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Provocative Therapy
Provocative Therapy will shock and provoke you as it challenges many traditional assumptions about the limits to be respected by professional communicatiors in the same provocative, earthy and humor-producing style that characterizes Provocative Therapy.
This book is a rich source of examples with extensive commentary as it chronicles the adventurous, warm and humorous journey undertaken by Farrelly in his highly successful quest for tools. These tools have gained for him an ever-growing reputation as a highly effective and dramatic practitioner and teacher of his system of psychotherapy. These tools were forged in the experiences of more than 20 years of work both with the traditional hard-core institutionalized patients and with clients in private practice.
This book is a rich source of examples with extensive commentary as it chronicles the adventurous, warm and humorous journey undertaken by Farrelly in his highly successful quest for tools. These tools have gained for him an ever-growing reputation as a highly effective and dramatic practitioner and teacher of his system of psychotherapy. These tools were forged in the experiences of more than 20 years of work both with the traditional hard-core institutionalized patients and with clients in private practice.
- GenresPsychologyNonfiction
230 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1974
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
March 18, 2021
Get your rear into gear
I stumbled upon this book while reading an article on the integration of humor in psychoterapy (Dinu, 2014). Granted, I was supposed to read about schemas and cognitive scenarios in cinematographic context, but this caught my eye. Another reminder to not be lazy and always check the references!
Provoke the client? How dare we? Shouldn't the client be endlessly pampered like an infant while the therapist tediously sifts through scenarios, without daring to rock the boat too much? (spoiler alert: NO! DO THE RIGHT THING OR SO HELP ME GOD ! (immodestly admits this is a personal motto as well). As I suspected, turns out this lackadaisical approach may often yield no results.
F.F's book is not only uproariously funny, it shows us that most patients are well built ships that can whitstand the most terrific storms, yet we treat them like dinghy boats in a pond. With the use of exaggeration, mimicry, ridicule, distortion, sarcasm, irony, and jokes, the provocative therapist "attempts to provoke both positive and negative affective experiences in an effort to have the client engage in certain types of behavior:
(1) To affirm self worth both verbally and behaviorally
(2) To assert himself appropriately both in task performance and relationships
(3) To defend himself realistically
(4) To engage in psycho-social reality testing and learn the necessary discriminations to respond adaptively.
(5) To engage in risk taking behaviors in personal relationships - the expression of affection and vulnerability with immediacy as they are authentically experienced."
Being 'real' with the patient and getting down to the nitty and gritty, talking like a real person talks reaffirms his self-worth and shows that the therapist is implicated enough to not serve him the same old dish of pretentious psychobabble. The therapist needs to roll his sleeves and get off from his “blue heights of beloved abstractions”.
One thing that stuck is that psychoterapies don't save people, people save people. I too think that if you're going in with a 'schema', that schema may quickly fall flat. A good therapist might say 'the schema doesn't work, time to rethink my plan', while a bad one might say 'oh, so the patient is irredeemable'. I’m also weary of the high returns the modern, fixed frame of therapy promises, so by simply straying away from the normative context, P.T. is a gem, for there’s no better way of better understanding something in depth than by learning what can be said against it.
Not to say that the biggest takeaway from P.T. is exactly this, that the patient IS improvable and capable of change. As Zamyatin said," a man is like a novel: until the very last page you don't know how it will end. Otherwise it wouldn't even be worth reading.'" What an absolutely fucking awesome book this was.
I stumbled upon this book while reading an article on the integration of humor in psychoterapy (Dinu, 2014). Granted, I was supposed to read about schemas and cognitive scenarios in cinematographic context, but this caught my eye. Another reminder to not be lazy and always check the references!
Provoke the client? How dare we? Shouldn't the client be endlessly pampered like an infant while the therapist tediously sifts through scenarios, without daring to rock the boat too much? (spoiler alert: NO! DO THE RIGHT THING OR SO HELP ME GOD ! (immodestly admits this is a personal motto as well). As I suspected, turns out this lackadaisical approach may often yield no results.
F.F's book is not only uproariously funny, it shows us that most patients are well built ships that can whitstand the most terrific storms, yet we treat them like dinghy boats in a pond. With the use of exaggeration, mimicry, ridicule, distortion, sarcasm, irony, and jokes, the provocative therapist "attempts to provoke both positive and negative affective experiences in an effort to have the client engage in certain types of behavior:
(1) To affirm self worth both verbally and behaviorally
(2) To assert himself appropriately both in task performance and relationships
(3) To defend himself realistically
(4) To engage in psycho-social reality testing and learn the necessary discriminations to respond adaptively.
(5) To engage in risk taking behaviors in personal relationships - the expression of affection and vulnerability with immediacy as they are authentically experienced."
Being 'real' with the patient and getting down to the nitty and gritty, talking like a real person talks reaffirms his self-worth and shows that the therapist is implicated enough to not serve him the same old dish of pretentious psychobabble. The therapist needs to roll his sleeves and get off from his “blue heights of beloved abstractions”.
One thing that stuck is that psychoterapies don't save people, people save people. I too think that if you're going in with a 'schema', that schema may quickly fall flat. A good therapist might say 'the schema doesn't work, time to rethink my plan', while a bad one might say 'oh, so the patient is irredeemable'. I’m also weary of the high returns the modern, fixed frame of therapy promises, so by simply straying away from the normative context, P.T. is a gem, for there’s no better way of better understanding something in depth than by learning what can be said against it.
Not to say that the biggest takeaway from P.T. is exactly this, that the patient IS improvable and capable of change. As Zamyatin said," a man is like a novel: until the very last page you don't know how it will end. Otherwise it wouldn't even be worth reading.'" What an absolutely fucking awesome book this was.
November 11, 2018
Farelly is a legend. His short term cruelty and long term kindness approach has created results were none were achieved by different methods of psychotherapy. A great funny read that enlightens the minds of any therapist, coach, or change agent.
August 3, 2011
The funniest book I´ve read... want to read it again...
November 10, 2017
Re-read this book again today because I was providing a short overview in my podcast and it reminded me just how much it has influenced my approach to my work as a consultant. Thoroughly recommended.
November 12, 2024
Ciekawa pozycja w podejściu do prowokowania rozmówców, nie tylko w kontekście klinicznym. Uważam to za ważne podejście także w samorozwoju, gdzie samoświadomość pozwala skrócić częste targowanie się z samym sobą ;). Bardzo wartościowe są przykłady i zwarty kontekst. Polecam wszystkim, którzy często muszą przekonywać i uzyskiwać zgody.
January 5, 2020
Book by the founder of Provocative therapy about his journey and definition of the therapy itself.
September 28, 2025
Непогана практична книжка для початківців-спеціалістів, котрі стають на практичний шлях.
July 14, 2013
A great book on getting into other people's realities so they can hear you.
February 17, 2017
Incredible book but check out his work on video if you can. Superb use of human behavior and bias'. ' Nudge ' done better years ago.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews