Plight of the Editor and Roasted/Baked Camel Stew
Erickson Shares Challenges of Being President of the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis
by Joyce Bavlinka, M. Ed., LISAC
Warning: YOU MAY FIND THIS A BIT CONFUSING, but this is classic Erickson. And this is the first time this correspondence is being made available.
Several weeks ago, while researching an article on T.E.A. von Dedenroth, I came across a folder containing about 80+ pieces of correspondence between Erickson and M. Eric Wright, Ph.D., M.D. of the University of Kansas covering the period from 1964 to 1966. In 1965, Wright was the President of the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis and Erickson was editor of the American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis.
The file correspondence covers the Society’s activities, Erickson’s trials as editor of the Journal and Erickson’s initiative to get Wright to complete a review of the second edition of Lewis Wolberg’s “Hypnoanalysis.” The file was donated to the Foundation by David Wark, Ph. D. of Minneapolis in 2015. Erickson served as the president of the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis and Wright was the in-coming president.
Please Note:
Quotes from the letters between Erickson and Wright are as they were written, using the punctuation, tense and spelling that was used in the letters and following the original format of the letters.
On June 10, 1965, Erickson writes to Wright
Erickson begins this series with a tale of his imaginarydog, Butorides Virescens Virescens.:
“We used him in hunting of mooses, elk, inhabitants of the great norther forest; I even used him of grizzly bear. He was magnificent.
But something happened to this canine marvel. He became dedicated to this task. He would set out on the track of the desired game, and we would finally find him in the middle of the field pointing, baying, setting snarling, leaping, at some mare’s nest which he seemed to imagine was there. And day after day week after week he would patter around the barren ground that not a suspicion of a suspicion of a suspicion of a suspicion of a hint that there was even a remote possibility that once there had been a mare’s nest there.”
Erickson then references Shelley’s 1817 poem, Oyzmanics, that contrasts his great works with the large wrecked statue that sits in the desert.
“I am reminded of Oyzmanics calling forth wildly into the emptiness of surrounding space.”
A portion of the poem reads:
‘My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look upon my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!’
Nothing but remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands far away.
Erickson continues:
“In the enclosed envelope I am sending you something very special, intended to serve and the bulwark of strength to enable you to execute your duties.”
In the enclosed envelope was the following message/recipe.
Author Comment: Erickson creates a one-page document and I have re-created that format…..
Unusual? Definitely! Why the strange format?
The best Thanksgiving ever.
Enclosed are two, left-over humps
and his tail.
The Recipe:
Forty hardboiled eggs into
Ten smoked shad into
Five dressed chickens into
One well-seasoned sheep into
THE CAMEL
then tiptoe out
in dark dark dark;
and dig a hole
in your backyard
and hide the sod
behind your . . . .
a n d l u g t h e (U g h ) l u m m o x
intothehole.
Toast over coals for three days and nights and invite all the neighbors and bakers
and the shoeshine boys and candlestick maker and all the uncles and the
watchamacillts and the geese too and please no relatives
or tabasco sauce.
enjoy everyone enjoy
enjoy except for the humps enjoy
enjoy & the tail enjoy
(and the hooves which don’t go first class)
E*N*J*O*Y”
Author Comment: What was Erickson trying to get across to Wright????
On July 1, 1965, Wright writes to Erickson:
“After the tenth re-reading of your remarkable letter of June 10 with the specialty enclosed recipe, there seem to pressure itself into my mind that wonderful tale of the South Pacific which Janes Michener wove in his saga called “Hawaii.”
Wright then goes on for one and a half pages recounting his re-telling of the early days in Hawaii when the men of Bora Bora sailed north to escape the ruthless priest and gods who demanded increased human sacrifice. Wright mentions that they
“…set forth into an unknown, uncharted territory and a sea whose end they did not know without written tradition to guide them but only a long tradition of myths and tales and memories which certain members of the society were designed to have committed to mind and to train others to sustain them.
Michener describes, on the basis of the legends and mythology and also the fact that this journey was accomplished of over three thousand miles, the tremendous intuitive responsiveness of these people and their capacity of reading in the signs of the waves and the heavens a knowledge of the work which challenged that which later navigational instruments were intended to equal. “
Wright then tells the story of a member of the Tiwi tribe whose job it was to
“…read the signs before the hunt to distinguish between those trails which led to the faults and the futile, and those trails which would lead to food and survival. When the dancing had reached its peak and all eyes would suddenly turn to him, he would leap into the air and rush to the center of the sacred ground and pointing his finger would say, ‘Orarabu Goroka wollongong pidgijinarra illaawarra.”
On July 13, 1965, Erickson pens a handwritten for to Wright:
“On reading your letter of July 1 and a noting that was not signed and a brief look at the carbon copy of the letter disclosing that I too, was unsigned, led me to the unhappy conclusion that you ate too much of the gourmet delight of which I sent the recipe.
As for Marcus Aurelius so wisely said, “in all things let there be moderation.
Well, anyway it was delicious.”
So, Wright was headed into uncharted waters, hoping to discover the path that would grow the Society. Erickson seems to acknowledge the end of his time leading the Society. Again, what was Erickson actually thinking? And why all these tales and a recipe for Camel Stew?
On July 23, 1965, Erickson writes to Wright
“I promised you a recipe for your Hawaiian vacation. This letter contains the first part and gives you full realization of the simplicity yet esoteric delights to be enjoyed. You are, of course, at liberty to pass this on to treasured friends. May the happiness of your vacation be immeasurably increased by this small contribution.
Erickson proceeds to give Wright instructions to cut branches from hau trees and place them in a conflicting/elaborate pattern so Wright will
“… get into a proper mood for the incredibly delightful Hawaiian delicacy for which I will shortly provide the recipe.
Now if the 12 branches remaining you have secured, select any 2 23/43 of them to discard, build with the remainder the structure depicted in this illustration I have carefully placed in juxtaposition to this explanation.
Then secure the bowl of cherries so beautifully immortalized in song but before placing it upon the structure built from hau tree branches, discard the cherries and eliminate the bowl.
You are ready to begin. Cable me when you have completed these minor preliminaries and I will send you a simple recipe of the memorably Hawaiian gourmet dish you could ever hope to enjoy. Just to give you a hint, the first seasoning is the afterthought of a satisfied gourmet octopus.
(Awaiting your telegram, Milton)”
The ruler that Erickson encloses appears to be marked in inches but the distance between marks is more than one inch …. A bit more confusing, as is the drawing, an optical illusion. And a pencil with one point or two erasers.
On August 1, 1965, Erickson sends a handwritten note to Wright
“Please send the cable for that recipe in a hurry. The recipe is getting a little past the rancid stage and I want you to have some of it when it is really ripe.
With gourmet’s anguish,”
So what were all these letters about??????? What was Erickson doing? Why? Does any of it make sense?? Well, we do get to find out.
On September 14, 1965, Erickson writes to Wright
“I do not know if you enjoyed this long laborious letter I wrote you about the hau tree. You are merely a victim of my need to practice – a need which I take out on various of my friends---my methodology of thinking in working out a complex technique of hypnotic suggestion. I usually take some innocuous subject and organize it into a certain pattern. Having done so i take that non-sensical pattern and use it for the formulation of interrelated incomprehensive hypnotic suggestions. This seems to be a most excellent way of working out a technique without immediately involved with therapeutic purposes. It gives me an opportunity to inter-relate nonsensical ideas into the seemingly meaningful pattern and when paraphrased for legitimate purposes there usually results in an orderly meaningful technique.
In working out the Confusion Technique, I have applied this nonsense pattern in my letters before I adapted it into the Confusion Technique. I hope this will give you a much better understanding of my purpose in sending you that nonsense. I have already made some therapeutic use in a rather difficult problem case.”
Please send your questions and comments on this article to joyce@erickson-foundation.org
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