ABSTRACT
A positive connotation is no more true or false or right or wrong than a negative connotation; rather, it is a strategic statement aimed to introduce difference into the family belief system and, with it, the possibility of change. Understanding the use of positive connotation as a strategy requires that the therapist should accept that people come to therapy with fixed ideas about the way things are. In order for the therapist to carry out his primary aim, which is to introduce differences into the belief system, he may want to convey the idea that a problem is not necessarily bad. In this way, the use of positive connotation can be a very powerful therapeutic tool. The therapist may use positive connotation to develop questions during the interview. The chapter provides example comes from a case seen a at a child psychiatric out-patient clinic, and is provided by Paul Keogh.
