ABSTRACT
Madanes (1981) developed the “game” of prescribing that the family pretend to behave in the ways they are already behaving symptomatically. Nichols (1984) also describes and discusses her technique. This technique is a paradoxical intervention designed to have a more gentle effect in producing change than relying on the family’s defiance of the therapist. It puts the family in the paradoxical position that if they pretend to behave in a certain way they cannot “really” behave that way. You can’t pretend to be having a temper tantrum and actually be having a tantrum at the same time. If the reactions of other family members are also a pretense, then the whole situation becomes a game that all are cooperating to play and it becomes less serious. It dramatizes what is actually happening in the family while producing less tension. Because it is a game, the members become more flexible and begin to vary their behaviors, thus bringing about change in the system.
