Gestalt therapists sometimes utilize the exaggeration experiment which most closely resembles paradox as practiced by which figures?

• A. Freud, Jung, Adler
• B. Frankl, Haley, or Erickson
• C. Rogers, Maslow, Skinner
• D. Bandura, Piaget, Vygotsky

Answer: (B)

The exaggeration experiment in Gestalt therapy uses deliberate overstatement of a behavior or feeling to push awareness and reveal how it functions in the client’s life. This approach mirrors paradoxical interventions, where a therapist intentionally uses a paradox to provoke change by shifting the client’s perspective or expectations.

Viktor Frankl, Milton Erickson, and Jay Haley are the figures most associated with this kind of paradoxical work. Frankl’s paradoxical intention, Erickson’s strategic paradoxical techniques, and Haley’s use of paradox in family therapy all aim to disrupt resistance by getting the client to engage with the symptom in a way that creates distance or new meaning, often leading to a natural reduction in the symptom.

Other major theorists listed aren’t known for this paradoxical approach in the same way. Freud, Jung, and Adler focus on psychodynamic insight and conflicts; Rogers, Maslow, and Skinner emphasize humanistic growth or behaviorism; Bandura, Piaget, and Vygotsky center on learning, development, and cognition.