ON PSYCHOTHERAPY

Abstract

In his 1905 programmatic paper "On Psychotherapy," Freud attempts to demonstrate that psychoanalytic psychotherapy is based on the same foundation as any other form of treatment, whether it concerns mental or somatic ailments. In this way, he refutes the criticisms directed at psychoanalysis regarding its spiritual or mystical underpinnings while simultaneously elucidating the relationship of psychotherapy itself to the human condition (anthropology). Furthermore, by emphasizing the distinction between somatic and mental aspects and asserting the possibility of psychological influence on the inherently psychological, Freud outlines the history of the development of the psychoanalytic procedure and its relationship to hypnotic suggestion and the cathartic method. While acknowledging the apparent self-evidence of the psychoanalytic procedure, he warns against its arbitrary practice without proper training, excessive emphasis on the significance of sexual deprivation in the formation of neuroses, the notion that psychoanalysis is the sole effective method of psychotherapeutic treatment, and the idea of the brief duration of analytic intervention. Freud also provides one of the earliest outlines of technical recommendations for physicians practicing or intending to practice psychoanalysis. Notably, the differentiation between the psychotic and neurotic domains as subjects of psychoanalytic treatment is remarkable, as well as Freud's arguments in favor of, at least temporarily, restricting the use of the psychoanalytic procedure during the treatment of neurotic disorders and establishing age limitations for the use of psychoanalysis, along with arguments in support of such limitations. The paper "On Psychotherapy" is an important document for the study of the history of the development of the psychoanalytic method.