THE WINNER TAKES IT ALL

ABBA in 1974, from left to right: Benny Andersson,   
Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Agnetha Fältskog, and Björn Ulvaeus

This beautiful song is an example of a sophisticated use of Milton Erickson language patterns in a way that let each one of us relate to the song by means of neurolinguistic and hypnotic stratagems.

Here is a link to the song on youtube: THE WINNER TAKES IT ALL


The first hypnotic pattern used extensively is the Universal Quantifier “I've played ALL my cards, And that's what you've done too” introducing in this way also the metaphor of a card game (a metaphor use by other like for example The Eagles in Desperado) that will be kept for the whole song.

Medieval gambling cards, from the year 1377.

Every time is possible to speak through a metaphor the possibility of our communication being received without resistance is increased. And communication improves along the increased hypnotic effect: something that is very much looked for when writing a pop song.

In this case playing a card will have a different meaning for each one of us: those who think that it’s about a bed of rose petals for the loved ones other will think about coming home earlier than usual other about buying all nice things and so on. What would mean for you playing ALL your cards in love? I mean All.

The universal quantifier and the metaphor continue: “NOTHING more to say, NO MORE ace to play”, “The winner takes it ALL”.

And a very effective Milton Model pattern is the Awareness Predicate (believe, think, realize, figure) that we all know are very powerful in making our communication less intrusive and more hypnotic, thus more effective. “I was in your arms THINKING I belonged there”, “I FIGURED it made sense Building me a fence”, “Building me a home THINKING I'd be strong there” until the end with “And I UNDERSTAND, You've come to shake my hand.”

Milton Model patterns abounds like the lost performative, a statement that has a value judgement in it without saying who's making it. “That’s her destiny”, “But I was a FOOL, playing by the rules”: Who says it? Fool according to whom?

 Deus ex machina in classical theatre:
Euripides' Medea, performed in 2009
in Syracuse, Italy.

And the way “The Gods” it's used in the song is an example of both and unspecified referential index and a nominalization (a process turned into a noun) while in this case, as the “Deus Ex Machina” in the Greek theatre, are also a device to rationalize something otherwise unexplainable to humans: “The GODS may throw a dice, their mind as cold as ice”, (note that the gambling game metaphor is kept). While the same sentence continues with a lack of referential index (someone, somebody, some times): “And SOMEONE way down here, loses SOMEONE dear” so that it can be referring to each one of us. Moreover the whole sentence is a Cause and Effect pattern because it describes a relationship between two events in such a way that one event (throwing the dice) causes the other (losing someone dear). At least four Milton Model patterns in a single sentence!!!! And can you find at least another two patterns in the same sentence? :-))

The Milton Model makes an extensive use with Modal Operator of necessity (need, must) and lost performatives combined in a single sentence: “The loser HAS TO fall” or later “Rules must be obeyed”.
 
But the most beautiful and pure hypnotic gem is found in the middle of the song, when we are already prepared and ready for a full hypnotic journey. We will analyse it in the next post.

Until then, feel free to comment and live your hypnotic dream! ;-)

Adriano


driadema@gmail.com


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