Until you are willing to be confused about what you already know, what you know will never grow bigger, better, or more useful.
Milton H. EricksonRead
The unconscious mind is decidedly simple, unaffected, straightforward and honest. It hasn't got all of this facade, this veneer of what we call adult culture. It's rather simple, rather childish It is direct and free.
Interpretation
The unconscious mind is pure and uncomplicated, free from societal constructs and complexities.
Milton H. Erickson highlights that the unconscious mind operates without the filters or pretensions of adult society. It embodies simplicity and honesty, presenting thoughts and feelings in a straightforward manner that can often reflect a child's perspective, free from the complications that adult life imposes.
In practice
In a psychology lecture discussing the nature of the unconscious mind.
Until you are willing to be confused about what you already know, what you know will never grow bigger, better, or more useful.
Each person is a unique individual. Hence, psychotherapy should be formulated to meet the uniqueness of the individual's needs, rather than tailoring the person to fit the Procrustean bed of a hypothetical theory of human behavior.
You use hypnosis not as a cure but as a means of establishing a favorable climate in which to learn.
Change will lead to insight far more often than insight will lead to change.
Delusional pain hurts just as much as pain from actual trauma. So what if it's all in your head?
Psychologists and economists love to talk about the notion of two selves: present self and future self. It's a nice way to explain the tendency to have one preference about the future, but a very different preference when the future becomes the present.
Fortunately I experienced Max Wertheimer's teaching in Berlin and collaborated for over a decade with Wolfgang Köhler. I need not emphasize my debts to these outstanding personalities. The fundamental ideas of Gestalt theory are the foundation of all our investigations in the field of the will, of affection, and of the personality.
Even when adults do feel their safety to be threatened, we may not be able to see this on the surface. Infants will react in a fashion as if they were endangered, if they are disturbed or dropped suddenly, startled by loud noises, flashing light
Traumatized people chronically feel unsafe inside their bodies: The past is alive in the form of gnawing interior discomfort. Their bodies are constantly bombarded by visceral warning signs, and, in an attempt to control these processes, they often become expert at ignoring their gut feelings and in numbing awareness of what is played out inside. They learn to hide from their selves.
A theory that denies that thoughts can regulate actions does not lend itself readily to the explanation of complex human behavior.
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