Journal of Systemic Therapies, Vol. 13, No.

I, 1994

FREUD AND ERICKSON SAID IT ALL

It is good that the sun shine,

And, after it has sunk, the sane moon,
For out of a house of matchboard and stone
Where men would argue till the stars be green,
It is good to step onto the earth, alone,
And be struck dumb, if only for a time.
-Dylan Thomas,
Out of War or Wits

It's a good thing that I do not believe in understanding or, better, that I do not
believe that understanding is possible. Rather, experience has led me to believe
that only misunderstandings are possible and these misunderstandings fall along
a continuum from less useful to more useful. If I still had a belief in understanding
I would be very frustrated by the spate of recent professional articles that I would
have said have gotten it all wrong.
John H. Weakland tells me that Milton H. Erickson defined therapy this way:
: 'Two people sitting in a room talking together, trying to figure out what the hell
one of them wants." Interestingly, in 1915, Sigmund Freud said that "Nothing
takes place in a psychoanalytic treatment but an interchange of words" (Freud,
1966, p. 17).
Similarly, a professional pitcher once asked his manager's advice right before
going out to the mound and the manager said: "Throw strikes and keep them off
the bases." When an observer asked the pitcher about this conversation, the
pitcher said: •'What else could he say? Nothing else needed to be said."
Freud and Erickson said it all. Nothing else needs to be said. But not everybody
was listening, not everybody heard. (Remember: Messages are not sent, they are
only received.) All the papers, all the books (including mine) are in the last
analysis unnecessary. However, some of the papers, some of the books (perhaps
even some of mine) might prove useful for some people, at some time, in some
place. Perhaps these papers and books might be useful because somebody reads
them in such a way that they get it; they hear what Freud and Erickson have said.

Steve de Shazer
Brief Family Therapy Center
6815 West Capital Drive
Suite 300
Milwaukee, WI 53216

15