How to Coach Yourself and Others Beware of Manipulation | Page 254

INTERVIEWER: Why did you ask that?
ERICKSON: So that she knew I was really interested.
INTERVIEWER: So that you could join her in this?
ERICKSON: No, so that she knew I was really interested.
Shocks and ordeals
Erickson is famous for pioneering indirect techniques, but his shock therapy tends to get less attention.
Erickson was prepared to use psychological shocks and ordeals in order to achieve given results:
When the old gentleman asked if he could be helped for his fear of riding in an elevator, I told him I
could probably scare the pants off him in another direction. He told me that nothing could be worse
than his fear of an elevator.
The elevators in F