Chapters 5-6 Summary and Analysis

Overcoming habitual limitations requires shifting the patient's focus from the skill involved to the task at hand. For example, one of Erickson's patients was an athlete whose sport was the shot put. Through treatment, Erickson was able to convince the patient that there were only self imposed limits as to how far the shot put could be thrown. The school record for the shot put was fifty-eight feet, a record that the patient fell short of with each attempt. Each time Erickson talked to the patient about this record, he encouraged the young man to believe that if a person could throw a shot put fifty-eight feet, one could also throw it fifty-eight feet and one sixteenth of an inch. Every time the doctor discussed the record, the potential for distance would increase. Eventually, the patient broke the record...