Paradoxical Interventions

Paradox in Ordinary Life

Paradoxical ideas and ways of thinking are as old as humanity, especially in Eastern philosophy and major world religions. The Tao Te Ching (Way of Virtue), written by the founder of Taoism, Lao Tzu, contains much paradoxical advice, such as getting what one wants by being open to receiving its opposite. Buddhism likewise contains many paradoxical ideas. For example, if one seeks enlightenment, one will be unable to attain it because he or she will have attachment to enlightenment itself. Christianity contains many paradoxical statements such as, “Whoever would be great among you must be your servant.”

In lay terms, paradox is similar to reverse psychology, and many examples can be found in literature. Reverse psychology is a term that describes a situation in which advocacy of one course of action persuades someone to do the opposite. Examples include Tom Sawyer persuading his friends to paint his fence by describing it as a privilege rather than a task. Likewise, attempts to censor works of art or literature paradoxically result in those works becoming more attractive.

Paradoxical Interventions in Counseling

Alfred Adler is widely thought to be the first therapist to make explicit use of paradoxical interventions. The use of these techniques stemmed from Adler's belief that a successful power play against the therapist results in increased patient self-esteem and therefore patient improvement. Thus, in a sort of “therapeutic judo,” Adler encouraged patients to rebel against him. Adler often used humor in prescribing his injunctions.

From a behavioral point of view, in the 1920s, Knight Dunlap developed an approach that he called negative practice. This involved deliberately practicing behaviors that one wanted to eliminate rather than attempting to avoid them. Dunlap saw this as a way of bringing them under control. In doing so, he argued against the law of habit formation, which states that repetition of a response increases the probability of its recurrence.

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