Psychotherapy; a course of reading in sound psychology, sound medicine and sound religion. . Phenomena, referred to as if they weresolid and reliable authorities, it cannot help but excite a great dealof distrust (and some stronger feelings) in the minds of those whoare in a position to compare these books with any body of well-authenticated fact. The very word psychotherapy has, upon the lips of many, animplication of something occult and supernatural, although the wordrefers to nothing more mysterious than common sense.* In a certainsense, of course, it is true that all mental facts, from th
Psychotherapy; a course of reading in sound psychology, sound medicine and sound religion. . Phenomena, referred to as if they weresolid and reliable authorities, it cannot help but excite a great dealof distrust (and some stronger feelings) in the minds of those whoare in a position to compare these books with any body of well-authenticated fact. The very word psychotherapy has, upon the lips of many, animplication of something occult and supernatural, although the wordrefers to nothing more mysterious than common sense.* In a certainsense, of course, it is true that all mental facts, from the plainestmatters of common sense down (or up) to the vaguest flights offancy, have a certain slipperiness about them, a certain mistinessand intangibility, just because they depend for the clearness of theiroutlines upon our flickering attention. A little veering in our at-tention, a slight variation in our mood, produces a far greater changein the meaning attached to such words as imagination, cer- 1 See note under The Next Article, on preceding page.* See note at end of article. [21]. tainty, spirit, than it does in relation to such phenomena asthe coal hod or the sidewalk. We are dealing with facts in both cases, but in the group of factswhich are called mental or psychic we, the observers, are ourselvesmixed up from moment to moment, so that the shape and color ofthese mental phenomena vary not only according to the sharpnessand accuracy of our senses (as the sidewalk and the coal hod do),but also in accordance with the particular associations determinedby the last book we have been reading, the last friend we have beentrying to convert, or the quality of last nights sleep. Another fact which raises a presumption against the reliabilityof the facts on which psychotherapy is supposed to rest is the char-acter of the persons who have been associated with it, especially innewspaper talk and newspaper advertisements. It is hard to per-suade a physician that there is anything r
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