Ordeal Therapy

Now available once again, in this classic book noted therapist Jay Haley explains how and why ordeals work in therapy. With the ordeal technique, the therapist's task is easily defined: It is to impose an ordeal appropriate to the problem of the person who wants to change, an ordeal more severe than [...]
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Now available once again, in this classic book noted therapist Jay Haley explains how and why ordeals work in therapy. With the ordeal technique, the therapist's task is easily defined: It is to impose an ordeal appropriate to the problem of the person who wants to change, an ordeal more severe than the problem. The main requirement of an ordeal is that it should cause distress equal to or greater than that caused by the symptom, just as a punishment should fit the crime. If an ordeal isn't severe enough to extinguish the symptom, it can be increased in magnitude until it is. Haley explains how ordeals can succeed in promoting change even in cases with long histories of therapeutic failure, and describes the use of different kinds of ordeals. Problems discussed include psychosomatic symptoms, uncontrollable and violent children, separation and divorce, anxiety, incontinence, sexual frustration, alcoholism, speech blocks, and depression.