Speak for Yourself

Chapter Eleven

The Provocative Style

There are times in our lives when a certain idea, a book, a moment, will change us forever. Mine came when I was first introduced to the remarkable work of Frank Farrelly, and a style of psychotherapy he’d invented called Provocative Therapy. His work involved offering honest feedback to people in short, rambling and profanity-filled sessions. He’d play the devil’s advocate, encouraging them to laugh at their problems. He believed in using humour as a tool for change. Frank was a loveable and cranky old man (at least when I met him), who developed Provocative Therapy as a method for dealing with people who have been labelled as psychologically disturbed. It is quite strange to be writing about him now, as ...