Classical Hypnotic Phenomenon 2

This volume highlights some of the most significant transitions from Erickson’s classical papers about hypnotic phenomenon written during his early career when he was working in splendid isolation to his eventual co-authorship with a number of his colleagues and students over two generations.

The final section of this volume, “Explorations in Hypnosis Research and Practice,” presents an overview of some of these developments from Erickson’s founding of the American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis to the present period.

An interesting example of a practical, teachable, action model of Ericksonian approaches to therapeutic hypnosis and psychotherapy is offered, for example, by the current editor of the American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, Stephen Lankton, in his chapter: “A Basic Footprint of Erickson’s Process of Change.” Noteworthy in Lankton’s chapter is his integration of Erickson’s confusion approach in the induction of therapeutic hypnosis within a systematic 6 stage model of the creative process in psychotherapy that is consistent with much current neuroscience research on the role of activity and novelty in the continual reconstruction and transformations of consciousness and behavior in everyday life.