While The Work of Mara Selvini Palazzoli presents a historical perspective of her developing family therapy techniques, perhaps Palazzoli's work may be understood best if it is viewed historically, that is, in the context of the paradoxical techniques that preceded it. When the paradigmatic technique was officially introduced to the psychoanalytic community by Marie Coleman (1956), it created a storm of controversy. Through the therapeutic paradigm, she intended to make the patient's pathology visible all at once and in the fullness of its dimensions, in contrast to the then-accepted sequential method of analyzing first defense, then die defended. The therapist attempts to accomplish this by enacting the patient's split-off aspects or by actively going along with die patient's defensive stance, “joining” the defense. With this paradigmatic technique, die therapist's intended message