What Milton Erickson said about being Ericksonian

Abstract

Over the last 15 years, as editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, I have seen papers by hundreds of authors. Many authors discuss the research, theories, and case presentations without identifying their allegiance. However, an apparent trend has developed in the last decade in which many therapists prefer to identify their work as being "Ericksonian." Yet, there have only been few authors identifying as such who go on to explain what it means to be Ericksonian. It is concerning that few authors seem to have returned to the original source when citing concepts that have been developed by, or attributed to, Dr. Milton Erickson. The vast majority of authors who quote techniques such as utilization or naturalistic induction usually cite a third source rather than Erickson's writings directly. Often this cited third-party author is someone who never studied with Dr. Erickson and whose writing about the cited techniques has also not been directly taken from Dr. Erickson's work. What evolves from this practice is sort of like the childhood game of "telephone." That is a game where a story is repeated down the line by another author which is repeated by another author until, downline, the entire matter becomes radically incorrect and incongruent with the original. In this article, I will describe Erickson's work regarding naturalistic induction, utilization, techniques for depotentiating conscious sets, and conscious-unconscious dissociation in his own words and also illustrate the evolution of his induction techniques over the years from 1929 to 1980.

Keywords: Erickson; Ericksonian Approach; Ericksonian Hypnosis.