Psychotherapists fail I: A historical overview

The article offers a historical overview of therapist’s failures. The topic has been described as an integral part of psychoanalysis since Freud’s texts. Relational psychoanalysis stressed that sometimes not patient but psychoanalyst can impair the therapeutic process. We must mention and analyze psychotherapist’s faults in the interest of our clients. Analysis of failures can enhance a quality of care. The paper entails some guidance how to identify a fault in therapy and what we should do when we heard about failure of other therapist. The article mentions some therapist’s confessions particularly in the psychodynamic psychotherapy (Casement, Searles) regarding their failures. Serious ethical faults like sexual relationships between therapist and client are mentioned as well.

Zbyněk Vybíral, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic e-mail: vybiral@fss.muni.cz