Carrol writes: >"Psychotherapy" is not equivalent to psychoanalysis; few
psychotherapists (who usually have either an MA or a Ph.D. in clinical
psychology) are psychoanalysts and no psychoanalysts would ever
self-identify as a psychotherapist. I have heard of therapists whose
practice implicitly assumes various psychoanalytic theories, but in the
U.S. no one can call him/herself a psychoanalyst who is not a
psychiatrist, and psychiatrists are all MDs.<
a lot of psychotherapists either are eclectics or hope be synthesists, using psychoanalytic insights as just one piece to be put together to solve a patient's puzzle. To complicate matters, a somewhat generalized version of Freudian psychoanalysis is now called "psychodynamics."
>Simply having someone to talk to who isn't too stupid can help with many
mental illnesses, and reasonably intelligent ones will have a stock of
information and gimmicks that may help more. E.g., it was useful to me
to find out that the lead ball in one's stomach that often accompanies
depression or anxiety can be cleared up with deep breathing ...<
this last is part of cognitive therapy, no?
Jim
