I couldn’t help but think about Bill O’Hanlon (the founder of Solution Orientated thinking) when I read about the writer and director, Terry Pratchett’s plan to sign up for Dignitas, the euthanasia clinic. Terry was diagnosed with Alzheimers in 2008.
The story Bill O’Hanlon tells about himself is that as a student he was very depressed and considered suicide until a friend suggested to him that she would be happy for him to take over a ranch that her aged aunts currently owned and which she expected to be left to her in their will and suggested he “just hold tight as they were very old”.
Bill did hold tight and decided to “park” his suicide until he got to the ranch. Well the Aunts were indeed very old but lived to be even older and by the time they did pass on, Bill got distracted from his suicide and had found a life for himself and was no longer depressed.
What reminded me of Bill’s story was reading what Terry Pratchett said about his own euthansia plans – “I keep changing my mind every two minutes – the only thing stopping me is that I have made this film and have a bloody book to finish”.
Eileen Murphy
www.brief-therapy-uk.com
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