Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-03T13:49:18.186Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Contraindications and Dangers of Psychotherapy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Sidney Crown
Sidney Crown*
Affiliation:
The London Hospital, Whitechapel, London E1 1BB
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Psychotherapy, like any other effective treatment in medicine, may lead to negative effects either in the patient or those around him. The source of these unwanted effects may be in the patient's or the therapist's personality, in the patient-therapist interaction, in faulty therapy technique or in the patient's unresolvable social situation. The possibility of negative effects should be anticipated during the descriptive and psychodynamic assessment of the patient and before establishing the therapeutic contract. The technique of a trial of psychotherapy should be more frequently used than it is in cases where the therapist is in doubt. If negative effects do develop, these should be minimized by decreasing the frequency of psychotherapy sessions and depth of exploration. This may be done by allowing greater therapist “transparency”, by making fewer psychodynamic interpretations and by altering the focus of therapy from problems of early development to problems of current living.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 143 , Issue 5 , November 1983 , pp. 436 - 441
Copyright
Copyright © 1983 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bergin, A. E. & Lambert, M. J. (1978) The evaluation of therapeutic outcomes. In Handbook of Psychotherapy and Behaviour Change: An Empirical Analysis (eds. Garfield, S. L. and Bergin, A. E.), 2nd edition. Pp 139–90. Chichester: John Wiley.Google Scholar
Buckley, P., Karasu, T. B. & Charles, E. (1981) Psychotherapists' view their personal therapy. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 18, 299–305.Google Scholar
Crisp, A. H. (1966) “Transference”, “symptom emergence” and “social repercussion” in behaviour therapy. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 39, 179–96.Google Scholar
Crown, S. (1981) Once-monthly “depth” psychotherapy: Exploration of a paradox. In Proceedings of the 1st European Conference on Psychotherapy Research. Vol. II. Pp 34–43. Research on Psychotherapeutic Approaches (eds. Minsel, Wolf-Rudiger and Herff, Wolfgang). Frankfurt/Main, Bern, Cirencester: Peter D. Lang.Google Scholar
Eysenck, H. J. (1952) The effects of psychotherapy, an evaluation. Journal of Consulting Psychology, 16, 319–24.Google Scholar
Gomes-Schwartz, B. (1982) Negative change induced by psychotherapy. British Journal of Hospital Medicine, 28, 248–53.Google ScholarPubMed
Hadley, S. W. & Strupp, H. H. (1976) Contemporary views of negative effects in psychotherapy. Archives of General Psychiatry, 33, 1291–1302.Google Scholar
Leder, S. (1968) Psychotherapy: placebo effect and/or learning. In The Role of Learning in Psychotherapy, pp 114–133 (ed. Porter, R.). London: J. & A. Churchill.Google Scholar
Lieberman, M. A., Yalom, I. D. & Miles, M. B. (1973) Encounter Groups: First Facts. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Luborsky, L., Singer, B. & Luborsky, L. (1975) Comparative studies of Psychotherapies. Archives of General Psychiatry, 32, 995–1008.Google Scholar
Meares, R. A. & Hobson, R. F. (1977) The persecutory therapist. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 50, 349–59.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sifneos, P. E. (1979) Short-term Dynamic Psychotherapy: Evaluation and Techniques. London: Plenum Medical.Google Scholar
Storr, A. (1979) The Art of Psychotherapy. London: Secker & Warburg.Google Scholar
Strupp, H. H., Hadley, S. W. & Gomes-Schwartz, B. (1978) Psychotherapy for Better or Worse. The Problem of Negative Effects. New York: Jason Aronson.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.