[Psychotherapy : pleasure without principle.].

Abstract

Is the current marketing of psychotherapy going to be its end ? The growing confusion induced by the commercialization of psychotherapy does not seem to worry the psychotherapists who think they profit from it as much as does the public. This paper argues that it is high time for psychotherapists to adopt a consumer perspective if they are to fully grasp the extent of the problem engendered by the commercialization of contemporary psychotherapy. The rules of the therapeutic relationship are not aimed only at serving the patient's objectives but are subject to other pressures such as institutional contexts, ideological and sociopolitical position of the therapists. The author analyses the constraints governing the practice of psychotherapy and points to various ways in which psychotherapists contribute to the decay of psychotherapy. On this critical basis, five areas are identified wherein concerted action by psychotherapists may help pull psychotherapy out of its present crisis.