MILTON H. ERICKSON
“Each person is a unique individual. ....It is meet the uniqueness of the individual's needs, rather than tailoring the person to fit the procrustean bed of a hypothetical theory of human behavior. - Milton H. Erickson
A WORLD-RENOWNED SCIENTIFIC
Milton Hyland Erickson was an American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst specializing in medical hypnosis and family therapy. He was founding president of the American Society for Clinical Hypnosis and recognized for his approach to the unconscious as being creative and generating solutions.
WHO REVEALED IN HIS FIGHT AGAINST HIS OWN TRAUMATISMS
At 17, he contracted polio and was paralyzed so badly that doctors believed he would die. In his struggling with this motor and sensory paralysis of his whole body (he was unable to move and speak), he realized the importance of non-verbal communication - body language, tone of voice and how these Nonverbal expressions often directly contradicted verbal expressions. By focusing on "bodily memories" muscle activity in his own body and on observing the motor development of his younger sister who was learning to walk, he slowly began to regain control of parts of her body to the point where he was finally able to speak and use his arms again. He exercised his upper body during a canoe trip from 1,000 miles in order to strengthen its strengths; that's what allowed him to go to college.
His adventure was difficult and although he was not always able to use fully his legs at the end, he was able to walk with a cane. It was his story that led him to his deep conviction of the therapeutic effects of suggestion and hypnosis.
WHO HAS SHINE FOR 50 CAREER YEARS
Dr. Erickson's career spanned over 50 years. He conducted extensive research on suggestion and hypnosis, first as an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin, then throughout his medical training and on his first professional appointments in Rhode Island. , Massachusetts and Michigan. By the late 1930s, Dr. Erickson was renowned for his work in hypnosis and eminent in psychiatric circles.
In 1948, Dr. Erickson moved from Michigan to Phoenix, Arizona. In 1949 he entered a private practice in his home office, a move which was prompted in large part by medical necessity. Despite almost constant severe physical pain and the gradual loss of mobility that led to isolation in a wheelchair during his later years, Dr. Erickson has been incredibly active.
In 1957, he and a number of colleagues founded the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis, and Dr. Erickson served as its inaugural president. He also founded the American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis and was an editor for 10 years. During the 1950s and 1960s, Dr. Erickson published extensively, traveled and lectured extensively at home and abroad, continued to conduct research and was in high demand as a practicing psychiatrist. . In the 1970s, limited to his home due to his physical condition, Dr Erickson still held educational seminars for professionals almost daily and continued to see some patients. When he died on March 25, 1980, at the age of 78, his seminars were booked until the end of that year and requests exceeded the schedule for another year.
... AND LAY THE FOUNDATION FOR THE USE OF HYPNOSIS FOR THERAPEUTIC PURPOSES
Dr. Erickson left a written legacy of over 140 scholarly articles and five books on hypnosis which he co-authored.
The Ericksonian approach departs from traditional hypnosis in various ways. While the process of hypnosis has usually been conceptualized as a matter of the therapist issuing standardized instructions to a passive patient, Ericksonian hypnosis emphasizes the importance of the interactive therapeutic relationship and the deliberate commitment of internal resources and experiential life of the subject. Dr. Erickson revolutionized the practice of hypnotherapy by merging many original concepts and models of communication in the field.
The new psychotherapeutic strategies that Dr. Erickson used in his treatment of individuals, couples and families were derived from his hypnotic orientation. Despite being known as the world's first hypnotherapist, Dr. Erickson has only used formal hypnosis in a fifth of his cases in clinical practice.
Dr Erickson has made a fundamental change in modern psychotherapy. Many elements of the Ericksonian perspective that were once considered extreme have now become mainstream in contemporary practice.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books
THE PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF MEDICAL AND DENTAL HYPNOSIS
Milton H. Erickson, S. Herschman and I. Secter, 1961
TIME DISTORTION IN HYPNOSIS
Milton H. Erickson and Linn Fenimore Cooper, 1954
Originally published in 1954, at a time when hypnosis was beginning to be recognized as a therapeutic tool by the American Medical Association and others, this foundational work reports on research carried out between 1948 and 1954. The first half is devoted to detailed studies of Linn, on temporal distortion, without its therapeutic implications. In the second half, Erickson discusses clinical phenomena and therapeutic applications. This is a reprint of a second edition originally published in 1959 and republished in 1982 by Ardent Media, Inc. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
COLLECTIONS OF ARTICLES
Translated into French
ON THE NATURE OF HYPNOSIS AND SUGGESTION
Non-authoritarian and indirect approach to hypnosis and suggestion. Subjects experience it using their own resources.
1) Of the nature of hypnosis. Hypnotic and non-hypnotic realities. Sleepwalking experiences & hallucinations.
2) Trance Induction Techniques , Induce trance, hypnosis, & techniques that use the spontaneity of the subject.
3) Of the nature of the suggestion. In particular to communion on two levels, and to indirect forms of suggestion.
4) Possible dangers of hypnosis , shows that people cannot be abused by antisocial behavior.
ALTERATION BY HYPNOSIS OF SENSORY, PERCEPTIVE AND PSYCHOSOCIOLOGICAL PROCESSES
Visual processes . Methods used to induce states of deep sleepwalking trance and to trigger phenomena as complex as color blindness or total hypnotic blindness. The techniques described there can serve as models for other researchers in this field as they demonstrate rigor and subtlety.
Auditory processes. the training of subjects in the stages of deep hypnosis, stupor trance and somnambulist trance. The importance of localization of sounds in human behavior.
Psychophysiological processes "Coincident phenomena" accompanying visual, auditory or motor alterations, or which can be observed at the same time as regression in age, amnesia, analgesia and anesthesia. Studies on the modifications by hypnosis of certain physiological functions such as the menstrual cycle or the development of the breasts.
in-depth, experimental and clinical study of time distortion First hypnotic phenomenon discovered in the last hundred years. Perspectives in learning, memory, conditioning or exploring subjective realities.
Research problems to differentiate between clinical trance and experimental trance, and the inadequacy of the trance used by some researchers explaining the sometimes contradictory results of many publications dealing with hypnosis.
STUDY BY HYPNOSIS OF PSYCHODYNAMIC PROCESSES
1) General and historical notions on hypnosis. The history of hypnosis and the use of "hypnotic phenomena" to obtain desired therapeutic responses or the concept of the unconscious in its relation to hypnosis.
2) Psychodynamic processes: 7 sections exploring the human psyche. Articles devoted to amnesia, posing questions about the nature of hypnosis and consciousness. Literalism as a means distinguish between hypnotic state and waking state, to measure the subject's receptivity to suggestions. Regression in age, allowing the subject to react as he did at a given age in his life. Clinical example in the treatment of a case of depression. Writing and drawing presented in an experimental setting but also as exploration tools in a clinical setting. The mechanisms mental, demonstration by hypnosis classical psychoanalytic mechanisms of defenses and psychopathology. Hypnosis can help the subject's personal creative subconscious. The section devoted to personality splits reports the discovery and detailed psychological evaluation of two cases of personality splits. Finally, the section devoted to experimental neuroses. Complex field of theoretical and experimental interest. Luria's technique allows to carry out an in-depth study of the experimental implantation of conflicts and neurotic reactions. Demonstration in the study of a case of premature ejaculation treated by induction of an experimental neurosis
INNOVATIONS IN HYPNOTHERAPY
1) General introductions to hypnotherapy
2) Indirect approaches to symptom resolution
the reader discovers that the fundamental objective of Erickson's indirect techniques is to circumvent the patient's acquired limitations so that his hitherto unrecognized potentialities can be manifested.
3) Techniques for use in hypnotherapy
Use of subject specific attitudes for his psychological problems.
4) Hypnotherapy techniques for pain
5) Hypnotherapy and rehabilitation
use the subject's emotions, his areas of interest and personality to induce rehabilitation efforts in the treatment of organic problems.
6) Hypnotherapy with psychotic patients
An exploratory and clinical approach with this population difficult to deal with.
7) Sexual problems
Processing techniques. The notion of "therapeutic implants" and its remarkable clinical applications.
8) Inner exploration in the hypnotic state: facilitating unconscious processes and objective thinking
How to facilitate and use the patient's internal resources to solve personal problems.
9) Facilitate a new identity
Facilitate the evolution of a new identity and a new consciousness
HYPNOTIC REALITIES: THE CLINICAL HYPNOSIS AND FORMS OF INDIRECT SUGGESTIONS
Milton H. Erickson, Ernest L. Rossi and SI Rossi, 1976
HYPNOTHERAPY: AN EXPLORATORY CASEBOOK
Milton H. Erickson and Ernest L. Rossi, 1979
EXPERIENCING HYPNOSIS
Milton H. Erickson and Ernest L. Rossi, 1981
THE FEBRUARY MAN: EVOLVING CONSCIOUSNESS AND IDENTITY IN HYPNOTHERAPY
Milton H. Erickson and Ernest L. Rossi, 1989
