Therapeutic Bind

A therapeutic bind is a situation where an individual may suffer from a personal issue that affects his or her life, yet is unwilling to make the changes necessary to overcome the issue. In most cases, the individual is fully aware of the "self-defeating" behavior. Simply put, an individual may express a desire for change, but may exhibit actions that are completely averse to gaining the object of desire.

An example of this is someone who feels stuck in a dead-end job that they really dislike and tells everyone how much they want a new job, but fails to take any action to actually find a new job. Instead of changing their behavior (i.e., doing whatever is necessary to find a new job), they continue to do the same old things and remain in the job they dislike.