Suggestion: what it is, what it is used for and types

This phenomenon causes our beliefs and expectations to affect our perception.

Due to certain shows and television programs, the suggestive techniques have been very damaged, they have lost credibility and are perceived as a kind of spell by means of which, a hypnotist can obtain anything from another person. From being a musical prodigy to making a complete fool of himself.

But nothing could be further from the truth, suggestion is a psychological process that has been highly studied and that, carried out by qualified health professionals, can be of great help in certain cognitive-behavioral treatments.

What is suggestion?

In literal terms, suggestion is known as the psychological process that allows the mental manipulation of other people through a series of techniques; other people, the media or all kinds of agents such as music or books, have the capacity to orient or lead people's ideas, emotions or behaviors..

Although traditionally associated with hypnosis, suggestions are effective and commonly used in other settings where the person is outside of a hypnotic state. For example, advertising in the media has always been accused of manipulating our behavior to achieve its own ends and benefits.

Nevertheless, suggestion can exert enormous power over our behavior, as well as over the way we perceive reality. But equally important to this is both the ability of a person or agent to exercise suggestion, and the suggestibility or manipulability of the person who is the subject of the suggestion. manipulable or manipulable that the person who is the object of the suggestion..

This means that a highly suggestible person is susceptible to be manipulated by any agent without being aware of it. In these cases it is very likely that this one is carried away by what is transmitted in the media, advertisements and publicity or by what other people tell him/her.

Its application in hypnosis and clinical practice

As described in the previous point, suggestion has traditionally been associated with hypnosis practices. Although they are closely related, there are some factors that differentiate them. By hypnosis we can understand the whole process through which the person is immersed in a mental state of trance or altered consciousness, while suggestion would be the concrete act of transmitting a certain message or information to the person.

However, there is much debate as to whether hypnosis or the hypnotic state is an actual trance state or whether, on the other hand, the altered state of consciousness is a trance. or if, instead, the alteration of behavior is explained through motivational factors or conditioners such as the attitude or expectations of the person. Although for many years these techniques have been highly questioned, in recent years there has been a progressive increase in their use in clinical and health contexts, both physical and psychological.

The main reason why these procedures have been traditionally doubted is that they have been represented as an almost magical practice in which a person, looking more like a magician or sorcerer than a professional in psychology, exerted a series of spells on the other person that led him/her to behave in an eccentric or strange way. However, several studies have shown that, carried out in a serious manner and always by a professional in psychology and hypnosis, suggestive techniques can be considerably effective as a coercion and coaxing technique. can be considerably effective as an adjuvant to cognitive-behavioral treatments..

This means that, according to these investigations, treatments for a series of conditions or specific ailments that are accompanied by a few sessions that include hypnotic techniques, are more effective than if they are carried out without them.

These interventions include smoking cessation treatments and some behavioral addictions, physical Pain management, sleep disorders, weight loss processes or nocturnal enuresis in children, for which hypnotic processes have been shown to be highly effective. or nocturnal enuresis in children; for which hypnotic processes have been shown to be highly effective.

In the same way, many other experts emphasize the possible efficacy of hypnotic techniques as part of cognitive-behavioral therapy. as part of cognitive-behavioral therapy for the treatment of emotional disorders such as anxiety or depression.

Types of suggestion

There is an extensive classification of the types of suggestion, which are distinguished according to whether it is performed directly or indirectly, according to the moment at which the effect of the suggestion is carried out or according to the reaction it is expected to provoke.

Direct or indirect suggestion

The first classification is that which distinguishes between direct and indirect suggestions.

1. Direct suggestion

Also known as authoritative, in this type of suggestion, in this type of suggestion the person is directly told what it is intended that he/she experience. For example: "notice how your eyelids become heavier and heavier".

Indirect suggestion

Incorrectly called permissive suggestions, in this case an attempt is made to elicit a response without the person's conscious consent. They are especially useful in people who are skeptical or suspicious of the treatment.

Timed suggestions

On the other hand, depending on whether the effects of the suggestion end or not at the end of the hypnotic intervention, we can differentiate between hypnotic suggestions and post-hypnotic suggestions.

1. Hypnotic suggestions

When we refer to hypnotic suggestions, we are referring to those that begin when the professional begins the suggestive technique and end with the end of the hypnotic state. That is to say, the person will only experience the effects of hypnosis for the duration of the hypnotic session..

2. Post-hypnotic suggestions

In this second type of suggestions, more commonly used in clinical practice, the suggestions are given or ordered during the session, but are experienced by the person once the session is over. are experienced by the person after the session has ended.. The intention is that the person modifies his or her behavior or thinking in daily life, not only during the consultation.

Suggestions according to the reaction provoked

The last and most extensive of the classifications is the one that divides the types of suggestion according to the intended reaction. In this case we can distinguish between the following.

1. Motor suggestions

Motor suggestions are aimed at a physical or motor response. This includes both the induction of certain movements and the inhibition of these movements. Through them, a person can be made to move any of his or her joints or, on the contrary, be plunged into a state of paralysis or catalepsy, submerge him/her in a state of paralysis or catalepsy..

2. Sensory-physiological suggestions

By sensory-physiological suggestions we mean the induction of all those responses related to the person's psychophysiology, as well as to the person's proprioceptive capacity.as well as with the proprioceptive capacity.

Examples of these suggestions are those that try to provoke or inhibit in the person sensations of pain, temperature changes, heaviness or any sensation related to the senses, with the exception of life and the auditory sense, which are included in the cognitive-perceptual suggestions.

3. Cognitive-perceptual suggestions

Finally, cognitive-perceptual suggestions refer to reactions provoked in higher mental processes such as memory, as well as auditory and visual sensory processes..

Therefore, by means of suggestive techniques it is possible to alter a person's ability to perceive a particular stimulus, as well as to provoke a kind of hallucinations or visual or auditory images.

However, it is necessary to specify that these hallucinations have nothing to do with what is intended. have nothing to do with what the traditional hypnosis shows pretend to provoke or simulate to achieve.as well as the hallucinations experienced in certain psychiatric disorders.