A set of experiments investigating the effects of facial movements on mood used different vowel sounds as a stealthy way to get people to pull different faces. (The idea was to avoid people realizing they were being made to scowl or smile.) The results showed that if you read aloud a passage full of vowels that make your scowl – the German vowel sound ü, for example – you’re likely to find yourself in a worse mood than if you read a story similar in content but without any instances of ü. similarly, saying ü over and over again generates more feelings of ill will than repeating a or o.

Dr. Grahame Brown, a musculo-skeletal specialist at the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital in Birmingham, claims he is able to save hundreds of patients from the need to have spinal surgery every year simply by “reframing the negative metaphors that have been unwittingly used by their doctors that can lead to a destructive and self-fulfilling cycle.”

Many of the patients he sees have been referred for surgery after becoming convinced their spine is “crumbling” or that they have “degenerating” disc disease, when in fact they have a prolapsed disc or other normal wear and tear that is common in most people.

Yet anxious patients latch on to these suggestions and become convinced that things are only going to get worse.

Dr. Brown, who has trained in the metaphor-based Human Givens therapy, claims that nine out of ten of his patients no longer require surgery after undergoing linguistic treatment.

“I tell patients who work in computers that I’ve examined their hard drive and it’s functioning well but that the software is corrupt and needs to be deleted and replaced with a new, more positive programme.”