The use of paradox in a community home for the chronically disturbed and retarded

This paper describes the use of paradoxical interventions to change the resistant behaviors of community home residents who were formerly institutionalized in state hospitals and in state schools for the retarded for an average of 27 years. The paradoxical interventions were used following prior therapeutic failures using more traditional behavioral approaches. Seven brief case studies are presented describing the problem, the paradoxical intervention used, reactions to the intervention, follow-up information, and an explanation of the intervention. Some of the paradoxical interventions used include: prescribing the resistance, symptom, or system; reframing; restraining change; reversals; and rituals. Explanations of these interventions are given based upon general systems theory.