Consensual validation, a term first used in psychoanalysis by Sullivan, refers to a technique that contrasts the patient's subjective perceptions with objective reality, juxtaposes the patient's past memories with the contemporaneous experience of the analytic encounter, and, in so doing, enhances the capacity for interpersonal experience. The diagnostic and treatment applications of consensual validation strive to overcome distortions contained in the patient's representational domain. In general terms, consensual validation encourages the patient to become sensitive to these distortions of perception. Distortions refer to developmental episodes during which the patient received negative validation or no validation for emotional experience. Distortions also reflect the varied emotional experiences the patient associates with different attachment figures. As a result of the process of consensual validation, the patient may gradually relinquish these distortions, replacing them with adaptive interpersonal patterns.