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

Due to certain shows and television programs, suggestive techniques have been greatly impaired, they have lost credibility and are perceived as a kind of spell by which a hypnotist can get anything from another of person. Since he is a prodigy of music until he makes the most absolute ridiculous.

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

• Related article: "Cognitive distortions: 7 ways the mind sabotages us"

What is suggestion?

In literal terms, it is known as suggestion to 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 ability to guide or guide people's ideas, emotions or behaviors.

Although traditionally associated with hypnosis, suggestions are effective and commonly used in other settings where the person is out 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.

However, suggestion can have enormous power over our behavior, as well as the way we perceive reality. But for this, it is just as important the ability of a person or agent to exercise suggestion, as well as how suggestible or manipulable is the person object is.

This means that a highly suggestible person is susceptible to being manipulated by any agent without their realizing it. In these cases, it is very likely that it is carried away by what is transmitted in the media, advertisements and advertising or by what other people tell it.

• You may be interested: "Hypnosis, that great unknown"

Its application in hypnosis and clinical practice

As described in the previous point, suggestion has traditionally been associated with hypnosis practices. And although they are closely related, there are some factors that differentiate them. By hypnosis we can understand the complete 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.

Nevertheless, there is extensive debate as to whether hypnosis or the hypnotic state is a real trance state or if, on the other hand, the behavior alteration is explained through motivational factors or conditioning factors such as the person's attitude or expectations. Although for many years these techniques have been highly questioned, in recent years they are observing a progressive increase in its use in clinical and health contexts, both physical and psychological.

The main reason why these procedures have traditionally been widely doubted is that they have been represented as an almost magical practice in which a person, who looked more like a magician or sorcerer than a professional psychologist, exercised a series of spells on the other that led him to behave eccentrically or strange. However, various studies have shown that, carried out seriously and always in the hands of a professional in psychology and hypnosis, suggestive techniques can be considerably effective as an adjunct to cognitive-behavioral treatments.

This means that, based on this research, treatments for a number of specific conditions or ailments that are accompanied by a few sessions that include hypnotic techniques, are more effective than if they are carried out without they.

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

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

Suggestion types

There is an extensive classification of the types of suggestion, which are distinguished according to whether performed directly or indirectly, depending on the moment in which the effect of the suggestion or according to the expected reaction.

Direct or indirect suggestion

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

1. Direct suggestion

Also known as authoritarian, in this type of suggestion the person is told directly what they are intended to experience. For example: "notice how your eyelids get heavier and heavier."

2. Indirect suggestion

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

Suggestions according to the moment

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 or post-hypnotic suggestions.

1. Hypnotic suggestions

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

2. Post-hypnotic suggestions

In this second type of suggestion, more used in clinical practice, the suggestions are given or ordered during the session, but are experienced by the person once it has ended. The intention is that the person modify the behavior or thought of her in daily life, not only throughout 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 reaction to be obtained. 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 inducing and inhibiting certain movements. Through them you can get a person to move any of his joints or, on the contrary, plunge her into a state of paralysis or catalepsy.

2. Sensory-physiological suggestions

By sensory-physiological suggestions it is understood the induction of all those responses related to the psychophysiology of the person, 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 suggestions cognitive-perceptual.

3. Cognitive-perceptual suggestions

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

Therefore, suggestive techniques can alter a person's ability to perceive a specific stimulus, as well as provoke a kind of hallucinations or visual or auditory images.

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