Émile Coué

Émile Coué (February 26, 1857 – July 2, 1926) was a French psychologist and pharmacist who introduced a method of psychotherapy, healing, and self-improvement based on optimistic autosuggestion.

For further biographical details see the Émile Coué Wikipedia entry.

Émile Coué’s Concept of the Will

Coué states that the definition of the Will as “The faculty of freely determining certain acts” is not correct and in fact “nothing could be more false.” Coué states that the Will “always yields to the imagination. It is an absolute rule that admits of no exception.”(1)

In his description of walking a plank on the ground (easy) and walking the same plank suspended high above the ground (hard or impossible), Coué describes the Will as “powerless to make you advance” and states that “if you imagine that you cannot, it is absolutely impossible for you to do so.” Further, “Vertigo is entirely caused by the picture we make in our minds that we are going to fall. This picture transforms itself immediately into fact in spite of all the efforts of our will…”(2)

Coué’s descriptions imply that the Will is autonomous and capable of making decisions for itself. However, considering the definition of the Will as the faculty that transforms thoughts into actions(3) along with the duality of beliefs leading to conflict(4), it could be seen that Coué’s ideas are not far removed from other models of the Will. If the “imagination” and “thoughts” are substituted for beliefs (belief structures) which give rise to these thoughts, or limit the imagination and creativity, then his statements appear as a different perspective on a common concept of a Will that is utilized by other faculties rather than being a controlling source in and of itself.

Coué states that “in each of [the given example] conflicts it is always the imagination which gains the victory over the will, without any exception.”(5) This is further evidence of the Will being a faculty that is controlled or utilised by other faculties rather than being autonomous.

Coué states that “We human beings have a certain resemblance to sheep, and involuntarily, we are irresistibly impelled to follow other people’s examples, imagining that we cannot do otherwise.”(6) and that “I cannot however pass by in silence this fact which shows the enormous power of the imagination, or in other words of the unconscious in its struggle against the will.” (7) Coué reveals his concept of imagination to be synonymous with the unconscious and his use of the word ‘(“imagining”) is consistent with the concept of beliefs rather than the faculty of forming mental images from what is not actually present to the senses(8).

Coué’s summation at the end of Chapter 3 of Self Mastery Through Conscious Autosuggestion is “Thus we who are so proud of our will, who believe that we are free to act as we like, are in reality nothing but wretched puppets of which our imagination holds all the strings. We only cease to be puppets when we have learned to guide our imagination.”(9) His statement that “believe that we are free to act” gives further evidence that he is well aware that some kind of pattern within the unconscious will block the effective use of the will.

Chapter 4 of the same book makes it more clear how the Will can in fact be utilised by imagination where he sums up what he believed to be the laws relating to the Will and imagination.

1. When the will and the imagination are antagonistic, it is always the imagination which wins, without any exception.
2. In the conflict between the will and the imagination, the force of the imagination is in direct ratio to the square of the will.
3. When the will and the imagination are in agreement, one does not add to the other, but one is multiplied by the other.
4. The imagination can be directed.(10)

To further illustrate the dualities that suggest a similar model to the Psychosynthesis concepts of subpersonalities and beliefs, Coué wrote that “if [the will] is not in agreement with the imagination … not only does one not obtain what one wants, but even exactly the reverse is brought about.”(11) A comparison can be given with the Psychosynthesis model in that the dominant subpersonality is most likely going to be the one which utilises the Will, whether that was the desired action of the individual.

It is unclear exactly what Coué believed the Will to be, however in the same chapter he states that “in treating moral ailments, one strives to re-educate the will.” and that to do this “[it] is the training of the imagination which is necessary.”(12) As Coué has indicated that his concept of imagination is synonymous with the unconscious, it can be seen that re-educating the will by training the imagination (unconscious) is effectively changing the unconscious (subconscious) belief structures. His method of this is Suggestion and Autosuggestion (as indicated by the title of his book: Self Mastery Through Conscious Autosuggestion.)

Selected Works

• Self Mastery Through Conscious Autosuggestion by Émile Coué (PDF version) ISBN 16020611-57

External Links

• The Laws of Suggestion at the School of Professional Hypnosis website.

References

1. Coué, Émile. Self Mastery Through Conscious Autosuggestion, Chapter 3.
2. ibid.
3. citation for this concept required
4. Consider the Psychosynthesis model where subpersonalities, formed around a core belief, are in conflict with each other and competing at meeting their needs through the utilisation of the Will (citation for this concept required)
5. Coué, Émile. Self Mastery Through Conscious Autosuggestion, Chapter 3.
6. ibid.
7. ibid.
8. See varied definitions given at Dictionary.com – Imagination
9. Coué, Émile. Self Mastery Through Conscious Autosuggestion, Chapter 3.
10. Coué, Émile. Self Mastery Through Conscious Autosuggestion, Chapter 4.
11. ibid.
12. ibid.