The method of paradoxical intention lies at the heart of one of the most effective techniques for dealing with neuroses. American psychiatrist Viktor Frankl became interested in this phenomenon in the middle of the 20th century, resulting in a fairly simple and effective technique. Its essence is to change the attitude towards fear to a positive one, to expect something terrible with a smile. Unclear? Let's look at an example.

Natalia is afraid to use the elevator. As soon as the elevator doors close, she becomes ill - her heart begins to beat strongly and often, perspiration appears on her forehead, it becomes difficult to breathe and her head is spinning. She has claustrophobia, one of the most common types of anxiety neurosis.

What do Natalia's relatives say?

“Don't be afraid, they still drive. And I go, nothing terrible happened to me. Give me your hand. Everything will be fine, I'm with you. "

What does the psychotherapist say using the paradoxical intention method?

"You are scared? Show me HOW you are afraid. Are you saying your hands are starting to shake? Show me this please. Yes, yes, show me how much your hands are shaking. "

Do you see the difference in approaches? When others say “do not be afraid”, when a person says this to himself, the fear increases. The therapist does the opposite. He asks to be afraid and even seems to be a little ironic. After the consultation, Natalya, before entering the elevator, will think something like this: "Now, as I faint, as I begin to tremble!" Incredibly, this escalation of the situation works the other way around, and the fear decreases! Of course, the example is very simplified, but the essence of the technique can be understood.

When is the paradoxical intention method used?

Psychotherapists use the technique of paradoxical intention, mainly in phobic and obsessive-compulsive neuroses. What is it?

Phobic neuroses

This is an irrational, panic fear (phobia). Phobias are very different, conditionally they can be divided into:

• phobias of space (closed rooms, large areas, heights);
• social phobia (fear of the crowd, public speaking, teachers, fear of wetting, blushing, trembling, etc.);
• medical phobias (fear of illness, injections, visits to doctors, blood, germs, stroke or heart attack);
• zoophobia and insectophobia (fear of animals and insects);
• transport phobias (airplane flights, car trips, etc.);
• sexual phobias (fear of the naked body, intimacy, loss of erection, infection with sexually transmitted diseases, pathological fear of getting pregnant).

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (obsessive-compulsive disorder)

This includes various obsessions or ideas. They can constantly or occasionally appear in a person's head and provoke certain actions associated with these thoughts. It looks like this:

Obsessive thoughts, like phobias, can relate to absolutely any area of ​​life. One person is worried about whether he turned off the gas and water when leaving the house, another has an obsessive desire to commit an antisocial act - and so on. The causes of such disorders are varied: attitudes from childhood, certain conditions (for example, pregnancy), various situations.

In the sexual sphere, obsessive thoughts are often associated with the imperfection of one's own body, the size of the genitals, etc. The paradoxical intention is effective in many such cases. Of course, this method is rarely used on its own - more often it is combined with other types of psychotherapy.

Is everything as simple as it seems?

The technique of paradoxical intention seems so simple that almost everyone will ask: “Why do we need a psychotherapist at all? I can do that myself! "

Well - maybe it is. After all, neurosis, like any disease, is mild, moderate or severe. With a mild neurosis, you can really try to cope with the problem yourself. For example, if your palms are sweating before shaking hands, try to give yourself the installation before that: "Now I'm going to sweat!"

However, moderate and severe neuroses "catch" a lot of related problems. Let's give an example.

Victoria is working for a large company and she has a business trip to Japan. The problem is that she has aerophobia, she is afraid to fly on airplanes. It is logical that on the eve of the flight:

• She is haunted by obsessive thoughts: "What if the plane crashes and crashes?"
• From these thoughts the pressure jumps, the head is spinning, the heartbeat increases.
• Victoria is looking for a way out, how to make sure not to fly: "Or maybe get sick?"

All these elements require a separate study. Only a psychotherapist is often capable of unraveling the whole tangle of side fears and obsessive thoughts. And sometimes neurosis is a consequence mental illness, in which case a different strategy is needed.

Psychotherapists at Best Clinic practice the treatment of neuroses by the method of paradoxical intention and other effective methods. These are people who can be trusted with any fears and be sure that no one will ever know about them. With the doctors of Best Clinic, you will feel comfortable and cozy, because they will find an approach to any patient. Take a course of psychotherapy and stop worrying!

A child is called a blank sheet of paper. He does not know anything yet, does not know how, is not adapted to society. The task of teaching everything is undertaken by parents, educators and teachers. It is under their leadership that an intention arises, which can be paradoxical and communicative ..

Intention can seem like a complex concept. However, if you correctly and literally read the words that will be written in this article, you can easily understand what it is.

• Why does each person have their own worldview?
• Why do people say the same thing, but each of them understands something different?
• Why is the same situation interpreted differently by people?
• Why might what is good for one person be bad for another?

These and many other questions people ask themselves, not paying attention to the fact that we are talking about the difference. The world, as it were, exists one for all. Everything in it is clear, clear and definite. However, the people who look at it and evaluate it say different things.

How is it that the world is one, and there are many opinions about it? This question can be partially answered based on the theory of intention.

What is intention?

Trying to figure out what intention is, one can simple language define this concept as the direction of thinking. Each person has his own focus of thinking on a certain action or object. And this orientation is often developed by a person from childhood, when they are engaged in his upbringing, the formation of a worldview, even an explanation of what is good and bad.

It does not matter here whether what the person is aiming at is real or contrived. The synonyms for intention are:

1. Purpose.
2. Aspiration.
3. Concept.
4. A wish.
5. Idea.
6. Installation.
7. Plan.
8. Motivation.
9. Appointment.
10. Meaning.
11. Decision.

The defining words are attitude or direction. Sometimes the intention is understood to be the performance of an action under the impulse of one's spiritual desires, without analyzing how expedient it is.

• In psychology, intention is understood as the desire of a person to play intensely critical situations in which he can again experience his fear or neurosis.
• In neuroscience, intention is understood as the focus of thinking on mental activity, activity or object, which helps in achieving a goal.
• In philosophy, intention is understood as a semantic orientation towards spiritual cognition and perception. This is a worldview, direction of will, soul or purpose.

In simple terms, intention is the orientation of a person to certain actions, events, objects and other phenomena. Why do men throw socks around, and women worry about it? Because everyone is aimed at a certain activity: a man does not attach any importance to where his socks lie until he needs them; a woman makes sure that all things are in their places, so she worries when the order is violated.

Each person is aimed at something specific. Depending on this orientation, he forms certain views on life, he develops certain skills and habits, receives a specific set of knowledge and information. Man does not know the whole world. His thinking (gaze) is limited. Depending on what he notices, certain beliefs are formed in him. And all of this is based on the focus that a person should pay attention to.

One example of intention is different views of the same phenomenon. Everyone has their own understanding of justice. It is fair for one person to have a beautiful body, while another person considers it unfair. But if you ask what one and the other person does for his beauty, it turns out that the one who is beautiful spends a lot of time for his own transformation, and the one who is ugly does nothing for the sake of his beauty. So where is the justice here?

In fact, everything that a person has in real life... The justice that people think about is just an illusion. Often people judge something without knowing all the circumstances of the case. For example, all people will feel sorry for a woman who is beaten by a man. But if they participated in the situation when all this happened, they would probably have noticed that the woman herself provoked the man to beat her (either she insulted him, or herself rushed at him with fists, or threatened, etc.).

A person receives everything in justice. And if it seems otherwise, then you simply do not want to notice the obvious things. All people want to lie on the couch and still be rich. But do you think this is fair? Why do you condemn rich people who spend 16 hours a day? You spend much less time and effort making money. Everything is fair: whoever works harder and harder gets more.

“Your neighbor's grass is always greener,” so it just seems to you that people easily achieve their success. All that you have is fair. It was the result of all your decisions, words, actions. Everything you have is the fair result of all your efforts. Do not judge others because you do not live their life, just as others cannot judge you because they do not know how much effort you had to put in to just have everything that you have.

Understanding, views, conclusions, actions - this and much more is based on what a person's thinking is aimed at. This is why so often you can hear advice: if you want to change your life, change your thinking (that is, change the direction of your thinking in a different way).

A person is periodically faced with unpleasant situations. Some of them are intimidating or stressful enough that the person cannot control themselves. In logotherapy, the technique of paradoxical intention is used, when the therapist invites the client to imagine or implement what scares him at the moment of a critical situation.

In other words, you need to start trembling and fearful at the moment of passing the exam, if the person has a fear of passing it. People need to quarrel as loudly and for a long time as possible if scandals are unpleasant to them.

What is the meaning of this technique:

1. Man gains control. He is not afraid of something unpredictable, but he himself provokes a situation when his fear is fulfilled. Here comes the understanding of the senselessness of such actions.
2. The person ceases to be afraid. This is due to the fact that he switches from the possible experiences that he will experience if something terrible happens, to doing things that will cause fear.

The paradoxical intention is used in the treatment of people who are subject to various fears, neuroses, and experiences. A person in a state of expectation begins to fear even more. Although, in fact, nothing has yet happened that would frighten a person. If the situation happens, then his experiences are amplified. Often, in a state of expectation, a person brings himself to the point that he faints or is faced with a heart attack.

The usual reaction of a fearful person is avoidance, running away from the reality in which something terrible can happen. Sometimes a person even begins to be afraid to leave the house or communicate with people, so that only his fears are not realized. A person tries to suppress or resist in some way, but they are even more intensified.

A person most of his time is afraid of what might happen to him or what he might do. The principle of paradoxical intention is that a person wants the realization and realization of his fear.

All people are taught speech, which consists first in the assimilation of words, the construction of sentences and phrases. However, over time, a certain style of communication between a person and various people is developed. It is this style of communication that is the communicative (speech) intention, which manifests itself in approval or censure, approval or questioning, demand or advice. It is based on human:

• Desires.
• Motives.
• Thoughts.
• Needs.
• Emotions.

A person through his speech expresses his inner world, attitude and intentions.

The problem that people do not understand each other often worries those who are trying to establish contacts with people who are important to themselves, but they do not succeed. You try to explain something, say, "chew", but it is as if they do not hear you. What are the reasons why people do not understand each other?

Let's not take examples when people just speak different languages... You speak Russian, and your interlocutor speaks Japanese - it is very difficult to understand each other if neither of you knows the other's language.

But it happens that people speak the same language, only the feeling is created that they are still in different languages. You and your interlocutor speak Russian, but for some reason there is no understanding. What's the matter? The problem is how much meaning each of you puts into the same words. One and the same word, but each person has his own meaning. Someone under "love" understands the feelings that arise when a loved one is nearby, and his interlocutor, under the same word, will understand the actions that a partner commits. So it turns out that both of them may not believe in love for each other, because one wants to feel, and the second will demonstrate his feelings in actions, while being calm at the level of emotions.

People do not understand each other for another reason. It is impossible to understand what he himself has not experienced. You can roughly imagine what other people are telling you. But if you yourself have not experienced the same sensations, feelings, pain, negativity, etc., then it is difficult to understand who is telling you about them.

So, it is difficult for a child to understand parents why they need to learn. He does not want to study, and his parents are trying to convey to him the pain they experienced when they were not hired for a job due to lack of education. So, it is impossible to dissuade a child from getting married if he himself has not yet lived in marriage and has not understood what it is.

It is impossible for a person to understand what has not been personally experienced. You can support the other person, you can sympathize with him. But until you yourself go through the joy or pain you are talking about, you will not understand.

People can speak the same language, but not understand each other. Surely you yourself have faced misunderstandings from others or you felt that you do not understand other people. This is determined by the direction to which your thinking is sharpened.

“I don’t understand how this can be” is another form of why people don’t find common language... In the picture of the world of all people there are ideas about how it should be: what others should be like, how they should behave, how events should develop, etc. But when something happens that does not fit into their picture of the world, they say : "I don't understand such people." Also, others may not understand you when you do things or make decisions that do not fit into their picture of the world: "It should be so."

These are 3 reasons why people speak the same language, but it is so difficult for them to understand each other that they are ready to "hang labels" and offend others, rather than just accept the fact that not everyone will be understood by you and not everyone will understand you.

Outcome

Intention is directionality that tells a person what to pay attention to, how to act, what to strive for, and how to achieve goals. The result depends on this orientation, since a person in any situation begins to limit himself in freedom of choice and finding various solutions. Only in the absence of focus can you see all the diversity and find the most comfortable approach for yourself.

Trying to suppress unwanted symptoms and avoid situations in which they appear only aggravates the person's situation. The method of paradoxical intention was formulated by W. Frankl in 1939 and was further explained, now having sufficient fame.

Those with phobias or deep-seated fears anticipate unwanted symptoms that appear when they find themselves in adverse situations known to them. When the anticipation happens, the fear and anticipation of a recurrence of the symptom is further heightened. All this provokes escape from objects and situations of fear. Agoraphobes try not to leave the house for fear of fainting. Suffering from increased sweating or tremors in the hands with public speaking, try to avoid public speaking, etc.

Also, under the yoke of obsessive representations, an attempt is made to suppress and counteract unwanted symptoms, but this only increases the initial tension. The circle is closed.

The essence of the paradoxical intention method is an attempt to consciously and with a share of humor perform an undesirable action and intensify an undesirable symptom that manifests itself uncontrollably in situations of anxiety. It is also required not to avoid the circumstances, objects, etc. that provoke fear.

Instead of avoiding objects / places or situations in which you have anxiety and unwanted consequences, hit and collide with them deliberately and try to consciously force yourself to react in the way you would expect in advance in the "bad development of the situation." Are you afraid of fainting on the street? Try to do this deliberately. One patient just once said to herself in a similar situation the phrase "Now I will show everyone on the street how I can faint from fear" in order to calmly reach the destination, and not run home in panic. Are you worried that your hands will shake, your legs shake, or your sweating may increase when speaking in public or during meetings? Repeat unwanted manifestations deliberately, when meeting people, try to sweat three times as much, try to make your legs walk in a way that they have never walked. Do you suddenly panic and scream at the sight of a spider? Try to deliberately shout twice as loud.

Do you suffer from insomnia and every time before going to bed you anticipate that you will not be able to fall asleep? Try not to try to fall asleep, but rather try to stay awake as long as possible. In other words, the heightened urge to fall asleep, generated by the fear of not falling asleep, must be replaced by a paradoxical intention - the urge not to fall asleep, soon followed by sleep.

An example from Frankl's book "Suffering from the meaninglessness of life":

“Muhammad Sadik, whom I have already quoted, describes the case of an eighty-five-year-old patient who was addicted to sleeping pills, was admitted to the hospital and was admitted to him for treatment. He writes: “At ten o'clock in the evening the patient left her room and asked for sleeping pills. I told her that, unfortunately, we didn’t have any sleeping pills, and the nurse had forgotten to order a new batch. “And how do you think I can sleep now?” She said indignantly. “Today I have to do without sleeping pills,” I said. Two hours later, she again left her room and declared: "I cannot sleep." Then I gave her this advice: “What if you go back to bed and try to overcome the dream!”. She said: "I thought I was the only one here crazy, but now I see - you too." “Sometimes it’s funny to feel crazy,” I said. “Do you understand me?” She asked: "Are you serious?" - "What exactly?" - I asked. “Did you seriously say that I need to overcome my sleep?” She asked. “Of course, seriously,” I replied. - Try it! At the same time, we'll see if you can stay awake all night. Okay?". She agreed and left. When the nurse brought breakfast to the ward in the morning, she found the patient asleep. "

Viktor Frankl insists that the vicious circle that has arisen is broken not by neurotic focus on one's own personality (self-pity, contempt, etc.), but by personal involvement in meaningful activity, which becomes the key to returning to the "working" state.

I'll definitely think of something ...

PARADOXIC INTENTION- a special therapeutic technique, method, technique used in logotherapy in the treatment of neurotic diseases.

The therapeutic technique of paradoxical intention was proposed by an Austrian psychotherapist W. Frankl (1905-1977) in 1946... In a systematic form, this technique was presented by him in 1960. It was based on a double fact, recorded by logotherapy, and that, on the one hand, the patient's anxiety generates exactly what he fears, and on the other hand, neurotic intention (hyperintention ) makes it impossible to achieve what the patient wants. An attempt to avoid situations in which anxiety arises, or to suppress, overcome threatening ideas only intensifies neurotic symptoms. Proceeding from this understanding of the pathogenesis of a neurotic disease, the technique of paradoxical intention consists in the fact that an anxious patient is asked to do exactly what he fears and from which he is saved by "flight into illness."

If it is possible to bring the patient to a state where he is able to stop avoiding or fighting his neurotic symptoms, then the symptoms will subside on their own. If it is possible to exaggerate them, then they generally cease to haunt and bother the patient.

The paradoxical intention method is to want what you fear. Cures absolutely hopeless phobias.

Fear gives rise to what we are afraid of (I'm afraid to blush - I blush, I'm afraid that I will feel bad in the subway - it becomes). The fear of fear develops along this path. During a panic attack, you experienced a wild fear and now you are afraid that the fear will recur, you are afraid of this fear and begin to avoid all those places and circumstances in which you can experience this fear.

The symptom gives rise to fear, fear gives rise to and intensifies the symptom, the intensified symptom makes fear stronger. Vicious circle mutual screwing up of fears and symptoms.

Frankl's ring (Frankl opened it and knew how to break it).

The paradoxical intention method is for you to really want what you fear to happen. This overwhelming desire simply makes it impossible for the symptom to manifest, and ultimately relieves you of fear.
No symptom, no fear.
The ring is broken.

The method of paradoxical intention involves the use of a specific human ability, namely humor with which an individual can relate to himself. The humorous organization of the situation allows you to adhere to an attitude of less serious attitude towards your neurotic symptoms. The patient is able to laugh at himself. He, as it were, gains the ability to separate from the neurosis, to distance himself from it, to perceive what is happening in a joking form. The method of paradoxical intention is precisely based on the fact that teaching the patient a humorous attitude towards himself, his symptoms and neurotic disease in general is important and necessary condition for his possible recovery.

Examples:

The understanding of the essence of the paradoxical intention can be illustrated by the following example, drawn from the therapeutic practice of W. Frankl. For the past three years, a thirty-five-year-old patient has been paralyzed by fear of bacteria: she constantly washed her hands for fear of bacteria, did not leave the house, did not allow her husband to touch the children, and decided to divorce because she felt that she was making her family unhappy. Using the method of paradoxical intention, the analyst invited the patient to imitate his actions. He began scrubbing the floor with his hands, saying that he couldn't get the dirt to get enough bacteria. With the encouragement of the analyst, the patient followed his example. This led to the fact that in the future she began to work with all sorts of dirty things in order to come into contact with microbes as often as possible. After a few days, the patient could hug and caress her children without fear of infecting them. The compulsion to wash hands disappeared. The woman could do all the daily tasks that she was not capable of before.

One lady suffered from a hair phobia. She was terribly afraid that hair would grow on her face. According to the method of paradoxical intention, the lady had to passionately want her hair to grow on her face. Look forward to it. Approaching the mirror (which I did not approach for several years because of the fear of seeing hair on my cheek) and say - when, finally, I will have at least one hair!
Her phobia vanished in a couple of sessions.

At the age of forty, D. was married, had a sixteen-year-old son, and for many years suffered from agoraphobia with a whole range of symptoms - fear of driving, closed and open spaces, elevators, heights, bridges, and death. She was terrified to leave the house. But at home she was scared - she was afraid that she would be paralyzed. I spent the last four years in the clinic. Her living space was limited to a narrow bedside area.
During the years of her illness, D. tried everything that was possible, including drug therapy, analytical psychotherapy, electroshock treatment. She was also asked to solve the problem with a lobotomy.

According to the method of paradoxical intention, D. was asked to try to leave the ward with a passionate desire to experience the very familiar terrible fear. A few weeks later, D. left the ward for fear, but there was no fear. She went down the elevator to show everyone how wildly she can be afraid of the elevator, but she did not succeed - there was no fear. She really wanted to be afraid of paralysis, and that is why there was no more fear of being paralyzed. D. was surprised and complained with a laugh to the psychotherapist:
-I try very hard to be afraid, but nothing works for me.
D. learned to use the paradoxical intention in all those cases when she had previously experienced fear and after five months of such therapy went home on her own, being discharged with a diagnosis of "Complete recovery".

The duration of the method depends on the time of the illness. Phobia, reading weeks and months according to Frankl, is eliminated in 4-12 sessions. Perennials may require treatment throughout the year. Two sessions a week. The intention must be applied over and over again, since the neurosis can produce more and more symptoms.

Frankl's main methods of psychotherapeutic work can be divided into three large groups: therapy of clients in a state of existential vacuum and noogenic neurosis; therapy of psychogenic neuroses; therapy of somatogenic neuroses.

Logotherapy for clients in a state of existential vacuum and noogenic neurosis involves:

Humane relationship. Frankl suggests that therapy should be a balanced process that includes both deliberate therapeutic strategies and an I-Thou relationship (Buber, 1995). A humane relationship presupposes caring for the client and respect for his unique human nature.

Deepening existential awareness is to help patients to understand the finiteness of life and the importance of taking responsibility for it. Help can be offered in the form of an explanation, as well as proposing maxims (brief imperatives of behavior), for example, one of Frankl's favorite maxims: "Live as if you live a second time and acted in your life as wrongly as you are going to act now" ( Frankl, 1975, p. 75). Also, patients may be asked to imagine their life in the form of moving pictures that are filmed on film. Such comparisons are made so that people realize the irreversibility of their lives as soon as possible.

Focusing on the search for meaning... Patients are assisted in achieving "the highest possible activation in their life." They must understand that they are responsible for finding meaning in any situation, under any circumstance.

Logotherapy for psychogenic neuroses involves the use of two of Frankl's most famous practical methods - de-reflexion and paradoxical intention.

Dereflexia is aimed at counteracting hyperreflexia, i.e. excessive attention of the patient to himself and his illness. The range of application of dereflexion is quite wide, for example, it can be sexual neuroses such as impotence and frigidity.

Paradoxical the intention is recommended by Frankl for the short-term treatment of obsessive-compulsive and phobic mental disorders. Just as fear generates what a person fears, so an overly strong desire makes impossible what he desires. This excessive intention, or "hyperintense", is especially common in cases of sexual neurosis. The more a man tries to demonstrate his sexual potency or a woman - her ability to experience an orgasm, the less they succeed in this. The pleasure must remain side effect, and it is destroyed or destroyed to the extent that it becomes an end in itself. Excessive attention, or "hyperreflexia", as it is called in logotherapy, can also be a pathogenic factor (that is, lead to illness. On the fact that fear generates what a person is afraid of, and that hyperintention makes it impossible for what a person desires , logotherapy bases its technique called “paradoxical intention.” In this approach, the phobic patient is asked to want, at least for one moment, exactly what he fears. Let me give you an example. A young doctor consulted me about fear of sweating As soon as he began to fear that he would sweat, this anticipatory anxiety was enough to induce profuse sweating.In order to break this vicious circle, I advised the patient every time he starts to sweat, deliberately decide to show people how much he can sweat. A week later, he told me the following: Whenever he met someone who triggered his anticipatory anxiety, he would say to himself: just a quart, and now I’m sweating for at least ten quarts! ”The result was that the patient, who had suffered from this phobia for ten years, after one session for a week was free of it forever. At the same time, the patient becomes able to separate himself from his neurosis.