How to Coach Yourself and Others Beware of Manipulation | Page 255

"Now you need to know how to undress and go to bed in the presence of a man. So start undressing."
Slowly, in an almost automatic fashion, she undressed. I had her show me her right breast, her left
breast, her right nipple, her left nipple. Her belly button. Her genital area. Her knees. Her gluteal
[buttock] regions. I asked her to point where she would like to have her husband kiss her. I had her turn
around [naked]. I had her dress slowly. She dressed. I dismissed her.
Masson also notes that Erickson, as a psychiatrist in the Arizona State Hospital, was an enthusiastic
advocate of the use of restraints, a subject which he delivered a well-attended talk on, and frequently
had patients confined by straitjackets. Masson cites various instances of Erickson's behaviour toward
psychiatric patients which he considers "cruel, crude jokes". Referring to Erickson's authoritarian
approach as "prison-camp therapy" and "therapist-as-boss", Masson concludes, "It is not surprising that
Erickson succumbed to the opportunity to abuse his patients, as the examples quoted make clear."
Self-professed "sceptical hypnotist" Alex Tsander cited Massons concerns in his 2005 book "Beyond
Erickson: A Fresh Look at "The Emperor of Hypnosis"". The title of which alludes to Charcot's
characterisation in the previous century as "The Emperor of the Neuroses". Tsander re-evaluates a
swathe of Ericksons accounts of his therapeutic approaches and lecture demonstrations in the context
of scientific literature on hypnotism and his own experience in giving live demonstrations of hypnotic
technique. Emphasising social-psychological perspectives, Tsander introduces an "interpretive filter"
with which he re-evaluates Erickson's own accounts of his demonstrations and introduces prosaic
explanations for occurrences that both Erickson and other authors tend to portray as remarkable.
Influence on others
Erickson's friend, and sometime collaborator, Andre Weitzenhoffer, a well-known hypnosis researcher
himself, has repeatedly raised concerns over the nature of Erickson's legacy.
The majority of today's Ericksonians consist of individuals who have never known Erickson, even less
been directly trained by him. Today, and for some time now, much of the teaching of the Ericksonian
approach is and has been done by individuals who have acquired their knowledge second and third
hand. [...] Some of those who did spend time with Erickson, like Jeffrey Zeig, Ernest Rossi, and
William O'Hanlon have tried, I believe, to present and preserve as much as they could what they
believed and have understood Erickson's thought and methods to be. They have succeeded to do so to a
fair degree. Others, like Richard Bandler and John Grinder have on the other hand, offered a much
adulterated, and at times fanciful, version of what they perceived Erickson as saying and doing guided
by their persona