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Under the title of paradigmatic therapy, Marie Coleman Nelson (1968) has presented an interesting style of treatment for use with certain borderline patients, and she has developed a theoretical perspective for understanding its results. As is so often true of technical innovations, the method is not only useful in practice but helps to elucidate the nature of psychotherapy. In particular, paradigmatic therapy brings into relief the relationship between the roles of attitudes and information in the process of therapy.
Nelson (1962) has illustrated the paradigmatic approach with a transcribed hour, and provided it with a rationale which is further expanded in another essay (1967) where it is joined by a metapsychological theoretical construction. I shall assume that the reader is familiar with the transcribed hour since it cannot be summarized without introducing the theoretical perspectives to be discussed in this paper. However it is safe to say that what will impress the reader who is unfamiliar with the technique is the absence of a neutral tone in the therapist's approach, and a response to the patient which is rather prickly and devoid of both gestures of helpfulness and ex cathedra pronouncements.
I shall first discuss Nelson's rationale for her approach, indicating where I think the emphasis should fall. Then I will briefly state my understanding of what occurs during the sample hour. The burden of my argument will be that the technique described is a reasonable