What Do You See

Written by Eugene Morgan

When we look at ourselves in the mirror, most of us will find something we dislike about ourselves.  We have a certain image in our minds of how we should look.

Body image was one of the major themes in Milton Erickson’s work. He wanted to know just how his subjects think about their body image. He believed that how one feels about one’s body image depends on how one feels about the world. We wanted his subjects to understand that it’s all right to have small ears with a wide nose. Or it’s all right to have curly hair with a heavy chin.  Or it’s all right to have thin lips with very high cheekbones and one eyebrow lowered than the other.

If we were to see from the neck down, would we recognize our bodies? In looking at our body image what would we think would be our best features? Again, Erickson is asking us to accept ourselves.