The Daily News. THURSDAY, JANUARY 9. POLITICAL SUGGESTION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 51, 9 June 1910, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, JANUARY 9. POLITICAL SUGGESTION.

A Sydney paper puts forth a remarkaole theory that hypnotism had much to do with the extraordinary success of the Labor Party at the recent Federal elections. It states that both the jjrowtJk of the Party and its recent victory have been, greatly aided by a wave, or rather tide, of political "suggestion" that iias been running' very strongiy through modern literature. The popular idea of hypnotism is largely erroneous, as it supposes some system of mesmeric ''passes," and some actual power in tii« hvpnotiser, the assumption being that the "subject'' has a weaker will than that of the man who influences him. The process of "suggestion" however, is mainly subjective, the function of the hypnotist being to create a profound belief in the subject's mind, and that can Ibe done without any '-passes," and without the creation of a condition of hyp. notic sleep. Hypnotic "suggestion" is, in fact, one of the commonest of facts. It enters into all relations of life, into love, marriage, and divorce, into religion, into trade, and into politics. When we find exceptional conditions in any of these things, when we find inexplicable love matches, for instance, or sudden waves of religious emotion, or fierce and unwarranted outbursts of racial prejudice, or a great change in the direction of political opinion, we are justified in tupecting the existence of some widespread hypnotising influence, some atmosphere of "suggestion," some psychic appeal which has acquired dominance over the individual or general mind. "Suggestibility," says Dr. Paul Dubois, "indicates that faculty of mind which permits anyone to be persuaded, by no matter what process, of the existence of a fact, of the justice of an idea, or of the excellence of a determination. But there is interest in differentiating and even contrasting the terms 'persuasion' and 'suggestion.' Eechterew has cleverly noted the difference in saying that suggestion en- , ters into an understanding by the back stairs, while logical persuasion knocks at the front door. If the healthy ma* knew enough to obey only pure reason or J just sentiments, and if only the sick mam I were weak enough to become the plaything of illusions, the distinction would I be easy, and one could say: 'The men of sound mind let themselves be persuaded', only sick people are suggestible.' But in speaking thus, the king- of creation would manifest quite too good an opinion of himself. In spite of civilisation, in spite of the enormous efforts of science, we are still very weak, and we all suffer from a most lamentable suggestibility in the most unfavorable sense of the word." Speaking of Bernheim, Dr. Dubois says: "After having for a long time put his patients to sleep, in order to make sugI gestions of cure to them, he came to see that he could do without this arti-. ficial sleep, and ,he practised suggestion in the walking. state, stating the cure, [ and making the hope of it glitter before ! the eye® of the patient. He was the first . who <jar«<j to say, 'There is no hypnosisj there Is nothing ii)ui suggestion.'" For the stream of influences which have "suggested" the rise of the Labor Party we have to look to modern literature, and to some of the remarkable conditions which have been developed by modern civilisation. The contrast between, enormous aggregations of wealth, on the one hand, and widespread, tftemployment on the other necessarily affected mamy minds, and a crop of theories which n.iitf at the amelioration of such conditions. Every man who plans or advocates any thefory of reform becomes a hypnotist, but all such schemes are necessarily mixtures of "persuasion" and "=;ii™esHon* The hynotist cannot succeed with colcl reason alone: he has by oi<iw'T!.2 visions to establish the hope and ' belief in his subject's mind, and then he can reaJily administer the less attractive parts of his schemes. To the ardent believer, the fanatic, the whole system seems to be true; to the critical observer the system can be analysed into the true, the partially true, the doubtful, the unwarranted belief, and the obviously impossible; "and if the critic be honest he will recognise, sympathise with,' and help forward that which is true; he will dissect the partially true into component elements, he will suspend his judgment where the fact is doubtful; he will resist the unwarranted belief, and he will do strenuous battle with that which is demonstrably false. Every elector has that duty cast upon liim. and the first necessity for the due evercise of that responsibility is the recognition of this great fact of "suggestion." As Dr. Dubois says: "Nobody is absolutely refractory to suggestion. All depends on the psychological moment in which we find ourselves, and the personality of the suggester counts-%it slightly in the success, It is .enough for him to be a psychologist, and to have audacity. Education ought to undertake the task of delivering us from such imbecile suggestibility. Reason is the sieve which stops unhealthy suggestions, and allows only those to pass which lead us in the way of truth." "* r "*