Uncommon Therapy

View other editions of Uncommon Therapy.
View books by J Haley.

oops - Rated
This is a great book, particularly because Jay Haley gets out of the way and effectively lets Erickson tell his own story, by means of copious long quotations and by simply describing Erickson's MO without comment, even when the author disagrees with his methods. Therefore it acts as a book which I believe Erickson never wrote himself, ie a clear and succinct explication of his methods. It is divided into chapters describing different periods of the human life-cycle thus showing Erickson's approach to a wide variety of problems, both with and without the use of hypnosis.

In particular, to me as a student of systemic therapy, it shows how Erickson was the father of the 'strategic' approach, with a complete disregard for political correctness. The man would be in jail if he did this stuff today. oops.

Erickson in detail - Rated
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.

Don't bother. No, really. - Rated
This book is cheap and facile.

The author's case studies cater only for "nuclear family" scenarios and the "brilliant therepeutic techniques" described within it include such gems as:
* Erikson curing someone of being fat by shouting at them at length about how repulsive they are;
* Erikson helping a paralysed Prussian/German to walk by telling him repeatedly that he was Nazi scum and wasn't as worthwhile as the "Jews in the gas chamber" (according to Erikson, that one worked because Prussians are ALL "self-satisfied" and would have no alternative but to get up and walk when faced with such insults).

This is lowest-common-denominator reading, writing and thinking which permits humanity no function or behaviour but the centuries-old roles of man, woman, child, or parent. The final chapter is easily the most depressing - apprarently the old (anyone over 60) simply aren't worth bothering with at all and should be left to die.

I only hope that Jay Haley has done Erikson a massive disservice with this book, because if it is even slightly accurate, the man was to be avoided at all costs.

Interesting, thought provoking, incredibly useful - Rated
As someone who is fascinated by NLP, I found this book extremely interesting and illuminating. I had been unsure as to how Erickson worked his magic until I read this book. Also I could think of a million approaches that using his techniques could help me with. Highly recommended.

Excellent introduction to Erickson - Rated
"Uncommon Therapy" is probably the best introduction to Erickson's work and concepts. It presents a broad, yet useful, overview of Erickson's operating premises and how they are implemented in his communication techniques. This title doesn't delve into the excruciating technical details of his methods as some of the more esoteric titles do. A good follow up populist title to this would be "My Voice Will Go With You", which also doesn't require one to be a communication technician to come away with a world full of practical ideas.

Milton Erickson's ideas can change the way you think, the way you perceive your world and the way you communicate with that world. "Uncommon Therapy" is one of the ten books that have most influenced my perceptions.