Uncommon Therapy: The Psychiatric Techniques of Milton H. Erickson, M.D.

This book is full of nuggets for anyone interested in works of Dr. Milton H. Erickson. I it years and have used it in my practice of hypnotherapy and coaching. When I saw the audiobook version, I took it immediately. The book delves into Erickson's therapeutic methods, emphasizing his strategic therapy, which employs indirect and paradoxical interventions. It explores Erickson's use of hypnosis and how he applied it to access the unconscious for therapeutic change. The book also highlights Erickson's effective use of communication through metaphors and storytelling. Overall, it underscores his influential role in shaping psychotherapy, inspiring approaches such as brief therapy and family therapy. HIGHLY recommended.

No point in beating my gums about Milton Erickson. You can see for yourself how he deals with people… "The presenting problem was a 14-year-old girl who developed the idea that her feet were much too large. The mother came alone to Erickson and described the situation. For three months the girl had been becoming more and more withdrawn, and she didn't want to go to school or to church or to be seen on the street. The girl would not allow the subject of her feet to be discussed, and she would not go to a doctor to talk to him. No amount of reassurance by her mother had an influence, and the girl was becoming more and more seclusive. Erickson reports: 'I arranged with the mother to visit the home on the following day under false pretenses. The girl would be told that I was coming to examine the mother to see if she had the flu. When I arrived at the house her mother was in bed. I did a careful examination of her, listening to her chest, etc. The girl was present. I sent her for a towel, and I asked that she stand beside me in case I needed something. This gave me an opportunity to look her over. She was rather stoutly built and her feet were not large. “Studying the girl, I wondered what I could do to get her over this problem. Finally I hit upon a plan. As I finished my examination of the mother, I maneuvered the girl into a position directly behind me. I was sitting on the bed talking to the mother, and I got up slowly and carefully and then stepped back awkwardly. I put my heel down squarely on the girl’s toes. The girl, of course, squawked with pain. I turned on her and in a tone of absolute fury said, ‘If you would grow those things large enough for a man to see, I wouldn't be in this sort of situation!’ The girl looked at me, puzzled. That day she asked her mother if she could go out to a show, which she hadn't done in months. She went to school and church, and that was the end of her seclusiveness. She didn't realize what I had done, nor had her mother. All the mother noticed was that I had been impolite to her daughter." Haley, who put this book together, spends a few more words analyzing what Erickson did, but I leave you to figure it out for yourself. In another very poignant account, Erickson tells of dealing with a young woman's deepening depression and withdrawal from social/sexual relationships – he found under hypnosis that she had powerful feelings of disgust toward any kind of sex, and he traced it to an identification with her dead mother. The mother died when the girl was 13 and had previously warned the girl to stay away from boys, that sex was dirty. In subsequent hypnotic sessions he got across to the girl that what her mother had told her was perfectly appropriate for that age, but had her mother lived she would have told her all sorts of other things. He went on to lecture her about the joys and responsibilities of sex, much as her mother might have done when she was older. Are these techniques that Erickson uses? I suppose you could say they are, but I defy you to just go out and use them. They are only useful if you have the strength, courage, wisdom, kindness, and understanding that Erickson had. And if you have all those things, you probably don't need the techniques. There are many more wonderful illustrations from Erickson’s practice of psychotherapy in this book. While I can't agree with Haley’s obsession with technique, I am forever in his debt for introducing me to Milton Erickson, who was obviously more of a magician than anything else.

Family therapy taking wholistic view.

Uncommon Therapy is an introduction to the therapy work of famed Medical Hypnotist Milton Erickson. It is more readable than many of Erickson's writings. Haley also adds some of his perspective to the art of therapy. This book and others like it were written before Cognitive Behavioral Therapy became the dominant therapy in Psychology. They can still contribute insights to therapists seeking a broad background for practicing psychotherapy. Graduate students and therapists in research settings should definitely read this book to help keep alive a more comprehensive approach to cognitive therapy than is promoted by formulaic cognitive and behavioral therapies that were largely forced on Clinicians by insurance companies pushing science-based, effective therapies; a good outcome for most consumers seeking psychotherapy in most settings. Haley, using a family life cycle approach (e.g. courtship, weaning parents from children, the pain of old age) uses Erickson's case studies to illustrate Erickson's approach. Nowadays it comes across as proof by anecdote. Experienced therapist do however, have examples of cases that were resolved quickly when the client restructured his/her view, Erickson's approach contibutes best by showing how a therapist can creatively propose an alternative constuction of a problem posed by the client and by inventing strategies for change. Erickson's own writings have many more detailed examples of cases.

Uncommon Therapy is a good survey of Dr. Milton Erickson's approach to therapy. The book consists of stories from Erickson's case files along with an explanation of the approach that Erickson took. This book is potentially useful for anyone who has problems and wishes to solve them as the techniques could be applied on a personal level. The people who should be interested in reading this book are the professionals who wish vary their and customize their approach to their patients. My interest in the book was to find out more about Erickson and his therapeutic techniques that I could apply in my own life. It succeeded in satisfying both my aims. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book.

Highly recommended reading for anyone who wants to gain a basic understanding of how hypnosis works. This is a great book for anyone who has been influenced unconsciously by this type of hypnosis. Particularly for those who have been involved with a cult leader or guru (Byron Katie, for example) who uses these methods to bypass their victims conscious mind and rational thought, in order to influence and control their behavior, thoughts, etc. This book is non-technical and non-specific enough to help victims of mind control identify methods used to persuade them, and to take control of their own lives again. Very interesting and enlightening read.

This book offers an interesting insight on the topic of psychiatric therapeutic approaches. I have it handy in my bookshelf for quick reviews. Recommendable.

"Uncommon Therapy" ist zwar schon fast 40 Jahre alt (Ersterscheinung 1973), aber immer noch die beste Kurzdarstellung bzw. Einführung in die Arbeit von Milton Erickson, die ich gelesen habe. Erickson und Rossi haben eine schier unüberschaubare Fülle von Veröffentlichungen hinterlassen und Jay Haley hat es verstanden, Ericksons Arbeit kompakt und strukturiert aufzubereiten und darzustellen. Natürlich kann Haley auf etwa 300 Seiten nicht allzu sehr ins Detail gehen, aber wer sich mit Ericksons Arbeitsmethoden und Konzepten zur Psychotherapie und Hypnosetherapie anhand ganz konkreter Fragestellungen (z.B. Probleme bei jungen Erwachsenen, Eheprobleme, Familientherapie) auseinandersetzen möchte, ist mir diesem Buch genau richtig bedient.

Not useful for hypnotist..Can not understand the language..

Jay Haleyの傑作で、催眠家のミルトン・エリソンの患者とのセッション などをまとめた著作だ。 もっとも日本語版は格式ばった形式の体裁になっているが、 英語版はもっと気楽な感じで読めるような体裁になっている。 私は、英語版しか読んでいないのであるが、素晴らしいの一言に尽きる。

I liked anything regarding Milton Erickson. I think his approach could really be used to help illuminate a lot of human thinking and behaviour and even far out things like magical practice. This book features some material that has already been published elsewhere (the tomato plant story was also in the book by Ernest Rossi). Erickson's cases are divided into stages of the human life, e.g. getting married, having young kids, being an empty nester, and some of Erickson's theory of the healthy development of a normal human being is espoused. Erickson believed that ideally most people would marry and have kids and become grandparents and then die. He was able to help even very troubled people achieve this using his laser like focus, goal oriented therapy, and flexible approach.

Ignore the first review - the person has clearly NOT read/or understood the real depth of Ericksonian therapy. Erickson was a rare, true expert on human behaviour, and this book is an excellent series of case studies detailed and analysed by a third party, but nicely broken down into some of the key development phases that we go through in our lives. It acknowledges that our needs and behaviour change throughout life, and I recommend this book to any fellow hypnotherapist or pychologist.