ABSTRACT
In the enlightened and naturalistic approaches to mental illness recorded in Greco-Roman history there are no explicit references to psychotherapy—to conversation with therapeutic intent. The naturalistic, “medical,” and humane propositions and procedures of the golden era of Greco-Roman philosophy and science gave way to the Dark Ages. The origins of modern psychotherapy are to be found in the history of Freud’s thought and in this history one finds several periods of dramatic new insights. Orthodox psychoanalytic therapy has never had a significant, direct impact per se on the treatment of mental illness. In 1952, a British psychologist published a summary of the statistics on recovery and improvement of neurotic patients who received psychotherapy of varying degrees of intensity and specificity. The controversial survey of the available statistics on the amount of recovery or significant improvement which is achieved by neurotics under psychotherapy was interpreted by its author as failing to demonstrate that such therapy is effective.
