By psychotherapy, no matter what its form, cost, or setting, all that is meant is the service that one human being, a helper, renders another, a sufferer, toward the end of promoting the latter's well being, by whatever technique, approach or modality, either the former or latter wish to use, or by whatever name either sufferer or helper wish to designate it. When psychotherapy is offered for a fee, as it today is in most of the western countries, the term describes the deliberate use of psychological techniques by a legally and professionally sanctioned counselor to the end of helping a patient or client who labels himself or herself as psychologically distressed by the act of consulting such a fee-for-service practioner. The common elements in all ancient and modern forms of psychotherapy are a suflerer, a heZper, and a systematized ritual within which the help is proffered.
Despite a dearth of textbooks on how it is practiced, and whether the experience be with a modern fee-for-service Freudian, existential, or behavior therapist who serves as a sounding board and helper, or with the earlier shaman, priest, naturopathic physician, or philosopher-teacher-helper, men and women from the dawn of time have reported feeling better after talking with a caring, trusted other person. It is the sufferer's faith in and expectancy of help from such a ritual that for countless millions of us has provided relief from anxiety, despair, alienation and a wide variety of lesser or greater human problems and miseries. Discussion of a serious personal problem with a trusted friend or family member, or a headache or other disturbing symptom with a trusted physician or psychologist, often is all that is necessary for relief from the misery of such a problem or symptom. It is these same elements, (1) sufferer, (2) helper, and (3) mini-ritual, that have been the core ingredients of psychotherapy from its first appearance a t the time of primitive man to its modern forms and practices.
It is important to underscore the power and universality of these three ingredients, ones that have appeared in all cultures from the dawn of history, by emphasizing that these three elements and the powerful psychological experience to which they give rise can be discerned unfolding in the lives of every reader of this page. Where, when, and with whom, for example, does the reader or any one of his or her acquaintances today share or otherwise reveal his most personal troubles, concerns, hopes, aspirations, and anxieties? As for whom, and excluding the clergy and physician, the list of listener-helpers to whom the reader most likely turns will be found to include: a trusted family member, supervisor, co-worker, teacher, roommate, spouse or close friend of the opposite sex, barber-hairdresser, and also next-door neighbor. Where and when the reader turns will include such places and moments of privacy and intimacy as those afforded by and during the regular morning or afternoon coffee break with one's best friend, co-worker, or next-door neighbor, the two-person bull session after work in a favorite cocktail lounge or in one's home, dormitory or similar living situation, the a1 piacere occurring beer and pretzel party as well as the previously arranged wine and candles special dinner occasion, the scheduled visit to one's favorite hairdresser, and the not-so-scheduled visit to one's favorite bartender. I n each of these examples and settings and many others, a troubled person uses a nonthreatening, trusted friendhelper as a sounding board or informal counselor during a special, somewhat ritualized encounter that takes place in a not-too-public setting.