ABSTRACT
Jeff Zeig’s hope to develop a dialogue between people who have different perspectives on the process of psychotherapy is a hope I do not think it is really possible to realize. As I was listening to Dr. Ellis, I was thinking that he was describing changes in his theory. He is a man who has worked for a lifetime on a particular therapy. I am supposed to be a discussant of his paper. But I am a person who has spent a lifetime in a completely different way of thinking. And as much as I try to be respectful of his ideas and to understand what he is saying, the truth is that we are speaking completely different languages. I do not recognize people outside of context. I do not recognize the people whom Albert Ellis describes. To me, the concepts of circularity and feedback are concepts between people, not within people. Patients are part of the same system, and I do not see the therapist and the mutual influence of therapists and patients in the way that Dr. Ellis does.
