Milton Hyland Erickson (5 December 1901 – 25 March 1980) was an American psychiatrist and psychologist specializing in medical hypnosis and family therapy. He was founding president of the American Society for Clinical Hypnosis and a fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, and the American Psychopathological Association. He is noted for his approach to the unconscious mind as creative and solution-generating. He is also noted for influencing brief therapy, strategic family therapy, family systems therapy, solution focused brief therapy, and neuro-linguistic programming.
He dedicated his professional career to the advancement of the use of hypnosis in the context of medicine. He was committed to scientific methodology and a staunch advocate of the regulated professional training for practitioners. The investigations of Erickson in the first half of the 20th century were particularly influential on the second half. Erickson's clinical innovations on the practice of hypnosis are credited with inspiring its renaissance and arousing a new generation of practitioners.
Biographical sketches have been presented in a number of resources, the earliest being by Jay Haley in Advanced Techniques of Hypnosis and Therapy which was written in 1968 collaboration with Erickson himself. Though they never met Erickson, the authors of The Worlds Greatest Hypnotists did a thorough job of researching the details of his biography. The following information about his life is documented in that source. Currently the most comprehensive information is available through The Milton H. Erickson Foundation in Phoenix, Arizona, a non-profit founded the year prior of his death.
A number of authors have made his ideas and techniques available to modern readers. The most complete collection of primary works is The Collected Works of Milton H. Erickson, MD by Rossi, Erickson-Klein and Rossi (Eds.).
