What is The Message

• The Case of Gary III - Life in a malevolent world. by Jim Pretzer, 10/25/97
  • Languages used by therapists by Ernest Wolf, Faculty, 11/24/97
    • Is it true that the language is different but the experience is the same? by Jim Pretzer, 11/26/97
      
      

When I stressed the importance of similar experiences that patients have in spite of the different theories and words that therapists use with them I should have elaborated to clarify my meaning. Let us say a patient comes in to complain about a particular unfriendly work relationship. Therapist A may inquire in detail about the back and forth of their words with each other. Therapist B offer some advice on how to cope with such situations. Therapist C may give an explanation (=interpretation) in terms of the patient's traumatic past. Therapist D may discuss the patient's daily activities and suggest some alterations that might be of benefit. All these explanations and interpretations representing different theories and using different languages are of some interest to the pt and to the therapist. They have different content. But I believe their effect on the pt is less importantly related to their content than to what they tell the patient about the therapist's relations to the patient: is he really that interested in me? does he really care? etc. It is the answer to these questions the pt has about the therapist that will determine how the pt will feel and whether the pt will get stronger or weaker. That is the importance of the relationship, and how it is experienced. That will determine progress for the pt., I believe, much more so than any intellectual, theoretical or otherwise cognitive content of the sentences the therapist has spoken. Ernie Wolf

• Therapeutic Relationship and Content by Patricia A. Doherty, 12/16/97