British Institute of Provocative Therapy
Resentment Esther was working as a professional nanny, and living in a shared house. Most of the other people in the house were students, and living in a typically chaotic style. The problem was that Esther was very houseproud, and liked to have everything clean and tidy. This meant that she was doing almost all of the cleaning and tidying in the house - while at the same time feeling increasingly angry and resentful. One of the patterns of Provocative Therapy (PT) is to side with the 'problem part' - in other words, to enthusiastically argue in favour of the problem behaviour or thinking - but to do so to excess. The (male) therapist began using a number of the language patterns of PT, primarily enthusiastically and ludicrously praising the problem behaviour as excellent training for a lifetime of servitude to a husband, and clearly implying that this was the natural purpose of any woman… The client began protesting - at first weakly, then with increasing vigour. The ten minute session ended, and therapist and client discussed the very strong feelings it had elicited in the client. Three weeks later, therapist and client met again. Therapist: How is it going in the house? Esther: Amazing. The other night I just left the dishes in the sink and everyone was a bit surprised, but someone suggested a rota for doing the dishes. Therapist: So the house is a lot cleaner… Esther: Yes a lot. Therapist: But you're still chief cleaner, aren't you? Esther: No, I'm not!
In fact, I'm quite happy to leave things in a mess and wait for someone else
to clean up! Follow up: (one year later) Esther had retained her more relaxed attitude towards the house and was no longer resentful of her housemates. |