Ericksonian hypnosis as a resource for teaching artistic drawing.

Abstract

Author's goal in this work is to apply Ericksonian Hypnosis (EH) to teaching artistic drawing. EH uses a special type of communication called hypnotic language, in this technique, along with verbal, images and metaphors, body language is used too. The advantage of this technique is that the subconscious is directly accessed, achieving effective communication, so the student experiments a natural and spontaneous connection. We have taken this concept of hypnosis created by Milton Erickson (1901-1980) and merged it with a method of teaching drawing: "The natural way of draw" by Kimon Nicolaides (1891-1938). We believe that these two blended conceptions might improve the teaching of artistic drawing, since both use expanded states of consciousness, involuntary movements of the body, dissociation of symbolic perception and also, because both are considered natural processes seeking to activate our internal resources or laws of nature. Some important founds of this research are: that, although the artist intuits the whole of the experience when drawing, he enters the same a certain hypnotic trance. However, he is unaware (in general) of the characteristics of those states, hence, that does not allow him to handle them, as he is lacking a referential structure. Thenceforth it can be concluded that the implementation of Ericksonian hypnosis in the teaching of artistic drawing, can help the artist to gain clarity of these states, enhancing the type of knowledge and access to perceptual "reality" whether external or internal.