History of Psychotherapy and Clinical Psychology

We review the development of psychology as a field of mental health over the centuries.

What we understand today as psychotherapy has existed since the beginning of time, although it has not always taken the same form. Nevertheless, the fundamental role of the word and the change of habits as methods to achieve mental health have been recognized by most human societies.

In this article we will describe in a synthetic way the history of psychotherapy and clinical psychology.. For it we will make a route that will go from the Ancient Age until the appearance of the cognitive-behavioral therapy, the predominant model at the present time.

Psychotherapy throughout the ages.

In ancient times our ancestors attributed unexplainable phenomena to the action of supernatural forces such as gods, demons and spirits. Psychic life and mental disorders were no exception.

The Egyptians saw suggestion as a form of magic that could be used as an adjunct to medical treatments. as an adjunct to medical treatment, and the Greeks believedThe Greeks believed that physical and mental illnesses depended on the body's imbalance of four fluids or humors. Similarly, in China, health was understood as the balance between the vital forces.

It is believed that the first psychotherapies emerged in the Islamic world.. Between the 10th and 12th centuries AD, thinkers and physicians such as Abu Zayd al-Balkhi, Zakariya al-Razi and Avicenna introduced the concepts of "mental health" and "psychotherapy" and described a large number of neuropsychological disorders.

The emergence of psychotherapy in Europe was delayed until the Renaissance, since in the Middle Ages the yoke of Christianity blocked advances in this field. For many centuries, mental health problems were linked to demonic influences. were linked to demonic influences.. In fact, mesmerism and hypnotherapy, practiced by Mesmer, Puységur or Pussin, were among the first properly European psychological treatments in the 18th century.

Later, the influence of rationalist and empiricist philosophers promoted the consolidation of psychology. promoted the consolidation of psychology as a social science.. The alienists Pinel and Esquirol were decisive in the development of moral treatment, which defended the rights of psychiatric patients against the abuses of religious "therapies".

Psychoanalysis and scientific psychology

Charcot's studies on hysteria and other neuroses, as well as Janet's work on dissociation, were influential in the emergence of the psychoanalytic theory of Sigmund Freudwhich postulated that human behavior is determined primarily by unconscious factors and childhood experiences.

At the same time, at the end of the 19th century, Granville Stanley Hall founded the American Psychological Association (or APA), which today continues to constitute the American Psychological Association (APA).which is still the main organization of the profession today. Clinical psychology also emerged in this period through Witmer's work with learning-disabled children at the University of Pennsylvania.

While Freud's disciples, such as Adler, Jung and Horney, were expanding and revising the hypotheses of psychoanalysis, scientific psychology continued to develop, scientific psychology continued to develop through the founding of institutions, departments, clinics and publications on psychology. The United States established itself as the nucleus of these developments.

The rise of behaviorism

Although psychoanalysis continued to be strong during the first half of the twentieth century, behaviorism became the predominant orientation, behaviorism became the predominant orientation in this period. in this period. The contributions of Thorndike, Watson, Pavlov and Skinner made observable behavior the focus of psychological analysis and promoted the development of brief behavioral therapies.

Skinner himself devised a number of techniques based on operant conditioning, mainly reinforcement. Wolpe created systematic desensitization, the antecedent of modern exposure therapy, while Eysenck compiled the available evidence on the lack of efficacy of psychoanalysis as a treatment.

Behaviorism was key in the evolution of psychotherapy, but in the 1940s and 1950s different perspectives appeared that reacted to behaviorist reductionism. perspectives that reacted to behaviorist reductionism, which minimized the relevance of thought, emotion and will, appeared in the 1940s and 1950s.which minimized the relevance of thought, emotion and will.

Existentialism, humanism and systemic therapy

The existential psychotherapies of Viktor Frankl, Otto Rank and R. D. Laing emerged from the existentialism of Viktor Frankl, Otto Rank and R. D. Laing. D. Laing emerged from psychoanalysis. The same happened with Rogers' client-centered therapy, which managed to focus psychotherapeutic interest on the existence of factors common to the different orientations that explain the effectiveness of therapy.

Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow were the two pioneers of humanistic psychology. These authors were of the opinion that human beings have a natural tendency toward natural tendency towards self-realization and personal growth.They defended psychotherapy as a method to help clients develop as persons, according to their values. This humanistic current also includes Gestalt therapy, created by Fritz Perls and Laura Perls in the middle of the century, although it appeared somewhat before Rogers and Maslow developed their ideas.

Later, in the 1960s and 1970s, authors such as Wilhelm Reich and Alexander Lowen popularized body psychotherapies, which claimed the body as the center of human experience. However, their theories were dismissed by the scientific community for their lack of empirical soundness.

Systemic and family therapies appeared in the 1970s with the popularization of the General Systems Theory and the contributions of the Milan School, the Structural School and the Mental Research Institute of Palo Alto. While existentialism and humanism were being diluted, systemic therapy was consolidated during the following years.

Cognitivism: back to the mind

The cognitive orientation had as its predecessor George Kelly, who argued that people understand the world through idiosyncratic psychological constructs. The turning point, however, came with the therapies of Ellis and Beck, the the therapies of Ellis and Beck, which emerged in the 1950s and 1960s..

Albert Ellis' Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy (REBT) focused on the technique that later became known as "cognitive restructuring". Aaron Beck developed Cognitive Therapy for depression, a highly structured and systematized procedure that served as a model for many other similar therapies.

Although cognitivist therapies emerged independently, in many cases by the hand of authors trained in the psychoanalytic tradition. authors trained in the psychoanalytic traditionIn fact, behaviorism and scientific psychology also had a great influence on them. These complementary models eventually converged in cognitive-behavioral therapies.

Recent therapeutic developments

At least since the 1980s and 1990s the focus of psychotherapy has been on demonstrating the efficacy of treatments for specific disorders and problems. This has been greatly influenced by the American Psychological Association, which is predominantly cognitive-behavioral in orientation.

The turn of the century has also brought a rise of therapeutic eclecticism.. Although cognitive-behavioral therapy has been consolidated as a global framework for action, a large number of professionals and interventions have popularized the use of techniques from various orientations to compensate for the limitations of cognitive-behavioral therapy.

In particular, the importance of emotions and language has been vindicated. The combination of the cognitive-behavioral model with the theory of relational frameworks and mindfulness meditation, among other techniques, has promoted the emergence of third-generation therapies. emergence of third generation therapieswhich are now solidifying as the future of psychotherapy.