ABSTRACT
Carl Jung stressed the idea that "Image is psyche". He insisted that, "Every psychic process is an image and an imagining". There is little evidence, according to these measures, to suggest that training in psychotherapy, years of personal therapy on the part of the practitioner, or supervision of psychotherapy practice are of consequence to the treatment outcome. Normal functioning is not the main aim of a psychotherapy that works with the concept of the unconscious. In psychotherapy the symptom can be regarded as an indicator of deeper unconscious issues that need to come more fully into consciousness in order to promote wholeness or health. Bound by Hippocrates' injunction to "first do no harm" health professionals are not in a position to easily explore the nocebo. Placebo and nocebo responses are not insubstantial delusions afforded to gullible and malleable people. Perhaps such an untested evidence base is in itself a foundation for a placebo effect.
