Definition
Paradoxical intention is a therapeutic technique developed by Viktor Frankl within logotherapy. It instructs a person, for a moment, to wish for or intend the very thing they fear — and, where possible, to do so with humour. A patient terrified of fainting in public is encouraged to try to faint on purpose; a patient who cannot sleep for fear of not sleeping is told to try to stay awake.
The technique addresses a specific mechanism. Many fears are sustained not by the feared event itself but by anticipatory anxiety — the fear of the fear. Paradoxical intention is aimed precisely at that loop.
Why it matters
How it works
Frankl observed two self-defeating loops. In anticipatory anxiety, a person fears a symptom so intensely that the fear itself triggers the symptom — and the symptom confirms the fear. In hyper-intention, trying too hard to produce a desired state (sleep, sexual function) prevents it.
Paradoxical intention breaks the first loop by reversing the intention. A person cannot simultaneously dread an outcome and sincerely try to produce it; the attempt, especially when done with self-directed humour, dissolves the dread. The humour is not decorative — it is the means by which the patient steps back from the symptom and stops identifying with it. This capacity to detach from oneself is, for Frankl, a uniquely human resource.