Prescribing the unwanted behavior collapses resistance into compliance

Evidence

In these approaches a totally new type of intervention has been developed—the paradoxical intervention. This is a disguised intervention designed to irritate the closed selfreinforcing system from outside. The change agent no longer tries to persuade the system to reflect and modify its hidden rules; rather, he or she “asks” the system to produce more of the behavior that is suggested should be changed. The underlying idea is that a prescribed resistance shifts the logic; it ceases to be resistance and becomes compliance (Watzlawick, Weakland, & Fisch, 1974). On the other hand, resisting this prescription means changing. — Jörg Sydow, Georg Schreyögg, and Jochen Koch, Organizational Path Dependence, 107

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the paradoxical intervention as a disguised, externally applied irritant to a closed self-reinforcing system.
• STORYSTEM: A therapist or consultant who orders the client to do the very thing they must stop — usable as a plot engine where the protagonist wins by obeying.
• XREF: Pairs with Watzlawick’s double-bind work and Argyris on defensive routines.