Bekhterev and his students of combination-reflex mechanisms for regulating the functions of internal organs showed that interoceptive (organic, in V. M. Bekhterev’s terminology) impulses have a specific relationship to the prefrontal lobes of the cerebral cortex. V. M. Bekhterev’s views on the organization and localization of cerebral functions of the brain have not lost their significance. The mechanisms of activity of the nervous system described by V. M. Bekhterev are in many ways close to what is now known as the “feedback principle” in the activity of complex self-regulating systems.

An important place in the scientific work of V. M. Bekhterev is occupied by his research in the field of functions of the balance organs. He studied the role of the semicircular canals, the labyrinth, the floor of the third ventricle of the brain and the cerebellum in the formation of our ideas about space.

Bekhterev's experimental psychological research on problems of psychology was aimed primarily at studying perception, associative

About V. M. Bekhterev - scientist and hypnologist

nal processes, psychomotor acts. In the mid-90s, V. M. Bekhterev began his work on restructuring psychology on the basis of an objective method in the spirit of contemporary natural science. In this regard, he wrote “Objective Psychology”, “General Fundamentals of Human Reflexology”, “Collective Reflexology”, etc.

V. M. Bekhterev was one of the outstanding clinical neurologists of his time. Perhaps only the contribution of the famous neuropathologist Babinsky is commensurate with the contribution of V. M. Bekhterev to the development of the semiotics of nervous diseases. He described a large number of pathological and normal reflexes and symptoms of nervous diseases. V. M. Bekhterev summarized his discoveries in the field of diagnosis and treatment of nervous diseases in such works as “Nervous diseases in individual observations”, “General diagnosis of diseases of the nervous system”, etc. He described some forms of mental illness and symptoms of mental disorders person.

The activities of V. M. Bekhterev in the field of psychiatry coincided with a period of rapid development and flourishing of Russian psychiatry. He made significant contributions to the development of this field of medicine.

V. M. Bekhterev was both an excellent diagnostician and healer. He carried out major measures to organize psychiatric care, improve the regime of psychiatric institutions, did a lot to introduce various types of therapy in the treatment of mental illnesses, organize psycho- and occupational therapy in psychiatric institutions, charity and patronage services for the mentally ill, and psychoneurological dispensaries. The range of therapeutic agents and methods used by V. M. Bekhterev was extremely wide. This activity of the doctor-scientist was based on highly humane ideals and aspirations.

V. M. Bekhterev dealt with issues of hypnosis, suggestion and telepathy throughout his entire creative life. His first publications on this topic date back to 1890. His concept of the essence of hypnosis as a phenomenon of the human psyche, as well as broad

About V. M. Bekhterev - scientist and hypnologist

He outlined generalizations on the therapeutic use of suggestion in hypnosis in his work “Nervous Diseases in Individual Observations” (1894-1896). Subsequently, V. M. Bekhterev wrote a large number of works on this topic, some of which are published in this publication.

The era and type of doctor-scientist. At the turn of the XVIII-XIX centuries. a turn began in medicine that led to a genuine revolution in this science. In the most general terms, its essence can be characterized by the following main points: a fundamentally new approach to man as a subject of medicine, changing its social status, new forms of organization of medical care, profound reform of medical education, widespread use of clinical and clinical-anatomical principles, introduction of instrumental research methods and the emergence of new semiotics, approval of the nosological principle, introduction of experiment, growth of preventive and therapeutic capabilities of medicine. All this was associated with the reorganization of medicine on the basis of rapidly developing natural science and the introduction of natural scientific methods into the study of human life in normal conditions and pathologies.

In the history of Russian medicine, N.I. Pirogov was one of the first to take this path of development of medicine. In the time of N.I. Pirogov, not all doctors and surgeons understood that only knowledge of anatomy and physiology leads to the progress of medicine.

N.I. Pirogov laid the knowledge about the structure of the human body as the basis for surgical practice, creating a new surgical anatomy. In the person of S.P. Botkin, Russian medical thought rose to a clear awareness of the new theoretical-cognitive situation in medicine. He came to the conclusion that the art of healing consists primarily in the ability to “apply natural science to individual cases of disease.”

S.P. Botkin emphasized that both for the creation of truly scientific medicine and for the correct diagnosis and treatment of each individual patient, the research method is of decisive importance.

About V. M. Bekhterev

- scientist and hypnologist

nia. An important place in the entire methodology of S.P. Botkin is occupied by his ideas about illness as a change in the norm of life, which is based on natural law.

In a fair assessment by I. P. Pavlov, S. P. Botkin was “the best personification of the legitimate and fruitful union of medicine and physiology, those two types of human activity that, before our eyes, are erecting the edifice of science about the human body and promise to provide man with his best in the future.” happiness is health and life."

The new theoretical-cognitive and methodological level of medicine required a new type of doctor, a doctor-scientist. The practical goals of medicine throughout its history have remained unchanged: to help the sick and prevent disease. In solving this noble task, the doctor’s personality, his talent, experience, intuition, and human qualities have always played a huge role. Medicine itself as a knowledge system until the 19th century. was created on the basis of clinical observation. The introduction of natural science methods into medicine led to the fact that the doctor began to consider the clinical facts he observed as a manifestation of certain patterns of the life of the body. The problem of interaction between medicine as a sphere of knowledge and practical activity and fundamental natural sciences has arisen. This interaction manifested itself in the work of V. M. Bekhterev. He saw the advantages of experimental research in the fact that it makes it possible to discover some deep patterns that can explain clinical data and create more effective methods treatment and prevention of diseases. But the possibilities of natural scientific research of humans in medicine are limited for a number of reasons. First of all, these are ethical and legal norms that prohibit experimenting on people. And secondly, there are limited possibilities for modeling human pathology in animals. Therefore, medicine is often ahead of experimental research in biology.

V. M. Bekhterev was formed as a doctor of a new type, a doctor-scientist, in the 70s of the 19th century. By this time-

About V. M. Bekhterev - scientist and hypnologist

neither in psychiatry or neurology has the anatomical-physiological principle been firmly established. Recommending the young scientist V. M. Bekhterev to head the Department of Psychiatry at Kazan University, his teacher \\. M. Balinsky wrote that “he stood firmly on anatomical and physiological soil - the only one from which further successes in the science of nervous and mental illnesses should be expected.”

Second half of the 19th century. marked by the famous debate between supporters of the Parisian psychoneurological school, led by Charcot, and supporters of the Nancy school, led by Bernheim. In the depths of the first of these schools, a physiological point of view on understanding the nature of hypnosis was formed, in the depths of the second - a psychological one. V. M. Bekhterev was a direct witness to these most interesting scientific events. In 1885, he underwent a short internship at the Salpêtrière Charcot Clinic, attended his hypnosis sessions and, directly communicating with the famous psychoneurologist, had the opportunity to get acquainted with his views on the essence of hypnosis and methods of hypnotization. In the understanding of V. M. Bekhterev, medicine more and more turned into “the natural science of pathological processes.”

V. M. Bekhterev, I. P. Pavlov, like a galaxy of their contemporaries, were, according to A. A. Ukhtomsky, representatives of “that generation that was something like an Italian-French renaissance on Russian soil.”

A closer acquaintance with the clinic of nervous and mental illnesses convinced the young Bekhterev that the acquired knowledge in the field of anatomy and physiology of the nervous system did not make it possible to solve the problems of the clinic at the proper level. It was the desire to fill the gap in knowledge, as V.M. Bekhterev recalled many years later, that forced him, along with the clinic, to study the structure and functions of the Brain.

The progress of neuromorphology at that time was associated with the names of such outstanding psychiatrists and clinical neuropathologists as Fleksig, Meinert, Charcot, Ver-

About V. M. Bekhterev - scientist and hypnologist

Nick and others. Over 10-15 years of work in the field of studying the structure of the brain, V. M. Bekhterev made a number of discoveries and became one of the most prominent representatives of this field of knowledge.

V. M. Bekhterev achieved outstanding success in the field of morphology of the nervous system primarily through the use of new techniques. He used primarily the so-called embryological method. The creative application of this method gave V. M. Bekhterev the opportunity to open a number of pathways in the spinal cord and brain. The result of V. M. Bekhterev’s research was not only a description of new brain structures, but also a new understanding of the architectonics of the brain and spinal cord, and the connections between their various formations.

The fundamental novelty of V. M. Bekhterev’s approach to understanding the structure of the brain was that instead of topographic anatomy of a section of individual parts of the brain, he gives physiological, functional anatomy of the nervous system. Only this understanding of anatomy found application in the general pathology of the nervous system and in the clinic of nervous diseases. Thanks to this approach, the significance of internal connections between individual brain structures became clearer than with a topographical description of these connections. Thus, in order to solve pressing clinical problems, the scientist had to not only use existing knowledge, but, with the help of new methods and discoveries, create a new anatomy of the brain for that time.

During his trip abroad, in addition to the clinic, neuromorphology and neurophysiology, V. M. Bekhterev also mastered the then emerging experimental psychology. The practice of a psychiatric clinic, as well as personal medical experience, led V. M. Bekhterev to the idea that the anatomy and physiology of the nervous system are a necessary but insufficient basis for the creation of scientific psychiatry. We need fundamental science, we need psychology, built on the example of other natural science disciplines on the basis of experimental research.

Every day more and more people are interested in secret knowledge, the influence of the power of thought, and ways to influence human consciousness and actions. And yet, for many, these topics are incomprehensible, and the questions raised seem like something from the realm of magic. But the further science goes, the easier it becomes to explain the inexplicable. V. M. Bekhterev devoted his entire life to the study of these issues and learned a lot of new things. He headed the Brain Institute, where he conducted research that made it possible to scientifically explain many things. In the book “Hypnosis. Suggestion. Telepathy" presents facts from his biography, as well as his works on the topics of human influence.

From the book, readers will learn about how hypnosis and suggestion work. The author talks about how you can influence an individual or a crowd, and explains what the difference is. He talks about hypnosis, but also explains how you can influence a person while they are awake. An interesting part of the story will be dedicated to how people are “processed” in sects. And in modern world this issue is very relevant, just like the topics of influencing people to achieve benefits, including the influence of the media and special manipulations during negotiations or in sales. This book will be of interest to both psychologists and psychotherapists, and ordinary people who do not have special education, but want to learn about what hypnosis is from a scientific point of view.

On our website you can download the book "Hypnosis. Suggestion. Telepathy" Bekhterev Vladimir Mikhailovich for free and without registration in fb2, rtf, epub, pdf, txt format, read the book online or buy the book in the online store.

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Preface
“He had a colorful life and a mysterious death.”

The famous scientist Vladimir Mikhailovich Bekhterev had a difficult childhood, stormy youth, a vibrant life and a mysterious death. He still remains one of the largest figures in Russian medicine – and not only. Bekhterev's biography is widely known, and there is no point in retelling it in detail, but I would like to note some significant points.

Vladimir Mikhailovich was born far from all capitals and large cities, lost his father early and was raised by his mother in very tight financial conditions. Nevertheless, he managed to receive the classical education of a Russian intellectual. His alma mater became the St. Petersburg Medical and Surgical Academy (later the Military Medical Academy). In his youth, Vladimir Mikhailovich participated in student demonstrations and also fought on the Russian-Turkish front. He was not enthusiastic about the war, although later for quite a long time, even during the years of Soviet power, he wore the overcoat of an officer in the tsarist army.

Bekhterev from a young age was an active person and very greedy for knowledge. Many of the problems that he actively tackled were overcome literally by storm, with a truly military approach, using both personal charm and penetration abilities. And he took on a lot, from formulating new scientific trends to creating new institutions. Bekhterev was an excellent organizer and a meticulous scientist who studied various aspects of human functioning, especially in the “man-environment” system. An incredibly inquisitive mind allowed Vladimir Mikhailovich to become an anatomist, neurologist, neuropathologist, clinician, and psychiatrist (including one who worked closely with the problem of alcoholism and alcohol addiction). He also worked in the fields of sociology, psychology and pedagogy, making significant contributions to the development of these disciplines.

Bekhterev was an active popularizer of science. He has more than five hundred scientific and popular science works written without the help of a typewriter or computer.

Yes, as part of his scientific activity, Vladimir Mikhailovich was sometimes harsh in his judgments, which, perhaps, was generally characteristic of that time: Freud himself called his students who did not become followers “neurotics,” and Bekhterev, according to rumors, did not hesitate to use the word “degenerates”, including addressed to the powers that be. Before the revolution, he publicly said that “the country is led by a crazy hieromonk,” for which he was loved by the Soviet authorities; however, he also addressed its leaders with remarks similar to diagnoses, using strong words from the psychiatric lexicon. And what about his speech at the opening of the First Congress of the Russian Union of Psychiatrists and Neuropathologists in 1911, in which he noted that the only place of non-oppression in Russia is psychiatric hospitals!

In addition, Vladimir Mikhailovich criticized classical psychoanalysts, and in particular Freud, but this was already very constructive criticism, the same scientific dispute in which truth is born and science itself continues to develop.

One of Bekhterev’s main scientific interests, which essentially gave rise to Russian psychotherapy, was hypnology and hypnosuggestive techniques as such. Bekhterev himself was not only a theorist, but also an active practitioner in the field of hypnology and suggestion, especially in terms of treating alcoholism. This direction of his work developed in Soviet times: almost all Soviet psychotherapy and hypnology relied on it until the collapse of the USSR. And in principle, in the field of hypnology and psychotherapy in general, Russia was an authority largely due to Bekhterev’s powerful contribution to the development of hypnosuggestive techniques.

To sketch a kind of “scientific genealogy,” the famous scientist Jean-Martin Charcot, who changed the term “magnetism” to “hypnotism” and became one of the “fathers” of hypnosuggestion, was the teacher of both Freud and Bekhterev. Bekhterev, in turn, was the teacher of such major Soviet psychiatrists and hypnologists as P.I. Bul and V.E. Rozhnov. And Rozhnov’s direct student – ​​a kind of “scientific grandson of Bekhterev” – is, in turn, your humble servant.

Modern psychiatry and hypnology are still actively developing, including thanks to the works of Bekhterev and based on them. Bekhterev went further than his teacher Charcot in that he explored “hypnotism” not as some mysterious and incomprehensible phenomenon, but as one of the natural science problems that needed equally scientific research. Including due to such a fundamental turn, the solution to many problems of the functioning of the human brain, which previously seemed “hidden in a veil of secrecy,” has now been solved by Bekhterev’s students. And some areas of his work - for example, the study of biochemical changes in the human body as a result of hypnosuggestion - are still actively continuing, and reports on them are given at various modern psychotherapeutic congresses.

Bekhterev, thanks to his scientific approach to life, turned out to be a very insightful person. Take, for example, his famous saying that “If a patient does not feel better after talking with a doctor, then he is not a doctor.” Many of his other statements sound equally topical today: “Fanatism liquefies the brain,” “You cannot be the leader of the people without making their dreams come true,” “You must speak to the crowd, not so much convincing as hoping to excite them with hot words,” “Alcoholism is such a social evil that it is difficult to overestimate at all,” etc. Some of his phrases have acquired the force of aphorisms and are actively used by people, even those who are very far from medicine.

Such was the great scientist, researcher and rebel - Vladimir Mikhailovich Bekhterev. Even with his unexpected death, he gave rise to many speculations and legends, among which a clear truth has not yet been established. And among his key works on hypnosuggestion is the book “Brain. Suggestion. Telepathy”, which has become a textbook for many hypnologists not only in Russia, but throughout the world.

N.N. Naritsyn,

psychotherapist, psychoanalyst

Suggestion penetrates into the psychic sphere unnoticed and without resistance on the part of the person being suggested.

...What is suggestion? The question of what suggestion is is one of the most important questions in modern psychology and social life, which has recently acquired enormous practical significance thanks especially to the study of hypnotism; nevertheless, it is now firmly established that suggestion in general is a much broader act than hypnotic suggestion itself, since the former manifests itself in the waking state and, moreover, is observed in social life everywhere and everywhere under very diverse conditions. Despite, however, the enormous practical importance of suggestion, its psychological nature still seems to be so poorly understood that various authors have given and continue to give very different meanings to this concept.

Already in my work “The Role of Suggestion in Social Life” I drew attention to the discrepancies among authors on this issue and the confusion that arises from this. “Until recently, this term,” I say, “did not have any special scientific meaning and was used only in common parlance, mainly to designate instigations produced by one person to another for one purpose or another. Only in modern times has this term acquired a completely special scientific meaning, along with the expansion of our knowledge about the mental influence of some individuals on others. But this term has already begun to be abused, applying it to those phenomena to which it does not apply, and often using it to cover up facts that remain insufficiently clarified. There is no doubt that such abuse of the scientific term results in a lot of confusion in the coverage of those psychological phenomena that belong to the field of suggestion”...

There are many examples where suggestion enters the psychic sphere unnoticed by the person himself and without any struggle or resistance on his part.

In general, we can say that suggestion, at least in the waking state, much more often penetrates the psychic sphere in just such an imperceptible way, and in any case without much struggle and resistance on the part of the person being suggested. This is the social power of suggestion. Let's take an example: “In the middle of the street, in the square, on the sidewalk, a merchant stops and begins to pour out whole volumes of chatter, flattering the public and praising his goods. The curiosity of passers-by is aroused, they stop. Soon our hero becomes the center of a crowd that stares blankly at the “wonderful” objects displayed to her surprise. A few more minutes, and the crowd begins to buy things that the merchant suggests are beautiful and cheap.”

The arguments of the street speaker are absurd, his motives are despicable, and yet he usually carries the masses along with him, unless another speaker turns up and carries them in a different direction.

“A street speaker climbs onto a log or a cart and starts haranguing the crowd. In the crudest manner he glorifies the great intelligence and honesty of the people, the valor of the citizens, cleverly declaring to his listeners that with such talents they should clearly see how the prosperity of the country depends on the policy that he approves, on the party of which he is a valiant champion. His proofs are absurd, his motives are contemptible, and yet he usually carries the masses along with him, unless another speaker comes along and carries them in a different direction. Antony's speech in Julius Caesar provides an excellent example of suggestion."

Obviously, in this case, the effect of suggestion would not have been realized, as it would soon have been noticed by everyone that the merchant was excessively praising his items, that the street speaker was exaggerating the importance of his party, praising its merits in a nonsensical manner. At least, everyone for whom the absurdity and falsity of the assurances is clear, in such cases immediately moves away from such speakers, around whom there remains only a gullible crowd of listeners, who understand little of the matter, who do not notice either crude flattery or false statements and therefore are easily succumbed to suggestion.

One of the excellent poetic examples of suggestion penetrating into consciousness after a certain struggle is the suggestion on the part of Iago to Othello, who initially meets this suggestion with strong resistance, but then gradually succumbs to it when the “poison of jealousy” begins to do its destructive work in Othello’s soul. Also, some of the suggestions made in hypnosis are sometimes met with a certain resistance on the part of the hypnotized person. This happens especially often with people who are persuaded to perform an act that contradicts their moral convictions. As is known, some of the French authors even found it possible to determine the morality of a given person based on the degree of resistance of a person to whom suggestions are made that contradict generally accepted moral concepts.

Everything happens in the most ordinary, natural order, and, however, this is a real suggestion that invades the psychic sphere like a thief and produces fatal consequences in it.

It is obvious that in hypnosis the personality for the most part is not completely eliminated, it only extinguishes to a certain extent and, encountering a suggestion that is contrary to belief, counteracts it to one degree or another.

Nevertheless, we have nothing obligatory or even characteristic of suggestion in opposition to it on the part of the person to whom the suggestion is made, since many suggestions enter the psychic sphere of one or another person without the slightest resistance on his part. I tell one person who is in a waking state that his hand begins to tighten into a fist, that his whole arm is seized by a spasm and is pulled towards his shoulder, and this suggestion is immediately carried out. I tell another that he cannot grasp surrounding objects with his hand, that it is paralyzed, and it turns out that from then on he has actually lost the use of his hand. All this continues until such time as I tell one and the other person that they again still control their hand. In neither case, as in many other cases, is there a shadow of resistance.

...One also cannot think that suggestion does not allow criticism. Resistance to suggestion, where it exists, is, after all, based on criticism, on understanding the internal contradiction of the suggested idea with the beliefs of a given person, on the disagreement of his “I” with it. Otherwise there would be no resistance. From this it is obvious that in certain cases suggestion does not even exclude criticism, without ceasing to be a suggestion at the same time.

This is usually noticed in weak degrees of hypnosis, when the person is still critical of everything around him, including suggestion.

From the medical history

I suggest to one person in hypnosis that upon awakening he should take a photographic card from the table that he sees. When he wakes up, he almost immediately examines the surface of the table and fixes his gaze on a certain place. "Do you see anything?" - I ask. “I see the card.” I say goodbye to him, intending to leave; but he still turns his gaze to the table. “Is there anything you need to do?” - I ask. “I wanted to take this card, but I don’t need it!” - he answers and leaves without fulfilling the suggestion and, obviously, struggling with it. We also find a very good example of this in B. Siddis (doctor, Harvard lecturer Boris Siddis. - Ed.). A person who is in a weak degree of hypnosis is given the suggestion that, upon hearing a knock, he will take a cigarette and light it. “When he woke up, he remembered everything. I quickly knocked several times. He got up from his chair, but immediately sat down again and, laughing, exclaimed: “No, I won’t do that!” - "What to do?" – I asked. “Light a cigarette, it’s nonsense!” “Did you really want to do this?” - I asked, imagining the desire to be past, although it was clear that he was now struggling with it. He didn't answer. I asked again: “Did you really want to do this?” “Not very much,” he answered briefly and evasively.”

Thus, “acceptance without criticism of suggested ideas and actions” also does not constitute an absolute necessity for suggestion, although it is indisputable that most suggestions enter the psychic sphere, as mentioned earlier, without any resistance.

Likewise, we do not find complete automatism in the implementation of suggestion. It is known how often we find, even among persons immersed in hypnosis, that suggestion is not carried out without some struggle. We observe the same thing in cases of post-hypnotic suggestion. Sometimes this struggle ends with the fact that the suggestion, which was on the way to implementation, ultimately remains not implemented at all, as was the case in the examples just given. True, this counteraction varies, depending on the strength of the suggestion, its nature, and certain external conditions; nevertheless, it is possible and in many cases exists. Consequently, motor automatism cannot be considered an integral part of suggestion.

Suggestion often enters the psychic sphere unnoticed, without any violence.

So, suggestion often enters the psychic sphere unnoticed, without any violence, sometimes causes a struggle on the part of the personality of the suggested subject, is even criticized by him and is not always carried out automatically.

It should be noted, however, that in other cases the suggestion actually enters the psychic sphere as if by force and, being accepted without any criticism or internal struggle, is carried out quite automatically. An example of such suggestions is the method of suggestion of Abbot Faria, who acted with one command. The well-known command, which is based everywhere and everywhere not so much on the strength of fear for disobedience and on the consciousness of the rationality of submission, but on actual suggestion, which in this case bursts into consciousness forcefully and suddenly and without giving time for reflection and criticism leads to automatic implementation of the suggestion.

It is obvious that the essence of suggestion lies not in one or another of its external features, but in the special relationship of the suggested subject to the “I” during the perception of the suggestion and its implementation. Generally speaking, suggestion is one of the ways of influence of some persons on others, which is carried out intentionally or unintentionally on the part of the person suggesting and which can occur either unnoticed by the person to whom the suggestion is made, or with his knowledge and consent.

To clarify the essence of suggestion, we must keep in mind that our perception can be active and passive. In the first case, the “I” of the subject necessarily participates, which directs attention, in accordance with the course of our thinking and surrounding conditions, to certain objects and phenomena. The latter, entering the mental sphere with the participation of attention and assimilated through thinking and reflection, become a lasting property of personal consciousness or our “I”.

This kind of perception, leading to the enrichment of our personal consciousness, underlies our views and beliefs, since the further result of active perception is the work of our thoughts, leading to the development of more or less strong beliefs. The latter, entering the content of our personal consciousness, temporarily hide behind the threshold of consciousness, but in such a way that every minute, at the request of the “I,” they can be revived again by reproducing experienced ideas.

But, in addition to active perception, we perceive much of the world around us passively, without any participation of our “I”, when our attention is occupied with something, for example. when concentrating on any thought, or when our attention due to one or another reason is weakened, as is observed, for example, in a state of absent-mindedness. In both cases, the object of perception does not enter the sphere of personal consciousness, but penetrates into other areas of our mental sphere, which we can call general consciousness. This latter is sufficiently independent of personal consciousness, due to which everything that is included in the sphere of general consciousness cannot be arbitrarily introduced by us into the sphere of personal consciousness. But nevertheless, the products of general consciousness can, under certain conditions, enter the sphere of personal consciousness, and the source of their initial emergence is not always even recognized by personal consciousness.

In addition to active perception, we perceive much of the world around us passively, without any participation of our “I”, when our attention is occupied with something.

A whole series of heterogeneous impressions that enter the mental sphere during passive perception without any participation of attention and penetrate directly into the sphere of general consciousness, in addition to our “I,” form those elusive for us influences of the surrounding world that are reflected in our well-being, often giving it that or another sensual tone, and which underlie the unclear motives and motivations that we often experience in those and other cases. The sphere of general consciousness generally plays a special role in the mental sphere of each person. Sometimes an impression received passively enters, thanks to a random concatenation of ideas, into the sphere of personal consciousness in the form of a mental image, the novelty of which amazes us. In some cases, this image, taking plastic forms, appears in the form of a special inner voice, reminiscent of an obsession, or even in the form of a dream or a real hallucination, the origin of which usually lies in the sphere of products of the activity of general consciousness. When personal consciousness weakens, as we observe in a dream or in deep hypnosis, then the work of the general consciousness comes onto the stage of consciousness, completely disregarding either the views or the conditions of activity of the personal consciousness, as a result of which in dreams, as in deep hypnosis, everything that we cannot even think about in the sphere of personal consciousness seems possible.

There can hardly be any doubt that suggestion refers specifically to the order of those influences on the mental sphere that occur outside of our “I” and penetrate directly into the sphere of general consciousness. Even in my work “The Role of Suggestion in Social Life” (St. Petersburg, 1898), I defined suggestion after appropriate explanations as follows:

“Thus, suggestion comes down to the direct grafting of certain mental states from one person to another, grafting that occurs without the participation of the will of the receiving person and often even without clear consciousness on his part.” I explained at the same time that “this definition contains a significant difference between suggestion as a method of mental influence of one person on another from persuasion, which is always produced only through logical thinking and with the participation of personal consciousness.”

...There is no doubt that, to a certain extent, both command and example act exactly like suggestion and cannot even be distinguished from it; for the rest, both command and example, acting on the human mind, can be completely likened to logical conviction.

Both command and example act exactly like suggestion and cannot even be distinguished from it; for the rest, both command and example, acting on the human mind, can be completely likened to logical conviction.

Thus, an order acts primarily through the force of fear for the possible consequences of disobedience through the consciousness of the need to comply due to the rationality of obedience in general, etc. In this respect, an order acts completely like a conviction. But regardless of this, the command acts, at least in certain cases, directly on the mental sphere as a suggestion. As is known, the term “suggestion”, before its introduction into psychology, was preferably used by the public to express the powerful influence of one person on another. The best example of the influence of an order as a suggestion is a command, which, as is known, acts not only through fear of consequences for disobedience, but also through direct suggestion, without giving the opportunity to sensibly discuss the subject of the command. In the same way, example, on the one hand, undoubtedly acts on the mind by convincing it of the usefulness of what a person sees and hears; on the other hand, an example can act like a mental infection, in other words, through direct suggestion, as a completely involuntary and unconscious imitation.

In this regard, we recall the contagious influence of public executions, suicides by imitation, the transmission of convulsive painful forms through imitation, etc.

As for other forms of influence of some persons on others, such as demands, advice, expressions of hope or desire, then, in essence, they do not mean anything more than to provide material for judgment to another person, and therefore, they mean to support or strengthen it contains a certain conviction, although in certain cases these forms of influence can directly influence consciousness like suggestion.

Thus, both command and example, as well as other forms of mental influence of some persons on others, act in some cases through persuasion, in other cases through suggestion, more often they act simultaneously both as persuasion and as suggestion and therefore cannot to be considered as independent ways of influencing some persons on others, like persuasion and suggestion... That is why in the word “suggest” we mean not only a special way of influencing this or that person, but also the possible result of this influence, and, on the other hand , in the word “suggestion” we mean not only the achieved result in the mental sphere of a given person, but also, to a certain extent, the method that led to this result.

In our opinion, the concept of suggestion primarily contains an element of direct influence. Whether the suggestion is made by an outsider through a word, or the influence is made through some phenomenon or action, that is, whether we have a verbal or concrete suggestion, it always affects not through logical persuasion, but directly affects the mental sphere, in addition to the sphere of personal consciousness, or at least without processing on the part of the subject’s “I,” due to which a real instillation of one or another psychophysical state occurs.

An example can also act like a mental infection, in other words, through direct suggestion, as a completely involuntary and unconscious imitation.

In the same way, those states that are known under the name of autosuggestion and that do not require outside influences usually arise directly in the psychic sphere, when, for example, this or that idea penetrated consciousness as something ready-made in the form of a thought that suddenly appeared and struck consciousness, in the form of this or that dream, in the form of a seen example, etc. In all these cases, psychic influences, arising in addition to outside interference, are grafted onto the psychic sphere also directly, bypassing the critical and self-conscious “I” or what we call personal consciousness.

Thus, to suggest means to more or less directly instill ideas, feelings, emotions and other psychophysical states into the mental sphere of another person, in other words, to influence in such a way that, if possible, there is no room for criticism and judgment; by suggestion we should understand the direct grafting of ideas, feelings, emotions and other psychophysical states in addition to his “I” into the mental sphere of a given person, i.e., bypassing his self-aware and critical personality.

SUMMARY

If suggestion is something other than the influence of one person on another by directly instilling ideas, feelings, emotions and other psychophysical states without the participation of the personal consciousness of the person to whom the suggestion is made, then it is obvious that it can manifest itself most easily when it penetrates into the mental sphere either imperceptibly, insinuatingly, in the absence of special resistance on the part of the subject’s “I”, or at least with the latter’s passive attitude towards the subject of suggestion, or when it immediately suppresses the mental “I”, eliminating any resistance on the part of the latter...