Word.ws English Dictionary

paradoxical intention

paradoxical intention noun: a psychotherapeutic technique used to treat anxiety by repeatedly rehearsing the anxiety-inducing pattern of thought or behaviour, often with exaggeration and humor.

Noun

paradoxical intention (uncountable)

  1. (psychotherapy) A psychotherapeutic technique used to treat anxiety by repeatedly rehearsing the anxiety-inducing pattern of thought or behaviour, often with exaggeration and humor.
    Synonyms:
    PI

Synonyms of paradoxical intention

Origin of paradoxical intention

Coined by Austrian psychiatrist Viktor Frankl.

Questions about paradoxical intention

What does paradoxical intention mean?
Paradoxical intention means a psychotherapeutic technique used to treat anxiety by repeatedly rehearsing the anxiety-inducing pattern of thought or behaviour, often with exaggeration and humor.
What part of speech is paradoxical intention?
Paradoxical intention is a noun.

Words near paradoxical intention in the dictionary

  1. paradoxical
  2. paradoxical embolism
  3. paradoxical embolisms
  4. paradoxical frog
  5. paradoxical frogs
  6. paradoxical intention
  7. paradoxical rage reaction
  8. paradoxical rage reactions
  9. paradoxical sleep
  10. paradoxical undressing
  11. paradoxicalities

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: paradoxical intention (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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