Psychotherapy

GIOVANNI FELICE PACE

in Context REGENT’S UNIVERSITY

Etymology of
Therapy

From ϑεραπεία (therapeia)

• From the Greek verb θεραπεύειν,
“to cure, to take care of”
• Originated from the pre-Greek verb
θεράπων (therapon) squire: “the
one who supports the warrior”

2
 Timeline to modern psychotherapy
Ahmed ibn Sahl
Ebers Papyrus and al-Balkhi creates
Edwin Smith Papyrus. the term “mental Jean-Baptiste
Dementia and health/hygiene” Pussin removes the
Depression Muhammad ibn The Bethlem Royal shackles and uses
Neurosurgical Hyppocrates: The Zakariya al-Razi Hospital of London the “Moral
procedures Treatment”: drug- Sigmund Freud
four humours and recognised the starts treating the
Magic complementary free, non-violent, opens his practice in
physis: melancholia as concept of first mentally ill
role humane treatment Vienna
imbalance. psychotherapy patients

500 B.C. 300 B.C. 1025 A.D. 1567 A.D. 1870 A.D.

1550 B.C. 400 B.C. 900 A.D. 1403 A.D. 1793 A.D. 1886 A.D.

Siddharta Gautama Huangdi Neijing, a Avicenna describes Paracelsus mental Jean-Martin

(Buddha): mental medical text, describes hallucinations, illness not demonic Charcot studies the
suffering caused by the relationship insomnia, mania, possession. conversion disorder
ignorance, to cure it: between organs and melancholia, tremor, Mentions the at the Salpetriere
the Eightfold Path emotions. Formalised nightmares unconscious, and Hospital of Paris
the Qi and the Yin and calls for humane using Hypnotherapy
Yang. treatment of
patients 3
 “Love is born into every human being; it calls back
the halves of our original nature together; it tries to
make one out of two and heal the wound of human
nature.”
The Symposium, Plato (428 – 348 B.D.)
The School of
Athens
Raphael
1511

“The moral virtues, then, are produced in us neither by

nature nor against nature. Nature, indeed, prepares in
us the ground for their reception, but their complete
formation is the product of habit.”

The Nichomachean Ethics, Aristotle (384 – 322 B.D.) 4

 Nature
or
Nurture?

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 Dovervision-2
JrKorpa
2020

Therapist The Issue Client 6

 The Issue

Ancient Middle Modern Contemporary

Period Age Period Period

Demonic Possession Demonic Possession 15th-16th Century 19th Century

•Via Intercourse •To be exorcised •Witch Hunting •First Classification of Mental
•Via Affiliation •First Madhouses Illnesses
•Family-based treatment •Kraepelin’s “A Textbook:
Foundations of Psychiatry and
Neuroscience” textbook
•Freud’s “On Hysteria”
Metaphysical Entities Humour Imbalance 17th Century
•God’s will •To be rebalanced •Professionalisation of treatment
•Disrespect •Madness as “loss of self-
restraint” and not “being hurt”
20th Century
•Pivotal role of WWI
•From Treason to PTSD
Humour Imbalance Moral Issue 18th – 19th Century •Broadening of treatment scope
•Greece •Sinning •Madhouses spread •From the Elite to the Commoner
•India •Institutionalisation •Reflection on the nature of
therapy
•China •Government involvement

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The musical
Exorcism of
the “Taranta”
Ernesto De Martino
1959
 “The patients often try to starve
themselves, to hang themselves, to cut their
arteries; they beg that they may be burned,
buried alive, driven out into the woods and
there allowed to die.
One of my patients struck his neck so often
on the edge of a chisel fixed on the ground
that all the soft parts were cut through to
the vertebrae.”

Emil Kraepelin
Manic-depressive Insanity and Paranoia
1921
 “It is the client who knows
what hurts, what directions to
go, what problems are crucial,
what experiences have been
deeply buried.”

Carl Rogers
On Becoming a Person
1961
From being
described to
self-description
Psychotherapy has steadily
increased its reflections on
the role of gender, role,
power, colonisation,
difference, diversity.

This has greatly helped

seeing therapy from the
client’s perspective, slowly
changing the nature of
psychotherapy.
Patient
or
Client?

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The Client
The Patient
• From the Latin patire, “to suffer, to
tolerate”
• It comes from the ancient Greek word
πάσχειν, “to feel, to sense, to suffer”
• In medicine is “one who suffers, one
who tolerates”
• In religion is “One who can tolerate
pain and strive toward virtue”
• It implies less power, less
knowledge
The Client
• From the Latin cliens, “follower,
listener”
• In ancient Rome a client would lean on
a patron for protection
• It indicates a peculiar
benefactor/benefiter relationship
• From the 15th century onward indicates
a person who chooses a service
from a lawyer
• It implies emancipation and choice
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The Therapist Provider of guidance who
aims to well-being and
responsibility.

The
The
Priest
Magician
Philosopher
Expert of exorcism,
herbalism, and alchemy.
The cure was delivered via
rituals or concoctions.
The From the 18th
Priest Century onward the
Expert of soul and Confessor “Enlightenment”
penitence. helped the movement
A professional listener towards rationality.
and counsel who aim to Proof over all.
restore spiritual
connection.
What does a
therapist
do?

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Psychiatrist
• a medical practitioner specializing
in the diagnosis and
(pharmaco)treatment of mental
illness
Psychotherapist
• a person who treats mental
disorders by psychological rather
than medical means
Psychologist
• someone who studies the human
mind and human emotions and
behaviour, and how different
situations have an effect on people
Counsellor
• a person trained to give guidance
on personal or psychological
problems
Psychoanalyst
• a person who examines or treats
people using psychoanalysis
(treatment based on the
unconscious mind)
Coach
• A person who helps individuals by
focusing on the positive aspects
with a problem solving, goal 16
achieving attitude
“In history, as well as in two thirds of the
world, of course, there is hardly a culture
which does not use traditional healing
practices based on ancient appreciations of
the power of shamans, medicine people and
other kinds of prophet-healers to invoke the
supreme powers of God (or whatever the life
force may be called locally) to assist in
healing, helping and harvesting.”

Petruska Clarkson
The Transpersonal Relationship
2005
Sigmund Freud
a Victorian atheist scientist

• Freud’s vision was strongly scientific

and atheist
• “Religious doctrines … are all
illusions, they do not admit of
proof, and no one can be
compelled to consider them as
true or to believe in them.”, The
Future of an illusion, 1927
• He was the first scientific-oriented
therapist who created a coherent
theory based on clinical observation
• “Where Id is, there shall Ego be.”,
The Anatomy of the Mental Personality, 1933

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The movement towards Experience
Before the 50s
• The aim of psychotherapy was to interpret
the patient’s behaviour and dynamics
• The therapist would use their observation
skills and clinical acumen to test and verify
hypothesis clinically
• A general rule of neutrality and
detachment was observed in the Analyst-
Patient dynamics
• The average psychoanalyst was a medical
doctor
From the 50s
• A steady process of emancipation from the
medical world crystallised the
“Humanistic” approach
• Carl Rogers, Fritz Perls, Robert Laing
started focusing on the experience of
being alive, rather than diagnosing
• Awareness becomes the goal of therapy
• Therapy becomes more cooperative/co-
created
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“The strongest people are those
who win battles we know nothing
about.”

Unknown
 What do you think
What does each Why are some things
would happen if you
scenario make you harder to talk about
did talk about your
think about? than others?
mental health?