Strategic Therapy-Symptom Prescription may reveal

• A. It has no effect on power dynamics.
• B. It reveals power and control structures within families.
• C. It only addresses the symptom superficially.
• D. It increases symptom severity.

Answer: (B)

The main idea behind symptom prescription in Strategic Therapy is that the symptom is used as a strategic tool to reveal how power and control are distributed within the family. By asking the family to continue, modify, or exaggerate the symptom in a specific, prescribed way, the therapist brings underlying patterns of authority, decision-making, and boundary-setting into the open. As family members respond to the prescription, who makes rules, who negotiates, and how alliances form become visible, showing the control structures that maintain the family's functioning. This helps clinicians see how symptoms are serving the system, not just what the symptom is doing to the individual.

So the technique is about surfacing those power dynamics, rather than suggesting there’s no effect on power, only addressing the symptom superficially, or inherently increasing the symptom’s severity.