ABSTRACT
Psychotherapy is the quintessential program of social efficiency, promising not only to change problem behaviors but to do so cheaply and without disrupting the comfortable flow of society. Family therapy and group therapy even offer the benefits of scale. But on scientific grounds, the value of psychotherapy remains indeterminate at best. Scrutiny of the best outcome studies of psychotherapy either before or after the 1980 benchmark of Smith and group does not substantiate its effectiveness. The summary reviews of the basic clinical tests have distilled the many reported successes into potent claims that psychotherapy provides efficient solutions for social problems. The basic clinical studies of its effectiveness and the discussion of that body of research—the intuitive reviews, box scores, and metaanalyses—have led to generally optimistic and frequently enthusiastic endorsements of psychotherapy's effectiveness. The larger impact of psychotherapy may lie outside of the therapeutic session itself, in its extrinsic contribution to social stability and in constructing the myth of social efficiency.
