ABSTRACT
The chapter emphasizes how confusion principles and techniques are an important part of Ericksonian communications, especially during the induction phase. It generally discusses the intent and structure of confusion techniques. The chapter also discusses specific confusion techniques involving interruption and overload, and clinical issues involved in applying confusion techniques. It illustrates a variety of interruption techniques effective in disrupting the different cognitive modalities. These are meaningful nonsequiturs; syntactical violations; inhibition of motoric expression; interrupting accessing cues; the handshake induction; and polarity plays. The chapter outlines six representative techniques: temporal disorientation: the Erickson Confusion Technique; spatial disorientation: internal referent shifts; spatial disorientation: the Mobius House; spatial disorientation: external referent shifts; conceptual disorientation; and double inductions. It focuses on interruption techniques, which are generally short, and usually surprising communications designed to disrupt trance-inhibiting psychological or behavioral patterns. The chapter examines how confusion should usually be introduced gradually, and how it should be based on the client's idiosyncratic patterns.
