Therapy Technique: "Prescribing the symptom" “Prescribing the symptom” is a form of anti-suggestion found in Adlerian psychology, aimed at making the client’s self-defeating behavior less attractive to them. For example: A child is screaming relentlessly in order to obtain what he or she desires at that particular moment. Mother has tried everything to get her child to stop screaming: dialogue, punishment, screaming of her own. Nothing seems to work. What she hasn’t done, is try and make the child’s technique seem futile and less attractive. She could say, “Maybe you should scream louder. Maybe that way you’ll get what you want”. Or, “I don’t think you’re screaming loud enough”. If all goes well, the child will become acutely aware of her self-defeating behavior and the technique of screaming will become less and less attractive until finally, he or she will stop.
Posted on: Fri, 04 Oct 2013 10:08:41 +0000
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