ABSTRACT

There is a measure of dissatisfaction and a wish for more effective forms of psychotherapy lurking in the mind of every mental health practitioner. There have been many definitions of the unsolved mysteries and the ills that have befallen the psychotherapeutic realm and many prescriptions for their cure. Evolutionary-oriented psychotherapists have been attempting to investigate the evolved nature of human emotional functioning. The search for fundamental components—irreducible structures and functions—typifies the pursuit of virtually all current forms of science, from physics and chemistry to anthropology and archaeology. Another kind of strategy is called for, and it appears to lie in one direction alone—turning at long last to basics, the heretofore undefined fundamentals of psychotherapy. Psychotherapy is essentially a human endeavour, we are likely to be inclined to concentrate our efforts on the patient and/or therapist—doing so as they experience and respond to each other’s communications and to the conditions under which they are conveyed.