Treatment, to be effective, must raise the energy potential of the patient who lacks force and vigor, and equip the overly energetic patient to become more contemplative. The use of paradigms appears to be a therapeutic encounter that frequently bypasses the conscious ego and effects precisely such shifts of energy. The various special techniques and maneuvers of paradigmatic therapy predispose to an approach straining the confines of classical psychoanalytic theory and the concept of neutralized energy. It draws upon newer views such as Glover's theory of nuclear ego formation, Kaywin's emphasis on clustering of self-representations about the pleasure-unpleasure polarities, Spotnitz's theory of schizophrenic insulation, and processes of imprinting and conditioning.