Dialectical interventions and the structure of strategy

Strategic thinking is not merely another therapeutic approach, but a practical concern of all approaches. This concern makes itself felt when goals are precise, and when therapy is hemmed in by constraints. Strategies are conceptual maps with three major components: ways of access to the goal, ways of dealing with resistance, and ways of mobilizing cooperation. Dialectical interventions are a strategic family in which two contrary therapeutic moves are coordinated so as to deal best with resistance and cooperation. Because of their dual character they illustrate aptly the elements of strategy that are often mixed in unidirectional interventions. Besides this illustrative role, dialectical strategy gives us an algorithm for dealing with the ubiquitous problem of mutual neutralization between the forces of resistance and cooperation. Ideally, it should be possible to potentiate any unidirectional move by an antithetical counterpart.