Hope & Resiliency (eBook)

Betty Alice Erickson, Roxanna Erickson Klien, Dan Short (Autoren)

eBook Download: EPUB

2005
288 Seiten
Crown House Publishing (Verlag)
978-1-84590-613-9 (ISBN)

Infos

Milton H. Erickson is most commonly examined through the lens of hypnosis. This book takes a much broader approach and defines several key components that made him successful as a therapist. The fundamental strategies described are relevant to all mental health care professionals, regardless of their theoretical orientation.

Dan Short is currently in private practice in Scottsdale Arizona and a member of the graduate faculty at Ottawa University. He was Associate Director and Chief Archivist for the Milton H. Erickson Foundation in the USA, former Editor for The Milton H. Erickson Foundation Newsletter and was the Editor and Designer for Milton H. Erickson: The Complete Works.

Textauszug

A Biographical Sketch of
Milton H. Erickson

Overview

For Milton H. Erickson (1901–80), hope and resiliency were a way of living life and therefore a natural basis for his approach to psychotherapy. Erickson began practicing medicine in the late 1920s, a time characterized by the newly emerging practice of psychotherapy for the treatment of neurosis and when long-term institutional care was the only available solution for psychotic mental illness. By 1940, Erickson had already distinguished himself as someone who had a unique approach to healing. He had published more than 40 papers and would soon come to be known as the world’s leading authority on medical hypnosis. Over a period of five decades he illustrated his method of therapy in 119 published case reports. An additional 200 case examples were described in books published by those who studied his approach (O’Hanlon and Hexum, 1990).

Erickson’s writings and seminars helped inspire a new generation of therapists. He pioneered strategic and brief approaches to psychotherapy at a time when all psychotherapy was psychoanalytical. His unorthodox practice of bringing members of the family into therapy sessions helped inspire the creation of family therapy. He and a few others ushered in the paradigm shift from the long investigative process that formerly characterized psychotherapy to the realization that effective therapy can and should be brief, internally directed, with a focus on the subject’s ability to participate and enjoy life in the present and future. As single-subject research design becomes more common in clinical studies, it is likely that the field will continue to evolve in the direction of individualizing treatment to meet the needs of the patient, a practice that was one of the hallmarks of Erickson’s approach.

In addition to his direct contributions, numerous influential figures in the social sciences collaborated with Erickson, including Gregory Bateson (a scientist and philosopher who contributed to the fields of cybernetics, education, family therapy, and ecology), Margaret Mead (the world-renowned anthropologist who was the first to conduct psychologically oriented field work), Lewis Wolberg (an innovative psychodynamic theorist and pioneer in medical hypnosis), Lawrence Kubie (an eminent psychoanalyst), John Larson (known for his work in the invention of the polygraph), Ernest Rossi, (a leader in the field of mind–body research), and Jay Haley (one of the founders of family therapy).

Family background

Erickson was the offspring of two highly determined individuals. Erickson’s father, Albert, lost his father at the age of twelve. Three years later, Albert left Chicago to become a farmer. He had nothing but the clothes on his back and a train ticket. After going as far west as his money would take him, Albert began looking for work in the farming community of Lowell, Wisconsin. He hitched a ride to a farmer’s house to seek work as a hired hand. At the house he saw a pretty girl watching him from behind a tree. Albert asked, “Whose girl are you?” She confidently replied, “I’m my daddy’s girl.” He responded, “Well, you are my girl now.” Five years later, Albert and Clara were married. Eventually, they would have nine children and share 73 wedding anniversaries.

Erickson’s mother showed a level of determination no less than his father’s. When she was sixteen years old, she heard her aunt lamenting on how famous their ancestors were and that no descendent would ever merit the name “Hyland,” a much admired relative of the previous generations. Young Clara boldly replied, “When I grow up and get married and have a baby boy, I’m going to name him Hyland!” Milton Hyland Erickson was her second child. He was born in 1901, in a three-sided log cabin with a dirt floor that backed up to a mountain. This was a desolate region of the Nevada Sierras, in a long-since-vanished silver-mining town known as Aurum. As the family grew, Albert and Clara wanted better educational opportunities for the children, so they moved east in a covered wagon.

Childhood

As a child, Erickson was recognized as being different. Although he lived in a rural community with a paucity of printed material, he had an insatiable appetite for reading and amused himself by reading the dictionary for hours at a time. Ironically, he had multiple sensory disorders and apparently had a reading disorder. Erickson later described himself as dyslexic and said that, when he was six, his teacher, Ms Walsh, spent many hours helping him correct his mistranslation of symbols. One such day, Erickson had a sudden burst of insight. His teacher highlighted the most important features of the symbol “3” by turning it on its side. Erickson explains that in a blinding flash of light he suddenly saw the difference between a “3” and an “m.” On many other occasions she would use the same method of instruction. She would take something that was very familiar and then suddenly impose it into an area of confusion. Erickson was grateful for what his teacher had taught him and remembered her method, which later became the inspiration for his use of reorientation and a technique known as therapeutic shock.

In addition to problems interpreting symbols, Erickson was color-blind and tone-deaf. Rather than become discouraged by these multiple handicaps, Erickson dedicated himself to careful observation of the world around him. At the age of fifteen, he wrote an article for the magazine Wisconsin Agriculturists about the problems of young people living on the farm and why they eventually leave this setting. From his earliest childhood, Erickson was looking for a way to make a difference in the world. This is one reason he had so much admiration for the country doctor who brought hope and comfort into the homes of families who were otherwise frightened and isolated.

Late adolescence

In 1919, Erickson contracted one of the most dreaded diseases of the time, poliomyelitis. His prognosis was poor and he overheard the doctor sadly tell his parents that their boy would be dead by morning. Rather than fall into despair, Erickson reacted with intense anger. He did not feel that anyone had the right to tell a mother that her boy would be dead by morning! In defiance of this morose prediction, Erickson used what little voice he still had to instruct his mother to move his dresser to a certain angle near the foot of his bed. She thought he was delirious but did as he asked. This arrangement allowed Erickson to see down the hallway and out the window of the other room, which faced west. Later, Erickson explained, “I was damned if I would die without seeing one more sunset.” After seeing the sunset Erickson lost consciousness for three days.

When Erickson awoke, he could move only his eyes and speak with great difficulty. He was paralyzed in almost every part of his body. All of the independence he had been working to achieve throughout childhood and adolescence suddenly vanished.

Though he was physically trapped by his illness, Erickson still had an unyielding interest in learning. He spent his time as an invalid listening to sounds and interpreting their meaning. For example, he would listen to the sound of footsteps in order to determine who was coming and what sort of mood the person was in. One of his most crucial learning experiences came on a day when Erickson’s family left him in the house alone. His body was bound to a rocking chair so that he could have the advantage of sitting up. Erickson did not have much of a view from his position in the room and wished he could be closer to the window so that he could at least have the pleasure of viewing the outside world. As he sat thinking about what it would be like to be closer to the window, he noticed that his rocking chair slowly began to rock. Erickson believed that this was an extraordinary discovery. By merely having the idea of progress he was able to activate some previously unrecognized muscular potential.

During the following weeks and months, Erickson probed his memories for bodily sensations associated with developing movement. He would try to remember what it felt like in his fingers when he held certain objects.

Progress came slowly, in very small portions. First, he got a twitch in one of his fingers. Then he learned to consciously initiate the movement. Then he learned to move more than one finger. Then he learned to move his fingers in uncoordinated ways. Next he developed special resistance exercises that helped him coordinate his movements.

Erickson also studied the movements of his youngest sister, who was just learning to walk. He dissected her behavior into a series of component skills that he could practice for himself. He later explained, “I learned to stand up by watching baby sister learn to stand up: use two hands for a base, uncross your legs, use the knees for a wide base, and then put more pressure on one arm and hand to get up” (Erickson, 1983, p. 13). His willingness to explore the power of ideas and the connection between thinking and the body proved to be key elements in his recovery.

After having a physician at the university recommend vigorous use of his muscles during rehabilitation, Erickson decided he would strengthen his body by paddling a canoe from the Rock River in Milwaukee to the Mississippi and on to St. Louis. He had...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 1.2.2006
• Verlagsort: London
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Psychologie ► Allgemeine Psychologie
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Psychologie ► Biopsychologie / Neurowissenschaften
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Psychologie ► Humanistische Psychotherapien
• Themenwelt: Medizin / Pharmazie ► Gesundheitsfachberufe
• Themenwelt: Medizin / Pharmazie ► Medizinische Fachgebiete ► Psychiatrie / Psychotherapie
• Themenwelt: Medizin / Pharmazie ► Naturheilkunde
• ISBN-10: 1-84590-613-6 / 1845906136
• ISBN-13: 978-1-84590-613-9 / 9781845906139