Paradoxical intent techniques were proposed by Viktor Frankl, the father of logotherapy. The fundamental commitment of this perspective is to reduce the suffering caused by certain behaviors through humor and paradox.
A paradox is configured when two mutually exclusive elements coexist, however, although this does not seem so at first glance, the human being is constantly evolving within the framework of the paradox.
We love and hate the same person. We move forward and backward simultaneously.
“Man is a son of the past, but not his slave, and a father of the future. “Viktor Frankl?
In addition, in therapy, paradoxical intent techniques lead people to take on their problems through a seemingly contradictory logic, which according to several studies are very effective, even if they require great skill and experience on the part of the therapist.
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Viktor Frankl said the main goal of paradoxical intent techniques was to “alleviate individual patient fears. “Depending on your perspective, pathological fear should be replaced by paradoxical intent or desire.
This applies mainly to those with severe anxiety, in this case the person does not have a specific fear, but fears their own fear.
This pathological fear leads to blockade. The person fears failing in what he wants to achieve, thinks obsessively about that fear and leads him to failure, thus creating a vicious circle that can be broken with the techniques of paradoxical intent.
What is paradoxically sought is for the person to want what he fears, for example, a stutterer may be asked to stutter as much as possible, to do it in front of others and not to stop until he makes everyone laugh. , this will cause you to stop stuttering several times.
The first thing someone who works with the paradoxical intent to overcome a problem is to interrupt their desire to control or modify their symptoms.
In this way, it is encouraged to let them appear deliberately and, if possible, to exaggerate them. It is very important that the person gives control of what is happening to him and that he is willing to increase his symptoms.
The next step is to apply paradoxical intent techniques, which are essentially:
Paradoxical intent techniques are essentially appropriate for those who have a high expectation of failure over what they propose, or a weak ability to recognize their resources to deal with difficulties.
They are especially useful for those who have heavy obsessive burdens or difficult-to-solve phobias, which in both cases generate a lot of distress.
In practice, these techniques have proven to be quite effective, however, the exact causes of this happening are still unknown and the mechanisms that make this type of therapy effective are not well known.
Paradoxical intent techniques are used in different types of therapies, however, the main difficulty is that they require great skill on the part of the therapist, otherwise the patient ends up seeing these techniques as a common manipulation, of which he does not want. be a part of it.