Re:Tone Deaf and Color Blind

Your question reminds me of the Freudian joke ending in the punch line, "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar."

However, Dr. Erickson, as a student saw a play in which an actor says "No" throughout the play about 20 different times with 20 different shades of meaning. (ie no to mean yes, no to mean maybe, etc.)

So I would be suspicious if there was only one embedded command in the quote mentioned in your question. Possibly closer to Dr. Erickson's orientation, the statement would be used indirectly and differently for each individual.

First, the quote in your question seems to be taken from a case cited in "Hypnotherapy, An Exploratory Casebook" by Milton Erickson and Ernest Rossi (p149). In this instance, Erickson was using this multi-level communication ("I am tone deaf....I am also partly color blind. I can enjoy purple....") for the indirect sexual associations as they related to the client's needs with whom Erickson was working. You can read that book for a complete discussion of the case. (Irvington Publishers 1979)

You may find useful reading Vol II of The Collected Papers of Milton H. Erickson, Hypnotic Alteration of Sensory, Perceptual and Psychophysiological Processes. My understanding of Erickson's work is this: Hypnotic responses to indirect statements may be considered more reliable than responses to direct commands because they lessen the chance of a client's conscious cooperation. If Dr. Erickson were doing field research re: hypnotically induced blindness or deafness, he may have used that quote "I am color blind and tone deaf...etc." as a way to seed the idea of a similar response in a subject indirectly.

A third way I could imagine Erickson using that quote, is simply as a way of inducing trance. That is, suggesting not seeing, not hearing and enjoying the process.

With another client, he may have used the statement as a way of demonstrating enjoying one's limitations to the fullest without hitting them over the head with the information.

Or, to gain rapport with an injured client, he may have wanted to communicated indirectly that Erickson too was injured but one can overcome life's struggles and be productive.

Or with a domineering client, he may have wanted to demonstrate that Dr. Erickson posed no threat in order to displace the contest so that therapy could continue. (ex. A Teaching Seminar with Milton Erickson by Jeffrey Zeig, p 159)

And so on, and so on. Or as Dr. Erickson may have replied, "Yes, but is that ALL?"

I hope this answers your question, to which there seems to not be one definite answer, except that Erickson believed each person was unique, and tailored his therapeutic, multi-leveled communication accordingly to needs of the patient.

Replies:

Great Response, by Steve Lankton, 09/21/01

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