the patient's confidence; after that, some use persuasion, some
suggestion, some psychoanalysis, some (non-medical practitioners) use
metaphysical doctrines designed to lead the patient to "hitch his
wagon to a star". On the intellectual side, these methods agree in
giving the patient a new perspective, in which weakness, ill health
and maladaptation are seen to be small, insignificant and unnecessary,
and health and achievement desirable and according to the nature of
things; while on the side of impulse they probably come together in
appealing to the masterful and self-assertive tendency, either by
putting the subject on his mettle, or by leading him to partake of the
determined, masterful attitude of the physician, or by making him feel
that he is one with the great forces of the universe. Methods that
psychologically are very similar to these are employed by the
clergyman in dealing with morally flabby or maladjusted individuals;
and the courts are beginning to approach the delinquent from the same
angle. All the facts seem to indicate that the way to get action is to
have a goal that "fires the imagination" and enlists the masterful
tendencies of human nature.

The Influence of Suggestion

Can the will of one person be controlled by that of another, through
hypnotism or any similar practice? This question is often asked
anxiously by those who fear that crime or misconduct willed by one
person may be passively executed by another.

{547}

Hypnosis is a sleeplike and passive state that is nevertheless
attentive and concentrated. It appears as if the subject were awake at
just one point, namely at the point of relation with the hypnotizer.
To stimuli from other sources, external or internal, he is
inaccessible. His field of activity is narrowed down to a point,
though at that point he may be intensely active.

The depth of the hypnotic state varies from shallow to profound.
Comparatively few individuals can be deeply hypnotized, but many can
be got into a mild receptive state, in which they accept the
suggestions of the hypnotizer more readily than in the fully awaking
state. The waking person is alert, suspicious, assertive, while the
hypnotized subject is passive and submissive. The subject's
cooeperation is necessary, in general, in order to bring on the
hypnotic state, whether shallow or deep.

The means of inducing hypnosis are many and varied, but they all
consist in shoving aside extraneous thoughts a