Psychotherapy: The Restoration of Morale

The author suggests that the primary function of all psychotherapies is to combat demoralization—which aggravates and is aggravated psychiatric symptoms—through restoring the patient's sense of mastery. All psychotherapeutic rationales and rituals perform this function despite differences in content. The author reviews the evidence consistent with this hypothesis, pointing out the potential implications for classification of candidates for therapy and for research on sources of the therapist's healing powers.