The power of self-suggestion / by Samuel McComb.

  • McComb, Samuel, 1864-1938
Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The power of self-suggestion / by Samuel McComb. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    We all know from experience the power of self-suggestion to originate morbid conditions. The heart beats automatically; but some night, lying awake, we become conscious of its strokes. Should some slight pain in the region of the heart supervene at that time, we may, if we are suggestible, leap irrationally to the idea that we are suffering from heart disease, and this erroneous notion will serve to increase the slight functional irregularity through automatic repetition of the idea. In psychological terms, we are here build- ing up either subconsciously or uncon- sciously an abnormal instead of a normal complex of ideas. A good illustration of this process is afforded by the case of a gentleman who called upon me recently to get some advice as to the method of regaining his self-control. It appears that he had been reading Professor