Literally, self-suggestion. The term comes from a
system of self-improvement developed by a Frenchman, Emile Coue (1857-1926),
that was very popular in the 1920s and 1930s. The heart of Coue's rather
simplistic system was contained in the phrase, "Every day in every way I am
getting better
and better,"
which he counseled people to repeat twenty to thirty times a day.