Betty Alice Erickson sought consultation so she could better understand the essential dynamics. Erickson told her that the little boy was faced with the possibility of his own parents suffering this catastrophe and, as little children do, was worried about his own future. These were feelings he would not be able to understand. Erickson indicated that dealing with these types of worries on a logical basis never works. He advised that the parents should take one of the pictures of the man with the severed leg, and admire it. They should let the boy know how well he had captured the sight of the blood. They should ask about details in the picture, such as, "Was that the right distance to have between the man and his severed leg?" The expression on the man's face should be examined with the child‹and the boy praised for his accuracy in that as well. Then the child should be asked very seriously to draw a picture of the man after the doctors had helped him.

"That little boy," Erickson explained, "is looking for a way out of his impossible dilemma." Doctors, at his age, were still categorized as supreme authorities who could do wonderful and amazing things. As Erickson predicted, drawing a picture of the man, after the doctors had helped, gave the child a sense of closure and the type of hope needed to live happily.

If human thought is closely linked to emerging realities, then it is only logical that the most important point to communicate in therapy is the idea that change is possible. That is why Erickson avoided promising cures that seemed impossible and sometimes paradoxically asserted the inevitability of failure. As he explains,

You start building up in the patient a philosophy that allows him to accept some degree of failure. You suggest to your impotent patient that you regret exceedingly that no matter how well you succeed with him, you're going to fail ten percent of the time. And