nkenness, kleptomania,
the drug habit, uncontrolled or perverted sexual desires, as well as
minor failings of character, are all susceptible to its action. It is
as powerful in small things as in great. By particular suggestions we
can modify our tastes. We can acquire a relish for the dishes we
naturally dislike, and make disagreeable medicine taste pleasant. So
encouraging has been its application to the field of morals that Coue
is trying to gain admittance to the French state reformatories. So
far, the official dislike for innovations has proved a barrier, but
there is good reason to hope that in the near future the application of
this method to the treatment of the criminal will be greatly extended.

By way of anticipating an objection it may be stated that the Coue
method of Induced Autosuggestion is in no sense inferior to hypnotic
suggestion. Coue himself began his career as a hypnotist, but being
dissatisfied with the results, set out in quest of a method more simple
and universal. Conscious autosuggestion, apart from its convenience,
can boast one great advantage over its rival. The effects of hypnotic
suggestion are often lost within a few hours of the treatment. Whereas
by the use of the general formula the results of Induced Autosuggestion
go on progressively augmenting.

Here we touch again the question of the suggester. We have already
seen that a suggester is not needed, that autosuggestion can yield its
fullest fruits to those who practise it unaided. But some persons
cannot be prevailed on to accept this fact. They feel a sense of
insufficiency; the mass of old wrong suggestions has risen so
mountain-high that they imagine themselves incapable of removing it.
With such the presence of a suggester is an undoubted help. They have
nothing to do but lie passive and receive the ideas he evokes. Even
so, however, they will get little good unless they consent to repeat
the general formula.

But as long as we look on autosuggestion as a remedy we miss its true
significance. Primarily it is a means of self-culture, and one far
more potent than any we have hitherto possessed. It enables us to
develop the mental qualities we lack: efficiency, judgment, creative
imagination, all that will help us to bring our life's enterprise to a
successful end. Most of us are aware of thwarted abilities, powers
undeveloped, impulses checked in their growth. These are present in
our Unconscious like trees in