Premium
The Greek Chorus and Other Techniques of Paradoxical Therapy
Author(s) -
PAPP PEGGY
Publication year - 1980
Publication title -
family process
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.011
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1545-5300
pISSN - 0014-7370
DOI - 10.1111/j.1545-5300.1980.00045.x
Subject(s) - chorus , psychological intervention , family therapy , resistance (ecology) , psychology , psychotherapist , group psychotherapy , anxiety , compliance (psychology) , clinical psychology , social psychology , psychiatry , art , ecology , literature , biology
This paper has described some of the interventions developed at the Ackerman Brief Therapy Project in treating the families of symptomatic children. The interventions are based upon a differential diagnosis of the family system and upon an evaluation of that system's resistance to change. They are classified as compliance‐based or defiance‐based, depending upon the family's degree of anxiety, motivation, and resistance. Paradoxical interventions, which are defiance‐based, are used as a clinical tool in dealing with resistance and circumventing the power struggle between therapist and family. A consultation group acting as a Greek chorus underlines the therapist's interventions and comments on the consequences of systemic change. This group is also sometimes used to form a therapeutic triangle among the family, therapist and group, with the therapist and group debating over the family's ability to change.