Asking About Ambivalence: A Different Kind of Therapist Neutrality

Recent articulations of systems theory emphasize the self-organiza-tion and autonomy of systems. From this perspective it was previously seen that symptomatic behavior reflects the conservation of an ambivalent autonomy embodying the system's striving for an ideal way of living and the simultaneous failure of this quest. Treatment typically opposes the symptom and allies itself with the idealistic pole of the ambivalence, thereby discounting the system's ambivalent autonomy. This often strengthens symptomatic efforts to conserve the ambivalence. Careful questioning can be used to circumvent this dilemma and this paper illustrates this type of therapist neutrality by means of a case example.