Modernity and Psychotherapy

Abstract

The birth of psychotherapy occurred at a time when the world became modern—or, more precisely, when the pace of modernization accelerated. What do we mean by modernity? This term has been variously defined, but generally refers to cultural changes associated with industrial and post-industrial society, by a decline in the influence of tradition and social norms. The sociologist Anthony Giddens (1998, p. 27) defines it as “a shorthand term for modern society, or industrial civilization” going on to state that “it is associated with (1) a certain set of attitudes towards the world, the idea of the world as open to transformation, by human intervention; (2) a complex of economic institutions, especially industrial production and a market economy; (3) a certain range of political institutions, including the nation-state and mass democracy.”