ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the multifaceted details, technical subtleties, and paradoxical “simplicity” of the miracle question in the contexts of the client-therapist relationship, problem disappearance, and solution development. The miracle question came into being by happenstance. Furthermore, the miracle question requires an alteration in both the therapist’s and the client’s everyday way of thinking. The construction is thus that a miracle happens, causing the problems that brought the client into therapy to disappear. Solution-focused brief therapy has its roots in the nonanalytic brief therapy tradition. Among the most useful exceptions and the ones least likely to be ignored are instances of the miracle already happening. Concrete and detailed behavioral descriptions nicely fulfill Wittgenstein’s requirement of an external referent for emotions. People are not isolated islands floating around in an ocean of solitude. There are advantages with many people in the room.
