...  ↑

E: No, he can't. (Laughter)
H: I just wondered how much of your work you see that
way? I'll tell you what I did. I got experimenting with
this once, and I took a guy who came to me for head-
aches. But it wasn't headaches; it was pressure in the
head and ringing of the ears. All I did was encourage
that man to get worse, as an experiment. I didn't do
anything else. I told him I wanted him to get control
of this and the way to do this is to be able to make
it more severe.
E: That's right.
H: I spent the whole time. I never once suggested it would
get better, and the man progressively got better and
better.
E: Well certainly. (Laughter)
H: Now, this is a point of view that is not common in psy-
chiatry.

(Conversations with Milton H. Erickson - Erickson, Haley)