From Maverick to Mainstream: Four Key Contributions of Milton H. Erickson to Hypnosis and Psychotherapy

At the time Milton Erickson began his clinical practice, the field of psychotherapy was in its infancy and was heavily influenced by psychoanalytic theory and methods, generally a past-oriented approach. Hypnosis was not commonly used, and, when it was, it tended to be rigidly formulaic in method and based on the belief that the success of hypnosis was determined more by an individual's hypnotizability and less by the methods of the clinician or quality of the therapeutic relationship. Erickson diverged sharply from those methods and perspectives in evolving his strategic approaches. While there are many contributions Erickson made to our understanding of the potentials of clinical hypnosis in treatment, this article describes four contributions the author considers to be key to Erickson's singlehandedly transforming the fields of clinical hypnosis and strategic psychotherapy. These include: 1) Shifting from an intrapersonal to interpersonal view of hypnosis and psychotherapy; 2) emphasizing the importance of utilization of client attributes; 3) characterizing people's problems as evidence of rigidity rather than pathology; and 4) focusing on future possibilities rather than analyzing the past.