Erickson - Hypnotic Realities v2.doc

Hypnotic Realities

Hypnotic

Realities

The Induction of Clinical Hypnosis

and Forms of Indirect Suggestion

by

Milton H. Erickson Ernest L Rossi Sheila I. Rossi

With a Foreword by Andre M. Weitzenhoffer

IRVINGTON PUBLISHERS, Inc., New York

Copyright © 1976 by Ernest L. Rossi, Ph.D.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatever, including information storage or retrieval, in whole or in part (except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews), without written permission from the publisher. For information, write to Irvington Publishers, Inc., 740 Broadway, New York, New York 10176.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Erickson, Milton H. Hypnotic Realities

Bibliography: p.

1.    Hypnotism — Therapeutic use.    I.    Rossi, Ernest Lawrence, joint author.    II.    Rossi, Sheila I., joint author.    III.    Title

RC495.E72               615'.8512                 76-20636

ISBN 0-8290-0112-3 (Formerly ISBN 0-470-15169-2)

Printed in The United States of America 15    14    13    12    11

Reprint Edition 1992

Dedicated to an ever progressing understanding of the total functioning of the individual person within the self separately and simultaneously in relation to fellow beings and the total environment.

MHE

Dedicated to those clinicians and researchers who will further explore some of the approaches to enhancing human potentials described herein.

ELR

Dedicated to all those persons learning through hypnotherapy for personal growth and professional development.

SIR

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We wish gratefully to acknowledge the help we received from the following friends and colleagues: Roxanne Erickson, Christie Erickson, John Hedenberg, Jack A. Oliver, M.D., Robert Pearson, and Kay Thompson.

OVERVIEW CONTENTS

Foreword, by Andre M. Weitzenhoffer / xii

Introduction / 1

One
A Conversational Induction: The Early Learning Set / 5

Two
Indirect Induction by Recapitulation / 27

Three
The Handshake Induction / 83

Four
Mutual Trance Induction / 127

Five
Trance Learning by Association / 149

Six
Facilitating Hypnotic Learning / 205

Seven
Indirectly Conditioned Eye Closure Induction / 233

Eight
Infinite Patterns of Learning: A Two-Year Follow-Up / 281

Nine
Summary / 297

References / 315

ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword by Andre M. Weitzenhoffer

Introduction

ONE
A Conversational Induction: The Early Learning Set

Observation and Erickson's Basic Approach

The Conscious and Unconscious in Clinical Hypnosis

The Utilization Theory of Hypnotic Suggestion

Truisms Utilizing Mental Mechanisms                         

Truisms Utilizing Time

Not Doing, Not Knowing

TWO
Indirect Induction by Recapitulation

The "Yes Set"

Psychological Implication

The Bind and Double Bind Question

The Time Bind and Double Bind

The Conscious-Unconscious Double Bind

The Double-Dissociation Double Bind

A General Hypothesis About Evoking Hypnotic Phenomena

Reverse Set Double Bind

The Non Sequitur Double Bind

Contrasting the Therapeutic and Schizogenic Double Bind

Unconscious and Metacommunication

Open-Ended Suggestion

Suggestions Covering All Possibilities of a Class of Responses

Ideomotor Signaling

THREE
The Handshake Induction

Confusion in the Dynamics of Trance Induction

Dynamics of the Handshake Induction

The Handshake Induction

Compound Suggestions

The Paradigms of Acceptance Set, Reinforcement or Symbolic Logic

Compound Statements

The Paradigms of Shock and Creative Moments

Contingent Suggestions and Associational Networks

Multiple Tasks and Serial Suggestions

FOUR
Mutual Trance Induction

The Surprise

The Confusion-Restructuring Approach

Therapeutic Trance as a State of Active Unconscious Learning

FIVE
Trance Learning by Association

The Implied Directive

Questions that Focus, Suggest and Reinforce

Questions for Indirect Trance Induction

The Fragmentary Development of Trance

Depotentiating Conscious Mental Sets: Confusion, Mental Flux, and Creativity

SIX
Facilitating Hypnotic Learning

Displacing and Discharging Resistance

Multiple Levels of Communication: Analogy, Puns, Metaphor, Jokes, Folk Language

The Microdynamics of Suggestion

SEVEN
Indirectly Conditioned Eye Closure Induction

Trance Training and Utilization

The Dynamics of Indirect and Direct Suggestion

Indirect Conditioning of Trance

Voice Dynamics in Trance

Intercontextual Cues and Suggestions

Right- and Left-Hemispheric Functioning in Trance

EIGHT
Infinite Patterns of Learning: A Two-Year Follow-Up

Infinite Possibilities of Creativity, Healing, and Learning

NINE
Summary

The Nature of Therapeutic Trance

Trance Viewed as Inner Directed States

Trance Viewed as a Highly Motivated State

Trance Viewed as Active Unconscious Learning

Trance Viewed as an Altered State of Functioning

The Subjective Experience of Trance

Clinical Approaches to Hypnotic Induction

Orientation to Hypnotic Induction

Approaches to Hypnotic Induction

Depotentiating Habitual Frames of Reference

Indicators of Trance Development

Ratifying Trance

The Forms of Hypnotic Suggestion

The Nature of Hypnotic Suggestion

Indirect Approaches to Hypnotic Suggestion

Structuring an Acceptance Set

Utilizing the Patient's Associative Structure and Mental Skills

The Facilitation of Human Potentials

REFERENCES

Foreword

For the many who never had the opportunity and never will have the opportunity to attend workshops led by Milton Erickson, this work will serve as an invaluable surrogate. Psychotherapists, in general, as well as hypnotherapists, will find the work rewarding reading and study, for Erickson is above all a psychotherapist, and his modus operandi transcends clinical hypnotism. As for academicians and researchers, I believe they will find enough food for thought and research here to keep them busy for some time to come.

My first encounter with Milton Erickson was in 1954 or 1955 at a meeting of the Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis in Chicago. When I met him he was engaged in conversation with a small group of colleagues in a hotel lobby. I had never seen the man or even a photograph of him. Yet in a strange way, as it then seemed to me, as I saw him from some distance out of hearing range, I knew this was Milton Erickson. I have thought back to this incident a number of times. Conceivably I had heard somewhere that he had had polio and the fact he leaned on a cane might have been the clue to his identity. I cannot be sure, but I am inclined to believe the clues were more subtle. In a way, I had encountered Milton a number of times previously—through his writings which I had studied exhaustively. Through these, I had begun to appreciate the uniqueness of his person. I believe that some of the qualities which have made him the individual he is, were communicated to me through these writings, and that I experienced them more directly as they were manifesting themselves as he interacted with others.

In the years which followed I was to have other occasions, by far too few to suit me, to meet with him, watch him demonstrate, watch him doing therapy, and listen to him talk about hypnotism as well as other matters. More particularly, I had the opportunity to see why, as the years have gone by, he has grown into a quasi-legendary figure to whom the title of "Mr. Hypnosis" was once given. I have also had the opportunity to see in action such famed stage hypnotists of the forties and fifties as Ralph Slater, Franz Polgar, and others, many of whom billed themselves as "America's Foremost Hypnotist," the "World's Fastest Hypnotist," etc., and who extolled their fantastic prowess ad nauseam. Good entertainers, yes. As hypnotists, however, they came up poor seconds to Milton Erickson, and yet there never was a more quiet, unassuming man.

It is not surprising then that many professionals have tried to emulate him. None thus far have ever truly succeeded, although a few have managed to become a fair approximation. Some of the reasons for this become clear on reading this work. Some of these will still remain unclear. If the authors have failed to deal with them to the extent that their importance calls for, it is only because they are not exactly the kind of things one can adequately teach merely through the written word. Perhaps it is also because they are not teachable and, I suspect, there is some unwillingness on their part to admit this to themselves and the reader.

As the work makes it most clear, not only what one says to the patient or subject, how one says it, when one says it, and where one says it are all extremely important factors in the effective use of hypnotism, particularly in a clinical, therapeutic setting. It also becomes clear that one must view the hypnotherapeutic interaction in its totality and not piecemeal, and go even a step further by viewing it within the totality of its utilization. This takes the use of suggestion, and more broadly, of hypnotism out of the domain of the use of simple magic formulas and places it within the framework of the science of interactional and communication networks.

Erickson, however, is not just a master of verbal communication as the work makes evident. He is equally adept at non-verbal communication, which is one of the aspects to which the work does not and can not really do justice. This is unfortunate but unavoidable and certainly not an oversight on the part of the authors. One of the more memorable demonstrations of his skill at non-verbal communication that he has given in his career was in Mexico City in 1959 when he hypnotized and demonstrated various hypnotic phenomena with a subject with whom verbal communication was impossible. He spoke no Spanish and the subject spoke no English. From beginning to end, communication was carried entirely non-verbally through pantomime.

I can personally attest to the effectiveness of his non-verbal communications, through an experience I had with Milton Erickson some 15 or 16 years ago. Here I think I should make it clear that, to my knowledge, I have never been hypnotized by him, at least formally. A group of us had met in Philadelphia with Milton, in a special seminar aimed at gaining some understanding of his modus operandi. One morning I was alone with him sitting at the breakfast table, facing him somewhat obliquely toward his left. As I recall, I was doing most of the talking. As I talked, partially absorbed in my thoughts, I became vaguely aware, peripherally, of Milton making peculiar repetitious gestures with one of his hands. Momentarily I made nothing of this, then with my awareness increasing, two things happened in very close sequence. My right hand moved out, spontaneous-like, to pick up the coffee pot which was on the table and begin to lift it. With this, the realization dawned on me that Milton wanted coffee. At that point, to use the terminology of this work, my "conscious mind" took over the action and I completed the act, while realizing now, that Milton's gesturing had, indeed, clearly spelled out a non-verbal request to have coffee poured into his cup. This sort of thing, as I learned in time, is one of his favorite ways of teaching or answering a question about a related matter. It is also his way of subtly testing an individual's suggestibility or hypnotizability. It is also his way of keeping himself in shape, so to speak. I said, toward the beginning of this paragraph, that I had never been "formally" hypnotized by Milton Erickson. True, if by "formal induction," we mean the use of any of the usual classical and semi-classical techniques described over and over in various texts on hypnotism. For reasons that will become clear presently, and certainly after reading the present work, I am sure that the authors would say that I had indeed been hypnotized by Milton at least on that particular occasion.

There is, of course, much more to effective verbal communication than saying words according to appropriate syntactical and other linguistic rules, or the introduction of appropriate non-verbal elements at the correct time and place. In my experiences with Milton Erickson, I have found that his control of such features as intonation and voice modulation, to mention only these two aspects, forms an intrinsic part of his approach to hypnotism. One has to hear and watch him to get the full flavor of his manner of speech. To say that he speaks gently yet incisively, slowly, calmly, softly, enunciating clearly and carefully each word, sometimes each syllable, the whole with certain cadence, can only give but a sketchy flavor of the process. There is, unfortunately, no way for a book to convey to the reader the kinds of information that would allow him to duplicate these features. However, attention can be called to this matter so that after studying the book, if the reader finds himself somewhat less effective than Erickson in spite of his efforts to do everything just so, he will not draw the wrong conclusions.

Another element which I believe enters into Milton's effectiveness and which, in my opinion, this work does not sufficiently bring out, is the quiet confidence, and strangely enough in view of his permissive approach, the authority too, that he exudes. There is a conviction expressed by his voice and his actions that everything is, or will be, as he says. Perhaps part of this exuded conviction has its roots in another feature of Erickson's interaction with his subjects and patients. As one watches him, one becomes very much aware of his ability to communicate to the subject and patient that he is participating in some of his experiences and sharing these with him. This is particularly evident when he elicits hallucinatory phenomena. As one witnesses Milton Erickson tell a subject about a skier "out there" on a distant snow covered hill which he describes in some detail, or about a rabbit "right down there at your feet-----and what color is it?" one often has the eerie feeling that he too

sees the skier, the hill, the snow, and the rabbit. How then, can the subject indeed fail to see them too? Whether or not Milton actually shares in the subject's subjective experiences, the impression is verbally and non-verbally communicated to the latter that he does. In my opinion this is an extremely powerful adjunct in his elicitation of the desired responses.

This is to say then, as a warning to readers who might expect much more than is reasonable from this work, that I believe there are important elements Milton Erickson brings to bear in his production and utilization of hypnosis which are not given as much attention as they deserve. This is not being written in a judgmental manner, an action hardly appropriate to a foreword. That aspect of the induction and utilization of hypnosis upon which the authors have chosen to focus is sufficiently complex and central as to justify certain omissions, particularly of material extremely difficult to deal with in writing.

Indeed, as every modern educator knows, the three major modes of communication, audio, visual, and written, each contributes in a unique and non-interchangeable way to the total process of education. What I have just stated merely reflects this fact. As written communication goes, the present work does a superlative job in elucidating the complexities of Erickson's approaches to clinical hypnotism. Indeed it accomplishes admirably that which can only best be done by the written word.

All of this leads me to one last point I would make for all those readers who would aspire to become another Milton Erickson. The book will teach them some of Milton's "secrets," which actually were never secrets at all. It is simply that what he did, and still does, was so obvious and natural to him that he assumed everyone knew what was going on. Whether knowing the secrets will be enough is a moot question. Milton did not become "Mr. Hypnosis" overnight. Many events and experiences have preceded his 50 years and more of experience with hypnotism. Many other events have filled these fifty years. Which ones have materially contributed to make the man, the hypnotist, and the clinician that he is? No one can really tell, even Milton himself. Some can be specified. Of these, some could be duplicated, some could not, and there are some which one would hardly want to duplicate. A wide experience with the phenomenology of hypnotism, especially in a naturalistic setting, extensive and long experience teaching, applying, demonstrating, and experimenting with hypnotism, all of these must be seen as undoubtedly having played an essential part in Milton Erickson's spectacular success. These are duplicable. Potentially duplicable by deliberate innoculation, but hardly the kind of experience anyone would readily undergo, is being stricken twice with poliomyelitis as Milton Erickson was. Certainly not duplicable is being born tone deaf and color blind. Erickson attributes much of his heightened sensitivity to kinesthetic cues, body dynamics, and altered modes of sensory-perceptual functioning to his life-long struggle with his innate and acquired infirmities. In his study and effort to mitigate these problems he acquired a personal awareness of altered patterns of functioning that was channeled into his life-work as healer. Additionally, Erickson has brought to his life-work a remarkable imagination and creativity, a high degree of sensitivity and intuition, a keen observing power, a prodigious memory for facts and events, and a particular ability for organizing what he experiences on a moment to moment basis. There is little here that can be duplicated on demand.

If one is not likely to ever be another Milton Erickson, one can at least learn something about his modus operandi and utilize it as completely as possible within one's own limitations and in terms of one's own personal assets. If this work does nothing more than help the reader accomplish this, it will have attained its purpose.

In approaching this work the reader should keep in mind that it is the product of pragmatists, and that it is specifically about therapeutic or clinical hypnotism, and neither about theoretical or experimental hypnotism. The reader might as well know from the outset that he will not find in this book any well defined and worked out theory, nor any solid scientific documentation of many stated facts. Quite clearly, the authors espouse a certain theoretical position with regard to the nature of hypnosis, of hypnotic phenomena, of suggestion, and of suggested behavior. One may or may not agree with them, and many alternative explanations will come to the reader's mind as he follows the authors' explanations of what takes place when Erickson makes a certain intervention or takes a certain step. However, to get the most out of this work, one needs to keep in mind that its focus is not so much upon developing a scientific theory as it is upon elucidating how Milton Erickson obtains the kinds of results that he does; results which most would agree involve behavior which may be labeled as being "suggested" and/or being "hypnotic." From a practical, pragmatic standpoint it is relatively immaterial whether these elicited behaviors are "veridical," "role-playing," "a product of cognitive restructuring," involve some sort of "dissociative process," or are the consequences of a "shaping" process, and so on. Eventually, the "true" scientist wants to know what is what. This the authors have well recognized, often pointing out areas for investigation and suggesting experiments which could be made. But for the busy clinician and for the long suffering patient it is results, and quick ones at that, which count. Efficacity is the issue. For this reason effective hypnotherapists, which the three authors are, do not limit themselves to hypnotic procedures per se. On the contrary, as is evident from this book, and even more so from other writings of Erickson and of Rossi, effective hypnotherapy constantly interweaves the utilization of hypnotic and non-hypnotic behavioral processes. To take just one tiny example, the use of the "double-bind," be it as understood by Bateson, or in the special sense that the authors use it, is not a hypnotic technique or approach per se, nor does it involve a hypnotic or suggestion process, but it can be used as a specific tool to induce hypnosis and/or as a tool to elicit further behaviors from a hypnotized individual.

Although theory is neither the strength nor the focus of this book, a very definite theoretical position is reflected by Erickson's modus operandi, or at least guides it. It has been traditional, and this is still widely done, to view hypnotic behavior as behavior elicited by "suggestions" given while the subject is in a state of "hypnosis." However, even prior to Bernheim, and earlier, it has also been widely recognized that suggestions leading to the sort of behaviors exhibited by hypnotized individuals can also be effectively used in the absence of any induction of hypnosis. That is, they can be effective with persons who have presumably not been hypnotized. One interpretation of this observation, to which a small number of modern investigators have ascribed, is that hypnosis is not only unnecessary for the production of hypnotic behavior, but is also actually an unnecessary concept. This interpretation leads to the position there is no hypnosis as a state. However, one alternative to this position, and this is the one taken by the authors, is that all bonafide responses to suggestions are associated, ipso facto, with a hypnotic or trance state. From this standpoint there is no longer any distinction between "waking" and "hypnotic" suggestions, or if one prefers, between extra and intrahypnotic suggestions. To respond adequately to a suggestion is to be hypnotized. To put it a little differently, according to the authors, one cannot respond adequately to a suggestion without first, or at the same time, developing a hypnotic trance. This particular view of the situation comes about in a two-fold way: For the authors, if a response is to be an adequate response to a suggestion, it must be mediated by a different aspect of the mind than so-called conscious behavior. Thus they distinguish between behavior executed by the subject's "unconscious" and "conscious" mind. Normally, the conscious dominates the unconscious. The traditional inductions of hypnosis are nothing more or less than a freeing of the unconscious from conscious dominance, which is what they see as also momentarily existing any time an individual responds adequately to a suggestion. For them to function completely at the unconscious level is to be in a trance or hypnotic state, too. Any shift from conscious to unconscious functioning is a passage from a non-trance to a trance state ("waking" to "hypnotic state"). Although this will most likely be clear to many readers, it may be well to make the point here that the authors' conception of the "unconscious" is definitely not the one held by Freud. Morton Prince's "subconscious" is perhaps the closest to it. In any case it is an intelligent, complex level of mental functioning which appears to retain certain ego functions possessed by the conscious mind, while relinquishing, or not being affected by, some of the other functions usually associated with the ego.

One consequence of the above view of suggestion and hypnotism is that the notion of hypnosis as a state of hypersuggestibility becomes meaningless. To be suggestible is to be hypnotized. These are merely alternative ways of speaking of the same thing. It follows from this then, that it is also meaningless to speak of testing an individual's waking or non-hypnotic suggestibility, as a predictor of his hypnotizability. Finally, a formal induction of hypnosis, when it is successful, might be viewed in this framework as nothing more than an obtrusive technique which brings about a shift in degree of increased unconscious participation in a step-like fashion. The real impact of viewing hypnotic and suggested behavior as the authors do, however, is to be found in the central topic of this work. How to facilitate, activate, cultivate, and, to some extent, utilize unconscious levels of functioning. This is what this book is about.

I have spoken at great length about Milton Erickson, and justifia...