The Simple Hypnosis Trick Physicians Can Use with Patients

How can physicians help patients be more compliant with treatment? The answer is found in a hypnotic trick that allows a new idea to succeed.

Milton Hyland Erickson was an American psychiatrist and psychologist specializing in medical hypnosis and family therapy.

Erickson discovered cognitive processes to access a patient’s subconscious.

What he found was that by nesting a new idea inside other ones, he could bypass a patient’s natural defense mechanisms.

This simple technique is called “linguistic presupposition” and it demonstrates the power of this style of hypnosis.

Erickson was once asks to treat the most misbehaved delinquent at a boy’s school.

All he said to the boy was “Will you be surprised tomorrow afternoon when you are completely transformed into a well-behaved student?”

The boy answered, “Hell yes.”

Of course, he was surprised when he turned into a well-behaved student.

How did this magically happen?

By answering yes, the boy accepted the presupposition of this change.

This is how salespeople first approach customers by asking “HOW may I help you?” presupposing the customer’s need for assistance.

Contrast this with the statement “Do you need any help?” which automatically elicits “no” more often than “yes.”

By finding ways to get a patient to presuppose a situation, physicians can improve compliance merely by getting the person to imagine.

When the visual is created in one’s mind then the action needed to realize it becomes accessible and more likely to happen.

This is like hanging something next to an already existing idea.

If we think about Sprite, it’s the opposite of Coca Cola. It’s clear with lemon zest taste.

By thinking about it in contrast to Coke, it has a place in the mind to hang.

The words we use and how we have people visualize ideas is a key step to their acceptance.

Using linguistic presupposition can greatly improve a physician’s success with patient compliance.