HISTORY OF ANTI-EXPECTATION PSYCHOTHERAP TECHNIQUES

Roger P. says, ” My interest in these techniques grew out of  a number  of encounters with resistant patients who stated that they were seeking change while at the same time they clung tenaciously to the symptoms   and discomforts that brought them in. Such patients tended to externalize problems and emphasize that the world was beyond  their  control while demonstrating the ability to control the therapy  situation by fending off therapist attempts at exploration, interpretation, or direction. These patients often took the role of the help rejecting complainer, first identified by Jerome Frank and later described by other clinicians. Thus,they continually attempted to pull  advice from the therapist only to reject any suggestions that might be  offered. They made their problems seem insoluble and appeared to take a special delight andpride in the insurmountability of  their  difficulties.

Perhaps the key to this type of patient’s control  of…