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Autosuggestion was popularized by the French "Nancy school." By the first half of the nineteenth century, methods of self-medication and self-healing known as "automagnetization" had reinforced (or supplanted) various forms of "magnetism."

At the end of the century, a theoretical and practical debate ensued that both galvanized and divided the various schools of hypnotism. What was the real agent in the process of suggestion: the hypnotist, or the subject, who often relinquishes power to him without realizing it? For those who believed the latter, the effectiveness of the suggestion was thought to depend on a self-suggestibility associated with hysterical tendencies (Jean Martin Charcot, Pierre Janet), or the "will" of the subject (a position put forward by Joseph Delboeuf [1831-1896], an independent disciple of Hippolyte Bernheim). In 1888-1889, basing his theory on the work of Charcot, Freud showed that some suggestive experiences could be interpreted in terms of an "encouragement to autosuggestion." In 1892-93, he proposed the notion of a "counter-will." In 1895 Joseph Breuer insisted that self-hypnotic states were a symptom of hysteria and a process of self-medication and self-healing carried out in the presence of the therapist. The cathartic talking cure occurred during these states of self-hypnosis.

Following in the tradition of Nancy school, the pharmacistÉmile Coué (1857-1926) popularized the use of autosuggestion to govern one's own behavior. His disciple Charles Baudouin suggested that a synthesis be attempted between Coué's theories and psychoanalysis.

JACQUELINE CARROY

See also: Baudouin, Charles; Qu'est-ce que la suggestion? (What is the suggestion?); Suggestion.