Émile Coué

Émile Coué (1857–1926) was a French pharmacist and psychologist who developed a method of conscious autosuggestion. He became known for the affirmation “Every day, in every way, I’m getting better and better.”

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Autosuggestion: The process of influencing one’s thoughts, feelings, or behavior through self-directed suggestions. Coué made deliberate self-suggestion the central practice of his method.
Nancy school: A French tradition of hypnosis research that emphasized suggestion and the influence of attention. Coué’s ideas developed in the intellectual climate shaped by this school.
Coué method: A practice of repeating a fixed positive suggestion while relaxed, often morning and evening. This is the method Coué taught, including its characteristic routine and wording.
Charles Baudouin: A Swiss-French psychologist who studied suggestion and helped explain Coué’s method. Baudouin became a prominent interpreter and systematizer of Coué’s ideas.
Cognitive behavioral therapy: A structured psychotherapy that examines and changes patterns of thought and behavior. It offers a researched therapeutic framework distinct from Coué’s fixed affirmation practice.
Imagination: The capacity to form mental images or ideas not immediately present to the senses. Coué argued that imagination could outweigh conscious will in shaping behavior.
Hippolyte Bernheim: A French physician who developed a theory of hypnosis centered on suggestion and its effects. Bernheim’s work helped establish suggestion as a subject of clinical study in Nancy.
Self-help: Efforts to improve one’s life through personal practices, instruction, or organized support. Coué’s public teaching framed autosuggestion as a technique people could apply themselves.
Sigmund Freud: An Austrian neurologist who founded psychoanalysis, a method centered on unconscious processes and clinical interpretation. Freud’s approach offers a contrasting account of psychological change to Coué’s deliberate repetition.
Positive thinking: An outlook that emphasizes favorable expectations and interpretations. Coué’s slogan is often grouped with positive thinking, though his method specified a repeated practice.