Psychosomatic Medicine 2:304-310 (1940)
© 1940 American Psychosomatic Society

Psychotherapy and the Psychotherapist: New Orientations

¹ Butler Hospital, Providence, R. I.

In recent years a constantly increasing tendency toward the uncritical use of the terms psychotherapy and psychotherapist has been observed. At present, this trend has essentially eliminated all specificity of definition and meaning content from these terms. Such circumstances preclude accurate evaluations of what legitimately may be termed psychotherapy and who may be justly designated a psychotherapist. Reference to every physician or laymay who converses to some extent with the patient as a psychotherapist and to the content of such casual verbal contacts as psychotherapy affords no basic standards against which the value of results of genuine psychotherapeutic efforts may be measured. At a time when the greatest emphasis is being placed upon efforts to intelligently correlate medical art and medical science in the understanding and treatment of all forms of illness, it becomes more than ever imperative that consistent measuring rods be employed. In the hope of stimulating others to bring more valuable contributions to clarity of thinking and purpose relative to the psychotherapist and his art, a restricted definition and delimitation of the connotation of the terms psychotherapy and psychotherapist have been formulated. A suggested plan of approach to general treating objectives is included in the present effort to point the way toward a more and more pragmatic orientation of psychotherapy and the psychotherapist to the more comprehensive field of medical theory and practice.