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thumb and that the thumb was connected to other bones in the
body, which were in turn connected to other bones, and so on. In
other words, as long as there is life and movement, some part of
the body can always be brought into play against the disability.
But this activation of internal resources will not occur as long as
the latent potential remains unrecognized.
Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for those in distress to isolate
their efforts to the activation of the part of the body formally
assigned a specific task. If that effort is not successful, then eventually
the person decides that the situation really is hopeless and
thus surrenders to disability. However, from his own experiences
with polio, Erickson recognized that other parts of the mind and
body can compensate for even a substantial loss of ability.
Before coming to therapy the man could not move his index finger
through a conscious activation of those muscles. However, while
wiggling his thumb he was able to produce movement in the finger
attached to it. This discovery highlighted, in microcosm, the
compensatory method of using muscles that had some strength to
produce movement in muscles that had atrophied. Under
Erickson's guidance, the man took all of the energy that had been
wasted on profanity and put it into exercising his thumb, fingers,
and arms, and then into full body movement. In this way, the
progress was cumulative. He discovered that his situation truly
was not as impossible as he had once believed. This case report
illustrates that there was no "magic" in Erickson's work. Instead,
it was the activation of hope and resiliency that resulted in a beneficial
clinical outcome.
©2007 Daniel Short PhD, Betty Alice Erickson MS LPC, and Roxanna Erickson Klein RN PhD
_____________________________________________________________
Extract from:
Hope & Resiliency: Understanding the Psychotherapeutic Strategies of
Milton H. Erickson by Daniel Short PhD, Betty Alice Erickson MS LPC, and Roxanna Erickson Klein RN PhD
ISBN 978-190442493-2 .
Published by Crown House Publishing Ltd
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