Tuesday, December 4, 2012

The Correctness of Psychotherapeutic Theories

     By trying to disprove previous theories of psychotherapy when there is documented proof that improvement has been made, are we really trying to help create better theories or just disprove old ones for abstract reasons?  I think that if there is documented proof of improvement, then something about the therapeutic relationship has helped them (if we assume that outside factors and time healing are not - or at least minimally-contributing factors).  Perhaps it is the case that psychoanalytic theory is wrong, but, again, something was going right.  Maybe it had nothing to do with the client's drives or motivations, but just the fact that someone is listening in a nonjudgemental fashion could be more of a common therapeutic factor.  So, by that logic, Freud did not have it all wrong (perhaps, even, psychoanalytic theory is 100% correct!).  He started everything that we do - sitting with clients, listening, etc.  He was the foundation.  Therefore, he was right, to a degree.

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