The True Nature of Suggestion
by Tim Brunson, PhD
In response to one of my recent articles, an esteemed colleague asked if I had previously read one of his articles. As I had not, upon doing so I discovered a phrase in which he stated that suggestions are what cause beliefs. Although the topic of suggestion was not the focus of his article and thus he refrained from expounding further, his statement led me to ponder the depth of meaning associated with the term "suggestion" and led to a realization that I had been using it purposefully but without much clarification. This needs to be rectified.
Clinicians frequently either use this word or skirt around it by referring to "expectancy bias", "placebo", or saying that some pathology is "all in the mind" of a client or patient. Yet, when use of any word by anyone with a self-perception as being educated is done so with imprecision and vulgarity, it most certainly becomes robbed of its utility and potential. As like imagination, suggestion is at the core of the hypnotherapeutic field, it is incumbent that among clinicians we must take the lead in clarifying the concept. Otherwise, we would be like a skilled surgeon who attempts to use a blunt screwdriver as a replacement for a scalpel.
