The February Man

the "February Man" transcends the typical case report one finds in the literature of psychotherapy. It goes beyond the usual forms of analysis and psychotherapy to focus on the possibility of facilitating the evolution of new developments in consciousness and identity. The late Milton H, Erickson, M. D., who is widely regarded as the most creative hypnotherapist of his generation, originated the unique approaches documented in this book. What is most noteworthy and valuable about this material is that it is the only complete, verbatim record of an entire hypnotherapeutic case dating from the middle of Erickson's career when his innovative genius was in full flower. In addition, we are fortunate in being able to add Erickson's own detailed commentaries on this case, recorded in 15 hours of discussion that provide an unparalleled understanding of his thinking and methods. The February Man is a fascinating case study illustrating the use of profound age regression in the treatment of a depressed young woman. In addition to chronic depression, the young woman had a severe and dysfunctional water phobia stemming from a deeply repressed and traumatic memory of being responsible for the near drowning of her infant sister. In treating her case, Erickson assumes the supportive role of the "February Man" who "visits" the woman many times during the course of four lengthy psychotherapeutic sessions. During these sessions, he utilizes classical hypnotic phenomena such as age regression, time distortion, automatic writing, amnesia and others, to explore the patient's entire childhood and youth. As the "February Man," he provides her with the seeds for new developments in her adult personality. It is unlikely that any more complete verbatim records of Erickson's work from this time period will ever surface. Even if such records were somehow found, still we would not have Erickson's own detailed commentaries on what he did—and without his commentaries