Milton Erickson - THE CONFUSION TECHNIQUE.pdf

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THE CONFUSION TECHNIQUE
Milton's Confusion Technique as printed in "The Collected Papers",
Volume I pgs. 258, 259
It is primarily a verbal technique, although pantomime can be used
for confusional purposes as well as for communication. As a verbal
technique, the Confusion Technique is based upon plays upon words, an
involved example of which can be readily understood by the reader but
not by the listener, such as "Write right right, not wright or
write." Spoken to attentive listeners with complete earnestness, a
burden of constructing a meaning is placed upon them, and before they
can reject it, another statement can be made to hold their attention.
This play on words can be illustrated in another fashion by the
statement that a man lost his left hand in an accident and thus his
right (hand) is his left. Thus two words with opposite meanings are
used correctly to describe a single object, in this instance the
remaining hand. Then, too. Use is made of tenses to keep the subject
in a state of constant endeavor to sort out the intended meaning. For
example one may declare so easily that the PRESENT and the PAST can
be so readily summarized by the simple statement, "That which now IS
WILL soon be WAS yesterday's FUTURE even as it WILL BE tomorrow's
WAS." Thus are the past, the present, and the future all used in
reference to the reality of "today".
The next item in the Confusion Technique is the employment of
irrelevancies and non sequiturs, EACH OF WHICH TAKEN OUT OF CONTEXT
appears to be a sound and sensible communication. Taken IN CONTEXT
they are confusing, distracting, and inhibiting and lead
progressively to the subjects' earnest desire for an actual need to
receive some communication which, in their increasing state of
frustration, they can readily comprehend and to which they can easily
make a response. It is in many ways an adaptation of common everyday
behavior, particularly seen in the field of humor, a form of humor
this author has employed since childhood.
A primary consideration in the use of a Confusion Technique is the
consistent maintenance of a general casual but definitely interested
attitude and speaking in a gravely earnest, intent manner expressive
of a certain, utterly complete expectation of their understanding of
what is being said or done together with an extremely careful
shifting of tenses employed. Also of great importance is a ready flow
of language, rapid for the fast thinker, slower for the slower
minded, but always being careful to give a little time for a response
but never quite sufficient. Thus the subjects are led almost to begin
a response, are frustrated in this by then being presented with the
next idea, and the whole process is repeated with a continued
development of a state of inhibition, leading to confusion and a
growing need to receive a clear-cut, comprehensible communication to
which they CAN MAKE a ready and full response.
VALUE OF CONFUSION TECHNIQUES
Amongst my learnings of hypnosis and NLP, two of the most powerful tools I have found
available would be "anchors, and the art of controlled confusion. Our membership seems
to be most interested in "Covert Methods" of hypnosis. To even begin hypnosis in a
covert manner both of these two skills MUST be mastered. What makes these two skills
so powerful is the fact they they drive a person "INSIDE" on a "transdiravational search".
Remember that term "Transdiravational Search". What is a transdiravational search, it is
a search for meaning, which can be interrupted by the operator (hypnotist) with whatever
you choose. Anchors are one of the most
useful and easiest tools for causing these searches, and the confusion technique is
another. This transdiravational search is an automatic trance, it is the basis of the famous
"Handshake Technique", and once understood, the hypnotist can learn how to utilize its
function. You cannot have Covert hypnosis without it, and with it your possibilities of
bringing on profound trances jumps trough the sky. I will be writing much about anchors
and the
confusion technique with its many varieties throughout the upcoming months. Feel free
to play with your friends, but be careful and don't get to carried away. The following is an
excerpt from Milton Erickson's "The Nature of Hypnosis" Volume One of the Collected
Papers.
The values of the confusion technique are twofold. In experimental work it serves
excellently to teach experimenter's a facility in the use of words, a mental agility in
shifting their habitual patterns of thought, and allows them to make adequate allowances
for the problems involved in keeping the subjects attentive and responsive. Also it allows
experimentors to learn to recognize and to understand the minimal cues of behavioral
changes within the subject. A final value is that long and frequent use of the confusion
technique has many times effected exceedinly rapid hypnotic inductions under
unfavourable conditions such as acute pain of terminal malignant
disease and in persons interested but hostile, aggresive, and resistant.
The following was used by Milton on two separate accounts with different patients.
Capitalized words were originally printed in italics indicating tonal markings.
The approach was:
"You KNOW AND I KNOW and the doctors you KNOW KNOW that there is ONE
ANSWER that you KNOW that you don't want to KNOW and that I KNOW but don't
want to KNOW, that your family KNOWS but doesn't want to KNOW, NO matter how
much you want to say NO, you KNOW that the NO is really a YES, and you wish it
could be a good YES and so do you KNOW that what you and your family KNOW is
YES, yet they still wish it were NO. And just as you wish there were NO PAIN, you
KNOW that there is BUT WHAT you DON'T KNOW is NO PAIN is something YOU
CAN KNOW. And no matter what you KNEW NO PAIN would be better than what you
KNOW and of course WHAT YOU WANT TO KNOW is NO PAIN and that is WHAT
you are GOING TO KNOW, NO PAIN. [All of this is said slowly but with utter intensity
and with seemingly total disregard of any interruption of cries of pain or admonitions of
"Shut up".] Esther [John, Dick, Harry, or Evangeline, some family member or friend]
KNOWS pain and KNOWS NO PAIN and so do you wish to KNOW NO PAIN but
COMFORT and you DO KNOW COMFORT and NO PAIN and as COMFORT
INCREASES you KNOW that YOU CANNOT say NO TO EASE AND COMFORT but
YOU CAN say NO PAIN and KNOW NO PAIN but YOU CAN say NO PAIN and
KNOW NO PAIN but KNOW COMFORT AND EASE and it is SO GOOD to KNOW
COMFORT AND EASE AND RELAXATION and to KNOW IT NOW AND LATER
and STILL LONGER AND LONGER AS MORE AND MORE RELAXATION occurs
and to KNOW IT NOW AND LATER and STILL LONGER AND LONGER AS MORE
AND MORE AND MORE RELAXATION AND
WONDERMENT AND SURPRISE COME TO YOUR MIND AS YOU BEGIN TO
KNOW A FREEDOM AND A COMFORT YOU HAVE SO GREATLY DESIRED
AND AS YOU FEEL IT GROW AND GROW YOU KNOW, REALLY KNOW, that
TODAY, TO-NIGHT, TOMORROW, ALL NEXT WEEK AND ALL NEXT MONTH,
and at Esther's [John's] 16th birthday, and what a time that was, and those
WONDERFUL FEELINGS that you had then seem almost as clear AS IF THEY WERE
TODAY and the MEMORY OF EVERY GOOD THING is a glorious thing "… (IF
YOU THINK THAT WAS TOUGH, YOU SHOULD TRY RE-TYPING IT WITH ONE
FINGER)
One can improvise indefinitely, but the slow, impressing, utterly intense, and quietly,
softly emphatic way in which these plays on words and the unobtrusive introduction of
new ideas, old happy memories, feelings of comfort, ease, and relaxation as presented
usually results in an arrest of patient's attention, rigid fixation of the eyes, the
development of physical immobility, even catalepsy and of an intense desire to
understand what the author so gravely and so earnestly is saying to them that their
attention is sooner or later captured completely. Then with equal care the operator
demonstrates a complete loss of fear, concern, of worry about
negative words by introducing them as if to explain but actually to make further helpful
suggestions.
Once the patients begin to develop a light trance, I speed the process more rapidly by
jumping steps, yet retaining my right to mention pain so that patients know that I do now
fear to name it and that I am utterly confident that they will lose it because of my ease
and freedom in naming it, usually in a context negating pain in favor of absence of
diminution or transformation of pain.
Then one should bear in mind that these patients are highly motivated, that their
disinterest, antagonism, belligerence, and disbelief are actually allies in bringing about
the eventful results, nor does this author ever hesitate to utilize what is offered. The
angry, belligerent man can strike a blow that hurts his head and not notice it, the
disbeliever closes his mind to exclude a boring dissertation, but that excludes the pain to,
and from this there develops unwittingly in the patients a different state of inner
orientation, highly conducive to hypnosis and receptive to any
suggestion that meets their needs; sensibly one always inserts the suggestion that if ever
the pain should come back enough to need medication, the relief from one or two tablets
of aspirin will be sufficient. "And if any real emergency ever develops, a hypo will work
far greater success than ever." Sometimes sterile water will suffice.
Unfortunately this most amazing series of books "The Collected Papers of", seem to no
longer be in print, but you might be able to order a used copy through the link below.
HYPERLINK
"http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0829005420/deeptrancenow-20/103-
1599977-3043061"
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0829005420/deeptrancenow-20/103-
1599977-3043061
I just checked amazon and presently they say that they Vol. 2, and Vol. 3. It is really sad
but other book dealers I checked with say that The collection Volumes 1, 2, 3 & 4, are all
out of print, so who knows how many of volumes 2,&3 amazon has left, but it doesn't
surprise me that Volumes 1, & 4 are out of stock because they are the best of the series. It
is a real shame that these books are off the market because they are the treasure of
treasures when it comes to hypnosis books. Almost everything we know today comes
from these four books, and if you can get yourself copies they are invaluable and worth
whatever it takes to get them. I'll provide the old links to the books below in cosecutive
order for anyone who wishes to check
about ordering. All the pages also have connections for ordering used
copies as they come up. Good luck.
Volume 1:
HYPERLINK
"http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0829005420/deeptrancenow-20/103-
1599977-3043061"
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0829005420/deeptrancenow-20/103-
1599977-3043061
Volume 2:
HYPERLINK
"http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0829005439/deeptrancenow-20/103-
1599977-3043061"
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0829005439/deeptrancenow-20/103-
1599977-3043061
Volume 3:
HYPERLINK
"http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0829005447/deeptrancenow-20/103-
1599977-3043061"
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0829005447/deeptrancenow-20/103-
1599977-3043061
Volume 4:
HYPERLINK
"http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0829005455/deeptrancenow-20/103-
1599977-3043061"
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0829005455/deeptrancenow-20/103-
1599977-3043061
THE BIRTH OF ERICKSON’S CONFUSION TECHNIQUE
One windy day as I was on my way to attend that first formal seminar on hypnosis
conducted by Clark Hull in 1923, a man came rushing around the corner of a building
and bumped hard against me as I stood bracing myself against the wind. Before he could
recover his poise to speak to me, I glanced elaborately at my watch and courteously, as if
he had inquired the time of day, I stated "It's exactly 10 minutes of two," although it was
actually closer to 4:00pm, and I walked on. About a half a block away I turned and saw
him still looking at me, undoubtedly still puzzled and bewildered by my remark. I
continued on my way to the laboratory and began to puzzle over the total situation and to
recall various times I had made similar remarks to my classmates, and acquaintances and
the resulting
confusion, bewilderment, and feeling of mental eagerness on their part for some
comprehensible understanding. Particularly did I recall the occasion on which my physics
laboratory mate had told his friends that he intended to do the second(and interesting)
part of a coming experiment. I learned of this, and when we collected our experimental
material and apparatus and were dividing it up into two separate piles, I told him at the
crucial moment quietly but with great intensity, "THAT SPARROW REALLY FLEW
TO THE RIGHT, THEN SUDDENLY FLEW LEFT, AND THEN UP, AND I JUST
DON'T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED AFTER THAT."
While he stared blankly at me, I took the equipment for the second part of the experiment
and set busily to work with the equipment for the first part of the experiment. Not until
the experiment was nearly completed did he break the customary silence that
characterized our working together. He asked, "How come I'm doing this part? I wanted
to do that part." To this I replied simply, "It just seemed to work out naturally this way."
"Don't you just love this man. MY HERO"
The above clip from history can be found in Milton Erickson's Collected Papers-Volume
I.
Thanks for the great explanation of the confusion technique. Just one little question, do
you have to wait for a critical moment to start confusing your subject or is it OK
ANYTIME to use the technique.
by critical moment, I mean is there a special combination of the enviroment, the subject's
own mentality and all the surround circustances that would make the confusion more
easily achieved?
I'm glad you are enjoying this. There is alot to the principles of the confusion technique,
and to simplify it to greatly would limit the possibilities. The critical moment you
question about, can be either created or you can wait for it.
I will be writing extensively on the principles of confusion, and what one should realize
is that it all ties into anchors. Everything in life is an anchor, or a relation to some
previous experience whether it be words or actual happenings, and even the happenings
become broken down. What happens in life all of your learnings build upon each other
creating to your understanding due to a previous experience.
In NLP, we say that your learnings take on what is termed a 4-tuple of meaning. That is
you have a verbal, kinesthetic, auditory, and a visual association to everything. By
noticing which of these is in the background, that is the subconscious part of your
subject, while they are paying attention to their conscious element of the information
presented, one can interrupt the pattern causing a need from the subject to continue with

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