Self-Mastery Through Conscious Auto-Suggestion by Emile Coue. We possess within us a force of incalculable power, which, when we handle it unconsciously is often prejudicial to us. If on the contrary we direct it in a conscious and wise manner, it gives us the mastery of ourselves. It allows us not only to escape and to aid others to escape, from physical and mental ills, but also to live in relative happiness, regardless of the conditions in which we may find ourselves. Emile Coue de la Chataigneraie (1857-1926) was a French psychologist and pharmacist who introduced a popular method of psychotherapy and self-improvement based on optimistic autosuggestion. His great discovery came one day when a customer complained there was nothing in Coue's pharmacy to relieve his chronic complaint.