Erickson or Ecosystem? Toward Circumventing Traditional Limitations in Hypnosis

Abstract

Although Erickson did not postulate a theory of hypnosis or of human functioning, the work of Ericksonian hypnotherapists can be seen to embody a common epistemology or way of thinking about hypnosis and about treatment. It is shown in this paper that this epistemology adheres to the tenets of a traditional Newtonian conception of science and that it suffers from the limitations inherent in this scientific tradition. Attempts to extricate Ericksonian hypnosis from these limitations have been largely unsuccessful because they have been made from within the existing epistemology. This paper shows that the incorporation of Ericksonian ways of working into an encompassing ecosystemic (non-Newtonian) epistemology might be profitable in circumventing the limitations of Newtonian science in the field of hypnosis and hypnotherapy.