Milton H. Erickson

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Lore & Background

Milton Hyland Erickson was born on 5 December 1901 in a mining camp in Aurum, Nevada, the second child of nine of Albert and Clara Erickson. His family moved to a farming community in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin when he was quite young. He was late in learning to speak and had difficulties in reading, which he described as dyslexia; he was also color blind and tone deaf. He later stated that these disabilities helped him focus on aspects of communication and behavior which most people overlooked. At age 17, he contracted polio, leaving him with additional lifelong disabilities. During his year of recovery, he explored the potential of self-healing through hypnosis, recalling 'body memories' of muscular activity and claiming to have regained control of parts of his body. Still unable to walk, he claimed to have trained his body by embarking on a thousand-mile canoe trip with only a few dollars, following which he was able to walk with a cane. He continued to use a cane throughout his adult life, requiring a wheelchair only in his last decade. After recovering, Erickson attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he attained graduate degrees in both psychology and medicine. He studied hypnosis in the laboratory of Clark Hull but, because his ideas were somewhat different from Hull's, independently embarked upon rigorous scientific explorations regarding the nature of hypnosis. He received his M.D. degree from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine with an emphasis on neurology and psychiatry in 1928. Between 1929 and 1948, he took a series of positions at state hospitals that facilitated active research. During WWII, Erickson conducted physical and mental examinations of soldiers; the U.S. intelligence services asked him to meet with other experts to better understand psychological and mental factors in combat communications, working with Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson, with whom he developed lifelong friendships. In his late 40s, Erickson developed post-polio syndrome, resulting in additional muscle loss and pain. He, his wife Elizabeth, and his five children left Detroit and his position at Eloise State Hospital and relocated to Phoenix, Arizona, where they believed the weather would be conducive to his healing. There he established a private practice, working out of his home for the remainder of his life. In July 1957, due to personality clashes, Erickson broke away from the Society for Clinical and Educational Hypnosis and formed the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis, serving as its founding president. For a decade he was the founding editor of the American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis and had at least one article in every issue. In 1973, Jay Haley published Uncommon Therapy, which first brought Erickson and his approaches to the attention of those outside the clinical hypnosis community. His fame spread rapidly, and he began holding teaching seminars that continued until his death. Milton H. Erickson died on 25 March 1980, aged 78, leaving behind his wife Elizabeth, four sons, and four daughters.

Reader's Guide

Milton Erickson's significance lies in his distinctive view of the unconscious mind as creative and solution-generating, distinctly different from Freud's hostile and aggressive system. He described the unconscious mind as 'made up of all your learnings over a lifetime, many of which you have forgotten, but which serve you in your automatic functioning.' Erickson relied on a supposition of an active, significant unconscious, and hypnosis provided a tool to communicate with it and access the reservoir of resources held within. In a 1944 article, he described hypnosis as 'the induction of a peculiar psychological state which permits subjects to reassociate and reorganize inner psychological complexities in a way suitable to the unique items of their own psychological experiences.' He repeatedly commented on the autonomy of the unconscious mind and its capacity to solve problems. Erickson's approach emphasized the positive potential of disabilities—he stated that his own dyslexia, color blindness, and tone-deafness helped him focus on aspects of communication and behavior most people overlooked. He attributed his self-healing from polio to giving him additional insight into hypnosis. His work influenced multiple psychotherapeutic directions, including brief therapy, family systems therapy, and neuro-linguistic programming. His collaboration with Gregory Bateson during WWII contributed to understanding psychological factors in communication. Erickson's founding of the American Society for Clinical Hypnosis and his editorship of the American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis helped establish clinical hypnosis as a legitimate medical tool. Though his ideas initially differed from Clark Hull's, Erickson pursued rigorous scientific exploration of hypnosis. His legacy endures through the conceptual frameworks developed by his students, which continue to shape modern psychotherapy.

Did You Know?

• Erickson was the second child of nine, born in a mining camp in Aurum, Nevada where his father mined silver.
• At age 17, he contracted polio and during recovery claimed to have trained his body by embarking on a thousand-mile canoe trip with only a few dollars.
• He was late in learning to speak, had dyslexia, was color blind, and tone deaf, and stated these disabilities helped him focus on aspects of communication most people overlooked.
• Erickson broke away from the Society for Clinical and Educational Hypnosis and formed the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis in July 1957.
• He was the founding editor of the American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis and had at least one article in every issue for a decade.