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Shrinks, etc.: a consumer's guide to psychotherapies
Book by Kiernan, Thomas
264 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 1974
2 people want to read
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August 23, 2024
A WIDE-RANGING SURVEY/OVERVIEW OF MANY DIFFERENT THERAPIES
Author Thomas Keirnan wrote in the Introduction to this 1974 book, "The temptation in a book such as this is to drag the psychotherapy industry ... over the coals of rigorous derision... But the purpose of this book is to act as a critical and comprehensive guide to psychotherapies, not as an exposé of its innumerable absurdities and weirdnesses... my objective is to help inform you of the similarities and differences between the numerous psychotherapies currently in use." (Pg. xii-xiii)
After citing a 1952 article by H.J. Eysenck which suggested that "roughly two-thirds of a group of neurotic patients will recover or improve to a marked extent within about two years of the onset of their illness, whether they are treated by means of psychotherapy or not," he observes, "there have been no more recent studies offered that effectively contradict his conclusions. Many defenders of psychotherapy dispute Eysenck's claims on the grounds that he, being an advocate of behavior therapy, has permitted his objectivity to fly away on the winds of his biased viewpoint." (Pg. 56-57)
He observes that Erich Fromm "saw individual neurosis as a spreading disease that was at once caused by society and reflected the elemental flaws in the culture. The only way to cure neurosis was to psychoanalyze everyone alive and thus cure society. Sunce that was clearly impossible, Fromm tried to achieve the same end by writing books which, in effect, analyzed society's ills and gave sociological prescriptions for their cure." (Pg. 161-162)
He points out, "The identity crisis is the central focus of all Eriksonian analysis. It is the crucial measure of all that has gone before in an individual's psychic life, and the determinant of all that comes after... In postulating the identity crisis, Erikson managed to merge social-existential ideas into orthodox theory without seriously undermining basic Freudian principles." (Pg. 179)
He admits, "no one knows why client-centered therapy as an approach to neurosis seems to work better than, say, psychoanalysis or Gestalt therapy. Perhaps it is true that the great majority of people who seek psychotherapy in general suffer from only the mildest forms of neurotic disorder. It would be true, then, that the majority who submit to client-centered therapy also suffer only from mild neurosis..." (Pg. 191)
He argues, "But the encounter approach---like every other therapy---has failed. It has not only failed to fulfill its way-of-life potential, but also its potential as a specific form of therapy... like most other visionary movements that have come down the boulevard of history, it saw simple solutions to inexplicably complex problems, and then clothed its simplicity in the bureaucratic garb of techniques, dogmas and hierarchies so as to give itself a 'standing' in the technological world... It became in its own way precisely what it was devoted to overcoming." (Pg. 244)
This an excellent critical survey and overview of a wide variety of therapies.
Author Thomas Keirnan wrote in the Introduction to this 1974 book, "The temptation in a book such as this is to drag the psychotherapy industry ... over the coals of rigorous derision... But the purpose of this book is to act as a critical and comprehensive guide to psychotherapies, not as an exposé of its innumerable absurdities and weirdnesses... my objective is to help inform you of the similarities and differences between the numerous psychotherapies currently in use." (Pg. xii-xiii)
After citing a 1952 article by H.J. Eysenck which suggested that "roughly two-thirds of a group of neurotic patients will recover or improve to a marked extent within about two years of the onset of their illness, whether they are treated by means of psychotherapy or not," he observes, "there have been no more recent studies offered that effectively contradict his conclusions. Many defenders of psychotherapy dispute Eysenck's claims on the grounds that he, being an advocate of behavior therapy, has permitted his objectivity to fly away on the winds of his biased viewpoint." (Pg. 56-57)
He observes that Erich Fromm "saw individual neurosis as a spreading disease that was at once caused by society and reflected the elemental flaws in the culture. The only way to cure neurosis was to psychoanalyze everyone alive and thus cure society. Sunce that was clearly impossible, Fromm tried to achieve the same end by writing books which, in effect, analyzed society's ills and gave sociological prescriptions for their cure." (Pg. 161-162)
He points out, "The identity crisis is the central focus of all Eriksonian analysis. It is the crucial measure of all that has gone before in an individual's psychic life, and the determinant of all that comes after... In postulating the identity crisis, Erikson managed to merge social-existential ideas into orthodox theory without seriously undermining basic Freudian principles." (Pg. 179)
He admits, "no one knows why client-centered therapy as an approach to neurosis seems to work better than, say, psychoanalysis or Gestalt therapy. Perhaps it is true that the great majority of people who seek psychotherapy in general suffer from only the mildest forms of neurotic disorder. It would be true, then, that the majority who submit to client-centered therapy also suffer only from mild neurosis..." (Pg. 191)
He argues, "But the encounter approach---like every other therapy---has failed. It has not only failed to fulfill its way-of-life potential, but also its potential as a specific form of therapy... like most other visionary movements that have come down the boulevard of history, it saw simple solutions to inexplicably complex problems, and then clothed its simplicity in the bureaucratic garb of techniques, dogmas and hierarchies so as to give itself a 'standing' in the technological world... It became in its own way precisely what it was devoted to overcoming." (Pg. 244)
This an excellent critical survey and overview of a wide variety of therapies.
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