Psychotherapy in the Circuit of Contradictions

Abstract

The author discusses psychotherapy’s state of the art in the year of Freud’s 150th anniversary. He raises the issues of legitimacy, efficacy and institutionalization of therapeutic practice and analyses a number of problems in psychotherapy studies. The author reviews critically some attempts at constructing a «general theory» of therapy. He discusses a new approach, interactive-analysis, and describes particular features of therapeutic community using the notion of «ideoballic community». He exposes many contradictions in both therapeutic knowledge and professional community.