ABSTRACT
Psychotherapy, or the treatment of the mind by psychological methods, is identified in popular thought today with “psychoanalysis”. This word is now so widely accepted that everyone who uses it seems at the same time to grasp its meaning; yet it is seldom that a layman knows precisely what it covers. The first beginnings of all analytical treatment are to be found in its prototype, the confessional. Since, however, the two clinical practices have no direct causal connection, but rather grow from a common psychic root, it is difficult for an outsider to see at once the relation between the groundwork of psychoanalysis and the religious institution of the confessional. It is probable that one form of neurosis is conditioned by the predominance of secrets, and another by the predominance of restrained emotions.
