The Practice of Autosuggestion : A Practical Guide to Émile Coué's Method, Self-Directed Suggestion, and Daily Improvement

C. Harry Brooks's The Practice of Autosuggestion presents a systematic account of mental self-influence, explaining how deliberate repetition, imagination, and disciplined attention may reshape habits, emotions, and conduct. Closely associated with the early twentieth-century Coué movement, the book translates psychological theory into accessible exercises, most famously the repeated affirmation of constructive thoughts. Its prose is practical, instructional, and morally earnest rather than literary in a conventional sense, placing it within the history of popular psychology, therapeutic self-help, and the broader period's fascination with the subconscious mind. Brooks emphasizes regular practice over dramatic effort, treating autosuggestion as a method of education and self-mastery. Brooks wrote in the intellectual climate created by Émile Coué, whose therapeutic experiments made conscious suggestion widely known in Britain and beyond. As an interpreter and advocate of Coué's methods, he sought to clarify their principles for general readers while distinguishing purposeful autosuggestion from vague optimism or mere wishful thinking. The book reflects contemporary attempts to connect emerging psychological ideas with everyday moral improvement, health, and personal responsibility. This volume will reward readers interested in the origins of positive thinking, the cultural history of self-help, and the relationship between psychology and popular healing. It is valuable both as a practical manual and as a historical document: read critically, it reveals how early modern writers imagined the mind's powers and the disciplined cultivation of inner life.