for people with sexual disorders, in which the patient's desire for sexual pleasure becomes an obstruction to achieving it. The therapist discourages intercourse and breaks the cycle of desire, striving, and disappointment. Criticisms Relative effectiveness The effectiveness of paradoxical intention as a substantial treatment for insomnia has been challenged. In fact, research indicates that stimulus control therapies and sleep restriction therapies have been proven to be more effective in treating insomnia. The current understanding of paradoxical intention with regards to sleep states that it alleviates the patient's “effort associated with sleep”. Espie and Lindsay argue that instead of eradicating the anxiety, it may simply be redirected towards the “effort to stay awake”. Espie says that since the objective of sleep therapy is to view sleep as an involuntary physiological process that occurs passively, trying to put it under voluntary control by instructing patients to deliberately stay awake could be counterintuitive. Lack of reliable and objective research Turner and Ascher say that paradoxical intention has not gained complete acceptance in behaviour therapy because the research supporting its clinical efficacy is mainly limited to uncontrolled case studies. Some have argued that studies have also shown a lack of evidence directly gleaned from the clients in order to explain the effectiveness of PI approaches, rendering the data unreliable, and that the insomniac self-reports are unreliable as participants may provide socially desirable answers. Thereby, paradoxical intention is viewed as a last case resort in the event of the ineffectiveness of other relaxation-desensitisation programs. See also Kavka's toxin puzzle References Psychodynamics Logotherapy