The document discusses the evolution and future of psychotherapy, highlighting its significant cultural impact since the 20th century and the ongoing debate about its relevance in a modern, digitally connected world. It contrasts traditional psychoanalytic approaches with more modern experiential therapies, emphasizing the shared goal of understanding mental mechanisms behind distress. The future of psychotherapy is uncertain, with potential shifts influenced by advances in neuroscience, medicine, and technology.

1. FUTURE OF
PSYCHOTHERAPY
made by
Psychologist stella

2. PSYCHOTHERAPY IN 20TH CENTURY
 The 20th century has been called ‘the century of psychiatry’, and in many ways one
could read that as ‘the century of psychotherapy’. A hundred years ago, at the
onset of World War I, psychotherapy had touched the lives of only a tiny number of
people, and most of the population had simply never heard of it. Since then it has
reached into almost every aspect of our lives—how we treat the mentally ill, how
we understand our relationships, our appreciation of art and artists, and even how
we manage our schools, prisons, and workplaces. Our culture has become one
quite obsessed with understanding how people feel and our daily language is
peppered with psychotherapy language.

3. FUTURE OF PSYCHOTHERAPY
 What does the future hold? Have we witnessed the flowering of a cultural
movement that is tied to just one unique time and place, or is it a fundamental step
forward in human thinking and relationships? In our increasingly global world will it
spread ever more widely or perhaps fade away altogether? Have the various
changes in its practice made it more relevant to modern man or less so? Will the
enormous advances in medicine, neuroscience, and psychology, and our move into
the digital age of social media, render it obsolete?

4.  How we judge psychotherapy’s future will probably reflect what we think of it now:
as a profound breakthrough in understanding ourselves and a step forward in
social evolution, or as simply one among many technical procedures to reduce
distress and improve human well-being. Reducing distress is certainly not a trivial
achievement, but it does not satisfy psychotherapy’s strongest advocates—they
believe it has irrevocably changed the way we see the world and how we behave.
From a different perspective, psychotherapy has been criticized right from the
beginning for having ‘cult-like’ and religious overtones.

5. EVOLUTION OF PSYCHOTHERAPY
 We have roughly divided psychotherapy’s century into two halves. Up to the 1960s
it was either psychoanalysis or one of its modifications. Therapies were verbal,
protracted, and intensive, drawing on a detailed theory of unconscious
forces. Understanding was the key to recovery. Later therapies have been much
more experiential. Understanding remains important, but the process of
psychotherapy and the therapeutic relationship have come to the fore.

6.  Some people are struck by the similarities between these psychotherapies and
some by their differences. Are they adaptations of the same basic model or new
and original approaches? It is a bit like deciding whether a glass is half full or half
empty. Therapists usually stress the differences and the unique therapeutic
mechanisms in their approach. Psychoanalysts and CBT therapists have traditionally
had very little positive to say about each other’s practice.

7. WHAT DO WE CONCLUDE?
 You may have found yourself drawn to one or other specific therapy. Alternatively
you may come to the conclusion that they have more elements in common than
divide them. The latter perspective is probably how we view things. Yes, CBT is
undoubtedly radically different in tone, duration, and immediate focus from
psychoanalysis. But both work by helping troubled individuals understand better
the mental mechanisms that have caused and sustain their problems

8. PREDICTION AND GOALS
 One thing the psychotherapies share is that they have all expanded their reach. The
threshold for seeking psychotherapy or counselling has steadily lowered over the
decades, and our demand for it seems inexhaustible. Their goals have also
expanded—from just the reduction or removal of symptoms, towards self-
fulfilment and well-being.

9.  We can be certain that psychotherapy will undergo changes in both theory and
practice. What is impossible to foresee is precisely where these changes will occur.
The trend towards shorter, more structured and democratic therapies seems
inexorable, but radical changes may come out of the blue. Will they come from
developments such as computer science, or perhaps from other cultures than the
Judeo-Christian origins of most current therapies? Prediction is a risky business.

10. THANK YOU