| he was not cured of arthritis. On the contrary, there remained certain
circumscribed moments in which his problem was just as
intense as when he first came for therapy. The residual arthritis
was so debilitating that he was again temporarily confined to bed.
However, the therapy was highly successful in that he was no
longer an invalid.
The first major point to recognize is that perfection is not an appropriate
therapeutic goal. Although he was often admired for his powers of
persuasion, Erickson was careful to avoid misplaced notions of
control. He did not try to make people conform to a standard of
perfection. In Erickson's words, "perfection is not a human attribute"
(1973/2001b, p. 14). Accordingly, he warned of the complications
of striving for a total cure. Instead, Erickson remained
focused on the task of promoting the patient's health, as imperfect
as it may be. He felt it important to search for some small good
that could be accomplished in relation to the patient's current situation.
Erickson approached therapy with the premise that all suffering
can be reduced. Although pain in life is unavoidable, it does not
have to be overwhelming. Painful events can instead be perceived
as an inconvenience, a problem, a challenge, something where
there can be some sort of improvement (Erickson-Klein, 1990,
p. 273).1
As will often occur, one small gain can lead to other unexpected
outcomes and even cascade into completely unanticipated benefits.
As with the case of the man with arthritis, Erickson admitted
that he initially had no idea the patient would make such remarkable
progress. The man had been putting most of his energy into
making the problem worse. Once that energy was shifted toward
identifying unrecognized possibilities, seemingly impossible circumstances
were transcended. If Erickson had attempted to cure
the man, he would most certainly have failed. Instead he hoped
that some amount of good could be accomplished.
1 Because somatic pain is a warning signal that something is wrong with the
body, the psychological treatment of pain is appropriate once the causal factors
are known and medical treatment is under way.
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