Scribd
Upload
40 views3 pages

VIK

Uploaded by

thejyprakash
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
40 views3 pages

VIK

Uploaded by

thejyprakash
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 3

is always to lower people's resistance to you.

For this you need tricks,


and one trick is to teach them a lesson.
Instead of haranguing people verbally, then, create a kind of mirror of
their behavior. In doing so you leave them two choices: They can ignore

LAW 44 385
you, or they can start to think about themselves. And even if they ignore
you, you will have planted a seed in their unconscious that will eventually
take root. When you mirror their behavior, incidentally, do not be afraid
to add a touch of caricature and exaggeration, as Ivan did by enthroning a
Tartar-it is the little spiee in the soup that will open their eyes and make
them see the ridiculousness in their own actions.

Observance V
Dr. Milton H. Erickson, a pioneer in strategie psychotherapy, would
often educate his patients powerfully but indirectly by creating a kind of
mirror effect. Constructing an analogy to make patients see the truth on
their own, he would bypass their resistance to change. When Dr.
Erickson treated married couples complaining of sexual problems, for
instance, he often found that psychotherapy's tradition of direct
confrontation and probIern airing only heightened the spouses'
resistance and sharpened their differ ences. Instead, he would draw a
husband and wife out on other topics, often banal ones, trying to find
an analogy for the sexual conflict.
In one couple's first session, the pair were discussing their eating
habits, especially at dinner. The wife preferred the leisurely approach-
a drink before the meal, some appetizers, and then a small main course,
all at a slow, civilized pace. This frustrated the husband-he wanted to
get din ner over quickly and to dig right into the main course, the bigger
the better. As the conversation continued, the couple began to catch
glimpses of an analogy to their problems in bed. The moment they made
this connection, however, Dr. Erickson would change the subject,
carefully avoiding a dis cussion of the real problem.
The couple thought Erickson was just getting to know them and
would deal with the problem directly the next time he saw them. But at
the end of this first session, Dr. 'Erickson directed them to arrange a
dinner a few nights away that would combine each person's desire: The
wife would get the slow meal, including time spent bonding, and the
husband would get the big dishes he wanted to eat. Without realizing
they were acting under the doctor's gentle guidance, the couple would
walk into a mirror of their problem, and in the mirror they would solve
their problems themselves, ending the evening just as the doctor had
hoped-by mirroring the im proved dinner dynamies in bed.
In dealing with more severe problems, such as the schizophrenie's
mirror fantasy world of his or her own construction, Dr. Erickson would
al ways try to enter the mirror and work within it. He once treated a
hospital inmate who believed he was Jesus Christ-draping sheets
around his body, talking in vague parables, and bombarding staf and
patients with endless Christian proselytizing. No therapy or drugs seemed
to work, until one day Dr. Erickson went up to the young man and said, "I
understand you have had experience as a carpenter." Being Christ, the
patient had to say that he had had such experience, and Erickson
immediately put hirn to work building bookcases and other useful items,
allowing hirn to wear his Jesus garb. Over the next weeks, as the patient
worked on these projects,
386 LAW 44
his mind became

You might also like