Suggestive approach: two tactics - one strategy

The suggestible function , also called suggestive (from the Latin suggestio - suggestion) in Model A is the weak unconscious part of the psyche, responsible for the child’s assimilation of the knowledge accumulated by society. “Just do it and don’t think about it”

According to the suggestible function, a person needs help and advice, perceives incoming information uncritically and with gratitude, and willingly believes any such information. If you want to pull the wool over someone's ears, do it with this weak function.

All personality types have areas where a person unconditionally believes everything they are told. Moreover, he believes immediately and makes no attempt to verify this information.

The information model of the psyche in socionics determines which aspect fills the suggestive function in each personality type.

Let's consider the manifestations of the basic for all possible aspects:

Suggestible introverted intuition, also known as White Intuition (BI) or “intuition of time”

The intuition of time is suggestive in Zhukov and Napoleon, who do not feel timeliness at all and often do not understand that at that particular moment something is required of them.

Both respect accuracy and punctuality, so they often listen to advice regarding the timing and duration of actions. They believe in signs and various predictions and can make a mistake, especially if the adviser with intuition does not have much time.

They constantly feel the need to foresee the future and need help making plans, who will correctly tell them when to start and how long it will last.

Who is easily influenced?

It is impossible to simply impose a statement on a person without preparing him to accept this statement. There is a group of people who can easily be exposed to suggestion and accept the influence exerted.

1. People with poorly developed volitional processes - an act of will mobilizes cognitive processes, standing guard over the human psyche and consciousness. A strong-willed person cannot take everything at face value; he is inclined to test statements in practice or logically justify them. People with poorly developed will tend to quickly agree with what is imposed on them.
2. Low autonomy and infantilism of a person do not allow him to protect his psyche from unwanted influences. It is easy to suggest something to a person who depends on the opinions of others. In psychotherapeutic practice, such people are not ready to change their behavior on their own; they accept what the specialist tells them. But in the treatment of fears and depression, sometimes it is the psychologist or psychotherapist who must initiate changes in a person’s irrational ideas about himself or his environment.
3. Anxious and insecure people are also easily suggestible. They are driven through the therapy process because, for certain psychological reasons, their emotions, will, and some cognitive processes cannot function properly.
4. Children and elderly people are easily susceptible to suggestion, since their psyche is unstable.
5. Mentally retarded people are also easily susceptible to suggestion due to gross defects in the cognitive function of the brain.

Patients who do not belong to the above groups can also be prepared for suggestion. Suggestion is successful if certain rules are followed:

• a welcoming environment - calm colors of the psychotherapist’s room, a minimum of bright interior items and outlandish things, at the same time, the atmosphere should be friendly, the patient should feel calm and comfortable;
• the appearance and authority of the doctor - the specialist should look neat, but not flashy, the tone of voice is calmly firm, no unnecessary accessories in clothing;
• the emotional state of the patient – ​​a person must develop trust in order to work productively;
• correctly chosen technique of suggestion as a way of communication between doctor and patient.

Suggested introverted ethics, also known as White Ethics (BE) or “relationship ethics”

The ethics of relationships is suggestive in Stirlitz and Jack.

Such people are characterized by the desire to obtain as much information as possible about people and their relationships in order to know how to communicate with them. They themselves have little understanding of this, but they are very concerned about how others treat them.

They can be gullible or overly suspicious. Therefore, they are looking for partners with people with high moral values, who will give the right advice on how and where to behave, will not be deceived and will take on part of the moral responsibility.

Without such tips, they may behave incorrectly in an unfamiliar company, so they become attached to a team they know well, for fear of losing their established relationships.

Suggestion in psychology

What is suggestion in psychology? Most special teaching aids interpret it as a therapeutic effect on the psyche affecting emotions and perception. The following areas of psychology actively use suggestion:

• psychosomatics;
• psychoanalysis;
• NLP.

Suggestive attitudes inspired by the psychotherapist penetrate deeply into the patient’s subconscious and positive effects are achieved:

• effective treatment of phobias, neuroses, depression;
• getting rid of destructive habits (smoking, alcoholism)
• formation of new patterns.

Suggestive techniques in psychotherapy

In order for a suggestive method chosen specifically for a specific client or group of people to work as best as possible, a number of conditions are necessary:

1. A psychotherapist who inspires trust and authority.
2. The suggested formula should be brief, targeted, imperative.
3. The following are taken into account: the psychological state, individual age and characterological parameters of the client.
4. Compliance of the suggestion formula with the goals of therapy.

Suggestive techniques and methods are divided into:

• verbal;
• non-verbal.

The main or key element in a suggestion is the word. In V. Shefner’s poem “Words,” there are lines that show the power and strength of speech influence: “With a word you can kill, with a word you can save, with a word you can lead shelves!” Verbal techniques in psychotherapy include:

1. Suggestion in the waking state. The “fatherly” method assumes imperativeness. Directive, demanding and authoritarian style of instilling commands: “go!”, “act!”, “you will do it!”. The “maternal method” is soft, enveloping the patient in calm: “relax!”, “calm down!”.
2. Suggestion during sleep. The therapist makes adjustments to the sleeping person: he puts his hand on the forehead and speaks phrases, sometimes at a slow, sometimes at a fast pace, while monitoring the patient’s breathing: if it changes, then the person is ready for suggestion.
3. Hypnosuggestive techniques. The therapist induces a special dream-like state in the client called hypnosis. During this state, control is removed, attention is reduced, and it becomes possible to program treatment programs into the patient’s subconscious.
4. Autosuggestion. Hypnoautogenic training. Human consciousness is directed from external to internal processes by pronouncing formulas.

Nonverbal “wordless” suggestion techniques:

1. Marking. Isolation of a reference phrase with the addition of gestures and manipulations with objects.
2. Telepathy. Mental transmission of suggestion. The technique is based on the attunement of the biorhythms of the suggestor and the suggestor, it requires sustained concentration and attention on the object, for this it is important to get used to the image.

Suggestible extroverted logic, also known as Black Logic (BL) or “business logic”

Business logic is suggestible in Dreiser and Dostoevsky.

People with this personality type love to collect useful advice. Both easily adopt standard technological techniques and do a good job where the methods and goals are clearly indicated and try not to invent anything new where everything already works.

Since business advice is taken uncritically, they may choose the wrong course of action, recipe, or get carried away by dubious enterprises. Choosing from equivalent options is not their strong point, so they need people who can clearly state the problem and indicate ways to solve it.

The use of suggestion in psychotherapy

A person experiencing panic fear suffers in the emotional sphere. With depression, disturbances in this area also come to the fore. This is either lethargy, stupor, poverty of emotions, or excessive irritability, nervous activity, insomnia.

Suggestion is used for therapeutic purposes to influence the psychoemotional and psychosomatic sphere of the patient. It helps to form an adequate attitude towards the expressed problem, readiness to solve it and correct behavior.

Suggestion is also used when using a medicinal or psychotherapeutic “placebo” effect, when a person takes simple vitamins as an expensive, effective remedy for depression, neurosis, or believes in a specific ritual action as the only solution to his problem.

Suggestion is used to get rid of bad habits, improve physical health, when psychological problems have led to somatic disorders.

Suggestion is actively used by charlatans who have strong charisma and know some features of the psyche, how to cause a narrowing of consciousness in a person in order to influence him.

Introverted sensory, also known as White Sensory (BS) or “sensing of sensations”

The sensory of sensations is a suggestive function in Don Quixote and Huxley.

They love to receive information about personal care, apartment design, and a healthy lifestyle. They are willing to talk about this and offer various ideas for improving comfort.

Their main problem is that they do not always understand the reason for their poor health. Both may forget to eat, rest, overheat in the sun, or, conversely, sit in a draft and get sick. Therefore, all their accumulated knowledge in this area will lead to nothing if there is no one nearby who will create a comfortable environment and promptly tell them how to dress for the weather and improve their everyday life.

Suggestive psychotechnologies in advertising.

Suggestion (suggestion) is a process of influencing the human psyche, associated with a decrease in consciousness and criticality when perceiving the suggested content, requiring neither analysis nor evaluation.

When creating advertising, professional advertising producers adhere to psychoanalytic concepts that place emphasis on the subconscious perception of information:

1. Hypnotic approach. The essence of suggestion is to influence a person’s feelings, and through them, his mind. Contemplating a product, a person is close to a trance, watching the plot of an advertisement, and with a successful choice of a character, the viewer subconsciously puts himself in his place.

Experienced advertisers widely use techniques for inducing a trance state in advertising:

• showing a trance state (how to respond to suggestion)
• overload of consciousness (random flashing of pictures, accompanied by rapid speech, simultaneously speaking characters)
• truism - hypnotic command substitution
• illusion of choice - the client is asked to choose between what the seller needs and what the seller needs
• command hidden in the question.

Numerous methods of suggestion include: concreteness and imagery of words and qualities, avoidance of negative particles “no” and “neither”, speech dynamics, influence of sound combinations.

2. Transactional analysis. Divides the personality into three parts: the inner child, his function is to have fun, the adult, the parent, his function is to monitor order and adherence to traditions. Many advertising stories are based on this.

3. Each person perceives the world around him through visual images, sounds, sensations, each has his own way of creating a certain form of reality. Therefore, psychologists recommend using neurolinguistic programming in advertising production, in which it is necessary to use all three perception systems. In addition, this approach involves the use of such a property of the word as double impact. Words are perceived by the brain in two ways: in a rational-logical and emotional-figurative way, because many of them carry a hidden evaluative emotional component of “good” or “bad.” Skillful maneuvering of words allows you to create in a person a positive or negative attitude towards something that he himself does not realize.

4. Taking into account the peculiarity of a person, when explaining what is happening and looking to the past, advertising producers often practice various mythological technologies. Myth has a dual effect on a person: on the one hand, it makes you look into the depths of centuries, on the other hand, from the position of this look, it finds an explanation of the present (for example, the struggle between good and evil). The following myths are used in advertising:

• Mythologem "stars". The star symbolizes the charismatic energy pouring out the power of a certain personality.
• Mythologem about the creation of the world.
• Mythologem "American Dream".
• Solar myths, built on the analogy of solar perfection.
• Architectural myths (Colosseum, Sphinx - symbols of eternity).