Depression : concepts, controversies, and some new facts

Abstract

Am J Psychiatry /33:2, February 1976 243 ‘ ‘pseudoscience.’ ‘ note the ‘ ‘bankruptcy in the individual dynamic model,” and conclude that psychotherapy today has refused to be limited to conventional interviews but has spilled over into activities beyond the individual patient. The participants of the conference seem motivated to elaborate be 7ond the plain and simple Freudian meaning of psychotherapy, with the evident goals of reaching a consensus, attaming greater efficiency, and providing greater adaptability to various social situations. A few writers plead for training in self-restraint and for gaining new insights without losing sight of the values and knowledge provided by the pioneers of analysis. Chessick seems to make the most notable effort to integrate traditional psychotherapy and the newer therapies. The expense ofthe book may bejustified by the fact that it demonstrates the amazing range ofvariations in psychotherapy that exist worldwide. Two opening lectures state that psychotherapy molds the individual into his society-into a system ofsccular ethics, which, according to Szasz, is coercive, or into a way of realizing the image of man in actual sociahistic life circumstances, which, according to a Marxist, makes life useful. The following contributions cover such remotely related issues as family therapy, systems theory, behavior therapy, philosophy. treatment of children, and social psychiatry. Most of the well-known contemporary authorities (Frank, Strupp, Sifneos, etc.) are included in this volume; most of them restate what they have said before. It is interesting that the most quoted authors are (in order of frequency of quotations) Freud, Malan, Frank, Wolpe, Binswangcr, and Wolberg. The greatest reader interest will be attracted to the articles on autogenic training, Zen, and the roles of the shaman and the folkhealer in Africa and India. The greatest weakness in the field of psychotherapy today appears to be the scarcity of articles on research in psychotherapy. Except for the work of a group in Boston, the research articles presented at the Oslo meeting appear to be limited to narrative reports of individual clinical expericnces. In spite of their great fascination in revealing unique situations, these solitary studies simply show that psychotherapy today has yet to mount a program of decisive research to establish its real worth.