ABSTRACT
A cursory glance at the syllabus of any representative body of psychologists is sufficient to remind how rarely psychotherapeutists inflict on themselves the discipline of self-examination. Papers on the subject-matter of clinical investigation are as plentiful as blackberries, but only once in a while is the instrument of investigation, the psychotherapeutist himself, subjected to purposive scrutiny. Starting then with the concept of a 'normal' psychotherapeutic activity, involving an approach to illness from a psychological angle and the employment of psychological means of treatment, we may fairly say that any pointed and consistent endeavour to exclude psychological factors constitutes a 'pathological' manifestation. But whilst it is easy to multiply instances of exhortative or negativistic attitudes, it is a more delicate matter to apportion the magical and realistic components of psychotherapeutic tendency. In this sense we may say that his energies are for the most part expended in both direct and vicarious pursuit of psychological objectivity.
