countersuggestion

noun

coun·​ter·​sug·​ges·​tion ˌkau̇n-tər-səg-ˈjes-chən 

-sə-ˈjes-,

-ˈjesh-

variants or less commonly counter-suggestion

plural countersuggestions also counter-suggestions

1

: an opposing or alternative suggestion

The politicians have also hit on the rather cunning counter-suggestion that the political correspondents who write about them, and the newspaper proprietors whose organs criticize them, should also come clean.

—Punch

2

a

psychology : a suggestion made (as by a therapist) to an individual with the intention of getting the individual to say or do the opposite of what is suggested

also : a suggestion that challenges a belief in order to evaluate the strength of the belief by the reaction elicited

b

psychology : a method of psychotherapy that uses countersuggestions

c

: a suggestion made (as by a hypnotist) to an individual who is under hypnosis in order to cause a change in the individual's thoughts or behavior

Word History

First Known Use

1842, in the meaning defined at sense 1