DEFINICIÓNES CONCEPTUALES:

Every person believes certain things to be true (descriptive, charac- teristic, etc.) about him or herself and the world and will often state those beliefs to you directly. For example: "I'm the kind of person who likes meeting people," "Most people think I'm smart," "I'm too short," "I'm a smoker," "I'm Jesus Christ". However, personal beliefs about the world and oneself are not always so explicitly stated as in the above examples, but instead are implicit in the communication. For example, we can infer that a person who asks his spouse, "How late should I stay up tonight?", believes that it is important to consult her, believes that she has useful information about him, and believes that there exists for him optimum times to remain awake or asleep. The point is that whenever an individual communicates with you, the content of that communication will be based on, and indicative of, certain beliefs within that person's model of the world.

Often what a person believes to be true about himself does not match what others see in him. The mother-in-law who makes daily visits to her children's home may think that her attentions character- ize her as a "caring person", while in fact her children consider her a "meddler". Of course, from mom's perspective she is right, and from the kid's perspective THEY are right. Many therapists either know- ingly or unknowingly take sides when faced with such experiential discrepencies and then attempt to persuade the person whose percep- tions have strayed from "reality" to match those selected by the therapist.

If (using our example from above) you tell the mother-in-law that she is not being "caring" but is actually "meddling" she is faced with two alternatives for making sense out of your communication, one of which is destructive of rapport, the other destructive of the therapeu- tic relationship: (1) If she denies your perception of the situation and holds to her belief that she is "caring" then she may mistrust you as someone whose perceptions are faulty and perhaps insulting. Why seek help from someone who does not understand you? (2) If she denies her own perceptions, accepting yours that she is a busybody, then she may mistrust her own ability to have accurate perceptions about herself and, so, become either wary of opening any further the lid to a possible Pandora's box and/or dependent upon others for tests of her own reality. As individuals dedicated to the nurturance of strong, self-reliant and growing human beings we can't imagine any

therapist finding either of these consequences therapeutically attrac- tive. Confronting someone with how their model of the world is "not so" or "bad" is destructive of client-therapist trust and/or destructive of the client's trust of himself.

There was one patient who said he was Jesus Christ. He was very paranoid and yet he was harmless and had ground privileges. And Worcester tried to use patients with ground privileges at useful tasks. And the Psychol- ogy Laboratory wanted a handyman. And here was this patient, wrapped up in a sheet, walking around commun- ing with God . . . very polite and courteous. And so I was told to do something with him. I told him how desirable it was for the doctors to play tennis in the recreation hour. They were using muscles and skills and abilities that God had endowed them with. And it was very imperative that the tennis grounds be kept in good shape . . . dirt court. And we wandered down to the tennis court. We made a lot of comments about the trees that God had made, the beautiful grass, the creations of the earth itself, and then I noticed that there were some rough spots on that dirt court and I told him I was sure that God didn't want those rough spots there and could he in some way succeed in having the tennis ground leveled carefully and smoothed out? He said he certainly would TRY, he was there to serve Mankind. So I left him. He was an excellent tennis court grounds keeper. As for the Psychology Laboratory, they wanted some bookcases built. I happened to men- tion Jesus was a carpenter. So he built the book cases. He became a handyman around the Psychology Laboratory.

Instead of attempting to directly alter his clients' beliefs, Erickson demonstrates through the content of his own communications to them that he understands and accepts their model of the world as being valid. In this way Erickson nurtures in his clients the confidence that he is a person who understands and can therefore be trusted. In

the above transcript, for instance, Erickson demonstrated to his pa- tient that he accepted and understood the man's model of the world (that is, that he is Jesus) by talking about God and His handiwork, the patient's role as the Son of God, and the patient's well-known vocation as a carpenter. THEN Erickson goes on to utilize the implications of that world model (that is, that the man is the servant of Mankind and a carpenter) as the basis of altering his behavior. Similarly, rather than telling the mother-in-law of our other example that she is being a busybody, thereby jeopardizing rapport, you could praise her sincere concern and then go on to consider all of the ways there are to be attentive and concerned (such as giving people the chance to make mistakes so that you can REALLY help them). People seem to cling much more tenaciously to their beliefs than to the behaviors con- nected with those beliefs. Certainly as many people have been killed in the name of "peace" as in the name of "hate", for example. It seems, then, that your clients will be much more amenable to engag- ing in new behaviors when your mirroring of the content of their model of the world reassures them that you share it, and are preserving that model through your interventions. In this next case Erickson again simply accepts the content of the client's beliefs regarding his situation and then demonstrates that acceptance in the content of his own communications.

Quite a number of years ago I received a telephone call from L.A. A young man who told me, "I'm working on a ship as a seaman and I'm awfully afraid I'm going to go into orbit." I told him I thought it would be inadvisable to continue working on board that ship. So he got a job working in a mine. And he found that even if he were a mile deep into the earth he was still obsessed with the

fear of going into orbit. And he came to Phoenix to see

me. I don't know how he got my name or why he chose me, but I do know he saw a NUMBER of psychiatrists and they all wanted to give him shock therapy—electro- shock therapy—because of his delusion that he was going to go into orbit. Now I didn't think he should get shock therapy. I had him get a job in a warehouse. And he was afraid he was going into orbit. And that delusion was so

persistent that he couldn't count as far as ten without having to stop and reassure himself that he was not YET in orbit. He was entitled to perspire because of the heat but not perspire THAT much! But he was dreading so much going into orbit. I tried to distract his mind by asking him to count his steps as he walked along the street and to memorize the street names. But that, "I'm going to go into orbit, I'm going to go into orbit", obsessed him . . . interfered with him. He couldn't get very much sleep because he was afraid he was going to go into orbit. And fjnally I realized I couldn't do anything for him except settle down with him and EXPLAIN to him, " N o w appar- ently it is your destiny to go into orbit. Now the as- tronauts go into orbit, and there is always an end to the orbit . . . they come back to earth again. And as long as you are going to go into orbit why not get it OVER with?" So I had him take salt pills and a canteen of water and I had him walk about fourteen hours a day along the tops of MOUNTAINS around here, and he had to come in at 10:30 at night to report that he had not yet gone into orbit. But he slept well, as you would walking around on mountain tops with a canteen of water and walking for about fourteen hours a day. And finally he began to get just a little bit dubious about going into orbit. Then his sister came to me asking if he could go to California where she lived. She said her husband had a job but that he would not or could not fix up things around the house. And she had a picket fence that needed some painting, a gate that needed to be repaired, some shelves to be built, and so I told the young man he could go to Califor- nia because he would be in sight of mountains and he could take his canteen with him and his salt pills, and if he got a sudden feeling that he was destined to go into orbit he could get up on top of a mountain so he could go easily into orbit. Now a few months later he came

back and said, "That was a delusional psychotic idea" and he didn't know what had made him so crazy and he felt that I had saved him from hospitalization at the State hospital. And he decided that since I hadn't charged him for my services, he would give me a portable water bed. And gave us the name of the place where he got it. The man went out of business after being robbed five times.. And the water bed was not well made . . . it sprang a leak so we salvaged the foam rubber and put it on my bed. And he got a job in Phoenix, and when winter came he comes over to me about going to Wisconsin and working as a lumber jack. I approved of it. For a couple of years he's been working very well, he came to see me recently and said, "I've realized how much you have done, I know you didn't charge me anything. That first water bed wasn't much good, so I've brought you these two cush- ions, this one and the one you enjoyed so much yester- day." He is married, his wife is a divorcee with one child, and he is certainly delighted in being a husband and a father. And you can't imagine the change in him from a hopelessly desperate, fearful young man to a confident, handsome young man who looks alert, IS alert and is enjoying life. So hope some young man who plans to go into orbit comes YOUR way.

This client's previous experiences with doctors, therapists, and ac- quaintances probably culminated in their either explicitly or implicitly discounting his belief that he might go into orbit. Of course, they reason, if you can convince him that his idea about being space-bound is erroneous then you will have solved the problem. In our experience, however, convincing someone by logic or exhortation that a long-held belief is mistaken is at least arduous, and often impossible. This is especially true when the belief being challenged is one which occupies a central role in the daily thoughts and actions of the individual. Regardless of the reality of the situation, the man in the above case believed he really was in danger of going into orbit. It was real for him

and so, understandably, he would assume that any communication coming from those who tried to help him by discounting his belief came from individuals who did not trust his experiences to be valid. Our pre-orbiter then finds himself in the unfortunate bind of either distrusting his own senses or of distrusting theirs. Erickson was proba- bly the first person that man confided in who responded as though the fear of going into orbit was to be taken seriously. Once established as an understanding and trustworthy person, Erickson could then move on to the question of what they were going to do about this dangerous situation, rather than get bogged down in arguing about whether or not the situation existed.