Paradoxical intention is a psychotherapeutic technique developed by V. Frankl in 1927 as part of his logotherapy and existential analysis. The technique consists in the fact that a person, tormented by the fear of waiting, receives a task from a logotherapist — in a critical situation or immediately before it, at least for a few minutes, want (for phobias) or to realize (for obsessive-compulsive disorder) what he fears. Frankl illustrates this with the example of a student who began to tremble before exams and who suffered most from the anticipation of this trembling and fear that everyone would see it. With the help of a logotherapist, he formulated for himself the paradoxical intention to tremble in an exam environment so much that he would be considered a trembling champion.
Another example is that spouses who are prone to constant quarrels agree that the next time they quarrel for so long in order to completely exhaust themselves and make themselves feel sick. Such approaches can be implemented in two ways:
- Or the intention will be realized, and in this case the situation (or action), which the person fears, ceases to be an external unpredictable force and thus loses its painful effect.
- Or the very attempt of a person to realize his intention switches his attention from difficult experiences to their arbitrary reproduction, which extinguishes their natural course and leads to weakening.
As the mechanisms of action of this technique, the process of self-detachment is considered, which allows the patient to leave the emotionally clinging situation in the area of meanings, and as a model of this process, the phenomenon of loss of the ability to enjoy sensual pleasure with a purposeful desire to achieve only it is given. This technique has much in common with such psychotherapeutic techniques as “anxiety arousal”, “implosive therapy”, “induced anxiety”. For greater effect, the paradoxical intention can be formulated in a humorous form.