ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned with the process by which patients become an "input" into the system. The decision to go to a psychotherapist or to a psychiatric clinic is composed of four steps or stages: the realization of a problem, consultation with laymen, choice of type of healer, and choice of an individual practitioner. Unlike other persons, lower-class applicants for psychotherapy tend to come because of their physical symptoms. The Friends and Supporters of Psychotherapy are of course the ones who ask their friends for help. Despite the basically high level of consensus about expectations of therapy, membership in the Friends and Supporters of Psychotherapy, reading books about psychotherapy, and actual previous therapy all increase the proportion of applicants who express an opinion in accord with the notions of therapists themselves. A common strand runs through all the decisions that must be made before a person applies for psychotherapy at a clinic.
