1. Human nature and psychotherapy
- Author
-
Thomas S. Szasz
- Subjects
Game analysis ,Psychotherapist ,lcsh:RC435-571 ,Principal (computer security) ,Sketch ,Power (social and political) ,Psychiatry and Mental health ,Clinical Psychology ,Portrait ,lcsh:Psychiatry ,Medical prescription ,Psychology ,Relation (history of concept) ,Control (linguistics) - Abstract
Summary This essay has three aims. The first is to describe the crucial differences between the science of things and of men: in each, description, prescription, control (of events), and prediction play different roles. The second is to sketch a portrait of Moral Man. Every kind of psychotherapy presupposes a certain concept of “human nature.” For Moral Man, choice-making is the principal problem. What he needs, by way of psychotherapeutic help, is game analysis, not game prescription. The third is to relate the concept of Moral Man to the theory and practice of autonomous psychotherapy. An outgrowth of psychoanalysis, autonomous psychotherapy seeks to increase the patient's choices in the conduct of his life. In conclusion, some observations were offered on the inverse relation between a person's power to control his fellow man and his ability to understand him.
- Published
- 1962