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TRANSCRIPT
Key Things Milton Erickson Was Right About
Michael D. Yapko, Ph.D. December 10, 2015
Key Areas to Consider: The Chapters of My Address
• Overview: Dr. Erickson in PerspecEve • Chapter 1: Defining and Studying Hypnosis • Chapter 2: Defining HypnoEc Responsiveness • Chapter 3: Describing Mental FuncEoning • Chapter 4: Describing the Therapy Process • Epilogue
Overview: Dr. Erickson in PerspecEve
Chapter 1: Defining and Studying Hypnosis
“TherapeuEc trance is focused aQenEon in the best manner to
achieve the paEent’s goals… trance is a focusing on one thing...dropping all the peripheral foci and narrowing
it down to one focus.” Milton H. Erickson M.D. (1979)
2014 APA Division 30 Definition of Hypnosis
• “A state of consciousness involving focused aQenEon and reduced peripheral awareness characterized by an enhanced capacity for response to suggesEon.” (p. 6)
Elkins, G., Barabasz, A., Council, J.,& Spiegel, D. (Jan-‐Mar 2015). Advancing research and pracEce: The revised APA Division 30 definiEon of hypnosis. Interna'onal Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 63 (1), 1-‐9.
“Hypnosis can allow you to divide up your paEent’s problems.”
Milton H. Erickson, M.D.
Chapter 2: Defining HypnoEc Responsiveness
“One hundred percent of normal people are hypnoEzable. It does not necessarily follow that 100 percent
are hypnoEzable by any one individual.”
Milton H. Erickson, M.D.
“No hypnoEst knows for a certainty whether or not he is going to succeed with a parEcular subject at a given
Eme or whether his technique for the occasion will be sufficient for the
maintenance of the trance.” Milton H. Erickson, M.D.
André Weitzenhoffer, Ph.D. Co-‐developer of the Stanford Hypno'c Suscep'bility Scales
Chapter 3: Describing Mental FuncEoning
“HypnoEc subjects do regress to simpler forms of thinking, feeling, and behavior. Simpler, more youthful,
less complicated forms.” Milton H. Erickson, M.D.
Rigidity as the Essence of Peoples’ Problems
“And for human behavior – we start from childhood to become rigid, very rigid in our behavior, only we don’t know that. We think that we are being free, but we are not. And we ought to recognize it.” Milton H. Erickson, M.D.
Chapter 4: Describing the Therapy Process
“The purpose of psychotherapy is to enable a paEent to achieve a legiEmate personal goal as advantageously as possible.”
Milton H. Erickson, M.D.
“Now hypnosis in itself doesn’t do anything. But it gives you a favorable
climate in which to work.” Milton H. Erickson, M.D.
“Going into trance is like ‘going away’ because you are going distant from external reality.”
Milton H. Erickson, M.D.
Dr. Erickson was right to encourage a future orientaEon in his
paEents
“Emphasis should be placed more upon what a paEent does in the
present and will do in the future than upon a mere understanding of why some long-‐past event occurred.”
Milton H. Erickson, M.D.
Dr. Erickson was Right to Encourage AcEon
“The thing to do is get your paEent, any way you wish, any way you can, to do something.”
Milton H. Erickson, M.D.
“I believe that paEents and students should do things. They learn beQer, remember beQer.”
Milton H. Erickson, M.D.
Dr. Erickson encouraged her to ac#vely engage on a variety of levels:
• Behavioral acAvaAon: Grow African violets in large enough quanEEes to share generously
• CogniAve acAvaAon: Pay aQenEon to others’ celebraEons and idenEfy their significance
• Social acAvaAon: Engage with others and selflessly contribute to their lives
• EmoAonal acAvaAon: Focus on and amplify the feelings of warmth, compassion and generosity
• ExistenAal acAvaAon: Have a purpose in your life beyond simply surviving
Epilogue
“I think any theoreEcally based psychotherapy is mistaken because
each person is different.”
Milton H. Erickson, M.D.
“Any therapy used should always be in accordance with the needs of the paEent, whatever they may be, and not based in any way upon arbitrary
classificaEons.”
Milton H. Erickson, M.D.
“Properly oriented hypnoEc therapy can give the paEent that necessary understanding of his own role in effecEng his recovery and enlist his own effort and parEcipaEon in his own cure without giving him a sense of dependence
upon drugs and medical care.”
Milton H. Erickson, M.D.
Thank you for coming and for your kind aQenEon
Enjoy the rest of the conference!
