Creative Choice in Hypnosis (The Seminars, Workshops, and Lectures of Milton H. Erickson, Vol 4) (v. 4)

From the front flap of this 274 page book: "'Creative Choice in Hypnosis' explores the following important questions through a presentation, never before published, of Erickson's own hypnotic workshops and demonstrations: Is hypnosis a process of manipulation or facilitation; Does the hypnotherapist control people; Or, does the hypnotherapist simply give people permission to heal themselves. This authoritarian-permissive paradox of hypnotherapy is most evident in Erickson's use of the double bind. This volume takes the reader on a journey that recaptures Erickson's evolution of the therapeutic double bind: from a technique based on an authoritarian concept of 'illusory choice', the book takes us to a modern vision of the double bind as a 'free choice among comparable alternatives'. This new vision represents a profound shift in attitude: creative choice, not control or manipulation, is now fostered as the inherent agent of healing in psychotherapy. [This book] also builds an important bridge between East and West by illustrating the common denominator of the naturalistic utilization approaches to hypnosis in the West and the traditional Zen methods for achieving satori, or enlightenment, in the East."