This article was downloaded by: [University of Connecticut]On: 04 October 2014, At: 03:46Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH,UK

American Journal of ClinicalHypnosisPublication details, including instructions forauthors and subscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ujhy20

The Legacy of Milton H.Erickson: Selected Papers ofStephen Gilligan. StephenGilligan. Phoenix, AZ: Zeig,Tucker, & Thiesen, Inc. (2002).346 pages. Reviewed by:Harriet E. Hollander, PhD,Princeton, NJAssociate Editor Maggie PhillipsPublished online: 21 Sep 2011.

To cite this article: Associate Editor Maggie Phillips (2004) The Legacy of MiltonH. Erickson: Selected Papers of Stephen Gilligan. Stephen Gilligan. Phoenix, AZ:Zeig, Tucker, & Thiesen, Inc. (2002). 346 pages. Reviewed by: Harriet E. Hollander,PhD, Princeton, NJ, American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 47:1, 55-56, DOI:10.1080/00029157.2004.10401475

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00029157.2004.10401475

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For this issue of the Journal, we have a small, yet powerful, collection ofbooks with one common thread: The legacy of Milton Erickson. Harriet Hollander leadswith a review of The Legacy of Milton H. Erickson: Selected Papers of Stephen Gilligan.As one of Erickson’s chosen students, Gilligan chronicles the influence of Erickon’sapproach on his own odyssey as a therapist, as well as positing his own unique neo-Ericksonian concept of the “relational self” and of self-relations therapy.

The first few chapters provide an excellent introduction and review of hypnoticskills such as induction, ways to form a secure hypnotherapeutic relationship, and theprinciple of utilization. Subsequent chapters reveal his own way of helping clients form“generative autonomy.” Dr.Hollander notes that there are several papers which havenot been published elsewhere, including one on Ericksonian therapy with incest survivorgroups and another on the use of therapeutic rituals to change relationships to memories.Our reviewer pronounces this a challenging and enjoyable selection, especially fortherapists who work with clients who are cut off from an authentic sense of self bytrauma and depression.

The second selection is a similar collection of papers by another renownedEricksonian practitioner, Stephen Lankton, who has presented frequenly at ASCH annualmeetings. Assembling Ericksonian Therapy: The Collected Papers of Stephen Lanktonis evaluated by Norma Barretta. She underlines Lankton’s emphasis on improving currentfunctioning, on the positive qualities the client seeks in a therapist, and his remindersof the importance of observation in order to create therapeutic experiences that canfoster change. Her one critique is the failure to credit John Grinder and Richard Bandlerfor their broadening of Erickson’s work in their creation of Neurolinguistic Programming.

Despite this minor flaw, our reviewer heartily recommends Lankton’s book as aworthy Ericksonian reference for the student’s or practitioner’s bookshelf.

The last book of this collection is written by a colleague in the ASCH communitywho participates actively in teaching as well as in the New York component society.Jane Parsons-Fine’s book Loving in the Here and Now is critiqued by Jordan Zarren,who finds the book hard to put down and highly recommends this work as a “musthave.”

The author teaches the reader how to apply the tool of hypnosis to a troubledrelationship. Topics of interest include how to deal with negative self-beliefs and anger,and how money and sexual issues can be resolved using communication that elicits amore positive trance for learning. Zarren praises the writing style and practical exercises,

American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis47:1, July 2004

Copyright 2004 by the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis

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Book Reviews

Associate Editor:Maggie Phillips

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while observing that some of these might not be appropriate for the helpless anddepressed client, because they require active initiation. These particular exercises canbe easily modified, however, and the reviewer gives the book his highest rating.

I hope you will enjoy browsing through the reviews and ultimately perhapsthrough the pages of the books themselves. This will be my last edition of the journalas Book Editor, though I will return with own reviews from time to time. I have enjoyedgreatly the opportunity to choose a variety of resources intended to widen the windowof consideration for you as readers. In the interim, please continue to send yourrecommendations for review to Dr. Thurman Mott, Editor of the AJCH :ajch@adelphia.net.

I want to thank all the reviewers who have given so generously of their timeand their opinions, and most of all, to you, the readers who inspire all of us to reachfurther and deeper for titles worthy of your attention.

The Legacy of Milton H. Erickson: Selected Papers of Stephen Gilligan. StephenGilligan. Phoenix, AZ: Zeig, Tucker, & Thiesen, Inc. (2002). 346 pages.Reviewed by: Harriet E. Hollander, PhD, Princeton, NJ.

Milton H. Erickson made a lifelong impression on the physicians, psychiatrists,dentists, psychologists, and social workers who attended his lectures and workshops.However, only a few of those who came to learn were granted entry to his clinicalpractice as observers and students. Stephen Gilligan was one of the chosen. In thisbook, he describes Erickson’s approach to patients, as seen through the lens of hispersonal experiences with him.

Each paper has been previously presented at a workshop, printed inproceedings, or in an edited volume and provides a brief exposition of Gilligan’s concepts.Collectively, they represent his personal odyssey as therapist. The book begins with“Ericksonian Approaches to Clinical Hypnosis,” an excellent introduction to hypnoticinduction and the principle of utilization. .

In this first chapter, Gilligan describes a mindset that helps the therapistapprehend the client’s reality as Erickson did, and respectful ways to pace and lead thatreality. The therapist develops what he designates as an externally oriented trance toestablish a deep, accepting rapport with the client. The therapist’s trance—focused onthe subject, but also incorporating internal prompts—creates a secure relationship thatallows the therapist to elicit unconscious responses and minimize resistance due to fearthat psychological safety will be compromised in hypnosis.

Subsequent chapters provide a window into the way Gilligan began to integratewhat he learned from Erickson with his own concepts of the role of hypnosis. Althoughmany clinicians will disagree with him, he dismisses the DSM as a compilation of self-devaluing terms; his point is that treatment consists of changing self-devaluing views,or what he calls self-devaluing trances into self-valuing solutions.

In “Symptom Phenomena as Trance Phenomena” he makes a powerful argumentfor helping the client to broaden negative views of self and life situation through theuse of trance. Trance permits multiple and opposite views to be held simultaneously,thereby facilitating mental shifts and transformation of rigid and stuck positions. Thetherapist particularly makes note of the client’s symptom trances involving “both/and”

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