PSYCHOTHERAPY AND ITS PLETHORA OF TREATMENTS

The simplistic explanation of psychotherapy is that it deals with the treatment of disorders of emotion or personality by psychological methods. Formerly, this was the treatment of disease by psychic or hypnotic influence. As the profession of psychotherapy is now established, the treatment of emotional or behavioural problems by psychological means, often in one-to-one interviews or small groups, is now the accepted norm.Following six years of training and about fifty years of practical experience using the few established specialties of treating people, since retirement I came to the realisation that the amount of branches in the fields of psychotherapies, psychology, counselling, medical and psychiatric treatments; the schools of ideas are innumerable.Whether this is a blessing for the patients, clients and the sufferers (because they have an abundance of choices), or perhaps a confusing anathema, it is up to the practitioners and the recipients by collaborating to choose the appropriate therapeutic sessions; which hopefully will suit the individual clients of all ages.There are cases where treatment is not enough and the training and or retraining will be sufficient for the clients to learn how to cope with the problems pressurising them. In certain cases the encouragement to develop their talents, follow academic studies, and show them the way of professional portability will improve their chances for suitable careers.By introducing clients and patients to the world of academia, professional portability and continuous self-development, any of these may be the suitable treatment of uncertainty, anxiety, panic attacks and a few other psychological and medical complaints. It is believed that the subject of offering advice, guidance and in general, counselling people in modern times has become a profession in its own right. With this in mind, this book hopes to address an important alternative in treating the homo-sapiens and his/her discomforts in living as an individual and in groups, whatever the choice may be.The contents of this book will still be of importance to the reader and perhaps a training tool for the practitioner of the philosophy of psychotherapy. There is no doubt that this subject is deep and vast. Backed by recent social events and political debating, therapy and its plentiful branches can only be helpful in preparing people to obtain an acceptable style of living and a harmonious mode of interacting and integrating; to live as an entity with his/her own attributes and unique behaviour within a society. In doing so, philosophers have debated the morals, norms, laws, beliefs, religions and logically enough what can be an acceptable pattern of attitudes within the parameters of social tolerance. Through the aeons, practitioners of various established professions have advised and counselled on the upbringing of children and offered guidance in establishing the right relationship between the child, the parents and the state. More recently, analytical philosophies such as the neo-Freudian and Jungian schools established the methods of treating people, based on the classical idealism. People who studied such subjects probably know that Socrates is the father of the method of question and answer. Also, that Sophocles, through his surviving tragedies, is certainly the major contributor to the psycho-analytical Oedipus and Electra complexes and perhaps the biggest influence on Freud, his disciples and their successors. The philosophies of therapeutic methods have been with us since the times of the olden. As such, the reader is encouraged to read further in other books that include the ideas of Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Hume, Burke, Hegel, Bentham, Mill, Marx and other philosophers of contemporary therapies.