Milton Erickson, His Life, And Hypnosis

Milton Erickson is considered the father of modern hypnosis, now called hypnotherapy. This American physician and psychologist pioneered many hypnotherapy techniques. In addition, he was also an excellent family therapist.

Milton Erickson was born in Phoenix, Arizona in 1901. At that time, people still considered hypnosis as an esoteric technique or circus. However, he made an effort to make it a valid therapeutic tool.

Several schools of thought in psychology (especially behaviorism) influenced his work. He was the first president of the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis, who made him famous.

Milton Erickson’s origins

Milton Erickson did not have an easy life. His parents were low-income farmers in the community and he suffered from several health problems. He only started talking at the age of 4. At that age he was diagnosed with dyslexia. He was also color blind and suffered from tone deafness.

When he was 17, he developed polio, which completely paralyzed him. He could only move his eyes. Although his doctors thought he would not get better, Erickson thought he would recover. Thus, he became very aware of his bodily experiences.

It is safe to say that his condition forced him to become an excellent observer. Although he was ill, he tried to be aware of everything that was happening around him. This allowed him to discover and understand many aspects of non-verbal language. By carefully observing his younger sister (who took her first steps), he learned to walk again.

Milton Erickson’s education

Despite his great limitations, Milton studied Erickson to become a physician and psychologist. During this period he analyzed Clark L. Hull’s theories of suggestiveness. These theories fascinated him so much that he began to thoroughly investigate hypnosis and everything related to it.

Over time, Milton Erickson began to criticize Hull’s practice. He also studied Sigmund Freud’s work, but did not agree with his basic approaches. He believed that hypnosis was a therapeutic tool. However, he felt that the patient should play a more active role.

Milton Erickson and modern hypnosis

For Milton Erickson, therapeutic intervention was not universal. He did not believe in using it in the same way with every patient. On the contrary , he emphasized the importance of uniqueness and uniqueness. This explains why he thought that each process was different and should therefore be treated in a certain way. In other words, he used different techniques with each patient.

Milton Erickson’s main goal was to help his patients deal with the symptoms that bothered them. To achieve this, he even used unorthodox methods. That is why many considered him a “guru” or even a “magician”.

Unlike Freud, Milton Erickson did not care about the patient’s past. He believed that it was more important to concentrate on the present, especially when it came to solving current problems. He developed approaches that are still used today, such as neuro-linguistic programming and solution-focused card therapy.

Other contributions

Although Milton Erickson used hypnosis as his most important therapeutic tool, he gradually began to use language as an instrument of transformation.

He was primarily a clinical psychologist. The development of new theories did not interest him so much. Instead, he focused on developing highly effective methods that could help people.

At the age of 50, he suffered a new polio attack and took advantage of it to analyze the sensations and come up with pain management methods. In fact, he expressed the whole process in one of his books. He died at the age of 78.