> Gerald Peterson wrote
> "It's been a while since I have read about Milton Erikson, the
> famous
> hypnotherapist. I understand his work has garnered a strong following
> among those promoting "neurolinguistic programming" or NLP. I am
> wondering if any tipsters present info about hypnosis in their classes
> and use his cases or ideas? Also, are the cases/stories about his
> amazing use of suggestion hyped or exaggerated? Are there better
> balanced treatments (not Haley, Rosen, etc.) of his ideas, work, etc?"
>
A number of years back I was interested in experimental hypnosis and read
quite a bit of the literature including the collected works of Erikson (I
think Rossi was the editor). For my purposes I didn't find most of it to be
particularly enlightening but I was coming from an exptl. rather than a
clinical perspective. The one exception was the volume on Erikson's
earliest writings. He actually did some very interesting experimental work
in his student days and I used to use some of it in my lectures. These
volumes are fun reading and I recommend them highly but I was always quite
skeptical about deriving much of academic interest from his case histories.
Unfortunately, I've not really followed the literature since 1986 so I don't
know what books are in print on the topic.
Ed
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Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D., Department of Psychology,
West Chester Univ. of PA, West Chester, PA 19383
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Husband, father, grandfather, biopsychologist, herpetoculturist and
bluegrass fiddler
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