SPECIALISTS IN HUNAN RELATIONS
1^
Sixth International Congress of
in London UgUst 24th' when Dr- T- F- Main sPok of the progress which has been since Freud delivered "the third of Darc- Sreat historic blows to man's the discovery that man, s to rational, has an irrationai unconscious mental life, conneeds and fantasies which ^ this way and that." A new h had T*1116118!011 of scientific endeavour Psych ifn ?Pened up, but medical must be humble, he The- ?oout what they didn't know. reasn 1^.nor.ance was inevitable and one ?r it was that it was only 1964. 1} ^e rest of the week, several ed papers were read at plenary On A
heliotherapy opened
iHaje jP
.
?
?
?
swavn?.mad
ot^eraPists .
VJ-S
201
sessions, workshops and symposia, and is not surprising that, with over 1,500 delegates and speakers from more
it
than 50 countries, general trends were hard to spot. At times there seemed as many trends as there were speakers. It was clear, however, that there was a movement towards a less rigid and stereotyped therapy and emphasis on personal and positive relationships between therapists and patients?a willingness to have the treatment suit the patient rather than fit the patient to the treatment. In what was widely considered the most brilliant contribution to the Congress, Dr. R. D. Laing urged a more outgoing and spontaneous role for therapists, and the need to focus now
on what has never happened before, rather than to rely exclusively on the interpretation of the past to reveal the present. Decisive moments in psycho-
therapy were "unpredictable, unique, unforgettable and unrepeatable," and the psychotherapist must, Dr. Laing insisted, abjure "dehumanised, deper-
sonalised, standardised theory which belongs to no-one." Personal
relationships
were
trans-
and not only transactional, he said?a view not shared by the behaviour therapy contingent, whose most celebrated exponent, Professor Joseph Wolpe, spoke later in a learning
experiental
theory symposium. The plenary sessions
at the Congress devoted to recent advances in four branches of psychotherapy: infancy, childhood and adolescence; the individual adult; small groups; and large groups. At the first session Dr. Anna Freud was among the speakers. She stressed that child analysis was now recognised as a separate technique in which freedom of action replaced freedom of thought She spoke of the danger of and word. taking symptoms?which, in children, come and go?as the basis for treatment, and outlined her own system of grading patients on the extent to which disturbance affected progress in develop-
were
ment.
At the second session, speakers included, apart from Dr. Laing, Dr. H. Guntrip, who defined psychotherapy as an obstinate attempt of two people to arrive at the wholeness of being human through a relationship where the therapist could feel with and for the patient only from his own experience;
and Dr. J. Ruesch, who spoke of ^ merits of non-verbal psychotherapy.1 treating the "99% of the populate who can't cope with verbal communis tion." Replying for the "armch3' psychoanalysts," Professor Medard B? doubted if there was any communis tion possible that did not refer to ? Dr. J. D. Sutherland, speaking\ small group psychotherapy, referred "the embeddedness of the person in K closest social relationships," and that more attention should be to the family, and to the need of beings constantly to cope with grovV and change in their environment. Dr. A. Stanton, speaking in ; i fourth session on psychiatric hosp', social structure, said that whereas it P. begun to be possible to think passionately about the forbidden ^ human psychology at the time of FrelJJ * it began to be possible to do so in of a few study hospitals only years He feared that the "remaining nation" in hospitals was mated, because it was natural "events, not non-events, are tal* about." jt Among a host of valuable sn papers were those by Professor Stengel on the suicide problem; Dr. A. Hyatt Williams on the therapy of murderers and poten murderers; by Professor E. on adolescent behaviour as a ji concern; and by Professor P. and his colleague, Dr. Dowiakowski (who read it) on the n for restraints in an open hospital wp s complete freedom of choice created too much anxiety in s?
conte1^
urgej devo1^
hufli^
^
sta*j.
underejj,
?
psyc^]
Linden^ comiflllJl Siva^
Marie-Lo^j someti^
patients.
1^
Sixth International Congress of
in London UgUst 24th' when Dr- T- F- Main sPok of the progress which has been since Freud delivered "the third of Darc- Sreat historic blows to man's the discovery that man, s to rational, has an irrationai unconscious mental life, conneeds and fantasies which ^ this way and that." A new h had T*1116118!011 of scientific endeavour Psych ifn ?Pened up, but medical must be humble, he The- ?oout what they didn't know. reasn 1^.nor.ance was inevitable and one ?r it was that it was only 1964. 1} ^e rest of the week, several ed papers were read at plenary On A
heliotherapy opened
iHaje jP
.
?
?
?
swavn?.mad
ot^eraPists .
VJ-S
201
sessions, workshops and symposia, and is not surprising that, with over 1,500 delegates and speakers from more
it
than 50 countries, general trends were hard to spot. At times there seemed as many trends as there were speakers. It was clear, however, that there was a movement towards a less rigid and stereotyped therapy and emphasis on personal and positive relationships between therapists and patients?a willingness to have the treatment suit the patient rather than fit the patient to the treatment. In what was widely considered the most brilliant contribution to the Congress, Dr. R. D. Laing urged a more outgoing and spontaneous role for therapists, and the need to focus now
on what has never happened before, rather than to rely exclusively on the interpretation of the past to reveal the present. Decisive moments in psycho-
therapy were "unpredictable, unique, unforgettable and unrepeatable," and the psychotherapist must, Dr. Laing insisted, abjure "dehumanised, deper-
sonalised, standardised theory which belongs to no-one." Personal
relationships
were
trans-
and not only transactional, he said?a view not shared by the behaviour therapy contingent, whose most celebrated exponent, Professor Joseph Wolpe, spoke later in a learning
experiental
theory symposium. The plenary sessions
at the Congress devoted to recent advances in four branches of psychotherapy: infancy, childhood and adolescence; the individual adult; small groups; and large groups. At the first session Dr. Anna Freud was among the speakers. She stressed that child analysis was now recognised as a separate technique in which freedom of action replaced freedom of thought She spoke of the danger of and word. taking symptoms?which, in children, come and go?as the basis for treatment, and outlined her own system of grading patients on the extent to which disturbance affected progress in develop-
were
ment.
At the second session, speakers included, apart from Dr. Laing, Dr. H. Guntrip, who defined psychotherapy as an obstinate attempt of two people to arrive at the wholeness of being human through a relationship where the therapist could feel with and for the patient only from his own experience;
and Dr. J. Ruesch, who spoke of ^ merits of non-verbal psychotherapy.1 treating the "99% of the populate who can't cope with verbal communis tion." Replying for the "armch3' psychoanalysts," Professor Medard B? doubted if there was any communis tion possible that did not refer to ? Dr. J. D. Sutherland, speaking\ small group psychotherapy, referred "the embeddedness of the person in K closest social relationships," and that more attention should be to the family, and to the need of beings constantly to cope with grovV and change in their environment. Dr. A. Stanton, speaking in ; i fourth session on psychiatric hosp', social structure, said that whereas it P. begun to be possible to think passionately about the forbidden ^ human psychology at the time of FrelJJ * it began to be possible to do so in of a few study hospitals only years He feared that the "remaining nation" in hospitals was mated, because it was natural "events, not non-events, are tal* about." jt Among a host of valuable sn papers were those by Professor Stengel on the suicide problem; Dr. A. Hyatt Williams on the therapy of murderers and poten murderers; by Professor E. on adolescent behaviour as a ji concern; and by Professor P. and his colleague, Dr. Dowiakowski (who read it) on the n for restraints in an open hospital wp s complete freedom of choice created too much anxiety in s?
conte1^
urgej devo1^
hufli^
^
sta*j.
underejj,
?
psyc^]
Linden^ comiflllJl Siva^
Marie-Lo^j someti^
patients.
