SCIENCE 



NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 27, 1891. 



SUGGESTION IN INFANCY.' 



The rise of hypnotism in late years lias opened the way 

 to an entirely new method of mental study. The doctrine 

 of pure reflexes was before largely physiological, and only 

 pathological cases could be cited in evidence of a mechanism 

 in certain forms of consciousness as well as out of it ; and 

 even pathological cases of extreme sensitiveness to casual 

 suggestion from the environment or from other men did not 

 receive the interpretation which the phenomena of hypnotic 

 suggestion are now making possible, i.e., that suggestion 

 by idea, or through consciousness, must be recognized as as 

 fundamental a kind of motor stimulus as the direct exci- 

 tation of a sense-organ : in other words, that nervous re- 

 flexes work directly through states of consciousness ; that 

 thelatter are integral portions of these reflexes ; and, further, 

 tJiat a large part of our mental life is made up of a mass 

 of such ideo-motor reflexes, ivhich are normally in a state 

 of subconscious inhibition. 



"Without discussing the nature of the hypnotic state, nor 

 venturing to pass judgment in this connection upon the 

 question whether the suggestion theory is sufficient to ex- 

 plain all the facts, we may yet isolate the aspect spoken of 

 above, and discuss its general bearings. Of course, the 

 question at once occurs, is the normal life a life to any 

 degree of ideo-motor or suggestive re-actions, or is the 

 hypnotic sleep in this aspect of it quite an artificial thing ? 

 Further, if such suggestion is normal or typical in the men- 

 tal life, what is the nature of the inhibition by which it is 

 kept under ? Leaving this second question altogether un- 

 answered for the present, it has occurred to me to observe 

 my child " during her first year to see if light could be 

 thrown upon the first inquiry above. If it be true that ideo- 

 motor suggestion is a normal thing, then early child-life 

 should present the most striking analogies to the hypnotic 

 state in this essential respect. This is a field that has 

 hitherto, as far as I know, been almost untouched by 

 psychologists. 



Observation of reactions clearly due to suggestion in my 



child, either under natural conditions or by experiment, 



lead me to distinguish the following kinds of suggestion, 



mentioned in the order of their appearance in child-life: — 



f Physiological 



Sensori-motor 



Deliberative 

 Imitative 



I shall proceed by first describing the class of phenomena 

 designated, and then the evidence, small or great, which my 

 observations afford in each case. 



1. Physiological Suggestion. — By "suggestion" ordi- 

 narily is understood ideal or ideo-motor suggestion, — the 



Suggestion 



Ideo-motor ■] 



1 For the general facts and interesting treatment of the movements of 

 infants, see Preyer's Senses and Will, part ii. 

 8 Called hereafter simply H. 



origination from without of a motor re-action by producing 

 in consciousness the state which is ordinarily antecedent to 

 that re-action. But observation of an infant for the first 

 month or six weeks of its life leads to the conviction that its 

 life is mainly ijhysiologieal. The vacancy of consciousness 

 as regards any thing not immediately given as sensation, 

 principally pleasure and pain, precludes the possibility of 

 ideal suggestion as such. The infant at this age has no 

 ideas in the sense of distinct memory-images. Conscious 

 states are affective. Accordingly, when the re-actions which 

 are purely reflex, and certain random impulsive movements, 

 are excluded, we seem to exhaust the contents of conscious- 

 ness. 



Yet even at this remarkably early stage H. was found to 

 be in a degree receptive of suggestion — suggestion conveyed 

 by repeated stimulation under uniform conditions. In the 

 first place, the suggestions of sleep began to tell upon her 

 before the end of the second month. Her nurse put her to 

 sleep by laying her face-down and patting gently upon the 

 end of her spine. This position soon became itself not only 

 suggestive to the child of sleep, but sometimes necessary to 

 sleep, even when she was laid across the nurse's lap in what 

 seemed to be an uncomfortable position. 



This illustrates what I mean by physiological suggestion. 

 It is the law of physiological habit as it borders on the con- 

 scious. No doubt some such effect would be produced by 

 pure habit apart from consciousness; but, consciousness be- 

 ing present, its nascent indefinite states may be supposed to 

 have a quality of suggestiveness, which indicates the degree 

 of fixedness of the habit. Yet the fact of such a coloring of 

 consciousness in connection with the growth of physiological 

 habit is important more as a transition to more evident sug- 

 gestion. 



The same kind of phenomena appear also in adult life. 

 Positions given to the limbs of a sleeper lead to movements 

 ordinarily associated with these positions. The sleeper de- 

 fends himself, withdraws himself from cold, etc. All sec- 

 ondary automatic re-actions may be classed here, the sensa- 

 tions coming from one re-action (in, say, walking) being 

 suggestions to the next movement unconsciously acted upon. 

 The state of consciousness at any stage, if present at all, 

 must be similar to the baby's in the case above, — a mere 

 internal glimmering, whose reproduction, however brought 

 about, re enforces its appropriate re-action. 



The most we can say of such physiological suggestion is, 

 that, when the conscious state is present, the re-action is sub- 

 sequently abbreviated and facilitated ; but whether abbrevia- 

 tion is due entirely to habit, and the consciousness is only a 

 result of such abbreviation, not its cause, we are unable to 

 say. 



The physiological process involved, and its relation to 

 consciousness, may be brought out by a diagram; but, in 

 order that it and those which follow may be easily under- 

 stood, it may be well to present the motor square, as we 



