The psychotherapist's myths, dreams and realities

This keynote speech from the Second World Congress for Psychotherapy begins with Carl Jung's definition of myth as a vivid description of emotional experience and explores psychotherapists' personal myths as representing their motivation to be involved in the profession. The concept of dreams provides a metaphor for understanding diverse theories and appreciating the autobiographical nature of theory. Sophocles' Oedipus Rex is used to contrast Sigmund Freud's drive theory with a relational perspective of psychotherapy that includes a respectful inquiry into the client's phenomenological experience, history, system of coping and vulnerability. The realities of therapy call for a therapeutic involvement that is inter-subjective: a therapy that is centered on the client's experience while also allowing for the therapist's use of many personal attributes.