[Paradoxical interventions: explanation and categorization]

Paradoxical interventions are of major importance for the systemic family therapy. Because paradoxical interventions are widely used and more than 40 symptoms are treated by them explanations and categorizations of the different paradoxical interventions seem to be useful. The double bind hypothesis, but more the selection of specific paradoxical interventions dependent on certain client characteristics like reactance and perceived freedom of target behavior could lead to differential therapeutic effects and improved efficacy of paradoxical interventions. The explanation by decontextualization could facilitate the integration of paradoxical interventions into the mainstream of psychotherapy. To find out whether single paradoxical interventions can be integrated in broader theoretical frameworks or not, further discussions are necessary.