title: Paradox as epistemological jump.
abstract: Recent articles on paradoxical interventions tend to view them as something given by a therapist to a patient, thus unintentionally adopting a unidirectional view of causality and an outmoded epistemology. It is postulated that change takes place in the context of a patient-therapist relationship and that when that relationship becomes paradoxical it becomes more difficult for the patient to view himself as a reified "thing." Paradox effects change, then, by altering the meaning of experience and modifying epistemological assumptions.
mesh_terms: D003142:Communication; D005190:Family; D005196:Family Therapy; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D013598:Systems Theory