Lecture XI: The Role of Suggestion and the Unconscious in Education (March 25, 1934)
By Dr. Roberto Assagioli
Course of Lectures on The Latent Energies in Us and Their Use in Medicine and Education
Lecture XI – March 25, 1934
(Doc. #23730 – Assagioli Archives – Florence)
Original Title: Per Meglio Educare
Translated and Edited With Notes by Jan Kuniholm
Editorial Note:
The abstract and subheadings in this online edition have been added by Kenneth Sørensen for clarity and navigational purposes. They were not part of the original 1934 lecture and do not modify or interpret the historical text.
Abstract
In this 1934 lecture, Roberto Assagioli explores the role of the unconscious and suggestion in education. He argues that the child’s psyche is highly impressionable and that educators carry profound responsibility in safeguarding children from harmful suggestions while deliberately cultivating constructive influences. Assagioli distinguishes between direct and indirect negative suggestion, emphasizes the powerful educational role of example, and outlines three forms of constructive suggestion: waking suggestions, indirect suggestion by example, and suggestion during sleep. He further introduces autosuggestion as a means of fostering autonomy and inner self-direction. The lecture anticipates core psychosynthetic principles concerning will, unconscious processes, and spiritual respect for the individuality of the child.
The Child’s Unconscious and Educational Responsibility
In children, the unconscious is even more extensive and sensitive than in adults. In them, ordinary consciousness is in an almost embryonic state, and it may be said that practically the child’s entire psyche is unconscious in nature. Moreover, the impressions received by the child’s unconscious are not limited and inhibited in their effect by previous impressions, tendencies, habits, and psychic complexes that are already formed, as they are in the adult. Therefore, each of those influences imprints itself on the child’s unconscious as deeply as on soft wax, and leaves a trace which can last a lifetime and determine a person’s future destiny.
We see, therefore, how great is the responsibility of educators. We must abandon the dangerous illusion that children do not notice or understand; that it is not necessary to be careful in front of them. Instead, we must realize and always remember in practice that there is within the child a part, a psychic being who not only perceives everything, and understands or intuits much of what is said and done, but who also perceives the manner and the spirit with which everything is said and done, and is influenced by everything.
The Two Duties of Educators
Educators therefore have two great tasks, two great duties towards the little ones entrusted to their care by God or men. The first is to safeguard them from negative and harmful suggestions. The second is the deliberate, wise and methodical use of constructive suggestion to achieve desirable educational results.
Let us begin with the first. It is more difficult and delicate than it may seem at first glance. Several tasks can be distinguished in it:
Direct Negative Suggestions and Their Effects
Avoid direct negative suggestions. These are the phrases that are so often and so inappropriately spoken to children: “How naughty you are, how disobedient you are, how unbearable you are,” and so on. Most parents say these phrases without thinking about them, without giving them importance, just to wait for their own feelings. Some delude themselves that these phrases encourage the child to become good, obedient, etc., but this is a big psychological mistake. Such suggestions do just the opposite.
The Psychology of Suggestion – The Mule Story
To show more clearly how the unconscious reacts to suggestions, I will quote a little story that teaches an important psychological lesson in a humorous way:
Once there was a farmer who was going to the market on the back of a mule. By the side of the road he saw a beautiful mulberry tree laden with ripe berries. Eager for those fruits, he stopped under the plant and stood upright on the saddle to reach the branches better. As he stood in that position, thinking that if he fell from the mule he would fall among the thorns that lined the way, he said out loud, “Woe is me if anyone now says ‘giddyup.'” The mule, hearing “giddyup,” immediately set off, and the poor farmer fell, as he had feared, into the brambles below. . .
The unconscious — and not only that of children — acts just like that mule. . . It does not concern itself with the intentions and desires of the speaker; it receives the suggestion and implements it regardless of the consequences. So, if someone were to say to oneself, “Let’s hope I don’t get dizzy or insomnia,” the unconscious would pick up the words insomnia or dizzy , and would tend to produce them. And so when a child’s unconscious hears “you’re naughty, you’re disobedient,” it cannot help but act according to the suggestion it has received, and become really naughty and disobedient. . .
With that wrong method, therefore, you get just the opposite of what you want!
Indirect Negative Suggestions and Health Anxiety
Avoid indirect negative suggestions . These can be verbal or tacit. Among the former, the most important to avoid are those concerning health. Here is how a master of these studies and applications, Prof. Charles Baudouin, director of the Institute de Psychagogie et de Psychothérapie in Geneva [2] , speaks wittily about them.
Not only must we keep children away from the sight of shocking diseases, but we must avoid talking about diseases in front of them, more than in front of anyone else; we must refrain from those commonplaces of trivial conversations in which, after having exhausted the subject of rain and good weather, we begin with that of health, or rather illness, and after having reviewed the migraines, indigestion, nosebleeds and toothaches of our own interesting person, we parade the rheumatism, chronic bronchitis, and the neuralgia of uncles, aunts, cousins, and relatives up to the twenty-fifth degree. Next comes the series of sudden deaths that have occurred in the street and in the neighbourhood, ending with pseudo-philosophical conclusions about our frailty and the innumerable enemies that threaten our precious health.
But even more harmful than these general remarks are the concerns that so many loving mothers show about their children’s health, with anxious questions, with exaggerated sympathy, and the expression of fears and worries addressed to the doctor and family members in the child’s presence. These phrases not infrequently aggravate and prolong the disorders, and sometimes lead to actual nervous and mental illnesses.
The Power of Example and Self-Discipline
Other kinds of indirect negative suggestion that are unfortunately frequent and harmful include the setting of examples by the use of unedifying words and behavior, showing oneself irritated or depressed, dealing harshly, or being caught telling some lie. These and similar examples have disastrous effects, and can destroy the results of much teaching and admonition in a few minutes; because the suggestive power of example, of lived life, is far greater than that of words. Certainly it is very difficult to succeed in avoiding every occasion of that kind, and in this case — as in others — perfection is not of this world. But those who educate conscientiously and responsibly should make every effort to minimize those occasions. It is a difficult discipline, but in this, more than in all sentimental outpourings, lies the proof or touchstone of true love : of wise and enlightened love. Moreover, while that discipline is helpful to our children, it is also very beneficial to ourselves: it is an excellent form of self-education. Thus our children, in order to be well educated, oblige us to educate ourselves, thus returning to us the good we do for them.
Constructive Suggestion in the Waking State
We now come to the positive part of our lesson: the beneficial use of constructive suggestion. This can be done in three main ways:
I° – POSITIVE SUGGESTIONS IN THE WAKING STATE. Essentially this consists in stating repeatedly, in suitable form and attitudes, the qualities we wish to develop in the child and the things we wish him or her to do. The method itself is simple, but its implementation is delicate. The greatest pitfall to be avoided is that of arousing opposition from the ordinary consciousness, or from conflicting unconscious tendencies. Therefore, it is advisable (and various intuitive educators have done this even without having studied psychology) not to address the child’s personality directly, but to speak generically, indirectly, applying things said to other children, or to the child in the third person. Moreover, it is generally appropriate to make the suggestion at a time of calm and receptivity, of harmony, and not at a time when an impulse towards changeability is very active. Likewise, the person giving the suggestion should be calm and harmonious, and speak in a slow, well-articulated and calm manner.
Educational Use of Images, Literature, and Media
Suggestions can be given not only verbally, but also by the other means we have discussed in previous lectures, namely by:
- PICTURES AND IMAGES . These have a great effect on children’s souls, and, if well chosen, also benefit their moral and aesthetic education. Good observations and advice in this regard can be found in P. Felix Thomas’ book La suggestion, son rôle dans l’éducation [Suggestion: Its Role in Education] (Paris, Alcan, 1895).
- MOTTO’S. [This may include slogans, sayings, or evocative words, etc. —Ed. ]
- READINGS . Careful selection must be made among the wide range of children’s literature available. A good guide is Vincenzina Battistella’s book La moderna letteratura per l’infanzia [Modern Literature for Children] (Vallecchi, Florence, 1925). [A possible modern source in English is The University of Michigan’s Children’s Literature guide, or the Children’s Literature Association. There is also an online source of “Children and Children’s Literature” at the website of the British Library. ].
- MUSIC . Wise “censorship” is needed in this field, too (see our paper “Music as a Cause of Disease and as a Healing Agent,” in the International Journal of Educator Cinema , September 1933 [and republished in English as Chapter VII in the book Psychosynthesis in 1965]).
- CINEMA . Unfortunately, educational films are very rare, while many, too many, can be harmful. It is regrettable that there is not in every city a Cinema in which only educational, instructive or at least harmless films are shown. [Much is now available via the Internet on You Tube and other sources. The Art of Home Schooling website offers The Ultimate Guide to Wholesome Media Choices for Children. The website of Common Sense Media provides reviews of films so that parents can choose what seems best for their children. – Oath. ]
- GYMNASTICS and RHYTHMIC DANCE . Excellent not only as an outlet of physical energies and as a workout, but also as “reverse” suggestion (action of the physical on the psychology).
Indirect Suggestion Through Imitation
II° – INDIRECT SUGGESTIONS BY EXAMPLE AND ACTION . If done well, these are most effective. It is well known that children are extraordinarily imitative. It is a matter of methodically harnessing the power of this tendency for educational purposes. There are many practical applications. We can ourselves perform the actions we want to be imitated; have others do them; or put a child in contact with another child, or with groups of more trained children, etc.
Suggestion During Sleep
III° – SUGGESTIONS DURING SLEEP . Here is how Coué [3] , who was a strong proponent of such a method, advised us to proceed:
The [parents] should wait until the child is asleep, and then one of them should enter his room with caution, stop a yard from his bed, and repeat 15 or 20 times in a murmur all the things they wish to obtain from the child, from the point of view of health, work, sleep, application, conduct, etc. He should then retire as he came, taking great care not to wake the child [4] .
Baudouin adds that this method, to be truly effective, must be used every night. In that case, he says, “the success is sometimes so surprising that certain parents to whom I had recommended the method said after a few weeks that they were ‘almost frightened’ by the results obtained.”
The Ethics of Suggestion and Respect for the Child
Faced with such power of suggestion, some may wonder whether its use could be harmful, weakening the child’s personality. The answer is that no harm can come from suggestion, provided it is done wisely, appropriately and discreetly.
We must remember that, whether we want it or not, suggestions operate continuously on the souls of children — and on the souls of adults. Therefore, combating harmful suggestions and using constructive ones can only be beneficial. However, parents and other educators must not abuse this power and must not try to enslave the child’s soul, to mold it according to their own theories and their own preconceptions. We must respect natural dispositions, indeed encourage them. Remember that the child is an autonomous being, a little person, a soul that has the right to find his or her own way in life. But this applies to all educational work, and not only to suggestion.
Teaching Autosuggestion to Children
For that matter, there is a sure means of avoiding all danger of excessive influence on the part of educators: it is to teach children as early as possible the method of autosuggestion, the way of directing and shaping their own unconscious. This method is easy to understand and apply; indeed, children learn it more easily and apply it not infrequently with better results than adults, and this is because of their simplicity and absence of criticism. Therefore it should come into general use, and I fully subscribe, along with Baudouin, to Parkyn’s statement that the conscious use of suggestion should be taught in the elementary schools [5] .
Toward a New Educational Culture
We have a long way to go before we achieve this result. But now everything is progressing rapidly, and the most improbable things sometimes come to pass in surprising ways. The important thing is that those who know set a good example. Let us therefore begin to work actively around us for the good of our children and those entrusted to us, and to publicize the good results we achieve, and gradually the benefit can be extended to all the children of Italy [and the rest of the world].
…
[1] In the original manuscript the author used the word “subconscious;” however in later years he substituted the word “unconscious” in all his subsequent writings and annotated earlier ones to suggest this change. This essay incorporates hand-written changes to the original typed manuscript. Editor’s interpolations are shown in [brackets]. This edited version of Assagioli’s essay was created in 2026 and editorial interpolations are as of this date. – Oath.
[2] Charles Baudouin (1893-1963) founded the International Institute for Psychagogy and Psychotherapy in 1924. —Ed.
[3] Èmile Coué (1857-1926) was a French psychologist who introduced a popular method of psychotherapy and self-improvement based upon suggestion and autosuggestion. He published his book Self-Mastery Through Conscious Autosuggestion in 1922. Modern English-language editions of this book are available in several formats. – Oath.
[4] from the English edition of Self-Mastery Through Conscious Autosuggestion, by Èmile Couè (translator unknown). New York, American Library Service, 1922. —Tr.
[5] see Herbert Arthur Parkyn, MD, Auto-Suggestion: What It is and How to Use it for Health, Happiness, and Success, Chicago, Suggestion Publishing Co. 1906, based upon articles that appeared in Suggestion magazine in 1903 and 1904. New editions are still currently in print.—Ed.
