The Image of Man in Modern Psychotherapy

At present, much is said about crises, which directly or indirectly will affect and compromise nearly all sectors of human activity. A crisis in psychotherapy could not fail to occur as a result of this global crisis. 

In clinical psychology this crisis appears as a flood of new psychotherapeutic forms, the so-called “psychoboom”, and in the basic questions of representation of illness, participation and value of diagnosis, and also influence of psychotherapeutic manipulations. Using Kuhn terminology, Keupp in this regard talks about “crisis of paradigm” in different spheres of psychotherapy. On a global scale psychotherapy periodically develops new methods, forms new schools of thought, concepts and technologies. Recent studies have shown over 700 methods of psychotherapy now exist and all of them claim to be effective. 

From a psychotherapeutic point of view, in connection with this, the question of the image of man takes on special meaning. Considering its influence on interpersonal relationships it can be called question No.1 for today’s psychotherapy and psychiatry—as all other questions proceed from this (Hagehuelsman H., 1987). In reply to similar opinions the following demand was postulated: “With public agreement considering fundamental influence of the image of man for creating psychological theories it is very desirable that this model of man of scientists or scientific society has been presented as minimum in basic publications or was cleared up in reference”. 

Goals and tasks of psychotherapy in different diseases are determined by an author’s theoretical orientation concerning the nature and mechanisms of these disorders. Traditional psychiatry and psychotherapy base their vision of man on psychopathology. The aim of treatment is to eliminate the disease, which can be compared with the surgical removal of a stricken organ. At the same time, prophylactic medicine and psychotherapy need methods, which take into account not only the disorder, but also the capability of the individual and his potential for development. A first step to this could be the consideration of what type of theory is useful for psychotherapy.