Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-11-07
CURING BY SUGGESTION
BY II. Addington Bruce

q HE was one of the best behaved of lit
tie girls. Generous, kindly, truthful,
she gave her parents no concern what.
ever as regarded character development. But
she had a curious trick Of behavior which
gave them much concern.
For no reason apparent to them or to her
self she had habit of biting into her under
lip. frequently and vigorously she did this,
with unfortunate effects on her appearance
Nor could her parents break her of the
habit.
Persuasion awaited nothing Neither did
remonstrance. When threatened with pun
ishment she could only lament, II cannot
help it," Knowing her as they did, her
father and mother perforce accepted this plea
in avoidance. Also, however, they forever
sought way to heck the lip-biting
They sought in vain until one day they
CHANGED t. read book on suggestion, where
in reference was made to the increased sug-
gestibility of the sleeping and the pre-sleep-
ing states. Forthwith they decided to make
a suggestion experiment on their little girl.
Every evening, as she was falling asleep
her mother talked to her. In clear yet low
tone she impressed upon the child the idea
that she need not and would not bite into her
lip the way she had been doing. Within a
fortnight there was an evident change for the
better. Patiently the mother persevered in
her anti-biting suggestions. And soon it was
not necessary to persevere. The child was
cured
Another child of other parents, boy, de-
veloped singular k1eptomania He did not
steal because of poverty. His father, over
with pocket money. Nevertheless he had
what seemed to be an irresistible impulse to
take other persons things.
This brought him into trouble at school,
where the kleptomania found it's most vigor-
Gus expression His parents were given
plainly to understand that they must break
him of it or stand the consequences. Pun
ishment, they knew, would avail nothing.
They had tried that.
Now, acting on the hint of a friend, they
tried suggestion. They not only impressed
upon the boy, in his waking moments, the
Importance Of honesty, but they talked hon
esty to him as he fell asleep at night. "You
will no longer steal, you will no longer
have any desire to steal" was the central
idea the persisteltly reiterated. To their
surprise no less than their joy, this sugges-
ton took" Their boys kleptomania be-
came thing Of he past.
With cases such as these in mind Is it any
wohde- that authorities on the psychology
suggestion aver, with special ference to the
use of suggestion by parents as applied to
children during the drowsy site immediate
~ preceding sleep:
''The whole life of the child can be prac-
tically reformed bad habits can be supplant-
ed by good ones, unbecoming conduct can be
changed, undesirable tendencies can be modi-
fed, and desires Or moral life, education
and the noble things of life can be instiled
"The best one to dc this work is the parent
because Of the intimate relation to the child
and because the child ordinarily has perfect
confidence in the parent, especially the
mother"
Parents, you are not so helpless as you
think, if your child defies your exhortations.
Try suggestion, both direct and Indirect
Sedulously set your child an example of
earnest, Industrious, self-forgetting, self
sacrificing behavior. In addition, as the
child that worries you takes his nightly rest,
transmit to the subconscious depths of his
mind the ideas you long to see governing his
conduct.
The result may be to you, as it has been to
other parents, decisive demonstration that
the age of miracles is not past.
Copyright, 1922