Direct Instigation of Behavioral Changes in Psychotherapy

It is ferred that the process of recovery from psychoneuroses outside therapy probably does not differ significantly, if at all, from that in patients receiving therapy.

Abstract

Introduction In recent years a number of articles1,2have challenged claims that any particular type of psychotherapy offers patients with psychoneuroses a better chance for recovery than other therapies or even none at all. In studies comparing treated and untreated groups of patients or groups treated by different techniques, the groups compared often do not match as satisfactorily as we could wish.3Nevertheless, we know that many patients with psychoneuroses recover from these illnesses either entirely without treatment4,5or with very little psychotherapy.6,7This raises the question of whether the processes of recovery are the same in patients receiving psychotherapy and in those not receiving it. And when a patient does receive psychotherapy, can he benefit as much from his experiences with other persons as he does from his experiences with his therapist? Some years ago I began to notice that patients often improved