The theory and practice of psychotherapy

Abstract

It is not by chance that both Hopson’s and Beech’s chapters avoid using the word ‘therapy’ in the title. It is part of an attempt by many to move away from the ‘medical model’ which suggests that people with psychological problems are necessarily ‘ill’ and so require ‘treatment’. Another aspect of this same attempt is the use of the word ‘client’ instead of ‘patient’. That no other more satisfactory word has yet been found indicates something of the hold our language has over our thinking. It was against such a model that the psychiatrist Laing rebelled. The hold is such that I can find no alternative to ‘psychotherapy’ to use in the title of this chapter so as to distinguish it from counselling on the one hand and behaviour therapy on the other.