Experimental Therapy in the State of Sleep: The
Use of Elements of Secondary Languages and
Classic Poetry as a Source of Positive
Presuppositions
Anatoly Tkachev and Inga Topeshko
For many years we have been studying Dr. Milton H. Erickson’s communication as a
system trying to find out why it is so powerful and why its influence is so precise. In re-sult
we have found some regularities that we call secondary languages. The way of how
Dr. Erickson used non-verbal patterns is very similar to the way of how natural languages
work: each of the non-verbal signals in Dr. Erickson’s communication is used with some
specific meaning which is understood by unconscious mind of patients in therapy or stu-dents
in teaching. Using the methods of structuralizm we have analysed the meanings of
some signals and the way of how Dr. Erickson associated those signals and the me-anings.
In order to test the results A. Tkachev used the model of secondary language in
therapy. Working with patients he associated two of non-verbal signals with different me-anings
and used those signals to build therapeutic process. The experiment has shown
that even the system of two signals being arranged as secondary language allowed to
get stable positive shifts in the patients’ behaviour. And also the experiment has shown
that the secondary languages can be used in therapeutic communication. The system of
more than 3 signals as a secondary language is a powerful tool for therapeutic influen-ce.
Dr. Erickson used several secondary languages that contains several dozens of sig-nals
with different meanings. The structure of secondary languages is the structure of in-direct
suggestions. (Sleep and Hypnosis 2000;2:90-94)
Keywords: hypnosis in the state of sleep, positive presuppositions, extralinguistic
elements of therapeutic communication, behaviour ploblems
Volume 2, Number 2, Year 2000
