Tag Archives: counselor idealist

Wizard

February 13, 2014 David Keirsey Leave a comment

“He was frail and drained of energy;
his eyes were dull, his face contorted with pain.

— and I was, frankly, worried about his health. Was this drawn and ailing man slumped in a wheelchair the legendary healer I had read about? Had I come west on a wild goose chase? ” [The Voice (Kindle Locations 70-71)]

Yes, he was the legendary psychotherapist. Wild goose chase? — maybe, actually in retrospect, no ambiguity here.

“Dr. Erickson asked to be excused, and then, about an hour later, I was astonished to see him wheel himself back into his study, fully alert and revitalized, cheerful, eyes twinkling, ready to get to work.” [The Voice (Kindle Locations 72-73)]

“Each person is a unique individual. Hence, psychotherapy should be formulated to meet the uniqueness of the individual’s needs, rather than tailoring the person to fit the Procrustean bed of a hypothetical theory of human behavior.” – Milton H. Erickson

Brian Alman was Milton Erickson’s last student. The last student to benefit from the personal experience of The Wizard of the Desert. Brian had terrible back problems, and Erickson invited him to come to Phoenix, and work with him. Also called “the Mozart of psychotherapy,” and grandfather of modern hypnosis, Milton Hyland Erickson, MD (1901-1980), pioneered hypnotherapy and brief strategic therapy. He never promoted himself, so not many individuals know about his life, but …

Now there is a full length documentary about Milton Erickson and his life: The Wizard of the Desert: An Alexander Vesely Film.

Noted for his positive approach to the unconscious mind. A humanitarian, teacher, physician, loving husband, and caring father (to eight children), Dr. Erickson was a colleague and friend to preeminent intellectuals including Gregory Bateson, Aldous Huxley, and Margaret Mead.

The film was long and tough in the making. This documentary explores the personal life and incredible career work of Milton H. Erickson, M.D., founder of Modern Hypnotherapy. This unsung American genius was a pioneer in psychiatry using radical and unconventional hypnotic techniques to cure not only patients, but to control his own debilitating pain and paralysis.

Milton Erickson is a Counselor Idealist.

Other examples of Counselor Idealists include: Ted Sorensen, Aung San Suu Kyi, Vaclav Havel, Carl Jung, Eleanor Roosevelt, Mohandas Gandhi

Idealist, Leadership, out of the box

Hold On..

June 19, 2013 David Keirsey 17 Comments

“It’s that mind-heart connection that I believe compels us to not just be attentive to all the bright and dazzling things but also the dark and difficult things.”

The US has the highest incarceration rate in the world. In 1972, the US prison population was 300,000 people. Today it’s 2.3 million.

This includes 3,000 kids serving life sentences.

“I started representing children on death row 20 years ago, and I was struck by how desperately they wanted and needed mentoring, parenting, guidance.

They were in every sense of the word “kids,” and that surprised me initially. . . . What I saw was that not only were they vulnerable and disabled and exposed in ways that adult clients weren’t, but they were also responsive in ways that adult clients weren’t. . . . The second thing was just seeing how exposed kids are in the adult system, how victimised, how brutalised. The biggest problem we have is the profound absence of hope” The opportunities that were given to me I want to give to other people who are disadvantaged and disfavored and marginalised. And in my generation, I think the place where those needs are most compelling and most dramatic is in the criminal justice system. One out of three young black men is in jail or in prison. I go into communities where half of the young men of color are under criminal justice control, where you see states like Alabama that have permanently disenfranchised over a third of the black male population. I see real threats to the kinds of freedom and opportunities that I experienced as a result of the work that was done before me, and I feel a need to respond to that.”

Continue reading Hold On.. →

Entertainment

Extraordinary Diplomacy

November 7, 2011 Derek Keirsey 1 Comment

X-men First Class 2 is now officially in development, with writer Simon Kinberg (Sherlock Holmes) brought aboard to pen the script. The plotline will reportedly continue telling the story of friends-turned-enemies Charles Xavier and Max Eisenhardt, who parted ways at the conclusion of the first film. First Class director Matthew Vaughn has said that the incorporation of real world events will continue into the second installment: hinting that Magneto’s magnetism might be responsible for the infamous “magic bullet” involved in JFK’s assassination. Given such thoroughly delightful movie-nerd news let’s take a look at the smartest motherf*cker in the room with 5 Ph.D’s: Professor X.

Charles Francis Xavier is a paraplegic telepath and the founder of the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters, a safe-haven for troubled and misunderstood young mutants. A man who has devoted his entire life to mediating a peaceful coexistence between humans and mutants: Charles Xavier puts all of his powerful intellectual efforts into protecting humanity from evil mutants and safeguarding innocent mutants from human oppression. Extraordinarily intuitive, highly diplomatic, exceptionally empathic, and an extremely powerful psychic Professor X is undoubtedly a Counselor Idealist. Indeed Xavier frequently uses his telepathic abilities to link into the minds of others, share their pains and attempt to alleviate them. Charles like many Counselors has spent most of his life empathizing the agonies of those closest to him, as his passion for nurturing the personal development of others is unmatched. Certainly, the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters is a place where troubled mutants can go to seek guidance and realize their full potential. Of course, Charles ultimately uses his powerful diplomatic talents to create the X-Men: an elite task force formed to keep the peace between humans and mutants. Xavier’s diplomatic powers however do have limits, as he failed to calm the mind of his profoundly troubled friend holocaust survivor Max Eisenhardt, who subsequently evolves into the powerful Supervillain Magneto.