At a conference back in the 1960’s someone asked Paul Watzlawick, “When can couple therapy be terminated?” Wazlawick replied, “When the husband says to the wife, ‘This coffee is terrible,’ and they both know that he is talking about the coffee.” The implication is that they are not talking about their relationship, the wife’s inability or unwillingness to make good coffee, the husband’s blaming or impossible standards, or anything else — just that the coffee is terrible, so they can focus on practical problem-solving to improve the coffee.

At another conference, Watzlawick was asked to define maturity. He replied, “Maturity is doing what you think is best, even when your mother thinks it’s a good idea,” implying that the son isn’t burdened by having to rebel reflexively against the mother.

Richard Bandler used to joke, “I’m only a hypnotist, so this is only a suggestion,” followed by an embedded command. Since the word “only” means “nothing but” or “nothing else but,” “I’m only a hypnotist” (which would ordinarily indicate a statement that is self-deprecating or minimizing) literally becomes, “I am a hypnotist and nothing else.” This creates a context in which the listener becomes a hypnotic subject who responds to the hypnotist’s suggestions. The usual meaning of “This is only a suggestion,” in which the word “only” would ordinarily minimize the impact of what is said next, reverses to become a command to be followed hypnotically. Recognition of the reversal of the usual meanings of these phrases creates an enjoyable joke to further distract the listener’s conscious mind. All this occurs through implication.

Implication is far subtler than presupposition, much less likely to be noticed or challenged, and much more likely to elicit an appropriate response without interference by someone’s conscious beliefs or understandings.

Milton Erickson’s use of implication was both fundamental and pervasive in almost all his work, yet trainings in Ericksonian hypnosis rarely even mention it, much less thoroughly train participants in how to use it for gathering information and therapeutic change. Understanding implication is like opening a new set of eyes and ears, and it makes sense out of many of Erickson’s interventions that otherwise only appear to be bizarre and mysterious. I have recently written an article giving many examples of Erickson’s Use of Implication in the Milton H. Erickson Foundation Newsletter. You can read the article here — scroll down to p.8.

I have also written three detailed “how to” articles on implication in previous editions of the Erickson newsletter; for your convenience here are links to those: